Okay - so I see the thread of this conversation was back in December... However, let me tell you about something I am doing. I am in Mesa County (Grand Junction) Colorado. County regs here don't require houses to be a certain size (although some subdivisions do). All homes must have: bathing space, sleeping space, cooking space. R-8 zoning allows you to split off as little as 3000 sq feet to create a new lot. However, what I have done is find existing homes with extra, accessible lot space. Our City allows you to build what they call Accessory Dwelling Units in backyards! I am currently converting a 3/2 with an odd floorplan into a 2/1 AND a "tiny house" apartment (180 sq ft). The lot is large so I am also splitting some off and plan to build a cottage (500-600 sq ft) with a tiny house (240 sq ft) behind it. In theory, the lot is "free" - although there are most definitely costs involved in the process and I have seen comments about this that are dead-on: you don't get a break just because you are building a small house. The cost for a sewer tap, etc. is the same. I can only make this work because I am working with a run down house in a cheap neighborhood. But there are places like this all over town. The next month or so will tell - the "duplex" will hit the market and I will see whether I have proof of concept or not. In our market the tiny apartment would pay 50% of the overall housing cost. If someone chose to live in the tiny side and rent the larger, then they would have FREE housing...

Hi @RIck Montanari I'm your target customer and I've been looking for land to build a Tumbleweed tiny home here for more than a year. @Troy S. and @Bill S. are right on about the upfront capital costs - $50k land, $30k water/sewer tap, $150/sf construction and you're already into the $180-$200k single family range. I've looked for scrapes that come with a w/s tap already and think there's some potential there, but you're already back up to an average of $75k - almost the same as raw land with the new taps.I think your best bet might be to find a community willing to rezone a large parcel to try out the density you're describing. A PUD zone would allow this type of flexibility and might get you reduced tap fees akin to a condo rather than SFR. I also think there's some value in going after property owners with surplus land (~2,000-3,000 sf) that would be willing to subdivide, IF you could get the city to approve a sub-standard lot size. With median home prices in Jeffco hovering near $300k (and higher in western areas and Boulder), I think there's an opportunity to market to young professional couples, singles, and some empty nesters.I dig the concept and would love to help if a former city planner like myself could be of assistance..

@RIck Montanari I think this is a really cool idea! I'm don't know about the logistics so much, but I think it is something buyers would be attracted to in our community! First of all, there are a lot of people who can't afford anything in the Denver-Boulder area right now, so this could be a good option for them. Also, there are a lot of people who are interested in the minimalist/mountain lifestyle and come to colorado specifically for that purpose. There are also a lot of benefits surrounding sustainability with those tiny houses and Colorado loves the environment and preserving natural resources. I would make them look super spiffy and rustic, appeal to the younger mountain focused crowd and put them in places where they like to be. As @Dan McDougall mentioned, it might be worth exploring other locations for your little community like the foothills (golden, evergreen) or some front range mountain towns. People might even use them as affordable mountain homes during ski season. Again, not sure what the logistics are on something like that, but I think with the right location and targeted marketing, this could be a hit! Good luck and welcome to BP!

Welcome Rick. I too have been thinking about the tiny home trend and how it could be applied in Denver. I think most people looking for tiny homes (especially single millennials) are drawn not to tiny houses but tiny condos in Denver. There are a lot of small square foot condos in buildings built in the 1920's that are in the city central neighborhoods (Park Hill, Congress Park, Capitol Hill) that are attractive to the young urbanites. Converting apartment buildings (made up of 300-600 sq ft units) that have lots of character and close to downtown to condos was very popular in the boom times (pre 2008). Perhaps apartment building to condo conversions will make a comeback to address this tiny home market trend? I wonder also if tiny home building would work better in the less urban areas of Denver (Evergreen, Conifer, Idaho Springs), however these areas already have quite a bit of tiny homes already in the form of old cabins. Maybe one way would be address the tiny home market would be to fix up the old cabins in these areas, make them energy efficient (most of these cabins were built for summer use only) and market to people that want tiny homes.

Welcome! My immediate thought is, unless you're building the really tiny houses (~200 sq/ft) I've seen on trailers that are still "mobile" so you get around most/all building codes, many of your costs will still be the same. Land acquisition, permits, foundation, utilities, architect, and on and on but without the additional benefit of profit on the larger sq/ft you'd be selling. In short, it probably costs nearly the same (relatively speaking) to build a 600 sq/ft house as it does to build a 1200 sq/ft house but you get much less spread. I know, materials are double but the materials that double are flooring, paint, drywall, etc. You're still putting in a kitchen, bath, HVAC, electrical, etc. which are your larger cost items. Adding a bedroom or two is much cheaper per sq/ft than kitchens and baths. Hope I'm making sense?

I'm an architect / developer living with my partner in an airstream outside of Austin. Neither of us thinks it's a permanent situation living in 250 SF even if it is well designed. I think a tiny home is a great idea but there's probably not much money in it unless it's an accessory dwelling financed in a well developed city by an independently wealth person or couple. One might be able to manufacture tiny homes in Florida for seniors. Even if the designs are truly eye catching and unique, I suspect a business based on tiny homes will be unprofitable unless conceived in a booming city that has a surplus of small lots and people ready to change their lives for a real reason like surviving property costs. Maybe the trump era will provide such a scenario.

