All Forum Posts by: Omar C.

@Account Closed Keep me updated, would love to dust off my plans and start one.  

@Account Closed I'm in no way trying to say not do it, especially if you can get the numbers to work.  For me, I worked with various builders to try and get the cost down to something more reasonable and affordable to the end customer and I was never able to.  The end result was always almost 2x the cost of a brand new single wide that typically came with a warranty vs a tiny home that the materials were marginally better and like others have stated serves a small fraction of the population.  I already have my land zoned out, I have a builder on standby with the blueprints ready for the day I can make the numbers work.  Years ago I thought it would be the next big thing but where I'm at it's all about the bottom line and especially now with the new covid realities my customer base rather have a larger home that has space for a home office and room to roam at a less expensive monthly payment/rent.  

The issue will always be cost and can you get a loan on the "home". For mobile homes, though not a traditional home loan it's possible to get a loan against the home. For tiny homes, I haven't seen any financing options other than personal loans or cash upfront. For rentals, the ROI can't compare, a traditional single wide will always get a few hundred more than a tiny home at less than half the cost. If the goal is to save, again you purchase the mobile home and invest the rest. Also, the quality of builds varies with typically no adherence to building codes for some tiny homes whereas a mobile home is always built to HUD specs. I've extensively looked into tiny homes for many years and had plans to build a tiny home community but it's my opinion that it's a novelty at this stage until zoning and costs come down. I don't see it as a viable real alternative to more affordable alternatives. There is no amount of argument that can support that a tiny home should cost more per sq ft than a traditional custom-built home or for that matter even a spec home. When you are at $80k+ you are better off getting an older home with traditional financing that will appreciate or at least stay the same in value.

The city will always tell you what you can't do unofficially, it's when you get the attorneys involved they will tell you that yes you are grandfathered and you can make improvements within the original zoning.  Contact your local manufactured housing group and ask for a referral to an attorney who specializes in MHP.  

Until the cost of tiny homes comes down it will never be a viable alternative to manufactured homes.  From what I've seen tiny homes start at $80k for appx 400 sq ft of space vs $40k for appx 900 sq ft.  For now, it's a novelty that people consider until they see the true costs.  That doesn't take into consideration that most can only be placed in RV parks and even then might not be accessible year-round depending on the RV park.

It depends on what the current market rate is for local lot rents and when was the last time it was raised.  Many parks do x% every year, some do large increases only every 5 to 10 years.  The residents typically know how their current lot rent compares to nearby parks and if you adjust to market-rate I doubt it would be a surprise.  Also, keep in mind that if you are raising that to match nearby lot rent the community should be on par or better than the nearby communities.  

The only empty lots are within zoned manufactured communities.  It would be nearly impossible to get approval to place a manufactured home in the Chicagoland area in a residential area.   

I would argue that the manufactured homes being built as an industry have a substantially better build quality than most of the small companies producing tiny homes. Tiny homes are not required to meet any type of HUD/federal regulation for housing just the basic RVIA. I've been searching for a quality tiny home builder for years now and unless I'm willing to spend at least 2x as much I'm not getting the quality that is on par with a manufactured home. I agree architecturally tiny homes look better and I would love to build out a community for them.

Between zoning challenges and the cost per unit compared to a traditional single wide in a mobile home park, the ROI isn't close. I can rent a single wide for a lot more than a tiny home and the initial cost and build quality is significantly better with a spec single wide.

Lot sizes, setbacks, electrical, gas connection, and most of all getting the zoning changed would be difficult since most counties/cities don't like MHPs. You are better off running the RV park as a long term rentals.

When you convert you will probably lose 2 RV spaces for 1 MH space.