• Jerry Dycus
  October 25, 2019, 9:32 pm

  Why would one get a 30 yr mortgage on a TH? Just insane.
  There are lots of places in Florida once outside of cities and now many cities are letting them in. So buy a lot and put your own TH in and pay everything off in 10 yrs at les than rent. No reason to pay over $20k for a lot, many between Venice and Ft Myers for under $5k . But with few exceptions most of Florida is like that once outside of cities.
  One could get by with just $10k for land and a TH of materials in these places.
  Myself I bought a run down MH on a private lot and just ‘repaired’ the MH by building TH on it’s frame.
  And if at all possible, build it on a concrete slab will be worth far more.

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  • Russ
    October 26, 2019, 11:55 am

    The lot is $20,000? Does anyone know?

    If not — this whole thing is a waste of time. Really. Seriously.

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  • Lori
    November 6, 2019, 10:48 pm

    Interested i learning more of what jerry dykus posted as it seems florida has different restrictions depending on location

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• Joe Stolfi
  October 25, 2019, 10:05 pm

  I agree with Jerry … WHY would anyone get a 30 year mortgage.
  I thought the idea behind Tiny Houses was to avoid a mortgage
  and live simply ..

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  • James D.
    October 26, 2019, 1:22 am

    No, the idea was to live free by living simply… Avoiding mortgages is just one of the things you can achieve by doing that but the reality is not everyone can get to that point without some help.

    Problem is most of the actual benefit of tiny homes is how tiny living can reduce nearly all of your costs, which over time can mean you’re saving up to multiple times what the home cost to purchase. But even the cheapest of tiny homes can be beyond what some people can ever afford without first changing their situation.

    So debt/mortgage is sometimes a necessary evil in order to allow people the financial freedom to change their situation but with a key difference from conventional debt/mortgage being tiny living puts them in a far better position to then be able to pay off those debts, end up owning a home, and then have far more freedom to live their life how they choose…

    Thing to remember is there’s no universal solution that will work for everyone. Not everyone can build, not everyone will have access to cheaper options, not everyone will be able to find other ways to do it, not everyone can just move, etc…

    So having as many options as possible, as long as they’re properly used, is really the only way to ensure everyone can achieve their goals and not just a certain percentage…

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  • Alex
    October 28, 2019, 1:25 pm

    One might want to get a 30 year mortgage on something like this if it means they could transition from renting to owning, and there’s even the possibility of it being more affordable too. There are also tax incentives for having a mortgage (if you have a mortgage, you usually get to write off/deduct the interest payments on your taxes every year which helps).

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• Laura Tavoussi
  October 25, 2019, 10:39 pm

  i like the flexibility of being able to have the lowest monthly payment possible by having a 30-year loan. Tiny House = Tiny Mortgage Payment! This offers the owner the opportunity to have extra money to travel & spend money on hobbies which is also supposed to be one of the benefits of the more simple Tiny House lifestyle.

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• Sandy Durrence
  October 29, 2019, 1:08 pm

  When I called to ask prices for the lots, I was told the price of a house and a lot is $162,000. I could buy a standard home and standard lot for that. Why would I want to pay that for a tiny home & tiny lot? And need to get a mortgage to do so? Defeats the primary purpose of tiny homes – to avoid mortgages and big expenses.

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  • James D.
    November 1, 2019, 1:28 am

    No, first the mortgage is just an option for people who may not be able to otherwise afford it and that can be true even if these homes were 1/10th the price. Like I already explained in my previous post, it allows far more people the ability to change their situation that otherwise couldn’t.

    Second, real estate costs are only relevant to the same area as costs vary across the country. The median price of homes currently listed in Oviedo is $385,000 while the median price of homes that sold is $310,100. The median rent price in Oviedo is $1,799, which is higher than the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford Metro median of $1,600.

    So you would actually have to spend far more on a standard house in that area… Along with far higher long term costs like higher property taxes, higher utility bills, higher maintenance, etc.

    Cost of a built new house is also generally much higher than getting an existing/older house. The average sales price of an existing single-family house in 2017 was about $291,000. If we compare that price to the cost to build a house ($428,000), it costs around $137,000 more to build a new house rather than to buy an existing one. But existing/older houses have their issues and can’t address the growing needs of a growing population without new houses being built…

    Standard houses also have hidden and maintenance costs that annually are averaging $9,477 nationally… For Orlando, FL, the average is $10,100… and there are houses and parts of the country where the costs can go a lot higher than the average. Especially, as older homes can be horribly energy inefficient and have build issues that over time will cost a lot in repairs, renovations, remodels, etc.

    This all varies across the country but that gives you an idea of how misleading some price comparisons can be versus what most people are actually facing in different parts of the country and what they can actually be getting and really paying for…

    Additionally, for many, it’s not so much the mortgage that’s the problem but all the additional costs that can add up to multiple times what the house cost to purchase over time… So you can see a far bigger benefit from a home that reduces those long term costs and not only reduces the initial cost of purchase…

    For example, say you bought a home with no mortgage… That won’t help change your life for the better if the home still costs over 30% of your income to own, live in, and maintain over time. Real change has to be long term!

    Besides, there’s no such thing as just one point for everyone… People turn to alternatives like tiny houses for many reasons like environmentalism, sustainability, being able to realistically be able to build their own home in a industry where that is becoming impossible to do, focusing on things that really matter to individual people, addressing health concerns, supporting lifestyles traditional houses don’t support, addressing the erosion of home owner rights and the multitude of other problems plaguing the traditional housing market, etc.

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  • Glenn Van Acker
    November 6, 2019, 5:08 pm

    I agree Sandy. Since TH’s market is starting to grow, profit seekers are all around. $162K for a TH maybe normal for Aspen Colorado, but nowhere else.

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• Sandy Durrence
  November 6, 2019, 5:20 pm

  I was told $162,000 for a lot and the tiny house. When I commented you could buy a standard house & lot for that, I got a long response about comparable values (this area very pricey apparently) and savings in cost of running a tiny home vs. full size, as if we didn’t know that already. The point is, you look for a tiny home for: 1) Lower purchase price; 2) no mortgage. So if this area is all that valuable, they’ll be keeping it as far as I’m concerned. And yes, as others commented, you can get land cheaper and a TH cheaper. These guys have totally lost the idea that THs started with.

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• Evening Iris
  November 6, 2019, 9:38 pm

  James D.: You keep justifying and selling the rigged corporate system back to people, like it really had some advantage. I’m with everyone here who has responded that what this $162,000, deal is no deal at all. She’s right. Why should anyone become indebted to the banksters for a tiny house on a tiny lot? The Real Estate industry is backed by the Chamber of Commerce; another stick-em-up group that has rigged the Real Estate industry across the whole of this country. I think I can safely say that I speak for more than just one here when I say that We Don’t Want This. We want affordable housing on reasonably priced land and not have to get involved with the banks that will foreclose on us if they SAY we are a nickle short of a full monthly mortgage payment. We’ve been down this road before with the banks and the housing industry. Enough is enough of debt slavery. We aren’t buying into this rubbish any more. It’s time that the banks and the Real Estate industry shift their focus off of their over-stuffed wallets and onto getting human beings decent housing at affordable prices. I compared the tax structures of several townships in California and found that the poorer areas where people had lesser housing on smaller lots were paying as much in taxes, if not more, as those living in the high end of town. The system is rigged and the horse is out of the barn.

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• Gabe
  February 4, 2020, 3:48 pm

  $450.00 per square foot – are they crazy!!!

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