Shipping Container Trend

[Nathan Meredith]

I’ve noticed that there’s been a trend in recent years with respect to rehabbed shipping containers. Would love to hear your thoughts.

If you were to turn a shipping container into a residential space, does this add real value to your property - or is this more perceived value? How does this impact resale value of the property?

Also, with more and more people working remotely, is this becoming a popular option for people that are looking to office from home?

Thanks

[Joseph Cacciapaglia]

I've been researching shipping container construction for a while. I'm planning to build a few affordable housing units this year, and will either use shipping containers or some other pre-fab product. There are a few decent shipping container homes in San Antonio, and a couple of companies that are making them. Once you comply with zoning, it doesn't seem like you save many dollars versus a stick built home. However, the real benefit is the speed. You can do you site work at the same time that you're building your container home off site.

I've talked to a number of builders that complain about the amount of welding and metal work involved with shipping container homes. This is especially true if you're using more than one container. However, the builder I know doing it doesn't seem to think it's that big of a deal (of course, he is trying to sell me on using him for my projects, so idk). I'm still pricing out containers versus some of the other products out there.

One issue that some people have run into is a lack of comps. One project I know of fell through several times due to a low appraisals, but then finally sold all cash. I think this will go away, if it becomes a more common method. There are tons of these projects over seas. I think the biggest reason we've seen slow adoption here is our zoning laws.