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Introducing: Tiny House Loans and Investments


This post contains affiliate links.

If you’re a Fan on our Facebook Page you might have been a part of a conversation we had on tiny house loansĀ on March 1st.

Since then we have come up with a simple solution so we can start creating financing for people like you.

Now We Are the Bank?

More importantly, it’s a way for us as a community to fund each other. That means we become the bank.

Hundreds of us can invest in each other’s tiny house projects. And interest goes to people like you and me instead of big banks.

How? We’re using a trusted 3rd party peer-to-peer lending network.

Loans for Tiny Homes

My favorite part about this idea is that regular people can get paid to help others start their tiny house projects. Whether that’s a tiny house on wheels, a small cabin on some land or just a teardrop camper for weekends.

Photo Credit Sarah Myers

Photo Credit Sarah Myers

Ready to start investing in tiny houses or to get a loan for your own tiny house project? Head on over to tinyhouseloans.com now to get started for free.

A Word on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and others

We are not using sites like this because our goal is to REWARD investors with MONEY. Because that’s what investors want. Right?

This means that with this project no tiny homes are being given away for free. It will be just like a personal bank loan except it’sĀ crowd-fundedĀ by people instead of over-sized banks. It’s as simple as that.

Interested in Becoming a Tiny House Investor?

The good news is that you can start small. You can invest $100 here and $100 there. You don’t have to risk all your money on one project either. You can invest as little or as much as you want to each person. And each loan request will have a profile, credit rating, and all of that so you can make your own judgement.

Join our FREE Tiny House Investor email list so we can notify you when tiny house investment opportunities are available!

How to Fund Your Tiny House Project

You can request up to $25,000. Interest rates will be based on your credit score. If you have bad credit, you still might be able to get a loan.

If you’re ready to start just join our FREE Tiny House Loans email list and we’ll send you everything you need to start!

How It All Comes Together

Photo courtesy of phanlop88

Photo courtesy of phanlop88

At least once every week we will connect our investors to folks interested in building their own tiny houses.

But basically, if you wanted to get a loan, it works like this:

  1. You sign up using your email at TinyHouseLoans.com under the Loans area
  2. Confirm your email and wait for the welcome message to come in
  3. Follow the link and instructions there to sign up for an account

Once you’re done setting up your account and creating your loan request you’ll get a link in your email that I need from you so we can share your loan request to our Tiny House Investors. From there we pretty much take care of the rest.

Visit Tiny House Loans to get started right now. I’ll see you in there!

If you enjoyed this post on how to get tiny home loans or how to become a tiny house investor, “Like” and share using the buttons below then let us know your best thoughts in the comments. Thanks!

This post contains affiliate links.

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 62 comments… add one }
  • Mark
    March 14, 2013, 8:41 am

    It’s interesting. I think much of the idea behind a tiny house is to be debt free. After spending the last decade in a debt financed industry, I have promised myself that never again will I loan money or owe money. Debt poisons relationships and makes people into slaves. A tiny house isn’t that expensive. Save up and build one for cash.

    • Alex
      March 14, 2013, 9:18 am

      I agree Mark, it is interesting, I just don’t see why we shouldn’t help people finance a tiny house when society helps them finance other things that get them even deeper into debt. I see your point and partly agree. But this is different. I believe this can help people a lot.

    • frankie
      March 14, 2013, 5:59 pm

      Since I only make $10,000 a year I will have to save up for 10 years.

      • Marjorie
        March 16, 2013, 11:50 pm

        I agree Frankie, I made about $12k last year so I too am grappling with how to get into a tiny house. I know that with it I will have little to no rent to pay and will save that much more money each month but how to get the seed capital to even build the thing is a huge challenge.

        • Padraig
          July 27, 2014, 10:53 am

          After loosing my job as a firefighter due to kidney failure, I to only make 10k a year or so. I moved back into my sister home which is rent free, in exchange for help with kids and around the house. I am also fixing up my credit. You only need to save at min. 10% of what the total cost will be. Get your credit up and then get a personal loan for the other 90%. People think lending to folks on disability is bad, but the lenders look at is at a steady income that won’t go away suddenly as if you got laid off or fired. So being on disability can be to your benefit.

