Finance Construction of Shipping Container Home for AirBnB

[Evan York]

Greetings from Charlotte, NC. My name is Evan York, and I am new to the forum in hopes to find some answers for a project a business partner and I are pursuing. 

My Co-Founder and I are developing concepts to up-cycle shipping containers for multiple functional uses - beginning with homes to list on AirBnB. 

There has been a few examples of this that have been successful, and we have found a niche in Asheville, NC that we believe would be successful for our flagship location. 

Here's the good news: 

1. We've designed the concept with an architecture firm and an engineering firm who have history of designing shipping container homes. 

2. We have found a plot of land that fits the criteria of our project, and the county will allow us to build there despite the "non-tradutional" building materials

3. We have mapped the process to get a container from the Port of Charleston all the way to a completed shipping container home for people to stay in. 

4. Invested in market research on AirDNA.co and have revenue potential of $76K annually with LOW operating expenses (they're only 320 sqft...)

Here's the BAD news: 

1. No traditional lenders have an appetite for our project, despite the relatively low cost (Approx. $200K including land)

Our Challenges:

1. We have 2 "dwelling units" on a single plot of land. In the banks eyes, this is like building 2 homes, and would need 2 separate loans

2. It's an "investment property" 

3. We're using shipping containers. 

4. Despite that a construction to perm loan would be not much over $1,000 a month (with 2 Co-Founders with a credit score well above 750, and a healthy combined income) banks see it as "high risk" 

5. Even as a "2nd home", there's a risk because we will be listing it as an AirBnB under an LLC.

Our Needs: 

1. $200K to build 2 shipping container units on 1 plot of land 

We launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise some upstart capital, which got us up to $6,000. At this point, we need quite a bit more cash. We have had several angel investors express interest in getting us some upstart capital, but not enough for the entire project. 

Suggestions on how to raise the capital we need to upstart this concept is welcomed!!

[Jody Schnurrenberger]

You could try another crowdfunding campaign on another site, but I doubt it will get you the tons of money you need. Perhaps ask if they would be willing to refinance after the stuff is built. Maybe that would be easier and you could go with a hard money lender in the beginning. People who buy really crappy homes that need serious amounts of work often can't get traditional funding, so they go through a HML at first, then after the rehab is done, get a traditional loan. Of course, because HML loans tend to be shorter and have higher interest rates, you'd need to be pretty sure a lender would finance you when the project is done so you don't have to fret about the HML costing so much for a longer period of time than absolutely necessary. That's my only thought.

I just wanted to be sure you weren't planning to do AirBnB in the actual city limits of Asheville. As I understand it, it's a really bad idea or perhaps not even allowed. You mentioned the county, so hopefully you're just near Asheville, but not actually in the city limits. If you haven't already, check out the local Carolina Real Estate Investors Association (CREIA). You can go to 1 meeting for free, then once you pay, there are like 8 different meetings to attend monthly, though you wouldn't qualify for some like the Advanced or probably even Intermediate, but if I recall, there is actually one just for people who do vacation rentals, along with one for beginners and the regular one and even one in Hendersonville, if you're interested. These are great places to meet folks, get ideas, and maybe even get some money...after you've developed relationships. If you actually live in Charlotte, as your profile suggests, I'm sure you can still benefit tremendously from joining your local REIA. :-) Google it or find it on MeetUp.com (or better yet, do both so you don't miss out on anything lol).

Good luck!