Frequently Asked Questions About Tiny Homes
How much does it cost to build a tiny house?
You might ask yourself, “ How much is a tiny house?” A tiny house can cost $10,000 to $200,000. Depending on what features you put in the house, this will increase the overall cost of the home. If you choose to have a builder make your home they will charge you labor for the work which could increase your cost, specially if you have lots of craftsmanship or custom projects put into the interior. The location on where the builder is based out of is often overlooked. A builder has a different price structure in Denver CO vs Iowa based on the cost of living difference in those areas.
We have done both options for our two tiny homes. Tiffany the tiny home almost all the work was done with the builder and our new Shellmate Tiny home on foundation was a mix bag of contractors and work we did our self.
Ultimately, the use of recycled materials and doing the work yourself will help save you money on your tiny house build. We also see a huge advantage of buying a tiny house shell that is already on a trailer or kit and DIY the interior yourself!
How do you move a tiny house?
Most tiny houses on wheels are moved by trucks usually the equivalent of a Ford F150 or F250 depending on the weight of the home. We see a lot of people hiring a moving company to move their home and this is our preferred method. Its a good thing to check they are licensed and have insurance for the total weight of the tiny house AND the weight of the their truck. We have a great article below that we go in depth detail about this topic!
Where can you park / place a tiny house?
Campsites/RV Resorts- This is what we ending up doing with Tiffany! We love our tribe here. We are truly grateful for falling into such a great campground. The nice part about specific tiny homes like Tiffany is that they can be registered with the state as an RV! Start with Google and search "RV resorts near me" and see what is around you. My suggestion is to write down a list of questions you can ask the campgrounds/RV resorts so you cover everything you need to know to make your choice. I offered to send an email with information and pictures of our tiny home so they can actually see the home. This is a great way to get parks more comfortable with tiny homes as well as bring up the idea of a new revenue source for their business as well. It's a win-win for both. If you're in Florida and under 55+ this will seem like an impossible task, but they are out there!
Here is our blog on our experience with living in an RV/Campground
https://www.tiffanythetinyhome.com/blog/2017/5/15/living-in-an-rv-park
Tiny House Villages- View it as RV parks for tiny home owners. Not only do you get to be surrounded by tiny homes every day but you get to share ideas and tips with like-minded people! A lot of these tiny house communities have beautiful lakes or ponds on the property as well, or if you prefer a hustle and bustle setting of a city, they have that option too!
Craigslist- is, of course, another great option. Landowners are sometimes looking to make a little extra cash on the land they don't need. My only caution with Craigslist is to make sure you'll have the proper hookups and to take a look at the site beforehand. You don't want to get there to find out you can't get your tiny home on the land or it's not what you expected. This option is great if your looking to barder for rent. A lot of tiny house owners will offer labor or a skill set in exchange for rent!
Facebook- This is an amazing one to find places to park your tiny home if its private land or even tiny home communities/villages. There are tons of tiny home groups that offer new places to park your tiny house and are a great resource to find spots. One group called “Tiny House Central” made this awesome list -> Legal Tiny House Parking Rental Communities- By State
Tiny House land for sale - This can be a bit tricky. When buying land for a tiny home you need to make sure that you are able to have that kind of structure there. The only person that will give you a definite answer is the Zoning department of the county or city that the land resides in.
Zoning for a Tiny House -A great video crash course on zoning codes and lingo is by the godfather and mother of the tiny house movement, United Tiny House Association - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O8vlc4u8ko
We go a bit more in-depth on some of these areas in the blog post below!
https://www.tiffanythetinyhome.com/blog/2017/4/21/place-to-put-your-tiny-home
Is there a tiny house builder near me?
Yes there is a good chance there is! There are tiny home builders in all areas of the country at this point! The list below has been put together by group called “Tiny House Central” and a great resource for checking tiny house builders in your area!