      • October 21, 2016, 8:59 pm

        Only problem there is that in ten years, inflation will have made a $20,000 tiny home cost closer to $30,000; maybe more. Even as you save towards it, the final cost will continue drifting upward and away from you.
        But if you lock in a loan at today’s rates, that will pay down at about the same rate you might be saving for it…. a means of “inflation-proofing” your side of a purchase.

        • Natalie
          October 24, 2016, 10:00 am

          Interesting points, WJR! — Tiny House Talk Team

        • David
          November 10, 2016, 5:53 am

          Agree with WJR, Dear today, cheap tomorrow!

  • alice h
    March 14, 2013, 11:16 am

    I can see this working well for people who have a regular inflow, or expected future inflow, of cash but are stopped from building immediately because of the time involved in saving. Especially if having the tiny house now means they can immediately reduce their expenses and so pay off the loan much more quickly. It also requires people with “spare cash” to loan. Seems like a mix of peer-to-peer lending and credit union, both of which have proven track records.

  • sunshineandrain
    March 14, 2013, 1:13 pm

    While I am in a position to “build as I go,” I do believe in giving others the opportunity to become financially responsible and in the end, debt-free. All while enjoying the freedom of place, sense of self, and all the myriad other advantages of Tiny House living.

    I’m signing up to be a contributor to help my fellow Tiny Housers. (It’s sort of a ‘credit union’ concept to me. And I love my credit union.)

    • Alex
      March 15, 2013, 2:52 pm

      I feel similar about it too. Thanks for your involvement! šŸ™‚

    • Angela
      October 20, 2016, 1:06 pm

      I have an idea for a tiny house have been watching this movement for a bit. Living ting struck my interest when I was forced to ask my self when was I happiest! Believe it or not after Katrina I was in a ver tiny travel trailer fit for my needs it would not matter where this would be located as long as I could s e the sky and nature. As other I make around 12k a year rental apartments or housing is way over half monthly and you are stuck it’s not the size I’ve been house poor before when I was married I am starving for that change. My idea could make this possible but need a few good people like you and myself willing to give back and pay it forward to give other a change in there lifestyle they are desperate for. Plz contact me [email protected]

  • David
    March 14, 2013, 5:41 pm

    Great idea! I was excited to sign up as an investor, but once on the site, I discovered that the great State of Texas will not allow me to do so. Saddened by that but still supportive of the cause! Keep up the good work!

    • Alex
      March 15, 2013, 2:54 pm

      That stinks ;(. So far Washington and Texas are not allowed. I hadn’t realized this when I started it. I’ll keep my eye out for other ways/options but this is the best I can think of so far.

      • Deanna
        March 20, 2013, 12:16 pm

        North Carolina can be added to that list also.

    • Angela
      October 20, 2016, 1:09 pm

      Donating a sheet of plywood or 2 2×1 could be put in an account doubled or so for you imagine if there were a system like a game were others could add service and material and you the same

    • Angela
      October 20, 2016, 1:12 pm

      What if it were set up as a foundation like hfh

  • M.M.R
    March 14, 2013, 7:32 pm

    While I love the concept of helping one another, the idea of tiny house loans makes me cringe. To me, building a ‘tiny house’ means living within your means. I feel that if we start building tiny houses with loans, than we defeat the purpose of living tiny.

    • April 11, 2013, 8:04 pm

      I agree with you M.M.R. and somewhat with you Mark…when I first started reading about the Tiny House they were more reachable at 2o,000 or less but today where builders see that the interest is there the cost has sky rocket, the going price is 35,000 and up, making them too expensive for most of us and out of our reach. Eight years ago I started saving with my goal being 20,000, but I notice each year as I came closer to that goal the amount I would need changed, now eight years later I have reach my goal but I am now father from the prize then I was then.

