Containers for houses

[Annunciata R.]

I dont think this requires alot of money to get started. I bought quite a few lots of land in October last year at a tax deed sale. Like Karen says having a home developed by an architect wont increase value. I bought this one lot for $5K and I used google sketchup to design my first container home or rather office as this is a light commercial area. My hope is to errect this at a cost of $15K to $20K after which I can lease it out or sell. I dont expect to make anything less than a 60% yield when it is done. However I have to say that I am very inexperienced at what I am doing as I have never built a property from scratch. I am keen on exploring subterranean home designs as well as alot of my lots are hillside.

[Aaron Mazzrillo]

My buddy and I looked into this heavily a few years ago. Our idea at the time was to buy large lots out in the desert and put small spec built homes using shipping containers. They are termite resistant, easily moved, wind proof, basically earthquake proof, and can create really cool structures.

Markets change all the time for goods, but when we looked, there was an over abundance of shipping containers that could be had from the Port of Long Beach due to the lopsided trade this country is involved in. Even then though, the cheapest delivered container was maybe $4-5K. That doesn't include anything more than a steel shipping container being dropped on your lot. I suspect your high estimate of $20K is probably extremely on the low side, or not even possible side. I truly hope I'm wrong because these are such cool structures and I'm all for any building that is done using existing materials. They are very popular in Europe and they even construct large apartment buildings out of them. I know there is a spec home in Redondo Beach that was built a few years ago out of shipping containers and there are lots of website developed to these types of properties. Good luck and if you build it in the SoCal area, please invite me to the open house. I'd love to check it out.