• Donna Rae
  September 17, 2023, 6:50 pm

  This is a fabulous THOW with very little to suggest as changes. Honestly, who could complain about that spacious living area and great kitchen??? The 10″ width really does give a totally different feel to a Tiny, doesn’t it? The colors and finishes are all very appealing, too. I am wondering, though, if the $189,000 (how much per square foot is a mystery since no length was given but even if it is a generous 30′, that’s $633 a square foot) starting price includes all that we see, including the furniture? A dishwasher? All of the finishes are very nice but I’m not seeing any that I would consider to be luxurious. I am also wondering if there would be a way to trim that price down a bit. Maybe simplify the roof line so both the exterior and interior were less complicated. All of the many angles inside took a lot of labor to clad in wood with all of those complicated cuts. Don’t get me wrong, they look nice but so would a more simple version. Any ceiling clad in beautiful wood would be impressive. I’m only looking at that kind of detail because so many buy Tinies in order to save money and the more complicated the lines, the more it costs in labor and materials. Living in California where prices are ridiculously high…seems to be a trend nationwide…$189,000 would seem to be a more than reasonable price but it’s also for a dwelling that is a lot smaller and it doesn’t include land. The rates charged at parks that can accommodate such homes isn’t regulated so you could end up paying quite a lot for that. I heard of a space in popular beach community that was $2300 a month even though the single wide mobile home was only for sale for $79,000, and that was quite a few years ago. Of course, that is very unusual but without regulation, ordinary locations could still cost you a pretty penny with the ability to raise their rates at will…and with no ocean view, either! One could try to find a piece of land to park such a fine Tiny but there are also regulations about minimum square footages. I think you could probably buy one and put in your backyard as an ADU, often used for elderly parents or as a rental, and that would make an awfully lot of sense. Just some musings on what I might consider when buying a Tiny Home, especially one that costs so much. I suppose the costs were bound to go up with the increase in popularity of this kind of home. They are still a viable alternative to a big house with a huge mortgage, for sure. I would be curious where others thought costs could be cut in such a Tiny without taking away too much from the aesthetics. Again, I want to emphasize that this is a marvelous Tiny Home and many would not question anything about it and be perfectly happy. Forgive me for being curious.

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  • James D.
    September 21, 2023, 2:04 am

    It’s listed as 480 sq ft, not 300, but cost per sq ft does not scale linearly. The way cost per sq ft is calculated doesn’t compensate for size, which makes smaller structures naturally have a higher number simply because there’s less empty space. While, also the space eliminated in a smaller structure is mainly the less costly space like hallways and empty rooms, which leaves the higher cost spaces like kitchens and bathrooms, etc. So even at same actual costs it ends up higher for cost per sq ft because of the way it’s calculated and is thus naturally misleading when comparing to how it works for larger structures.

    However, costs also go up when it’s a custom build, which typically starts 50% higher and can exceed 4x the regular cost on the really high end custom builds. A 3000 Sq Ft home built the same way can end up costing over a million because of this one difference. Just to put that into context and that it isn’t because of popularity! A luxury high end structure can be up to multiple times the cost of a regular one…

    A significant way to reduce costs is to avoid custom building and instead move towards mass production, which can reduce the costs to a fraction when done in large quantities. It’s just hard to satisfy everyone that way as one size fits all simply doesn’t fit everyone well.

    Along with going smaller as the Park Model size units like this one aren’t very tiny and tiny homes can be up to a lot smaller, and more minimal, especially if willing to decorate and do some finishing DIY.

    There’s just always trade offs and it’s hard for people to compromise on convenience…

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• Ellen Gelber
  October 14, 2023, 6:28 pm

  Where is this community located?’
  Elle Gelber

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