      • Cantrell
        September 11, 2015, 11:24 pm

        I have been building full size homes for people who want to keep up with the Joneses for 15 years. I am in love with the tiny house movement and have decided to switch gears. I have 15 different floor plans to choose from starting at 10k all the way to 50k. I had noticed over the years of building full size homes that people always want way way more than they need. Start by deciding how much space you NEED and focus on a home that size. Then decide what you can fit into your budget for amenities. You can start with a smaller model and trade it in as you save money for a larger model. Just my $0.02

        • Sandy
          April 13, 2016, 8:10 am

          Hi! Where can I see your floor plans and prices please??

        • Karen
          November 25, 2016, 7:24 pm

          Please send me a link for your floor plans. Thought about building, buying, getting an RV…..just sick of renting. My family will let me put something on their land so maybe this would be good. And no. Not building it myself. šŸ˜‰ No desire too.
          Thanks

      • October 21, 2016, 9:17 pm

        I agree… pricing has gone insane. My parents bought a new 4-bedroom house in the suburbs for $22,000 when I was a teenager, and they wondered how they were gonna pay it down. Yet, 24 years later, they sold it for $235,000.
        I was lucky to get 100 acres in a beautiful forested area about 28 years ago, ‘and I certainly couldn’t afford it if I wanted to buy it today… values in Muskoka (in Ontario, Canada) have gone up an average of over 4,200 per cent!! That’s why we started edenwild.info a few years ago.
        (Even in Toronto, condos that used to be about 1,200 sq.ft. for $150,000 are no longer possible. They’ve begun advertising places as small as 320 sq.ft. starting at over $250,000! The madness has begun.)

  • Darcy
    March 15, 2013, 5:11 am

    I agree with others that say getting the $$ into this creates more problems.

    Why not encourage, explore and stir up interest in those who would be willing to give of their time, expertise, and skills to become like the “Barn Raisers” from the good old days? There are retired people with knowledge and time on their hands and in kindness would enjoy the opportunity to get involved and reach out to others and feel a sense of accomplishment in doing so? Think salvage materials. Contact Brad Kittel at Tiny Texas Houses and learn what he to share about stretching oneself to help others and preserve our planet and useful quality materials. Go to youtube and see what I have seen! Conserve, Preserve, Give Back, Protect our Planet, Create beauty from what is still lovely and useable!

    • Laurie Diggins
      February 13, 2014, 1:42 pm

      Also it will preserve our faith in humanity.

  • Kirsty
    March 15, 2013, 4:00 pm

    Shame it is only available in the US because I would love to get a loan for my tiny house. I am a solo mum with two young children on a fixed income and there is no extra money for me to build our tiny house. I’m hoping though, that with the help of companies in the building sector I will be able to get enough sponsorship that I am able to manage it.
    Great idea though guys!

  • March 16, 2013, 10:50 am

    Wow, this is a great idea and I have to applaud you for being a mover and shaker, again, within the Small House Movement.

    I disagree with those who say getting a loan for a small house is a bad thing. Some people have the luxury of money in savings or land/family/time to build their houses with. But there are so many more people who don’t.

    If we really want to see the Small House Movement grow and spread, and be accessible to not just middle/upper class yuppies, then there needs to be financial help available. And taking out a $20,000 loan is more like taking out a car loan then a mortgage. It’s not going to be a noose around your neck for 30 years.

    • Alex
      March 18, 2013, 11:08 am

      I totally agree. Thank you so much for the support!

  • jAMES
    March 16, 2013, 11:23 am

    Unfortunately, if your credit score is under 640, you won’t qualify for this program. Sorry, no loan for you. Credit only benefits the lender. If you can’t pay cash, either wait or you don’t really need it.

  • Stephanie Wright
    March 16, 2013, 12:12 pm

    The website is not working. I keep trying to check out both lending and borrowing options, and I get a webpage-form saying I am already a subscriber. I can’t get to any actual information. Thanks.

