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Modular Homes for Under $50k

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Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#211

Post by dmos62 »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #165
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?

If you can get this contraption on your property (foundation, plumbing hookup, electric, all permit fees.) for under 100k in a desirable area, like the Bay Area, it's a great deal. If I had a flat lot that was accesssble, I would look into this further. In my town, even with the protections Gov. Neusome provided, getting an ADU is still a hassle. In my town, rich people are using ADU's to add square footage to their…

Those sound like good things. I live in a place where non of those demands are considered acceptable (or noone bothers to coordinate) and family-home suburbs look absurd. Every house is from another world, like the neighbors didn't exist. Color, style, fence, roof: everything is as random as you can imagine. It's a continuous spatial conflict.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#212

Post by throwaway0a5e »

jiggliemon wrote: post #199
hellbannedguy wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can get this contraption on your property (foundation, plumbing hookup, electric, all permit fees.) for under 100k in a desirable area, like the Bay Area, it's a great deal. If I had a flat lot that was accesssble, I would look into this further. In my town, even with the protections Gov. Neusome provided, getting an ADU is still a hassle. In my town, rich people are using ADU's to add square footage to their…

I looked into building an adu a few years back, and I can backup most of what you said. At least in California, in an incorporated city. We worked out that it would cost us $30k in fees, and required spending before we could even dig the footers. Things like a soil test, inspections, variance’s etc. You can always build an ADU, but it’s a rich mans game. And not really accessible to most people. We calculated our uni…

>We worked out that it would cost us $30k in fees

This is a feature not a bug.

They don't want people who can't writing a 30k check doing development.

They want the old elderly couple of limited means to move out and make way for some yuppie who will pay big taxes, not slap a bottom dollar ADU up so that they can be cared for by live-in relatives.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#214

Post by chrisseaton »

mekkkkkk wrote: post #210
monkeynotes wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you are living in a time where a perpetual pandemic is something you've considered as becoming a reality[1]. With Covid mutations pushing countries back into lockdown you must see where we are potentially heading. Young people have had their university experience revoked. So many people go to university partly for the education and partly for the social experience. Finding love, new life long friends, and ge…

All right. Yeah, I don't fully disagree. I just never saw the expression "perma-health watch" before, and was unable to parse it. English is not my native language.

'Permanent health-watch' is the way to read it.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#215

Post by throwaway0a5e »

gangstead wrote: post #38
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?

I was wondering that myself. I fantasize about plopping a house down out in the desert, but their video shows a crane used to unfold it. By the time you get all the heavy machinery out there to prep the land and assemble the structure you're most of the way to just building something unique.

>but their video shows a crane used to unfold it. By the time you get all the heavy machinery out there to prep the land and assemble the structure you're most of the way to just building something unique.

This[0]

Is[1]

A[2]

Solved[3]

Problem[4]

But many municipalities prohibit it because if you make housing too cheap the "wrong kind of people" might move in. In the desert you shouldn't have problems though.

[0] http://www.illmoveit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/IMG_1521...

[1] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/x9MwVxBK254/maxresdefault.jpg

[2] https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/994f83b/21...

[3] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BhU7yhMVdfE/hqdefault.jpg

[4] http://www.pacificwalkhomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/a...

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#216

Post by throwaway0a5e »

gangstead wrote: post #83
prawn wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thought the same about the crane. Surely there is a way you could adjust these to avoid the crane? As in, have a pulley mechanism that could be built into the frame to lower the floor? And roof panels that slide across rather than fold over? But I guess you need to deliver the thing, and that means truck and crane anyway, unless they're towed to site and the trailer is part of it. Couldn't slide it off a trailer with…

There's a render on the site where a regular looking pickup truck tows it to a site, then it unfolds itself magically. The video of an actual unit had the crane assist. Elon's house aside the product seems to be mostly vaporware so who knows what it actually requires.

Crane is likely just for efficiency when working with labor paid by the hour.

You could rope a few friends in and put it up with cribbing and a come along but it would take longer.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#217

Post by mekkkkkk »

chrisseaton wrote: post #214
mekkkkkk wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All right. Yeah, I don't fully disagree. I just never saw the expression "perma-health watch" before, and was unable to parse it. English is not my native language.

'Permanent health-watch' is the way to read it.

Ah, that makes sense. I read it as "permanent-health watch". English compound words always confuses me. Thanks!

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#218

Post by shagie »

nroets wrote: post #46
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?

A boom town where labour is really expensive and there is an acute housing shortage ?? Or someone who thinks it's the future and love telling his or her guests about it. Or someone who's fascinated by IKEA furniture.

Driving to Minot a decade ago... you'd see more modular houses on trailers on the road than cars at times. The flood of 2011 messed up a lot and this was also in the oil boom there.

There were even tent cities for people there after the flooding.

Yes, these modular houses would have been quite welcome there.

A tangent question to this is "how easy is it to undo it?"

A guy I know wants to do some major renovations on the house - gut it and fix it. It will take a year or two to do. In the meantime... where do you live?

Another situation where this could have been useful would have been Biloxi after Katrina where, again, housing is needed in short order.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#219

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

monkeynotes wrote: post #185
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at this primarily on a cost per square foot basis seems like the famous slashdot mistake of 2 decades ago of dismissing the iPod because it had less memory than a shitty competitor. I mean, it's an ADU, designed to be small, but would basically have the same fixed costs (appliances, plumbing, electrical) of a house twice the size, and I'm sure the manufacturers could make a house twice the size with only a ma…

The headline touts cost, I think it's fair to look at the actual cost benefits. If Apple designed the iPod and promoted it based on cost Slashdot would have had a point. Apple never says 'hey look how affordable our product is'. This headline caught my eye as I'm interested in how the fuck people are going to afford homes in the near future. I am disappointed. The "home" is not somewhere young people can raise a fami…

> The "home" is not somewhere young people can raise a family.

Thus is such a bizarre complaint. So what, of course not all housing types are for people in all situations. But a primary reason housing costs are so high is there is simply not enough housing. If something like this became popular and added considerable density it would make housing generally more affordable for everyone because currently unused land would have people living on it.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#220

Post by UncleMeat »

mlindner wrote: post #201
UncleMeat wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SpaceX sent a self landing rocket to the ISS. CEOs matter, but Musk seems to consistently get more credit for his company's successes than other leaders. His reality distortion field that enables him to hire very strong engineers is his biggest boon.

Musk is a lot more involved in day to day operations at SpaceX than a lot of people seem to understand. Shotwell on division of labor with Musk: > The way Elon and I share the load, he focuses on development. He's still very highly engaged in the day-to-day operations, but his focus is on development. He was the lead on Starlink, and I started shifting my focus to Starlink around late spring, early summer of last yea…

Even if SpaceX was his only company, he still is just one person. I'm not talking about Musk specifically, but CEOs generally. In almost no circumstance does it make sense to assign engineering success to a CEO in the way it was done above. CEOs are responsible for hiring executives and setting and enforcing vision and values. That's important but it isn't the whole story.
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