Tiny house as a first home solution for my son?

[rbstern]

Why not just a large travel trailer or mobile home for temporary use? At least they are easy to resell.

Not out of the realm of possibility.

My wife is an artist and a gardener, and the appearance of the property is one of her passions. Whatever we do, it has to meet some minimal approval standards from her. Tougher than any zoning board (or HOA).

 

[azbinder]

Late wife and I lived in a 38' triple slide 5th. wheel for about 3 years about 10 years ago. Had it in a nice small park. Had everything we needed. Elec, cable tv, phone. Had a couple of the tall propane tanks that I had filled every few months. Had a concrete slab in front. Did have an 8x12 shed behind it with a regular sized refrigerator and extra storage.

 

[rbstern]

Regarding a travel trailer solution: How's winter life in one of those? We're in a relatively mild climate, but we still get 20 to 30 degree weather here a couple of months of the year.

 

[kf4uda]

I am with others on the fifth wheel/travel trailer/rv. Once they are ready to move on, it is fairly easy to sell. You will need power, water, septic/sewer of course. Maybe they could dual purpose it and do camping trips too.

The other thing is rank of acceptance to whatever proposal you come up with:

Your Son's future Wife
Your Son
Your Wife
You
All of us TBN members (ok maybe not)

Good luck and congrats to your Son for furthering his education.

 

[azbinder]

Regarding a travel trailer solution: How's winter life in one of those? We're in a relatively mild climate, but we still get 20 to 30 degree weather here a couple of months of the year.

We were in north central Arizona. Elevation about 3300 feet. The Verde river ran right past the park. We did get some snow and winter temps high 20's - low 30's at night some. Would use heat tape on water line. It didn't use much elec so just left it plugged in. Only problem was the black water tank. Would have to empty and flush it about every 10 days or so. Kept the grey tank valves open all the time.

 

[2manyrocks]

Take another look at the real estate market in January because it may look different than today. We are in a transitional period where the edge is starting to come off.

Be cautious about deeding off parcels. Son and/or wife might decide they want to live somewhere else and want to sell the parcel leaving you with a new and unexpected neighbor.

Son's employer might unexpectedly end remote working.

Some RVs are pretty spacious. Nearly instant living space that can be easily resold or relocated. Could be half the price of the tiny home you are considering.

Once you commit to the tiny house and spend $40k, that's 40k that could have gone towards something more permanent if that's the goal. Or consider building something that could be repurposed in a permanent setting.

 

[JasperFrank]

Digg a a big hole in the ground, then put a used house boat on it. Fill it with water with shore power and septic to an off boat leach field. Then just sit back and watch the zoning persons attempt to figure it out for three years.

 

[Yander]

I like the tiny house concept and I think would hold their value and could be sold later or as someone mentioned moved to your son's property you sell him later.

As someone who lives next to his in-laws, since 2014, let me give you a few pointers that will help them not hate living next to you.
1. resist the urge to just "stop by" even though it will be very convenient for you to do, make this a rarity.
2. If you need to stop by, text them and ask them if it is a good time. If you stop by make it short.
3. Don't ask them who they have over if you see cars. Don't expect an invite if they have family, you don't always have to be invited.
4. Don't just do things to or in their yard thinking they will appreciate it without asking first.
5. Ask them if they want things done in general, don't just do it. As soon as you sell them your land it is theirs.
6. Even if you need their help for a little while, try and give them some notice unless it is a real pressing thing. Don't expect them to drop everything to be at your beckoned call since they are close.
7. Don't guilt them for not seeing you as much as you think they should since they are so close. Try to go a month or so without even seeing them for a while. Make your wife do the same thing. Trust me, they will come around when they want/need to.

Ask me why I can list these out so specifically. My FIL has been dead since Oct. 2020 and now my wife and I maintain both properties, MIL and ours (MIL still mows hers for the most part). We don't mind but after FIL passed we realized he was the one who honored our privacy and the MIL was only held at bay by him.

The first few months it was boundary setting time for her, she would have been at our house every night had we let her. She would just come over and open our garage door and start rapping on the back door unannounced and uninvited. Once was at a particularly bad time if you know what I mean : )

That has all stopped because we put a stop to all of it. My wife literally has to treat her like a child (77 years old) she has mental issues. But the flip side can be very good. For years my FIL and I cooperated on doing things, he would ask my help I would ask his and we would have them over to sit around fires and things.

Now we watch out for the MIL, amazing how many people think a widow is an easy target to ask things of. We have her pretty much directing all people asking her things to us. She has no ability to say no to anyone and people will use you up when they figure that out.

It can have a lot of upside to it but you have to respect that they will need space from you both.

Edit: I should ad that we were married and lived 40 minutes away from the in-laws for the first 24 years of our marriage. The kids were grown and gone when we moved next to them. I think it would not have been a happy ending had we moved there when we were first married. I won't get into the details of that.

 

[4570Man]

A tiny house seems like a waste of money to me. I guess that’s about the equivalent price of 3 years of renting so not the worst idea but I’d look for less deprecating assets. If building a real house is out of the question I’d live in a camper until they can afford to build a real house. I’ve seen fairly nice gas burner motor homes for 15k. That would be much easier to send on to its next owners when then a tiny house would be.

 

[WVH1977]

Sorry for the long backstory; just think it's necessary to get accurate feedback.

My son, currently living at home, just recently graduated from college and landed a very solid job with a stable company, working remotely. We're extremely proud of him. He earned it with hard work.

He and his fiancee are starting to look at rental properties in our area. Pickings are slim in the nearby small towns. If they go to one of the small cities within a 45 minute drive (Gainesville, GA to the south, Anderson, SC to the north), there are many more choices. Pricier, and some iffy neighborhoods the wife and I would not love to see them living in.

We have plenty of acreage with numerous potential home sites, although 75% of our property is in conservation status until 2024. We've always told him, if he ever wanted to build a house on the land, we would help in any way we could. He's open to that. One possibility is building/buying some type of tiny home to put on the property; not a trailer mounted tiny house, but something built on skids, like a 14x40 shed that many people seem to be repurposing for something like this. My back-of-the-envelope estimations suggest a 500 to 600 sq foot building, set up as a 1 bed/1 bath, could be nicely finished for about $40K, including plumbing, HVAC, septic, electrical and fixtures.

We have no zoning restrictions. If we did it in reasonable proximity to our current residence, we could skip digging a separate well. They could use our Internet access (something he needs for his job; we have excellent 1Gbps fiber service). Electricity install would be relatively cheap because of the established power lines on our property. In other words, there are a bunch of fiscal advantages to making a living solution here.

Downsides we readily acknowledge: Less independence from us. Also, they'd be building equity in something that exists on our land. If they left, we'd very likely never rent it to anyone else; certainly not a stranger. We value our privacy. We expect to leave this place to him (he's our only child); barring a financial disaster that forces us to sell, all of the property will be his someday. Any property improvements theoretically benefit him in the long run.

We could also just wait until 2024, and carve off a piece of land on the other side of our property, for him to build a genuine, stick built starter house on. More independent solution for them. They'll have spent about $35K tp $50K on rent between now and then, if they rent until then.

So: Thoughts on tiny homes for this type of solution? What haven't I considered? What are the challenges involved with tiny house type solutions? Thanks in advance for the comments!

Let them rent somewhere and start their life without your help. It is time for them to be on their own and learn how to survive. You can still help them and support them but they need to figure it out on their own. Once the land is out of conservation they can decide whether or not to build a house on the land. This gives the both of you time to figure out a more permanent solution. A lot can happen/change in a few years.