My friend from Solace Village down in New Mexico is kicking around the idea of starting an intentional community utilizing tiny homes.  I'm intrigued with the idea.  Does anyone know of any tiny home communitities in New Mexico?

Solace Village facebook

https://www.facebook.com/SolaceVillage

Solace Village wordpress

https://solacevillage.wordpress.com/

I am also considering what would be needed to purchase a piece of land and develop 7 or 8 tiny homes or yurts as rustic vacation rentals in my area. Yurts cost about $10,000 to buy the structure and then only need a foundation, bathroom and furnishings. Tiny houses are a little more expensive at about $30,000-$40,000 each depending on how ridiculous you make them. Check out the new documentary on Netflix called Tiny. There's a huge buzz these days about tiny houses. I think living in one for a month is a good step to see if you enjoy it - that's where we RE investors come in. Imagine if you are renting your tiny houses for a month at a time. Cha ching! Just pick a nice area where vacationers would want to go. I really don't see how you could lose, especially if you subdivide each lot so you can sell them individually when the time comes (I assume this is greatly dependent upon local zoning laws).

I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this. Sounds interesting. 

Check out the movie Tiny. It will really change your thinking about having a big house. Imagine a life that costs very little per month to maintain. That means you don't have to work nearly as hard and you open up tons of free time. It just takes courage and the willingness to downsize your life to just the things you absolutely love. 

I've spent the last hour looking at yurt designs.  Gorgeous buildings!

@Bill Coleman  I've seen the movie.  Just about living on youtube right now watching tiny home and small home videos.  :)  Heaven!!!!

The cool thing is that you can make them really basic or extravagant depending on your needs. My bet is that vacationers would really enjoy a stay in such a dwelling. 

Man I like this thread, never heard of a yurt before and now that I've seen pictures and designs online...  Very cool.  Once my seven kids have left the nest I'll have to convince the wife we should downsize :)

Hello everyone,

I am thinking about doing this in Atlanta as well. Some of the biggest issues I am researching are water and electricity. Will also have to look at zoning too I would imagine. Has anyone started this community yet?

I'm doing an intentional community right now and once you get the word out to the targeted potential residents things move. The difficult thing is that nobody wants to be the first. Everyone wants to move into an existing , vibrant, full community, so that they know exactly what they're getting.

Very interested in this as well in upstate NY. Been going to auctions to buy property and hopefully start a community of my own. Anyone with experience, information, tips and advise with the process, please share! 

I think the biggest challenge to this great idea is getting permits and work done to have the sewer infrastructure installed to support multiple tiny houses.  You would have to build the sewer system to develop the property.  Figure 3 people per house (the permit people will estimate high - perhaps 4) and what the costs would be. And if the area uses septic, that's an even bigger up-front cost.

@Olivia C.

Most people have been either just having them established/permitted the same way you would a mobile home park....

Or purchasing an existing mobile home park and swapping out the mobiles for tiny homes, it's already the same infrastructure. 

Additionally, many of the tiny homes don't utilize sewer- but composting toilets. They're designed to be less impactful on the environment. 

Here's what someone did in Portland, OR... very building code restrictive.

http://tinyhousehotel.com/

Enjoy!

I am interested in doing the same in Florida. I have a relationship with an architect that would be willing to work on the project. Anyone know of investors that would be interested in implementing this idea for vacation rentals or Air B&B type rentals in Florida?

Tiny homes are intriguing for a lot of people but it seems, as you've mentioned the majority of people wouldn't be interested in living in a tiny home for long periods of time. It also may be a fad so vacation rental may be the best way to capitalize on it.

As a designer there are a lot of possibilities and would be a fun project to take on. There are a few design issues that I can see you will need to work through. 

Definitely brush up on local building and zoning codes. They can have a great impact on this type of project. 

Just because its a small home you would still need a building permit as it would classify as a dwelling. There may be some red tape that you will have to work through depending on it's classification and if it's a mobile or stationary home.

Cities often have a minimum size requirement for a dwelling and will not allow some tiny homes to be built in their jurisdiction because of this.

The following sites have some good resources. 

http://thetinylife.com/tiny-house-building-codes/

http://tinyhousecommunity.com/faq.htm

I can imagine obtaining insurance on something like this could be problematic.