Tiny Homes - A Game Changer for Real Estate In High Rent Cities

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With rent prices so crazy in SF that you can make $100K and not afford to live in the city I really think innovative solutions like tiny homes can be a game changer for real estate investment. There's a new tech company that uses 3D printing to 3D print a tiny home for just $10K. Even the local government in Seattle built a village of tiny homes to combat homelessness. When I was visiting a friend in DC they just opened up a high tech pod hotel called Hive Hotel and it's a concept borrowed from Japan that's been popping up around the world.

I really think that the whole tiny house community, pod hotel, and even "pod apartment" concept in densely populated areas is an incredibly interesting trend to look at. Imagine if you can purchase condemned land or apartments and transform it into a whole tiny house community. Or buy an abandoned 10-unit and turn it into a high tech 20-unit "pod apartment". These would be great options for students and young professionals and better than commuting an hour and living with 5 roommates in a Manhattan apartment. It would be great from a real estate perspective in my opinion because it would dramatically reduce the seed capital required to start investing in these expensive cities.

What are your thoughts?

[Andrew Johnson]

Parth Patel It's a nifty trend. But it's still a trend. Real estate isn't like buying an on-trend narrow tie. Are those still popular? I don't watch enough MTV to know. There's a lot to be said for sticking with what's shown positive results. Micro houses are great but what about zoning? What about parking? What about when you get married and have kids? Half of these tiny houses are RVs without motors. The other half are effectively single wide manufactured homes turned into a duplex. Now you have spiff them up with granite counters, hardwood floors, etc. but they are what they are.

Let's say you don't want to go that route and want to keep the fit and finish more modest. Well, after the novelty wears off you've now built the Bay Areas version of the projects.

Look at what happened last money with Google's efforts to build in the Bay Area. Traffic concerns took a 10,000 unit development to 1,500. Plenty of high density housing ideas look groovy until you look at second order (parking) and third order (traffic) impacts. Who wants to rent a home where you can't park or have to wait 30 minutes for your Uber to take you to the dry cleaner because of massive congestion?