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Modular Homes for Under $50k

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Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#271
post #222
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The target customer is people with extra land who would like to put up an ADU on their land to make extra revenue from AirBNB. It could probably pay for itself within a year.

within a year? probably pretty aggressive goal. Cheap case, $50k for the unit, $10k all setups (really really conservative). that's $5k revenue per month, or ~$165 per night averaged. Yes, some places could rent for ~$200/night, but I doubt you'll have 100% occupancy rate.

If you go for the aggressive goal you’ll probably fail but still get farther than if you pursued the modest goal.

Besides, as an Airbnb rental it would definitely pay for its own mortgage over time.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#272

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?

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…

No, I don't think they could make it twice the size -- it has to unfold from a standard TEU size!

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#273
post #237
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I am very curious why you would want your house to look exactly like ( or coordinated) with your neighbor? One of the things I felt odd in US is that every house in a sub-division looks like they were made from cookie-cutter. Isn't expressing individuality and having the freedom to make use of your own land in way that suits you more important, as long as it does not impact the living conditions of your surroundings?

Different folks want different things. Though as time goes on more and more houses look different in style in the same neighborhood. There are limits though - there are only so many ways you can do a garage and the required drive from it to the street so that always looks similar.

Most builders of spec houses intentionally buy just a few scattered lots in many different neighborhoods - that way they can build the same house they always build, yet not neighborhood has two houses that look alike. But there are neighborhoods where all houses are built exactly alike...

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#274
post #258

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 lot of the modular home type solutions seem to encounter the same thing. Cost savings on the surface but when things come together they're just not there. A lot of the actual prefabricated style solutions that do save money seem to be small changes within your traditional systems.

The real cost savings is they build exactly the same 4 floor plans over an over again, and very little modifications are allowed. They then have jigs to cut the pieces to the exact size needed. Instead of a carpenter with a saw measuring a 2x4, they cut everything to the exact size needed without using a tape measure.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the costs of plumbing, electrical, kitchen, bathroom, etc are more of less the same between a 500 sq.ft. house and a 1000 sq. ft house. Don't larger houses have multiple bathrooms, thus not the same cost for plumbing? At least when I watched Selling sunset, it seemed it's about having at least 3-4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms in a house...

The 1000sqft house versus a 500sqft house probably only adds a half bath. Its not like you're going to jump from one bath to five in another 500sqft. The plumbing work on adding a half bath in new construction really isn't too much when properly planned.

Proper planning generally means those bathrooms are right next to each other, so the toilets use the same drain and vent pipes and water supply except for the last 2 feet. You ideally put the kitchen and laundry close as well. Of course you often cannot put everything close and that add cost, but it is attempted.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#276
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But with ‘son’ in the word doesn’t it’s usage continue to promote the patriarchy?

In my native language (Ukrainian), the word "person" (людина) is always feminine. Even if someone wanted to say "I'm a very masculine person", they would still need to use a feminine form of the word "masculine" to say "masculine person". And no one has ever had any issues with that, ever.

In Italian (which shares I believe no common roots with Ukrainan) it is the same, "person" (persona) is always feminine, and of course goes with feminine articles and adjectives are conjugated at the feminine gender and as well noone ever had issues with that.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#277
post #269

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?

Tiny houses have a large cost per square foot. One of the early forces in tiny houses remarked that his house was simultaneously the smallest in his city and the most expensive per square foot. Part of it is the cube square law's little brother, the "square linear law?" You have proportionately more wall for the enclosed area. On top of that you still have the expensive bits… bathrooms and kitchens.

Yes this is true. $/ft2 is only really useful to realtors. Most home shoppers probably understand things more like cost per living space (rooms)

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#278
There is so much marketing to the effect of "millennials love tiny homes!" I can't help but think if regular homes were even slightly affordable for the average 30-something, there would be no tiny home trend.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#279
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are rich, there are a lot of options that are likely to better cater to your richness. Or why build a 50k shed on a million dollar piece of ground?

In Elon's case so you can have a few hundred on the not very expensive land at Starbase Texas.

As always, the premise is “you should” not “I should.”

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#280
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are rich, there are a lot of options that are likely to better cater to your richness. Or why build a 50k shed on a million dollar piece of ground?

Savings of time to build and use, can be removed as easily as it’s deployed.

$50k will buy a reasonably nice RV that includes wheels and a hitch and such options abound.
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