Tiny house!?!? Breaking the rules in Silicon Valley

[Christopher Greci]

I love real estate investing, its awesome.  However, in my personal life, I'm a minimalist.  I really could invest more if I minimized my personal expenses.  

My idea..... Buy a lot of land somewhere, preferably 30 mins no traffic (1 hour normal rush hour traffic) from silicon valley.  Build a tiny house on it.  Live in an RV temporarily.  I was considering what my friends are doing, living in an RV, in the city, but I want land, so thats a step up, right? 

If you don't know northern California / silicon valley.....well, you can make a TON of money working as an emgineer (me), but the economics are such that you don't keep your money.  Cheapest 640 sq foot apartment I found is 2,500$, what I'm paying now.  With some sacrifice, I can invest that money and retire early, or at least earlier.  

For example...... The Santa Cruz mountains look beautiful, anywhere off of route 17.  I already see some tiny houses there. 

Am I nuts? If so, help me short circuit the norms and make my pockets bigger long term.  I'm looking for a good trusty realtor that can find me some land in the greater San Jose area where I work. I need information and contacts in the area.  I also would love to talk to any realtors (anywhere) that have helped someone do this before.  Is this even feasible? Thats what I want to answer.  Am I not asking key questions?  I dunna.  Seems viable to me.  

I'm thinking about house hacking to free up cash flow too, but every strategy has its pros and cons, and thats just a backup in my eyes.  

Any reccomendations? Know any realtors specilizing in land/lots in our around San Jose? 

[Wes Blackwell]

Not so fast there amigo!

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/06/15/tiny-houses-gain-popularity-in-bay-area-but-also-face-obstacles/

From the article:

“The biggest hurdle is finding a place to put the tiny house because most zoning doesn’t allow for a tiny house on wheels, either on its own land or in someone’s backyard,” said Elaine Walker, co-founder of the American Tiny House Association, a clearinghouse of information about tiny houses. “Are they an RV? Are they a home? Most cities have not yet addressed the issue.”

"Many tiny house enthusiasts prefer homes on wheels because they can be moved. But most Bay Area cities ban tiny houses on wheels in backyards unless the person living in them works as a caretaker for someone on the property or is cared for by someone living in the main house. And RV parks often won’t allow them unless they can meet appropriate length, width and electrical and plumbing requirements, which can add thousands of dollars to the home’s cost."

"Rachel Flynn, Oakland’s director of planning and building, said the city shut down the tiny house village out of safety concerns and because the dwellings didn’t meet minimum standards, which require secondary dwelling units to be at least 170 square feet and not have wheels."

While the city does appreciate your creative thinking (so do we here at Bigger Pockets!) I personally think there is FAR too much risk that the city changes it's mind at any point in time and the new law makes your current plan illegal and kicks you off your own property or fines you into oblivion.

You don't want to spend god knows how much for a parcel of land and $50k for a tiny house and then have the city rule that it's illegal for you to park it there and that it needs an extra 15 sq. ft. to be considered legal anyways. Then you'd be stuck with a parcel of land AND an illegal tiny house and be writing a horror-story post here for all of us to learn from.

I'd say let someone else be the pioneer with the arrows in their back, and if later on when the city's legislation have finally addressed tiny houses in a comprehensive manner you can jump right on in.