Tiny House on Wheels
Investment Info:
Other other investment in Kernersville.
Cash invested: $1
My husband and I built the "Steiny House" from the trailer up in 2018. No contractors hired, just hard work on nights & weekends and now we have it listed on Airbnb in the Greensboro/Winston Salem area.
What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?
What interested us most was the minimalist lifestyle, only having the things you actually need / use. Other attractive qualities were money savings from living in the tiny house, later putting it on Airbnb to make some income and the challenge of building something from scratch was adventurous and fun.
How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?
We purchased the trailer from a company in AL and built the rest of the home in our backyard.
How did you finance this deal?
At the time, we were engaged so we registered for wedding gifts that would help us stock our tiny house. We also had a "downsizing" party and had close friends and family come and buy items off of us. We also had 2-3 garage sales and sold a lot of items on offer up. Also, the money we saved from our 9-5 jobs went straight into construction costs.
Lessons learned? Challenges?
Building the tiny house taught me that health care wasn't actually my passion and decided to change my career to real estate. Challenges with building the house was where to put it & how to get hook ups. Luckily we had the land in our backyard and my husband was able to complete the hook ups needed. Building around the wheel wells was challenging but manageable.
Hi Shelly! So cool to read your tiny house story! My husband and I bought our first tiny house from a builder three years ago and have it set up as a short-term rental on the Bay Area. We loved the whole process and are looking to build our own this year in the NC area (that's where our family's from).
What sort of timeline & budget did you set for yourself and were you able to meet it? Did you do all the work yourselves or did you work with contractors (at least for plumbing, electrical, etc).
Thank you and best wishes!
@Shelly Rutledge Stein - I love tiny home stories. As a fellow DIY-er, I understand what goes into building your own tiny home. Meraki is mine - https://photos.app.goo.gl/Cxc8...
You're 100% correct with the challenge being able to place the home and connect to utilities.
Thank you for sharing.
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@Shelly Rutledge Stein this is awesome!
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@Bela Fishbeyn - So sorry I never saw a response on here!! It's taken a year, I hope you've figured it out in the meantime! We started the project in April of 2018 and our wedding was October 20, 2018 so the goal was to move in immediately after the honeymoon and have our tenants move into our "big house" while we were on our honeymoon. We somehow managed to make this work in the 6 month time frame. I lost my mind twice in the process but I'm doing much better today! haha! The only person we hired out was an excavator to carve out some of our woods. Otherwise, my husband (he is an engineer by trade but is also a contractor for our personal things) did all the plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. Thank you so much for your interest and I apologize for the delayed response.
@Account Closed Metal framing! Nice. You did an awesome job keeping track with your photos.. they look great! Love the black windows... great job and wish you the best!
@Dmitriy Fomichenko Thank you!!
Originally posted by @Shelly R Stein:@Account Closed Metal framing! Nice. You did an awesome job keeping track with your photos.. they look great! Love the black windows... great job and wish you the best!
Thanks! I've taken matters into my own hands on where to park my tiny. Launched a company, put together a team and currently in process of developing our first tiny home community here in Colorado! Things are looking up in the tiny home world!
@Account Closed That is awesome! I'm in the process of developing a pocket community here in NC and working with the city to adopt an Ordinance for a "Cottage Community". It's a larger undertaking than people realize but hopefully in another year we will have made as much progress as we did this last year!
@Shelly R Stein - Oh boy is it an undertaking. So many people just haven't the foggiest on what it takes to develop anything, let alone something unorthodox. You do have an advantage as there's been other tiny home communities completed in NC. Good luck!
@Shelly R Stein I realize it varies by state and city, but I am curious about two things. Is this licensed as an RV trailer or as a mobile home? How did you navigate city zoning to be able to park this in your backyard? Or is there no rules against this in your area?
@Shelly Rutledge Stein this is such a wonderful concept. I wrote a blog about it on my website. You aren't allow to post websites on B.P. so if you would like to read it add me on LinkedIn and I'll send you my blog...
I'm an Interior Design Professional and after traveling the world I came to understand why functional design is most important.
You guys really did a wonderful job. The way you broke downsizing down is great and sounds really easy and less guilt of letting items go especially when they are being sold to close friends and family.
Would love to collaborate more on this.
Let's link up?
Sending lots of positive vibes.
Best Robin Nicole
@Robin Zagielski
Thank you so much! 100% Agree with you!! On our honeymoon, we traveled to Europe and their way of living is vastly different than here in the states... I admire their creativity and use of space. Between that trip and our tiny house, I definitely look at space differently.
My husband is a manufacturing/process engineer so making the house flow was a necessity for him. He deserves all the credit for the design of the house. I have yet to see another tiny home with a peninsula type of design for the sleeping loft and not having to crawl into a bed. He did a great job.
Just added you on Linked In! Look forward to chattin more with you!
@Shelly Rutledge Stein I've been looking at tiny homes on wheels and just came across this thread on the topic. Do you still recommend building from frame up or would you new recommend buying already built new or used? Did you find any zoning or tax issues with yours?
@Bela Fishbeyn I just came across this thread as I am now looking at tiny home on wheels for STR. Would you recommend buying one from a builder or have you found that to be too expensive, etc? May I ask from what company did you buy yours? I'm still in the shopping stage :)