Do Tiny Houses make good rentals?

Question

Can anyone provide insight on the Tiny House trend going on? I am considering purchasing land, have tiny homes built on it and rent them out. I would be investing in Austin, TX, where this seems to be a growing trend with the current tight inventory of conventional housing and lots of surrounding land. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

Jim Robertson · Answer

@Jason Rowlett If you are in city limits, I would call 311, and ask about building codes and minimum housing size. I have called 311 with a couple of code enforcement/zoning questions, and they have always been able to put me in touch with someone who could answer my question.

Not sure what the rules/resources are for Travis County and the surrounding cities.

Cindy Donley · Answer

Tricky, to get people to move in, it would need to be accessible to transportation, town...but the city has not accepted them so much legally as a living space. There are groups on meet up that are working on changing the regulations around this, city codes. I also know of people who use them for airbnb. There are loopholes. I'm looking at a community for people to move into and support each other, move of a progressive retirement type community, but we will not be in the city limits.

I have thought about pulling one up beside my house and renting it;)

Season Price · Answer

@Tosin Oluwatoye a good way to test out your location is to put the concrete pads down, add a 30/50 amp outlet and water line, and then rent out the pads to people who already own their own tiny houses. The market for tiny house parking right now is probably bigger than for people interested in renting a tiny house. If you decide to build, you can just build on the pad and use the existing power and water ports for plug ins. I've built two tiny houses for personal builds. One container house and one stick built. There are a ton of Facebook pages you can gain insight and possible renters from.

Garrett Brown · Answer

Hey @Jason Rowlett welcome my fellow Texan! Are you planning LTR or STR for these units? I build tiny cabins near Houston and do STRs but I am in the process of building a tiny home LTR community in the future. You received some great advice from @Jim Robertson to make sure of zoning and minimum housing size with this type of build.

Teri Feeney Styers · Answer

@Tosin Oluwatoye and @Jason Rowlett I am actually constructing two tiny homes (454 & 340 sq ft) on one small lot and will market them as a multi-family property. However, these are on slab foundations - not trailers and meet IRC & building dept regs. We are now just past the sheetrock stage and so far the numbers are fine. I am flipping however...

Tosin Oluwatoye · Answer

I am also interested in this idea. I have a piece of land behind an existing rental that is almost 1.5 times the size of the standing triplex.

I would be following up with the municipality to confirm if zoning permits this. The tiny houses would be so much cheaper than new builds but will like to know the average lifespan of a tiny house. Also does any one have leads on companies that build such houses in the Philadelphia tri-state area?

Thanks

Do Tiny Houses make good rentals?

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