WA State - Building Prefab/Cabin in Scenic plot

[Suraj Guptha]

I see many vacant plots of land with views of the water around the Seattle area like in Island County or San Juan county. My goal is to build a prefab home/ cabin/ container home there and rent it out as an airbnb. 

My experience with real estate is limited to a couple of simple BRRRR I did with some friends. So I am reaching out to the forum to find others to network with and evaluate the idea. Is anyone you know doing this? Are there any article you can point me to about this? What are the pitfalls you see with the idea?

Thanks

[Michael Haas]

@James Miller super cool idea! I have to chime in here though as just reading your construction and rental estimates gave me anxiety... I'm just basing this on my personal experience and that of the other clients that I've helped build STR portfolios, not some massive data set, so take this with a grain of salt. We do own 4 Airbnb's and a Tiny House, and have helped a lot of clients with similar properties though.

Are you planning on building all of this yourself? We spend over $12,000 just on materials for our tiny houses. If you're actually paying for labor a better estimate would be $30,000-$60,000 for a studio tiny home (8 ft by 20 ft footprint). Remember, there are no economies of scale to small structures, so everything will cost a lot more than you'd expect, and your $/sqft cost is going to be astronomical. Whether your building on a barge or a tiny house on wheels, the fact the that base/structure is non-standard will add complexity and cost as well.

I don't know Anacortes's rules specifically, but wetlands/shoreline and tiny houses don't mix well in many cities and counties in WA, especially when you throw Airbnb in as well. Breaking out above $300 a night for a 1 bedroom on Airbnb is also extremely difficult too, even in the summer months. In the winter months you should be projecting closer to $100-$150 a night. All this is targeting 66%-85% occupancy rates. 

Best of luck!