Building 4 tiny homes for Airbnb

[Scott Gunther]

Hey everyone at BiggerPockets. This is my first post so go easy on me. My wife and I will be moving to Houston, Tx in the summer of 2018. Instead of buying a home we were thinking of trying to obtain a loan to build about four “tiny homes” (specifically from archedcabins.com, but we would be up for any alternative suggestions) on a lot and use them for Airbnb’s.  I want to know if our dream is far from reality with our heads in the clouds or if this is something that we could actually do. Now I understand that building tiny homes are tough and you can’t just build them anywhere. The little cabin homes we are looking at are about 8K a piece just built not fully finished and there are also plenty of good sized lots for 30K and under in the general Houston area. I understand this is a multifaceted question so bear with me. But is it possible to A) Build tiny homes anywhere is houston at all. B) Get qualified for a construction/ commercial/ business loan with little/no down if we have good credit and 80K verifiable income and C) keep the entire project beginning to end under $200K?  Any partial answers or resources would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! 

[Michaela G.]

A very important point to consider is that you have a backup plan and that you can make those tiny homes cashflow, if airbnb doesn't work out. 

The reason I'm bringing that up is that airbnb these days almost always takes the guest side and will easily eliminate your account, if someone complaints or if your average goes below 4 stars. I've been there and I've heard about a number of landlords that were surprised about the harshness of airbnb management, if a problem was expected to get solved. 

So, you need to make sure that you don't put all of your eggs in one basket and have a way to survive, if for some reason airbnb doesn't work out.