TinyHouseParking.com - supplemental income providing for a growing need.

Somebody with a really good idea made it a point to make an Airbnb-style website, but instead of seeking/providing casual bed and breakfast rooms it is tailored to portable tiny homes. The site is called Tiny House Parking and the idea is to allow seekers to easily find providers for spaces to park their tiny homes. As long as the tiny homes are owned by the renter and portable, I see the potential to skirt many regulations. There is much less needed to invest compared to conventional apartment style renting, and bonus is property damage is limited due to the nature of the arangement. Special considerations aside from vehicle parking and the trailer space, there has to be access to water, sewage, and electricity. Internet and cell phone reception are a definite plus! Also it would be ethical to have a hazardous weather plan. Ultimately the arrangement should be a win-win. Average rents are in the $100 to $400 depending on area. If taken seriously one acre could potentially generate revenue of $1,000+ per month, but be mindful of facilities and stocking density (awkward terminology, yes I know!). Because the website is in its infancy (just launched), they need to establish a strong showing to become a standard in it's unique niche market.

As can be seen below, the site borrows its design from Airbnb. Similarly, I expect for there to be a rating system in place to evaluate suitable providers.




http://tinyhouseparking.com/

It's sounds like a travel trailer park.
I was surprised at how much those can be to stay in permanently.

At one point I looked into that, though it might be a way to put money by and live cheaply for a while.
But they charged nearly as much as an apartment rental.
I liked the out of doors feel, but didn't think paying the same to park a small home as renting a standard square footage home was a sensible way to spend my budget.

Its a slippery slope, yes. It can become like a trailer park and in many ways the model is the same. I have to acknowledge that there is a clear mental difference between the "Tiny House Movement" crowd and the "trailer trash alcoholics" seen in trailer parks. But in the same regard, we can also make similar arguments for "eco villages" but for some complicated reason there typically is a societal-lifestyle filter that separates the unstable drunkards from the more stable free-spirited individuals. Completely agree with you though, however that is an extreme example. I think most people who would take this into consideration are interested in the onesy-twosies. That is along the lines of where I would fall in.

Well, I find that trailer parks and travel trailer parks are two different animals.

Travel trailer parks are a lot nice. Vacationers, people who enjoy the outdoors life.

Trailer parks are a whole 'nother story.
You have a lot of very good people who can't afford better, doing their best and keeping their places up as best they can.
Then you have the lazy type who ruin it for everyone! LOL

I was more thinking the above idea was like a travel trailer park.

Actually my son and I have had this conversation before.
I wonder if a small community of tiny houses, set around a nice park/activity area would be a nice community that single people or two people would really enjoy living in for the long-term.
There could be a communal pavilion, and typical park-like features for family activities.
I don't think you'd have to many trouble-makers because most people who choose tiny houses are very thoughtful people of others, I find.

Natalie McVander wrote:
I wonder if a small community of tiny houses, set around a nice park/activity area would be a nice community that single people or two people would really enjoy living in for the long-term. There could be a communal pavilion, and typical park-like features for family activities.

I personally love that idea and I am more inclined to have that atmosphere! Additionally, I think most people providing the spaces live in their own properties so I would imagine they would want to promote that kind of environment. Besides, there is just something different about the tiny house movement that is quaint and attractive.

Another plus:
You would have a (small) but ready market for your eggs, and garden produce.

If they are saving a ton on rental space, they wouldn't squawk about paying a little more than market price for food that they know is better than stupermarket swill. They would certainly 'know their farmer'.
A built-in market.

I know that each state & county has their own set of laws that would need to be carefully studied before investing in the needed infrastructure.

You could even have a communal garden or chickens.... getting complicated there.

Or what do they call them in the UK - allotments?

I'm always curious when I hear UK people talking about their 'allotments'.
It looks like they are driving somewhere to garden.

John Polk wrote:Another plus:
You would have a (small) but ready market for your eggs, and garden produce.

If they are saving a ton on rental space, they wouldn't squawk about paying a little more than market price for food that they know is better than stupermarket swill. They would certainly 'know their farmer'.
A built-in market.

I know that each state & county has their own set of laws that would need to be carefully studied before investing in the needed infrastructure.

That is what I am talking about! Now that is a permaculturish business strategy to close the loop, building relations and creating mutual benefit. I imagine there would be a good showing at the farm-to-consumer honor store. I can see this system potentially doing well. Something along the lines as seen below.

