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Comment by spaceman_2020 | Hacker News Reader

spaceman_2020

Is this a joke? Are these people really so out of touch with reality, or have they really just decided to go all-in on the top 2-3% of the market?

$400k for a prefab 1 bedroom house - with the caveat that costs can go up if you don't have the perfect specifications they require. If you were to actually buy the land to fit this tiny home, you'll likely end up with a bill north of $700k-1M+ depending on your location.

Either I've become poorer or the world has become far richer to afford $400k sheds.

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This kinda thing is pretty common in the "tiny house" online community, to the point that it's a ubiquitous joke among commenters. "Oh wow, it only cost you $80,000 after your dad's construction company donated most of the labor and materials and your fiance's family let you park it on their New Zealand ancestral estate."

> If you were to actually buy the land to fit this tiny home, you'll likely end up with a bill north of $700k-1M+ depending on your location.

The house is ridiculously priced, but you're way off about land.

Let's be honest, this doesn't need much land. But you can still easily buy land for $2,000/acre and less. I paid 60k for 40 acres, and that's if I value the EIGHT buildings at $0 (about 6 years ago).

Interestingly, some locals have sold property recently at exorbitant rates by marketing in NYC and similar markets. I think people in the city just have no idea.

There's a whole country out here.

Where, and how, did you buy 40 acres for 60k? Where do you go to bulk purchase land?

I find the phrase "bulk purchase land" to be vaguely amusing for some reason.

My neighbor's 11,000 sq-ft house sits on two 15 acre lots. You buy the land in places where a 40-acre lot isn't considered unusual. IOW, pretty much anywhere that's not a city or a suburb of a major city.

As for the "how," you contact a realtor who specializes in rural properties and tell them what you're looking for.

I'm in the Ozarks.

Rural property is usually listed as a lot. 40 acres is the most common size in my area--most of the original 40 acre plots have stayed intact and not been broken up.

I bought it in a pretty traditional manner.

Here's a site selling acreage in southern Missouri starting at under 2k/acre: https://www.landwatch.com/missouri-land-for-sale/southwest-r...

You know this doesn't add up right? Who exactly is paying $2000/acre and then sticking a 540 sq ft house down? You build these tiny houses because you're paying a premium for the space. You don't build extraordinarily expensive tiny houses in areas where land value is cheap.

Maybe not this prefabricated house, but in general it makes more sense to plop a trailer or something on your (large, inexpensive) property if it's way out and isolated, because it's harder to get materials and contractors to build a conventional house. Or you can build your house yourself; I know people who did that.

Yeah, but the people in the market for $400k sheds aren't going to buy land where its $2,000/acre.

Land is absolutely cheap in some places in the world, but any place you'd actually want to live in this house is going to have expensive land.

If you're living in a place with $2k/acre land, you'll likely want to build a proper house anyway.

>Land is absolutely cheap in some places in the world, but any place you'd actually want to live in this house is going to have expensive land

You are probably correct if you restrict to exactly $2K.

However, right now on Zillow there is an 18+ acre lot advertised at $65K, which is 17 miles or about 25 minutes drive from the capitol of the fourth largest state in the US.

That's about $3.5K per acre.

My first thought is it's not buildable, but it says there's electricity and a well. Suggests it would be good for a hunter, but I don't know what a hunter would consider adequate.

I spent half the prefab cost for land and a 3600 sq ft house.

Do you mind sharing where you got the prefab? I’ve been looking for a reasonable one and it’s always good to have more information.

I think the parent says they spent bought a SFH house with land for that cost

I bought a house last year that was originally built in the 90s. Buying and fixing a house is just way cheaper.

Even if the housing market nosedives I think they would still be in business, because they are providing a simple financial and practical equation to consumers where none exists. If you have a home on a big enough plot worth $1mm or more, you could look at how much you would increase your home value with this product and say yes/no. The permits are handled, the construction is handled, the end-product’s aesthetics are almost guaranteed. All this is essential for a full-time employed home owner who doesnt have time for a major home renovation project.

> they are providing a simple financial and practical equation to consumers where none exists.

This is just the current process with better marketing. You can get the same result from finding and buying an ADU plan and submitting it to a few contractors for quotes.

I’m sure there are places where adding this would increase the value of the property for more than the cost - but going this route would be leaving ~$200k on the table, at least. The market segment that prefers to forego $200k of potential profit in favor of convenience cannot possibly be that large.

A custom built ADU by a small contractor is just not comparable, there is so much uncertainty down that route, and already we are talking about a much more involved process of acquiring and vetting bids. I imagine that the market would be expanded with this more certain and lower touch product.

This is priced around what it would cost to build something similar from scratch in the back yard of an existing house in an area like Seattle. The caveats make sense, you can easily spend $100k in permitting, site prep, and foundation if your site is not flat (common in this area).

> or have they really just decided to go all-in on the top 2-3% of the market?

I would say they are targeting the top of the market. Looking at their marketing it looks like they aren't even pitching this as an alternative to a home, rather a n alternative to a backyard "shed". They aren't going after people looking for an affordable prefab home. They look like they are targeting the folks that have a huge backyard and an itch for a designer "shed".

I saw "premium materials" so I'm guessing that top part of the market is accurate.

It's a glorified mobile home with glorified materials. I'm not entirely sure how this is an effective deal.

"Engineered oak floors" is an example - and while more expensive than vinyl I'm not sure it's really "top of the line".

Even some of the really fancy custom builders would be able to build a 600 sq ft house for less than $400k.

Oh it's a terrible deal I bet.

Probably get more of what you want and better deal by using some local contractor.

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