We bought a tiny house

[Leigh Ann Smith]

Yes, we did it.  Does that count as our first deal?  

The house is on a trailer and is 8' x 18'.  The guys who built it are going to add a covered porch onto if after we move it to our place.  Pictures are here if you're interested:  http://houston.craigslist.org/for/5149881504.html  There's some interior finishing up to do, but I think it's pretty cute.

Anyway, the plan is to set it up on our property, which is a Christmas tree farm just outside of Houston.  There isn't anything to offer here in terms of activities other than going for walks in the trees, but we plan to put a fire pit area outside and just make it into a quiet retreat kind of place.  Yes, I know that the rest of you Houston folks are laughing about how practical a fire pit is around here! A pool would be better, but alas, that's pretty pricey. 

We have a customer base from the tree farm (about 2,000 Facebook likes) and hope to start there with marketing and will list the property on AirBNB or HomeAway.  

We have some work to do before it will be ready to rent.  We have to do some leveling and put in a road, bring electric to the site, install a septic system, and beautify our pond with a waterfall and some landscaping.  We hope this rental will do well enough that we can add another one.  If so, all that site work will already be done, so we can spread the cost of it over the 2 units.  We hope to have it looking nice and ready to rent by Thanksgiving so that all of our Christmas tree customers will see it and think, "I want to stay there!"