Modular Homes for Under $50k • Hacker News Board

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#21

Post by cbhl » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:14 AM UTC

01100011 wrote: post #5

Instant ADUs... Great, an easy way to increase the density of suburban neighborhoods that weren't designed for it while enriching wealthy landowners and providing sub-standard housing to the lower class. Shower thought: when will we see a company like Amazon or Costco experiment with providing an entire city, leveraging their efficient production chains and cost-cutting techniques? Would you live in a pre-fab town en…

They already did. Circa the early 1900s -- the Sears catalog offered kit homes by catalog. All the necessary parts would come, pre-cut, in a wax-sealed boxcar.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#22

Post by pinkrobotics » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:17 AM UTC

gurchik wrote: post #6

jhloa2 wrote: post #2

I really want one of these and I don't know why. I'm struggling to come up with uses for this other than for AirBNB style short term rental places or pre-planned communities for helping homeless people get back on their feet or something. Doesn't seem as portable as a mobile home, and doesn't really have enough of a rustic look for me to want to consider this as a cabin. I feel like I'm missing a big use case here, b…

In one of the videos on the site it is explained that they are currently targeting people who want to build "backyard houses" or "ADUs" that are popular in some places like in California. Family members can live in them or you can rent them out, provided it has a foundation, power, plumbing etc.

To me it's a modern cabin. And a place to live while a primary residence is being built. And then it'll be a place for visitors to stay.

I absolutely love this, and I really want one. Have you sold many/any yet? What stage of development is the company at?

Also, what sort of time frame can I hope to just order one and have it show up in a month or two?

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#23

Post by hytdstd » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:17 AM UTC

musingsole wrote: post #18

hytdstd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>providing sub-standard housing to the lower class. Can you elaborate on the problem with this? I don't see how adding an ADU to the market hurts the lower class.

> sub-standard housing > increase the density of suburban neighborhoods that weren't designed for it GP's vision of how this hurts the lower class seems readily apparent.

If the ADU is sub-standard, then the lower class can choose to not live there.

I didn't ask about the density statement, I understand the argument the GP made.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#24

Post by mywittyname » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:19 AM UTC

tomc1985 wrote: post #8

How about we bring back Sears' prefab housing?

The standardization in the building trade didn't exist back in the Sears catalog days. For example, 2x4s come in 8ft lengths, using 16 on center studs, 8 2x4s will provide 8 foot of wall, and two sheets of drywall will cover it. And you can order all of the cabinetry, trim, shower enclosures, etc in a form that's ready for installation.

A Sears prefab home would not be cheaper today because the inefficiencies that they solved in the early 1900s are no longer a problem. That, and it's infeasible for a person to construct their own house anymore, given building codes and such.

Cookie cutter homes can be ridiculously cheap to build if done correctly. In really large developments, it's common for teams to move from house to house every day. Almost like an assembly line. This cuts down on a tremendous amount of wasted time.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#25

Post by pen2l » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:21 AM UTC

thesausageking wrote: post #4

This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?

In the same way a lot of products have become cheaper because of some process optimization (packaged more compactly to reduce transportation costs), I'm excited to see modular homes/home 3d-printing etc. play out and become cheaper over time until they are more affordable than convention home construction or somehow unique and better in ways that conventionally constructed homes cannot be.

To answer your question, one possible target customer is the rich (wo)man who wants a cabin house far away but something more comfortable than a cabin house.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#26

Post by sabujp » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:22 AM UTC

hytdstd wrote: post #10

thesausageking wrote: post #4

This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?

In the bay area, $250-300/sq ft is a more realistic low-end of the range.

please do tell which contractor charges $250-300sq/ft?! I've contacted at least 10 different contractors and they're all in the 400-500 range

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#27

Post by hytdstd » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:24 AM UTC

sabujp wrote: post #26

hytdstd wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the bay area, $250-300/sq ft is a more realistic low-end of the range.

please do tell which contractor charges $250-300sq/ft?! I've contacted at least 10 different contractors and they're all in the 400-500 range

These are numbers from 5 years ago. I didn't increase them to be conservative. 400-500 today wouldn't surprise me.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#28

Post by nabilhat » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:24 AM UTC

jhloa2 wrote: post #2

I really want one of these and I don't know why. I'm struggling to come up with uses for this other than for AirBNB style short term rental places or pre-planned communities for helping homeless people get back on their feet or something. Doesn't seem as portable as a mobile home, and doesn't really have enough of a rustic look for me to want to consider this as a cabin. I feel like I'm missing a big use case here, b…

"Starter home" is the niche this fits. It wasn't all that long ago that sub-1000 square foot houses were a normal thing people bought and lived in until they could afford (and had a reason to) to move to a house better suited to support spouse/kids/etc.

I also want one of these, because I want starter homes to be that again, not just an impediment to scrape off of the lot to make way to build the largest house that zoning allows. It's nice in some ways that ADU options like this seem to be prying open that niche again.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#29

Post by vit05 » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:26 AM UTC

This company is popular for being the company chosen by Elon Musk[1]. He's supposedly living in one in Starbase, Texas. I guess it's also a study to understand the dynamics of living in a small space as any dream of inhabiting some other planet passes necessarily by the adaptation of a lifetime in a tiny space.

[1]https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-50k-house-texas-pictures...

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#30

Post by coderintherye » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:27 AM UTC

I imagine the margin isn't there for it, but I wish someone would target the I'd have to guess the market just isn't there for it, maybe everyone else just doesn't mind dealing with the building codes and permit requirements for larger units?