Are Tiny Homes Really All That Feasible?

lauralemons(68)

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I have been interested in tiny homes for a long time now.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/benchun/3626514566 (labeled for reuse)

In fact as I started seeing a future where I may actually be able to buy one I got even more interested. For the past few weeks I have been looking into tiny homes obsessively. I used to simply watch videos of them being built and admire photos but I never thought I would be in the market for one so my interest stopped there. Sadly the more I dig the more I find that the dream of living in a tiny home has a lot of barriers and obstacles that can make it hard to become a reality.

Buying land near a city.

This is by far the biggest hurdle in my opinion. I looked for land in many places. Hawaii. Colorado. Atlanta. I actually found out Atlanta is pretty much out of the question due to laws and regulations but I will talk more about that later. The problem is that you want to still be able to easily access communities and job opportunities but land gets FAR more expensive as you get close to any real city. Sure I can get a plot of land for $5,000 in Hawaii and then plop my tiny home on it and have no access to getting groceries and seeing people. Ideally it would be best to place a tiny home on land where you can grow some of your own food but to be honest I don't have some Henry David Thoreau dream of living off the land. I am very disabled and need to get to doctors appointments regularly and want to be able to go out and people watch. Land ranged from 5k to over 500k in a lot of the places I looked. So, this is a huge hurdle. However, there are some tiny home communities springing up and this is something I plan to look into more.

Red Tape, laws, and regulations.

There are many reasons that people in charge are making it hard for people to have tiny homes. One is that they honestly don't want tiny homes anywhere near big homes because it will cause the overall property value of the are to plummet. Also, the government tends to be annoyed by people that try to live off the grid. There are also "safety" regulations but I am sure it is just a guise that is somehow related to economics. For whatever reasons, it is becoming increasingly difficult to affordably buy a tiny home and have it placed.

Plumbing? Funny Internet Videos?

I haven't looked into this one fully yet to be honest but I have definitely read that plumbing can be a huge issue when it comes to tiny homes and often the water available would not be safe which lead me to wonder about some of the other things we would need to worry about. How easy is it to get electricity hooked up? Can I get wifi when I am forced onto some distant plot of land where my hideous tiny home won't rape people's eyes? I need internet. I need water. I need lights.

How cheap does this really end up being when all is said and done? If you have to try to buy land near a major city and somehow duck under the radar with housing regulations? Honestly, it seems really hard to pull off in reality. I know it can be done and I am still hopeful to learn more and find out how to do it *well*. It is my dream to have land an a tiny home but as far as making that a reality? We will see about that.