    • Alex
      March 18, 2013, 11:08 am

      Hi Stephanie, check your email. The info to get started is in there.

  • john
    March 16, 2013, 12:40 pm

    Another option is working with existing commercial tiny home builders as partners…they want to sell the units they build and have enough capitol to keep building, if they would agree to finance say 25% of the cost to the program it would cover their investment and most of the labor, allow them to keep building while receiving a monthly income from sold units, reduce the amounts needed to finance tiny homes and thereby increasing the number of people who can buy a tiny home…
    The same would work with the sales of second hand tiny homes, if the owner would agree to finance 25% of the cost when selling through the program it would highly increase the chances of it selling, and provide a small income post sale…
    The hitch is in creating a cooperative builders and private sellers are willing to trust…5,000 or 10,000 investing community members would create a pool of capitol that would make a tidy, and respectable spreadsheet to trust i would think…
    As a builder or a private seller 75% of the sale up front on their unit should be very reassuring, it should cover the costs if not the profits, all monthly installments would be profit for them if the costs were covered in the initial 75% upfront payment, risking profit is much more attractive than risking cost plus profit, or in the risk the product sat for a year or two before selling…perhaps at a reduced price…
    Just to be clear; the cooperative would be the recipient of the 25% financing from the builders or privately selling owners, thus reducing the layout of funds for the loan to the prospective homeowner who would then owe the full amount to the cooperative…reducing risk by sharing it among investors is common practice and lowers the cost of loans, increasing the profitability of the cooperative and the builders/sellers by moving more product with less risk.

    • john
      March 16, 2013, 12:49 pm

      The same could be worked out with the vendors/suppliers for tiny home builders, lumber yards or a trailer builder would sell to the builders and finance 25% of the cost…a chain of people producing homes, all using the same methods to reduce the upfront costs would create an industry…
      Financing new tiny homes would be less risky if they were new homes with professional grade construction… salable with unfinished interiors would allow the new homeowner to invest in the equity by finishing out the interiors to suit them, also saving them money.

  • Linda Lyons-Bailey
    March 16, 2013, 8:21 pm

    Sad to say but for some people this is the ONLY way they will ever be able to scrape up the money to start. In this society too many people have learned about debt the hard way and already owe their whole souls away to some uberwealthy lender.

    If you can’t come up with all this cash up front, how else are you supposed to convert to this lifestyle??

  • Vicky
    March 16, 2013, 8:52 pm

    I can see this as a good solution for someone who’s living expenses are high at this time and not leaving much at the end of the month for saving. Living in a small home should immediately cut living expenses, making it easier to make the monthly payments and be debt free sooner than with a conventional home loan or renting forever. Comparing it to a car loan was a good observation. A way to see light at the end of the tunnel of debt.

    • Alex
      March 18, 2013, 11:10 am

      Well put Vicky, thanks!

    • Patty Abrego
      September 19, 2015, 2:36 pm

      Yes, with 40,000 equity in my giant city home, once sold buy the tiny home for cash and working there. I even have a 1910 upright grand piano I would like to see used in the entertainment section.

      Idea: library anyone? With real books!

  • TomLeeM
    March 17, 2013, 3:48 pm

    IMO; it sounds like a great idea. I hope it does every thing that is suppose to.

  • Teri
    March 17, 2013, 8:00 pm

    The only way I can finance my not-yet Fencl is to sell my house (downsizing now). If I had been a renter all these years I would absolutely take out a loan or scrounge around for recycled materials and build as I go. I hope this idea takes off. We need legitimate funding sources and insurance like the “big-guy houses” to prove tiny houses are a viable option for many people these days.

