Could you live in a shipping container house? (Prescott: for sale, apartments)

[Hschlick84]

With housing prices soaring in the area, for the cost between $50k-$150k could you live a minimalist lifestyle in a home like this? It's basically a shipping container converted into a 160 sq ft home. It's on the small side, but a good idea for Millennials, young professionals and single retiree baby boomers.

Preferably, I would use at least 4 of the shipping containers to make it slightly bigger.

Man lives in a 160 sq. ft. shipping container. Step inside and prepare to be amazed

[Hschlick84]

Here's a couple in Denver that used 9 shipping containers. On the bigger side and higher price.

Denver couple says building shipping container home was cheaper than the norm - 7NEWS Denver TheDenverChannel.com

[lubby]

MY DH and I were looking at these and thought they were interesting but too small for us. I guess if you are 1 person and don't need a lot of space it's good.

[JustMike77]

I'd rather go back to living on my boat. Same space, better scenery.

[infocyde]

First, the good.

I love the innovation that comes out of the Tiny House movement, be it earth ships, tiny cabins, shipping containers, whatever. The way space is utilized to the max is really cool. Some of the appliances burrowed from RV tech or created new outright for tighter spaces is genius too. I love where solar and the new batteries are going.

Now the bad,

No matter where you go or how small you, you are going to need land, sanitation, and water. The way I see it this is your base cost to enter the game.

- Septic System (15K)
- Land (crappy land in Chino some parcels come of for 5K)

So you are out 20K without water or a building. I guess Yavapai county does allow composting toilets, so you could knock out most of the 15K if you are adventurous. But most people aren't. The Big Chino is tapping out, so in order to get a well you have to go pretty deep in most areas. Add 25k+ for a well.

Then you get your shipping container or yurt or whatever. Those things are not as cheap as you would think once you ship the kits and start customizing them. The price adds up fast. So fast that you start approaching the price of a smaller manufactured home, mobile home, or RV.

Plus, going this route will be harder to get loans where even though conventional mortgages are harder to get now they are still relatively easy compared to conventional loans. If you have the cash this isn't a concern.

I've researched off grid living passively for a few years now. Here is what I've determined.
- A lot of people want to go tiny to save money, and they do to an extent.
- The people who are successful in downsizing to tiny are unique and often had a lot of money and some know how that most people looking to go this route don't.
- Although there is a lot of newer innovations, especially with solar and batteries, this movement for tiny stuff is just a rehash of the same movements in the past that brought you mobile homes. A lot of the problems and challenges faced then are the same, and so are the solutions, just spun more to appeal to yuppies.

If you want to live like a caveman you might be able to do something like this-
- 5k for permits
- 1k for a composting toilet
- 5K for a really, really base structure
- 5k for minimal furniture appliances
- 5k for flat boring land in chino or outskirts (way outskirts) of PV

Round up 25K But that is a single person dwelling with essentially camping gear. Your yearly taxes would be only a few hundred bucks, but trucking water would be a little expensive. Also you might pay higher for trash removal or to haul it yourself. It would absolutely be cheaper than a conventional style of living. So would being homeless or living in a van.

To do it yuppie style triple that cost. It is cheaper than conventional living, but due to loan differences the cost puts it our of many people's reach.

A better solution IMHO would be to just build smaller conventional houses. Many of the houses built in the 70ies around here had it right. They are modest two bedroom 900 square feet type of things. Cramped but it was what families could afford. Now no one wants to build those types of houses because they aren't as profitable to sell and the demand for high end housing absorbs most of the builders' time. In a free market economy not sure what to do about that, though I know fed policies backing mortgages are partially to blame.

It is interesting that Bulgaria, the poorest EU country, has a higher level of home ownership than the US. Their homes are typically two bedroom apartments in giant cement slab buildings, but they own 'em. Maybe a Trump public works thing would be to build some things like that...but here in the US they would tend to become slums. And the powers that be would rather milk 30%+ of people's income to live in apartments that they don't own. Why the difference here vs there might be worth studying.

Just some thoughts.

[k2rider]

I could do it....IF I also had a garage to store stuff and work on my bikes. I wouldn't mind bundling a few together even at a higher cost. I'd be perfectly content with 600 sq feet +/- because that's about all I use in our current 4 bedroom home anyway. The kids are gone and I use the TV room, the kitchen, (1) bathroom and only sleep in our bedroom. The crazy thing is we'll probably build a home 800 sq ft BIGGER when we build in Prescott (but drop a bedroom) since we're going for the open great room floorpan like everybody else nowadays.

infocyde had a great post overall....with todays millennial, part loving, enviro types going tiny, I think somebody could clean up buying some land and making a little "village" of tiny homes. Besides people going tiny for whatever reason, the fact that they would be affordable would mean a lot of people otherwise priced out of the housing market could get their foot in the door.

[keninaz]

We could and know that for a fact.
We lived and traveled in our 5th wheel RV for a couple of years at one time.
Yes life takes adjustments and not all can do this.
I used to work a lot on custom car builds and such and the lack of a garage was really hard for me.

[Coop01]

Originally Posted by infocyde

First, the good.

I love the innovation that comes out of the Tiny House movement, be it earth ships, tiny cabins, shipping containers, whatever. The way space is utilized to the max is really cool. Some of the appliances burrowed from RV tech or created new outright for tighter spaces is genius too. I love where solar and the new batteries are going.
.......................

Round up 25K But that is a single person dwelling with essentially camping gear. Your yearly taxes would be only a few hundred bucks, but trucking water would be a little expensive. Also you might pay higher for trash removal or to haul it yourself. It would absolutely be cheaper than a conventional style of living. So would being homeless or living in a van.

..........................

That is a problem in Yavapai county. I'm not sure that they (YC) would allow a "shipping container home" No matter if it looks as good as the one depicted in the photos.
I'm sure they would require an engineering approval ($$) at a minimum.
The Infrastructure impact assessment cost is $10K right up front. Lot preparation. Soil tests. etc.
There already is huge opposition from industry lobbyists like Building contractor and Apartment owner associations.
Even if you own the land, you cannot live in a $150K motor home more than two weeks a year. (Thank the BOS for this. Only one county in AZ will let you live on your own property in a motor home and that is Apache county.

[Hschlick84]

Amazon can now ship you a pre-fab home for $40,000. There's plenty of empty lots for sale in PV which can be used for a shipping container home. If you live a minimalist lifestyle or a hermit, this is the way to go. The website says you can combine two of them together if one is not enough, or as many as you desire.

https://www.modsinternational.com/


Amazon Now Delivers Tiny Homes

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...366fc98e077b71

[geekigurl]

Originally Posted by Hschlick84

Amazon can now ship you a pre-fab home for $40,000. There's plenty of empty lots for sale in PV which can be used for a shipping container home. If you live a minimalist lifestyle or a hermit, this is the way to go. The website says you can combine two of them together if one is not enough, or as many as you desire.

https://www.modsinternational.com/


Amazon Now Delivers Tiny Homes

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...366fc98e077b71

Uh uh...that's fricken awesome. Damnit I want one lol. Thanks for sharing this.