And it seems baffling there are no construction or architecture firms dedicated to the concept.There is no convention in shipping container construction, therefore every step of the process is clunky, i.e. time-consuming, i.e. expensive.This is why, I believe, it hasn't (really) worked, which is definitely not to say that it won't work.

We have used various methods to save up for down-payment funds: we set aside pay raises instead of consuming them, re-enlistment bonus sums, tax-free income from deployments, an inheritance check, the tax-free savings account while deployed...And so forth.  

This issue is still being resolved I believe.A L/O that is with an occupant and where rental credits are applied is a financing agreement, you need to follow Dodd-Frank and Predatory Lender Laws with consumers (your tenants). 

Let's say you can consume 2 hours a day of podcasts.  

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleges that ITT also misled its students—a charge the company strongly denies.

There are certainly issues including how many and what types of properties you can sell with these methods and to whom, but most of those are consumer protection issues.  

Consumer dealings are the bread and butter of the big banks and the banksters who run them.

I research everything by asking for complaints by consumers or victims.

imagine how great the world would be if consumers only bought things that were created through ethical means lol, Only reason wholesalers even have to put things under contract is to protect their interest in a deal that otherwise crooked investors would back door.

It's SO time-consuming that you'll hate it by the time you finish - there's always something that you forgot or doesn't fit.