Early Retirement Extreme Forums

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/this-coup ... 20658.html

And to think there is now a dating site for people who live in small houses!

Looks like they spent a year building a travel trailer... That cost them $10,000, 2-4k hours labor, cannot be safely driven on the road (even if it holds together, it's too tall) and likely has little resale value.

Good on them for DIY but the tiny house movement is rather illogical to me... Why re-invent the wheel? Just get a dilapidated house or a travel trailer... $10k and 1k hours = an immaculate Airstream worth $15-30k resale... Or get an ugly house without un-fixable problems. 4k hours should turn a horror into a very nice home.

JohnnyH wrote: ... the tiny house movement is rather illogical to me... Why re-invent the wheel? Just get a dilapidated house or a travel trailer... $10k and 1k hours = an immaculate Airstream worth $15-30k resale... Or get an ugly house without un-fixable problems. 4k hours should turn a horror into a very nice home.

"Tiny Houses" don't have the stigma of a "trailer." I think it's total BS, but I hear it often.

jennypenny wrote:"Tiny Houses" don't have the stigma of a "trailer." I think it's total BS, but I hear it often.

Ahhh... That is an explanation that makes sense... Material recycling, green living, minimalist hipster street cred for not living in a trailer. Even though the foundation seems to invariably be -on a trailer.

Yup, it's all part of being hipsterized. It's like taking a roach coach from NYC, adding organic food and dropping it in Portlandia, and voila ... it's a 'gourmet truck' with a Zagat rating.

Hipsters are buying up the cheap houses in my area and I know there are "emerging" neighborhoods in Grand Rapids and Detroit as well.

A couple few ago we visited a 100+ year old home the couple had bought for 10k within a short walk of downtown. They didn't do much to fix anything but paint the interior. A lot of the cheapness is in the higher-crime-area risk, but hipsters seem to have some blinders on with regards to this... If enough hipsters moved in/took-over an area though it would be mitigated and eventually result in a pretty good ROI.

Interestingly there is also a reversal going on around here in general, where the more distant suburbs seem to be losing value/high-foreclosure rate, while the once destitute inner-city is increasing in value. The best areas for this seem to be near or on the fringe of University property (often called the "student ghetto" around here) or a renovating downtown.

JohnnyH wrote:

jennypenny wrote:"Tiny Houses" don't have the stigma of a "trailer." I think it's total BS, but I hear it often.

Ahhh... That is an explanation that makes sense... Material recycling, green living, minimalist hipster street cred for not living in a trailer. Even though the foundation seems to invariably be -on a trailer.

Ha. I think I may see if I can buy a few trailer homes and sell them as "migrant tiny houses" for a nice premium.

EDIT: I also like "free range houses".

firefighterjeff wrote:That same couple could have lain around for 2,000 hours smoking weed and playing video games and nobody would have said boo, but show some initiative and suddenly they have to demonstrate they are turning a profit. Cut the KIDS some slack. At worst this turns into a clubhouse for some neighborhood family, at best they are learning critical skills for independent living.

I don't mean to be negative and I'm sure the time invested will pay great dividends in skills/lessons learned... And they certainly don't need to show a profit.

But I am still trying to figure the tiny house movement out. The only things that make sense to me are A) seeking positive/avoiding negative status, like jenny said, B) spiting local building inspection authorities in a confrontational way (haha, this one I like), C) demonstrating building and salvaging skills (in a low ROI kind of way).

These people are 28/26, clearly they must have known about options like this:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/avioncamp ... 9/pic/list

jennypenny wrote:Yup, it's all part of being hipsterized. It's like taking a roach coach from NYC, adding organic food and dropping it in Portlandia, and voila ... it's a 'gourmet truck' with a Zagat rating.

I wonder if you realize how close to the truth you are? You really are describing Portland's food cart scene!

In cold winters, I think the main (practical) difference between a tiny house and a trailer is the insulation and heating options. Also, a trailer won't get you featured on Yahoo.