All Forum Posts by: Andrew Erickson

Here is an example of containers being stacked. 

@Will G., good point about reaching out to municipalities. There is a huge movement right now to address the homeless population in San Diego. There is a 600 person tent city that was just created just outside of downtown in efforts to help the issue. Surely container homes are better than tents?  

Yes, you can build them together. By standard, they can be stacked 5 high. Making cuts in the outside for doors and windows isn't standard though, so I'd have to have an engineer help with stacking higher than two. You can bolt two together to former larger units. Two containers together would be about 625 sqft which is a pretty average sized home in my neighborhood. 

Selling to oil industry is a GREAT idea! I'm going to look into that. 

@Account Closed, good point about homeless veterans. There is a large homeless population here in San Diego. I live in a neighborhood that costs $500k for a 1,000 sqft condo. So affordable housing a huge deal here. Those are huge factors in my considerations. As funding goes, I'm pretty good on that. I have very decent cash levels (6 figure range), as well as a line of unused business credit (6 figure range), and have lots of people to call on if more cash is needed. 

@Account Closed, I found several companies who sell container homes in California. Maybe the rules aren't so strict? Here is one example: http://www.taynr.com/home.html

@Will G., I already have quotes from suppliers for $11k for a fully built home inside of a 40ft container. This would be a very basic model with the usual amenities in a studio apartment. They would be very similar to the cottages you linked to. Attached is an example photo. 

I have been buying large quantities of products from China for the last three years, so I know lots of people who can produce everything you can imagine. I usually estimate $4k/container + $1k fixed cost to import. To import 5 fully built container homes would cost $21k. Domestic trucking to a receiving warehouse is usually about $600-$1k. Trucking to a random location and loading onto the ground might cost double, so $1,500 to $2k. 

That gives a final price of $17k for roughly 300 sqft. If I round up to $20k each that comes out to $67/sqft. That might not be very competitive in South Florida. How does that compare to other places in the US? 

*Edit I meant to say I specialize in selling products in the USA, not just Texas. 

@Jenifer Levini, thanks so much for that info about California. I didn't know you had to have routine inspections of the manufacturing facility and that shipping container homes were illegal in CA. That makes a huge difference in my business model :-( 

@Steve Matthews I am considering a flat packed house (kind of like IKEA) or a fully assembled home (possibly built into a standard shipping container). 

@Cody Malone, thanks for the tidbit about Texas. I wonder why prefab has to be built in Texas? Seems anti-competitive. I am not really in the industry of selling info-products. My specialty is getting products produced in China and selling them in Texas. My competitive advantage is the cost of labor savings of Chinese vs US workers. I'd like to have something completely built in China: structure, finish, appliances, plumbing, and electrical. I'd only have Americans drive it from the seaport to end customer and possibly connect power and sewer. 

Thank you everyone for the great responses! 

Yes, I think getting regulated like an RV is better than a house. That will make it much easier to sell outside of a very specific region. I will look into San Diego ADU unit regulations too, @Marcy Moyer.  

@Account Closed, Yes, I was looking into getting them to fir into a standard shipping container. 

Jared W Smith where is the best place to find an architect? I tried posting to UpWork.com but didn’t have much luck finding a freelancer. Where do architects look for freelance jobs?

Jon Ree yes that’s a great idea! There are container homes that can stack very easily. As well as flat packed homes that could be designed to be modular. Yes, that is also a good idea to just sell the home instead of finding land and permits. That makes the capital required much smaller. Maybe if I get to the point where I’m importing a dozen a year, I can start thinking about setting up land. Just getting a few here and selling them without land is a good start. As for building code, there are a lot of weird issues and loop holes that make it easier and harder for building code. Some tiny homes are legally RVs so don’t have to follow building codes. That means you pay $150/yr for vehicle registration instead of property tax.