  • Kim
    March 18, 2013, 10:26 am

    Alex,
    I think this is a fabulous idea and I am interested in both ends of it.
    I have small amounts of cash I’d like to feed into the process. Additionally, my husband and I are looking to build our own tiny home on land we already own free and clear (paid it off last month :)).
    I am curious as an investor, what would be my ROI (return on investment)? Also, I saw above, someones comment about credit scores below 640 won’t qualify. Is this correct? Is that the minimum credit score needed? What range of interest rates will we be offering for the loans?

  • Patricia
    March 19, 2013, 11:13 am

    After nearly going bankrupt about 13 years ago, I started paying cash for anything I needed. Now I’m living on an acre of land with well and septic installed and a rusty old trailer (all paid for with cash). I thought this was a good thing, but after applying at Prosper, I was told my credit score was too low; not enough accounts (I only have one small line-of-credit active). So pay-as-you go has its downside too. I do, however, agree that this program is a wonderful way for a person with a decent income to fulfill his/her dream of a tiny house without a long-term mortgage.

    In my case, I am now on SS retirement, which is no longer a program of adequate income. The real shame is that I actually have an opportunity to have a tiny house built labor-free by a group of construction students; I would only pay for the materials! For what I am paying to heat this place ($400/month this winter for propane to crank the house up to a chilly 60 degrees), I could be living in my dream tiny house.

    Anyway, I know you put a lot of research into this co-operative, which should generate a lot of new tiny house residents. Good going, Alex!!

  • January 12, 2014, 9:34 am

    Hey, Patricia At least you have land, that’s the first step, I to only get SSI after a injury 10 years ago, and I am paying rent and a propane bill that is unreal to stay warm, and I found some land but I can’t get financed and I would like to have a Tiny house as well, but the most I could pay a mo. would be $300 to $350, the sad part is my own Family won’t even help me out after all the scarify’s I have made over a life time,

    • jody
      May 21, 2015, 8:01 am

      I hear that, Warren.

      My parents could easily help but won’t. And I am on SS disability as well. Shame there is no investor out there that could make a loan program specifically for those on disability…knowing right up front how much we could pay.

  • Gypsy
    March 10, 2014, 11:47 pm

    Ummm … so I signed up, clicked the confirmation link, and it’s been a bout a day, but I haven’t received the ‘Welcome Message’ yet … is it supposed to take longer that that? Or am I missing something here?

    • Alex
      March 11, 2014, 10:40 am

      Hi gypsy can you check your spam folder because sometimes it ends up there on accident thanks!

      • Gypsy
        March 11, 2014, 1:14 pm

        Did that … nada …

  • March 3, 2015, 3:21 pm

    A year after this blog appeared, all I can see from trying to sign up is an option to put myself on a mailing list. Very disappointing. Have we not at least progressed to an option where prospective borrowers can post a short bio and a description of how they want to build/acquire a tiny home, so that potential investors can get excited about helping out?

  • James Done
    March 5, 2015, 3:36 pm

    Im having the same problem. I have not received the email after 5 days.

  • BluestSky
    May 21, 2015, 10:53 am

    Did this loan project get off the ground?

    I would be interested in workshops on how to build a tiny house. Perhaps a bunch of us could get together for several (more than several?) weekends and hire someone to show us the ropes? We could then build our homes at our own financial pace.

  • BERRY
    June 7, 2015, 11:38 pm

    Iā€™m Henry Donald by name. I live in CANADA, i want to use this medium to alert all loan seekers to be very careful because there are scam everywhere.Few months ago I was financially strained, and due to my desperation I was scammed by several online lenders. I had almost lost hope until a friend of mine referred me to a very reliable lender called BERRY LOANS COMPANY FROM USA who lend me an unsecured loan of $50,000 under 3hours without any stress. If you are in need of any kind of loan just contact him now via: [email protected] Iā€˜m using this medium to alert all loan seekers because of the hell I passed through in the hands of those fraudulent lenders. And I donā€™t wish even my enemy to pass through such hell that I passed through in the hands of those fraudulent online lenders,i will also want you to help me pass this information to others who are also in need of a loan once you have also receive your loan from BERRY LOANS COMPANY FROM USA, i pray that God should give him long life. Email; [email protected]

  • Jody
    June 8, 2015, 12:48 pm

    I’d run, not walk away from this Henry Donald and Berry Loans. A hotmail address is almost a sure sign of a scam. And the poster has that slightly not quite right English that marks him as a non-native English speaker. These are exactly the kinds of posts you’ll see at Craigslist advertising nice homes for low rental prices and then when you look them up outside of CL, they turn out to be homes for sale with large price tags. No reputable company will have free email addresses such as hotmail. Dead giveaway in my experience.

