Why are tiny homes so expensive?

Video transcription:

Presented by Bianca from The Giving Tree Consultancy.

So one of the questions that I think a lot of people want to ask and do ask, but also don’t necessarily think of the minutia, is why are tiny homes so expensive?

They’re so expensive.

I will give you a foundation to inflation of the tiny home industry. About five years ago, my family purchased the tiny house that I’m in for $60,000. Back then that was a lot of money to us. Now – oh my God – this is like the cheapest tiny home you could purchase. I mean the tiny home itself isn’t cheap, but the price point is desirable.

Now you can’t even enter into the tiny house market really without considering spending anywhere from $125,000 to $200,000. There are a lot of reasons for this.

Number one, these tiny homes are now being built to compliance, which means we have higher insulated tiny homes. We have more features in these tiny homes. We just have regular inflation. The cost of wood is absolutely ridiculous. The cost of metal, the cost of steel, the aluminum, the trailers, you name it, everything is up. Everyone’s monopolizing, everybody’s capitalizing, companies are going out of business if they don’t. So we unfortunately just have to deal with the devil on this one.

The regular cost of housing is rising, and there’s also the stubborn usage of housing. Yes, people are capitalizing on this industry and they’re hiking up their prices.

One thing to consider though is we really need to look at the tiny home builder. If you look at a fledgling tiny home builder who’s building 1-2, maybe 3 models a year. They need a team to do that, a team of employees, they need trades, they need certifications, they need a facility, they need the materials they need the the lawyer fees, they need administration.

They need all of the infrastructure to be able to build you a home. The market has to catch up so these folks can sell tiny homes. And then second, they’re also buying individual for the home, so they’re buying individual custom appliances, individual custom materials for the interior of the tiny home, and this costs a lot of money, which is why manufacturing on us saves a lot more money, but you have to get to that point as a manufacturer or as a builder.

So while we all want to roll our eyes and we all want to hate this, they have to pay themselves at the end of the day, they have to pay their employees at the end of the day and things cost money in “Water World”. Hopefully get the reference, but it’s OK if you don’t.

Things cost money. I would love to see attainable and affordable units, but we need municipalities to recognize additional dwelling units, communities, so we can start building more homes and the more homes these builders can build, the less their fees can be and will be because then they don’t have the main infrastructure.

Now you’re probably thinking well, the builder is not going to make their units less expensive. If they’re building non custom more than one, more than two, more than three a year, absolutely, they can streamline their prices. And you can buy a model that can easily be built quickly, efficiently and it’s just the way that the world works.

I know. It’s frustrating, believe me, I get it. But everyone has to be paid at the end of the day, the work and integrity that goes into these homes are incredible. If you find the right builder, I mean it’s there.

So how do you find the right builder? You do your due diligence. You look at their current models, you talk to their previous clients. And you find a builder that’s worth their salt. You find a unit that’s worth what it’s worth, and at the end of the day, the old adage is you get what you pay for. So that is that.

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