/diy/ - Do It Yourself

So, /diy/, here comes another tinyhome thread. I know you guys get a lot of these, but I've got some specific questions and discussion that I believe deserve their own thread. That said, here we go:

Living in a tinyhome has always been a dream for me, and for many other people as well. It's cheap, it's simple, it's sustainable, it's cozy, and it's easy to maintain. The problem is, it's priced right at that point where you don't have enough money lying around to really do it right, but it's not worth enough to interest a bank in giving you a loan. So, my plan is to up the stakes and make it more interesting to a bank so I can make my (and others'!) dream come true.

My initial plan right now, is for a $100,000 loan to build four tinyhomes on one plot in a little nearby town. I'm allotting $20,000 per home, because I really want these to be well-appointed homes, built to code and built to last, not cheap, ugly shanties. $10,000 for the plot (0.25 acre) leaves $10,000 of wiggle room between the four houses. If I can get a 10-year loan at around 3-5% APR, that puts me at around $1000/month. I can manage that, but between that and rent for my apartment, I'll be pretty much tapped out for the first few months until I can get one of the homes livable, so I'll have to be living out of the $10,000 emergency fund (ugh). I've got around $4000 in the bank, and I think I could scrape together another $2-3000 if necessary for the down payment.

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