Tiny House Builders by States A-K - https://www.facebook.com/notes/tiny-house-central/tiny-house-builders-a-k-by-state/433744650467767
Tiny House Builders by States L-R - https://www.facebook.com/notes/tiny-house-central/tiny-house-builders-l-r-by-state/435965200245712
Tiny House Builders by States S-Z - https://www.facebook.com/notes/tiny-house-central/tiny-house-builders-s-z-by-state/769469886895240
Another option is to reach out to a well reviewed General Contractors to help with the project! This will add additional cost to the tiny house build since his time and oversight is what you will be paying the General Contractor for but might be useful to have someone know about the construction industry hopefully on your side.
Lastly, you could find subs for each trait for your home. This would a bit more time consuming but you would be able to price out multiple contractors and make sure that you are finding the right guy to the specific job on the tiny home.
What are utilities bills like in a tiny house?
As you would imagine our utility bills are pretty low! Our electric bill is typically around $35 a month even with our AC constantly on in Florida. Our gas is ran off two 20g tanks that are on the tongue of our tiny house trailer. We usually go through this every other month in our tiny house, so about $20 a month to refill. Our water is included in our rent price for the campground we are at but water is usually the lowest bill in a home anyways. The link below we go a bit more in depth into our utilities bills for our tiny house on wheels!
https://www.tiffanythetinyhome.com/blog/2017/8/9/utility-bill-in-our-tiny-house-on-wheels
Is there a tiny house village near me?
If you ever had a chance to check out a tiny house village or tiny house neighborhood you know how special they are. One of the most updated websites that give you local tiny house villages near you is https://searchtinyhousevillages.com/ . Chances are if there is a tiny house village near you, they know where it’s at! They sometimes even give you average lot rental prices, community vibes, tiny home community expectations, as well as the area and what is around the village.
Where can I find tiny house floor plans and tiny house designs?
A great place to find free tiny house floor plans is Pintrest of course! For inspirational free tiny house floor plans the link below has a TON of great ideas packed into it!
What we ended up doing for Shellmate Island is taking a look at some existing floor plans and tweaking them to our liking. We thought about function over everything and took maybe a thing or two we like about a specific floor plan , then combined it with another tiny house floor plan and then sprinkled a little bit of our experience living in a tiny house on wheels for 3 years now and created our own floor plan
Where can I find tiny house interior shots?
The sky is the limit with tiny house interiors! Because you are working with a small space in a tiny home, there could be wiggle room in your budget for top-of-the-line bells and whistles. For example, we have real wood shiplap and trim everywhere in our home. It’s heavy and high quality, but there’s not a ton of it because our home is, after all, tiny. Depending on your needs, you can design your tiny home to reflect your heart’s desires. What are your priorities? There are tiny homes with tubs, wood burning stoves, walk in closets, we’ve even seen a pizza oven in 300 sq feet! Use your imagination, and find a skilled architect to draw the plans up for you.
Our favorite place to see inspirational and unique interiors of tiny homes?! https://www.dreambiglivetinyco.com/ hands down!
PS. Your welcome to the rabbit hole of tiny house eye candy for days!
How to start a tiny house community?
The design really depends on the
Where can I find tiny house insurance?
Tiny House on Wheel Insurance- For our 270 sqft home we were able to find tiny house insurance through Strategic Insurance! What might this cover?
Personal Property (How much stuff you have in your home)
Replacement coverage
Personal Liability (Huge for us when people tour our home)
Medical payments to others (If something happens they will help pay for others medical bills)
Theft Coverage for contents (Robbery)
Trip Endorsement (If a third party is towing our home and they don’t carry enough insurance for the load of your home)
THEFT OF TINY HOME!!! (This is a huge deal with two tiny homes stolen recently)
We even made the ultimate guide about finding tiny home insurance with our real tiny house insurance policy to show you what it covers! https://www.tiffanythetinyhome.com/blog/2017/9/5/finding-tiny-home-insurance
Tiny House on Foundation- Tiny House on foundations issuance is a bit easier since they are not movable. This home issuance would just be like a typical home would go and we have found a couple of insurance company that has approved a tiny house on foundation. We ended up going with Progressive but also know that Great Lakes Insurance offers policy since they cover wind/hail for Florida hurricanes. They require a minimum amount of value on the home ($100,000) so for Shellmate Island we declared it as 90k for the structure and 20k worth of goods. Our premium is about $1000 a year and covers everything a normal house would.
