3 ms·

Writing as somebody who grew up around architects and engineers this thing is not worth more than 80k. The price at 400k is an insult to peoples' intelligence.

Writing as somebody who grew up around architects and engineers this thing is not worth more than 80k. The price at 400k is an insult to peoples' intelligence. Stick building a 550 sq ft rectangular shaped boxy house with a very boring and standard roof truss design on concrete sonotube piles, screw pilings, footings or a traditional concrete slab foundation is not rocket science. Your various other costs in rural areas will come in with things like code compliant underground electrical trenching to extend service to its breaker panel, septic tank/connection, water lines, etc.

bombcar 4y ago
You can build a post frame barn for $50k including usable foundation, so you have $350k left for enhancements to that. Now some of that stuff listed can be quite pricy, septic systems can run upwards of $50k but this thing is designed to be stuck in a backyard.
spaceman_2020 4y ago
I saw a video of a similar tiny home built by a company called Boxabl that apparently Elon Musk uses. That thing is like $50k.
- walrus01 4y ago
  the boxabl is not that much different from some of the Turkish built container based housing that's been developed for use at US military bases in the middle east and central asia. And used for things like "man camp" mining and oil/gas camps in northern canada. If you were to go to the US base in Qatar you'd see housing not radically different from it. Designed to ship by standard 20/40 ft ocean cargo container. https://www.boxabl.com/ https://www.boxabl.com/ I am skeptical that it costs 50k however, the thing as shown in the front page website promo that occupies an approximate 20'x20 area surely costs more than that.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    The thing is that the military housing is designed to be moved multiple times, for a house there's really no need to make it fancy and expandable like that; if you can save some money by shipping it in a box that needs some basic assembly you should probably go that way, even though it looks cool to watch it build itself.
  - BOXBOX123123 4y ago
    Incorrect. The Boxabl uses all new building materials and manufacturing methods that allow for rapid production of housing. Think 1 house per minute. The new building materials also result in superior energy ratings, fire, structural and more. The shippability of the unit also makes it superior to a cramped shipping container house. The room can ship at the lowest cost without compromising on room dimensions. Also, the price is the price, they have SEC reporting that shows the price is correct.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Even those skip a lot of the expensive parts of "building a house" which are the permits and fees and utilities. What would be exciting about these companies (any of these companies!) is getting a state like CA to pre-exempt local permitting so that if you meet certain requirements you have a shall-issue one-stop permit to install. Just spitballing but saying something like "any property that is over 1/4 acre and currently has less than 2000 sq ft of dwelling space may add one of these subject to a utility inspection only" or something like that. Then suddenly the modularity is really useful; skip all the permitting/inspections that are for stickbuilt and use these.
  - Ancapistani 4y ago
    This is a great business idea. Is anyone doing it? A lot of smaller municipalities would probably jump at that. It would be a smaller market segment to start a company, but you wouldn’t even have to be building anything; you could probably rebrand existing designs made by other companies and get the certification on your rebranded version. If you could get to the point where you could offer a very easy approval process with a major city and could guarantee that the structure be in place and usable in a given time frame or a full refund, I strongly suspect you’d have more business than you could easily handle.
    - walrus01 4y ago
      Sounds like reinventing a GC to me if you want one company to handle all your electric, sewer, water etc municipal connection work and permits.
Ancapistani 4y ago
> Writing as somebody who grew up around architects and engineers this thing is not worth more than 80k Happy to see someone shares my back-of-the-envelope calculation.
treis 4y ago
You do have to admit that it is one hell of a website
- walrus01 4y ago
  Yes, the sales/marketing and design professionals clearly did their jobs.

bombcar 4y ago

You can build a post frame barn for $50k including usable foundation, so you have $350k left for enhancements to that. Now some of that stuff listed can be quite pricy, septic systems can run upwards of $50k but this thing is designed to be stuck in a backyard.

spaceman_2020 4y ago

I saw a video of a similar tiny home built by a company called Boxabl that apparently Elon Musk uses. That thing is like $50k.

walrus01 4y ago
the boxabl is not that much different from some of the Turkish built container based housing that's been developed for use at US military bases in the middle east and central asia. And used for things like "man camp" mining and oil/gas camps in northern canada. If you were to go to the US base in Qatar you'd see housing not radically different from it. Designed to ship by standard 20/40 ft ocean cargo container. https://www.boxabl.com/ https://www.boxabl.com/ I am skeptical that it costs 50k however, the thing as shown in the front page website promo that occupies an approximate 20'x20 area surely costs more than that.
- bombcar 4y ago
  The thing is that the military housing is designed to be moved multiple times, for a house there's really no need to make it fancy and expandable like that; if you can save some money by shipping it in a box that needs some basic assembly you should probably go that way, even though it looks cool to watch it build itself.
- BOXBOX123123 4y ago
  Incorrect. The Boxabl uses all new building materials and manufacturing methods that allow for rapid production of housing. Think 1 house per minute. The new building materials also result in superior energy ratings, fire, structural and more. The shippability of the unit also makes it superior to a cramped shipping container house. The room can ship at the lowest cost without compromising on room dimensions. Also, the price is the price, they have SEC reporting that shows the price is correct.
bombcar 4y ago
Even those skip a lot of the expensive parts of "building a house" which are the permits and fees and utilities. What would be exciting about these companies (any of these companies!) is getting a state like CA to pre-exempt local permitting so that if you meet certain requirements you have a shall-issue one-stop permit to install. Just spitballing but saying something like "any property that is over 1/4 acre and currently has less than 2000 sq ft of dwelling space may add one of these subject to a utility inspection only" or something like that. Then suddenly the modularity is really useful; skip all the permitting/inspections that are for stickbuilt and use these.
- Ancapistani 4y ago
  This is a great business idea. Is anyone doing it? A lot of smaller municipalities would probably jump at that. It would be a smaller market segment to start a company, but you wouldn’t even have to be building anything; you could probably rebrand existing designs made by other companies and get the certification on your rebranded version. If you could get to the point where you could offer a very easy approval process with a major city and could guarantee that the structure be in place and usable in a given time frame or a full refund, I strongly suspect you’d have more business than you could easily handle.
  - walrus01 4y ago
    Sounds like reinventing a GC to me if you want one company to handle all your electric, sewer, water etc municipal connection work and permits.

Ancapistani 4y ago

> Writing as somebody who grew up around architects and engineers this thing is not worth more than 80k Happy to see someone shares my back-of-the-envelope calculation.

treis 4y ago

You do have to admit that it is one hell of a website

walrus01 4y ago
Yes, the sales/marketing and design professionals clearly did their jobs.