- A couple weeks ago, I
featured this tiny home. And I was gonna purchase it for myself, 'cause it's absolutely adorable. I won't be able to purchase this house. After I filmed it, I
was really investigating how I can purchase this
tiny home for my daughter and I found out there's
five really good reasons why I can't. And I'm gonna share those with you today. So, let's take a look inside. (inspirational music) One big reason why I couldn't
buy this tiny home is, I wasn't allowed to get
a regular loan for it. So, typically when you get a house, you have a mortgage with either FHA, a conventional loan or even
a rural development loan which is pretty common here in our area. But here with a tiny house you would have to get a personal loan,
which the interest rate on those is pretty high, even
if your credit's really good, it's still gonna be above 10%, if your credit's terrible,
it's gonna be like 13, 14, sometimes even 20% to get a
loan for something like this. Now, of course if you have cash, if you can just shell out $39,000 you're gonna be in like Flynn, but there's other factors
that come into play when you go to purchase these tiny homes that I was completely unaware of, until I tried to investigate it myself. (inspirational music) So, as many of you know,
locations are probably one of the most difficult parts of having a tiny manufactured home. A lot of times people will
build them themselves, they put them all up and then the county or the Parisher even the state will them they have to take them down, because they don't meet
some kind of city ordinance. Before you put in any manufactured home, tiny home or a shed or any building, make sure you get it permitted first. You must check with your local area to see if it's allowed. And sometimes they'll allow it, but they'll take out certain things, like in some areas they say, you can have a tiny manufactured home, but you can't have a stove in there. Or you can have a tiny manufactured home, but it can't have plumbing, so definitely check before
you put down any building or structure on a piece of
property, not just tiny homes. I know that because of the
popularity of tiny homes. Some of the thought processes
change in many areas. Like these areas that I'm
about to show you right now. I like to welcome you to Spur, Texas. The first town in the United States to welcome tiny houses and
invites you to settle down. While employment opportunities are sparse, local officials say
self-sufficient individuals looking to set up businesses will
appreciate the cheap real estate. Likewise, the cost of living in Spur is about 30% less than the national average. If you're interested in
living in Spur, Texas and wanna know more about the neighbors, they have a blog on spurfreedom.org. In Portland, Oregon, you can
visit Ruth's Garden Cottages. Green home builder, Orange
Splot, constructed the two, 526 square foot ADUs shared
here in a client's backyard. Each one has a full porch,
bathroom and a sleeping loft. The inhabiters share a kitchen
in the primary dwelling. Now, we head over to Arizona
to the Luxtiny community. They're in the midst of creating the first tiny house community in the White Mountains of Arizona, consisting of 45 spaces on six acres. Lease rates for the plots
are around 360 or less. Homes to buy are starting at $64,900 or you can rent starting at $800 a month. All residents will have
access to 19,000 square feet of green walking space. Comes to tiny homes. And even, some people have
been doing really great things with the idea of tiny homes and they've been putting them down and helping the homeless. There's a real estate agent that has been helping veterans
get back on their feet after they've been homeless. And they have these tiny
homes as temporary housing to get them on their feet, so that way, in the future
they can buy their own house. I think this is a fantastic idea. And it's something I'm
putting out in the Universe. There's about 40,000 homeless veterans in the United States right now. That's according to a census pole in 2017. And my big goal, my big three-year goal is to help the homeless
problem with the veterans here in the United States
and I think we can do it with either manufactured
homes or tiny homes. My brain has been on fire ever
since I've adopted this idea and these videos for tiny homes and manufactured homes have taken off. I think we could work
together and do this. I'm not sure how we're gonna do it, and I intend to make it happen. So, if you guys know
anybody, please contact me, all my contact information
is in the description. (inspirational music) So, okay, let's just say
you found the perfect spot for your tiny home, you've
already checked with your county and everything's perfect, they
say you're allowed to do it and then you already have
the cash to purchase it, you don't even need financing, so you go and have your
tiny home put down. The next problem that a
lot of people run into is the insurance for them. Anytime you have something this expensive, of course you're gonna want insure it. The contents inside, the structure itself, and this is where the problem comes in, because it's such a small structure, insurance companies have a
hard time calling it a home or dwelling and then they
treat it almost like an RV, especially if it has wheels. Other times, some insurance
companies are like, they're not touching
it with a 10 foot pole. So, always check with
your insurance companies prior to purchasing any kind of tiny home, so that way you can make
sure that you're covered. Everybody has issues
that happen over time, anything can happen, so
always have insurance on everywhere you live. (inspirational music) We're trying to show you this bathroom. It only has a little, tiny shower. It's a really cute little place, I mean, it's not too bad, and the shower is typical of an RV shower, I guess you'd say. Well, yeah, see? And I'm about five, one. And then this is, I put
my hands all the way top. Okay, so my other problem
with tiny manufactured homes, with me being a real estate agent, I have a problem with the fact of resale. There isn't enough
information or data out there that tells you how well they resell. And I have a feeling, a gut feeling, I'm just going by gut, that they probably don't resell very well. As cute as they are, once
they've been lived in, and since they're so
inexpensive to make yourself, a lot of people are not
purchasing an older one, they're just going ahead and deciding to make their own. But this is where my brain
really started clicking. The reason I wanna purchase
it for my daughter is, even if she moved out in three years and didn't want it anymore, it would make a fantastic rental property, what a fantastic way to build up rent. Especially in this area. Rent is super expensive. If you're thinking about
purchasing a tiny home, don't think about selling it, think about renting it out. 'Cause that would be income
that's coming in all the time and the investment would be very small, especially for a small, tiny home. (laughing) (inspirational music) This is my favorite room. It actually even has built-ins. So you don't even have
to bring your furniture, so it's already saving you
room in this tiny little house. And it has little cathedral ceilings too, so it makes you feel like
you're really in a bigger space. So, another issue that a
lot of people are gonna have and now with it being tax season. If it is your permanent
dwelling in your residence, guess what, this isn't a tax deduction. 'Cause normally when you
have a typical mortgage, you're gonna have a tax
deduction on your house, but on a tiny home, there
is no tax deduction. So that is one thing you're
gonna have to consider in the long run if you really
want to do a tiny home, that you're not gonna get that tax break that you normally would
with a typical mortgage. (inspirational music) This is my favorite part of
this tiny home is this loft. It doesn't have a lot of headroom, as you know I'm only five,
one, and I'm on my knees, but I love this tiny home. It is available here in Ascension Parish, they're asking $39,000 for it. But if you wanna make one yourself, they have these kits that
you can make by Amazon, just know that there is no insulation, there's no roofing materials, no plumbing materials. My name is Kristina Smallhorn, Your Real Estate Whisperer
and I tell you all this, because you matter.