  • Rich
    September 21, 2015, 9:53 pm

    I have to agree… I signed up thinking I was going to learn about upcoming workshops where I could learn to build this puppy myself (no?) Then There was the lending, but no one can tell me the credit score. No ones perfect, and we all have extenuating circumstances. For my family, we had hefty fertility bills, and, we pay and pay and pay, but, our credit isnt all that great and we need to lower our bills (*HEY, thats a great reason to go tiny….)
    There should be a section (especcially if its peer lending) where we can explain stuff. Because, take away my $1,776.86 monthly mortgage payment, my $200 balanced plan on electric, $235 balanced plan on gas…. I took the quiz, our footprint will be like $500. THEN my credit would improve!
    Seriously tho

  • Adriane Day
    October 7, 2015, 2:31 am

    If a person has bad credit with more money down for a Tiny Home, could they get approved for a loan?

  • W.J.R. Halyn
    January 30, 2016, 9:47 pm

    We were lucky to have bought 100 acres in mid-north Ontario almost 27 years ago. Currently developing the site for both treehouse camping and Tiny Home parking. I see the point about costs of building a tiny home; a guy in this area builds for between $20K and $27K.
    (What a contrast… when I was a teen, my parents bought a brand new, 4-bedroom 2-storey home in some new suburbs in Kitchener (1972), and wondered how they were going to afford the $22,000 price tag. 28 years later they sold it for over $200,000!)
    Getting a loan for a Tiny Home is not the crushing burden that a house mortgage is…
    For a house, a $300K mortgage for 30 years currently costs about $1,657 a month, plus electricity, plus water, plus property taxes, etc. And you’ll have paid over a quarter-million dollars in interest by the end of it all. And you’ll be old.
    A FIVE-year loan for a $25,000 tiny home costs about $475 a month (less than RENT!), plus a place to park it, and maybe some propane, if you haven’t put solar panels on the roof. So, if you’re currently paying about $850 a month in rent, getting a tiny home rewards you with lower payments, freeing up more of your money.
    And you’ll still be young when you own it free and clear!

  • Mairlyn Starbuck
    May 19, 2016, 1:47 am

    Hello,
    Would anyone be interested in lending for my tiny home? My dream is to live in a tiny home on a large property, and rent spaces to other tiny home live-ins.
    I would also have additional tiny homes for an airbnb, and an area for traveling tiny home owners. I want it to be totally off grid, with our own well or gravity fed system, our own electricity system, and septic. I would also have gardens, trails, storage, club house/meeting house, dog park, and recreation areas.
    I live in north Seattle, and there are plenty of folks here who would love it! The ideal place would be in Snohomish county just north of Seattle.
    First I want to get started with funding just for my own tiny home. I am looking for some nice acreage with owner financing right now, and have a few leads. I have a great job, and can make steady payments, and pay it off within two years. Please let me know if you are interested.
    Thank you!

  • Tracy
    September 15, 2016, 3:51 pm

    Great Thread with some valid points on both sides! Alex do you know of any lending resources outside of manufacturer financing for Canada? I’d be interested in learning more about what, if any, resources/options exist! Many thanks!

  • Ky
    August 10, 2017, 11:39 am

    I have been watching tiny nation and those 2 guys go and build tiny homes for people and the budget for most part is 30,000 a few for less, and that is move in ready. I take care of my mom, and it would be wonderful to have a tiny home on wheels that I could park at her place.

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