I'm hoping to revive this thread. I recently bought a 5 plex building that came with 2 parcels, 15k sq ft total, zoned for manufactured/mobile homes. Its located in an area that I feel would be perfect for Tiny homes, big tourist area, crunchiest part of Colorado Springs, and in a no-man's land part of town that is off the beaten track and with amazing mountain views of Pikes Peak. The site has a stream and we are building community food gardens irrigated with drainage water for the 5 plex, plus shared outdoor spaces. We can build up to 11 more units, or we can have mobile homes on the site.I like the idea of having a Tiny home community whereby I lease the parcels per mobile home model, build Tiny homes on a trailer frame and sell them with owner financing, with a clause that they cannot leave the site unless they are paid off. Assuming we can build in the 25-30k range and sell for 50-60k, with 6-8% APR amortized at 15 years, 20% down, and rent parcels for $300 per month would keep monthly payments under $700 per month. I could potentially have 6-8 houses. The investment costs would be $300-$400k, with a potential profit margin of 60-90%, and a gross income on rents. Investment costs would be $300-$400 vs $1.75 million for building 11 units.The benefits I see with selling the Tiny houses is that there are flip profits, lower maintenance as owners are responsible for their houses, much lower operating expenses and interest earned, pride of ownership, and truly affordable housing for the millennial and retiree crowds. Houses would be Dwell/Ikea style with a progressive and educated market. Drawbacks are lower gross income and lower equity creation on the property.Building the 11 units would potentially net $6k per month, but its a huge investment upfront, with no recouping of the investment until we sell the property. However this direction would add a much higher value to the property.Personally I do think there is great appeal to the idea of being mobile, low footprint, minimalist living combined with affordable housing - especially for the millennial crowd who are saddled with enormous student loan debt and earning lower wages than the generation before them. Many of them aren't interested in McMansion's or conspicuous consumption.Any thoughts on this approach? thanks!

I live in Portland, Oregon where the tiny house movement is pretty active, and zoning laws for tiny houses are quite progressive. The city has already approved a project to build a tiny house community for the homeless.I'm planning on buying a lot of land, do some decent landscaping and rent spaces for people to park their tiny homes. There are plenty of resources to help people construct their homes, but not a lot of communities where people can park their structures. The dream is to fill this need, and provide a well-maintained space for tiny home dwellers, complete with a community garden.

RIck Montanari This something that I'm very interested in. Our family currently lives in a 2,303 sf home and we are looking into moving into something smaller 500-700 sf home. We feel that by having an smaller home we will be more connected and will have less unnecessary stuff. So I will be one of those buyers you are trying to sell to :)

Imho - at least from what I've seen and researched, the Tiny Home buyer/dweller is a much different type of buyer than your typical RV or MHP dweller. TH folks are much more eco-conscious and interested in down-sizing, reducing costs, being environmentally-friendly and in many cases, mobility. Unlike the 'typical' RV/MHP dweller who are strictly there b/c of costs and they can't afford to live anywhere else. There are many great family friendly parks but way too many other parks where this is the dwelling of last resort. To most government officials they will only see the park as an RV park and therefore it should be developed under the same guidelines. I'm not a big fan of jamming in as many homes into as small a space a possible but that is exactly why the business model on the RV Parks works. Any time you have folks in that close quarters you are going to get some 'personality conflicts' among the residents. The parks I've seen that are more successful have a spread out configuration and home owners rather than renters. The model for renting RVs/THs is there but your expenses go way up b/c of management and maintenance on the homes.For our business model, we will be placing two homes on a lot with a big view as vacation rentals (more of duplex than single TH). B/c they are larger than your typical hotel rooms and we have the experience to manage them, it makes sense to build these type homes instead of the larger McMansions we typically see in beachside communities. Further, they way these homes are built mean great savings in utilities and building costs. At least we hope so! We'll let you know next summer!

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Updated 10 months ago, 04/02/2024

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RIck MontanariPoster

Denver, CO

Rehabbing & House Flipping

Tiny Home Market?

RIck MontanariPoster

Denver, CO

Posted December 17, 2014 12:45

Hey everyone,

New member here and as my first post I'd like to pose a question about the tiny house market. Let start of with a bit of background....

I'm a local metro Denver Realtor who has been licensed for less than a year and been with my brokerage (Dwell Denver Real Estate) since April/May 2014. Over the previous 12 months I've been educating myself on the local Denver market which has lead me to BP.

Over the last few months I've become highly interested in investing, specifically flipping but also rentals, wholesales, buy & hold etc... That being said I'm starting at ground zero with little to no money and no experience whatsoever. I've recently approached my father, who has had some experience in flipping as well as new construction, about the possibilities of partnering for my first flip here in Denver. *Sidenote: My family lives in Connecticut which is where I grew up which means accessibility is an obstacle.

We've discussed the tiny home market for some time as it is what I want to get into personally and have even attended workshops in Boulder and Colorado Springs to further quench my interest. Anyway, in discussing the possible flipping partnership with my father he mentioned an idea that I thought might be a good topic of discussion for the BP community.

In a nutshell the idea is to buy a small plot of land somewhere within Denver/Boulder/Jefferson county, build a tiny home (400-600+sq ft) and list it. He thinks that there is a market, especially within Colorado, that makes it worthwhile. I'm involved and interested in the tiny house community here, however as a local Realtor I'm skeptical about it being attractive to buyers and would rather put the time and capital into rehabbing and flipping. I do believe in finding a niche market but I'm not sure that this is the right start.

I'm also aware of the issues involved in building a tiny home in certain counties and everything that comes along with it.

Anyway, if anyone has suggestions, comments or ideas about this let me know.

Thanks!

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