All Forum Posts by: Minh Dong

Luckily the company I worked with will do all the plumbing, electrical, interior walls and finish for us so we just need to prepare the foundation and hook it up. Also, its a container manufacturer and will build the home from scratch with new materials so we don't have to deal with some negative effects of used containers. 

I'm exploring this as well and already have good contact with the container manufacturer. It's getting popular here in West coast and from what I've learned so far it will be a home in CA and WA. There are many ways to build and customize the containers to make the home look really modern and nice so I think it's great for short term rental. Due to the cost is low since a lot of work has been done overseas (with correct US codes of course), this is good options for long-term rental with multiple complexes of small units as well. I know CA (especially LA) is working on container home projects to deal with their homelessness issues. I wish I could bring that to Seattle as well since we have a huge homeless problem here but I haven't found the right contact in the city yet, unfortunately.

Thank Josh! I'm sorry for using the wrong technical term. The projects I've worked with didn't use used containers and turn them into the home either but built from the ground up. They mostly use the same standard container size (20'x8' or 40'x8') to keep the shipping cost low. The homes were built 90% in the factory and just ship to the US to finish all the last steps of installation.

Thank Nathan for your question,

I have been helping out with few containers home projects and see the trend getting more and more popular (at least I have a lot more questions regarding this year). I just want to share the post here to see if anyone interested as well, especially in Seattle areas where I know there is a huge need for affordable housing. The article doesn't talk about the details of the cost of customized container home, but since I have a direct relationship with the container manufacturing company in Vietnam which has done a lot of this type of project, I know the number is low and make a lot of sense. 

https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/08/02/prefab-housing-complex-for-uc-berkeley-students-built-in-four-days

Im seeing more and more of these now and really believe in it potential

HI @Mark Walush , have you thought about few custom containers that are being built as multiple self-storage units? That may have better price for renting

Hi Teri, I have direct relationship with them so the quote is always lower. The electrical and plumbing  all meet US standard since they provided container homes to city of LA before. Kitchen and bath are included and 40' length is for the higher end of the cost 15k+ 

I'm dealing with the container home itself, foundation and slab usually taken care of by my partners and they just hires some experience local developer so I don't have more information on that at the moment. 

Feel free to.shoot me a message if you want to chat more 

I work with some projects on container homes with a container manufacturing company in Vietnam and the price is around 10k-15k for finished one (include plumbing, electric, flooring etc.). The shipping to ports of the US is around 2.5k-4k. The projects we are working on are in CA and FL so i dont know what the zoning or city's requirements in other places yet. Personally I think container home is a great for modern affordable housing

@Adam Horvath Used containers have a few negative things go with us (you could do some quick google search to know more). Building directly from manufacturer could be pricy if you work with the wrong one. If you know the right contact and the way they work, the price could be very competitive even includes the shipping fees. 

Also like Matthew mentions above, each city/state has their own zoning and codes, working with a knowledgeable developer in the areas who would also help you install the container homes would help tremendously imho.

Ive been working with few projects around container homes, mainly on the container supplies side since i could get great deal and have good relationship with container manufacturing company in Vietnam. They would make brand new home containers as our customization so there is no down side like used container turning into a home. 

The projects are quite big as well, usually more than 20 containers total. The partners took care of city permits and so far, we dont have any problem at all. In California, city even pushes for building container homes as solution for cheap housing to deal with homelessness problem. 

From the money side of thing, it makes a lot of sense since its cheap, highly customizable, modern looking and low maintenance cost due to steel frame structures.

Once we are done with the first big project this year, the following one will be simple and we plan to do more with right amount of funding.