Ironically, I found a video uploaded today on this very same concept I mentioned. An eco community in New Zealand has a tiny house, facility integrated concept. It has a store, common buildings and rent pricing scheme for tiny houses. You have to skip through the first part of the video to 14:20 where they discuss the daily norms of the community. Very interesting blended concept.

If they will be 'long term' residents, why not throw in a 1,000 square foot raised bed for them to play in?
(Just has to be stipulated that it must be organic.)
I was looking at a property in TN that was 40 acres with a crappy house. About 3 miles outside of city limits of a good sized city (full of apartments). I seriously considered putting a bunch of 1,000 sq. ft. 'community gardens' along the private road in. Charging $20 per year for the plots would have paid my property taxes. Of course, I would have also had seed packets, and 'starts' for sale.

Having a captive audience is a great way to generate enough to cover some expenses. Doesn't need to be a fortune, but it can take the edge off. I am looking at ways to sell enough 'plant starts', and seed packets to more than pay for my plant/seed costs. Win/win for everybody.

I'm a California transplant to TN.

I don't think you'd get too many takers on that deal. LOL

It's different out here than the west.

Oh, and I apologize for not recognizing the forum section this was posted in.
I was going for chit-chat, but you were specifically going for business ideas.
We had been talking about actually building a series of tiny homes (we both do construction) and renting them out to people, rather than your idea - which is very cool.

Yes, I agree - having a ready market for your own produce would be terrific!
I've always loved the honor system.
It would also be nice to have a greenhouse that would be a walk-in and pick your own, as well as an outdoor version for summer.
You can actually grow berries right through winter if you keep it warm enough with perhaps a rocket mass heater.

I love that video's common building and can see that you would spend a lot of time there.
Too bad that woman had to pay 80,000 for her build.
I'm afraid she was taken advantage of, and the resale will not be there when she is too old to climb up and down that ladder.

I think a lot of people who like tiny homes like them because of the lack of labor involved in maintaining them.
Many are in it because they don't spend a lot of time at home, but are quite social and active.
I don't know that offering large spaces for each home would be beneficial.
I think tiny yards (low maintenance) with fast-growing evergreen screens between them so privacy is not an issue.
Maybe a mix of both - at variant prices.

Having a tiny home with low labor, having a common area for socializing out-of-doors, and having a ready supply of organic produce and products that they can walk out their door, purchase, and immediately make a meal from would be a really cool bonus that would be a big draw.

Natalie McVander wrote:
We had been talking about actually building a series of tiny homes (we both do construction) and renting them out to people, rather than your idea - which is very cool.

I think there is an advantage of not owning the tiny home for legal reasons, as long as it remains highly portable. Skirts the laws and regulations in my state regarding rents. I think a workshop to build trailerable tiny homes would be another good supplemental income strategy for an eco-village based on this model of portable homes.

Here's something that's kind of close, but VERY expensive.

Some great ideas here:

Search Cabot Cove Cottages.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cabot+cove+cottages&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=ZBwfU-LFL5LuqwHrmoHYAw&sqi=2&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=1521&bih=819&dpr=0.9

Brilliant website. There's definitely a need for this. This facebook page by Ethan is a good place to get the word out: https://www.facebook.com/buildingthetinyhouse

Great idea!

One of my friends had an idea for "rotational grazing for humans. She and her family live in an RV, most
Of the year they rent an allotment in a travel trailer park close to where her husband work, when he doesn't they travel around Europe. She suggested that instead of renting the allotment, they could live on a fallow field, get a small area to grow their own greens and pay the farmer with their work instead of money. All the needed was electricity and water, and access to a washing machine. The farmer could rotate them as he rotates his fields - or they could travel from farm to farm.

Dawn,

Can you define how allotments work / what they are?
I've never run across anything in the USA like that.

What they have corresponds to a large parking lot in a traveling trailer park

But the allotment the Brits talk about correspond to the Danish garden coops - I think - which are strips of land, usually in places that have very little value because it lies up against a rail line or something. These are subdivided into small gardens that were sold (very cheaply) to the workers in larger cities in Denmark, so that they could be self sufficient, or partly selfsufficient. Today they are not cheap (considering the land value), and the waiting lists to even be eligible for buying (you buy a membership of the coop and are alloyed the garden) are long in the largest cities. Today people have small houses there, some even live there for some or all of the year.

I just found out today that there is a community in California that is implementing an idea very similar to the tiny-house village concept discussed above.