I would highly recommend watching the
video of this young fella building his own tiny home. He thought he could do it over the summer, and it turned into a year-long project. He ran out of money several times. His final figure was somewhere in the $26,000 range for a very small one. The property he bought for it was too remote. Then he had to find someone who would store it for him. He doesn't live in it. I don't know how these folks get these vehicles to qualify at the DMV.
I found the DVD at the library. Maybe a library computer could stream it for you if you aren't able to stream it on your own.
http://tiny-themovie.com/
Having grown up in a travel trailer family, having inherited a motorhome with the driver's compartment inside, and being involved with/living on rural property since I was a kid, I've learned a lot. My father developed his own
retirement property, while I helped, starting at 12 years old. As with anyplace we live, the Number 1 issue is location, location, location.
Where are you going to put it? If you have property to put it on, is it near a paved road, near propane,
gasoline, a laundromat, grocery store, hospital, drug store, home-improvement store? By "near" I mean 20-30 minutes, so that a round trip doesn't take more than an hour and a half. You'll have plenty of emergency repairs and projects that require you getting back before the sun sets so you can fix it. The more remote these businesses are, the more expensive they are. Gasoline is a lot higher in remote places, and hauling a heavy, non-aerodynamic trailer gets you down around the 5 MPG range.
In the winter a 10 gallon tank of propane lasted us 2 weeks. It's a very heavy tank when full. It takes a lot of propane to cook, heat and actually be comfortable, even in a small space.
Are you prepared to change flat tires, even if it's parked permanently on wheels? Do you have an air compressor to keep the air up in all the tires? Or a very strong back and a very decent bicycle
pump?
What kind of building is going to hold your tools, your hardware store kind of supplies, fixit stuff?
If you are chosing a mobile life, where are you going to park it at night? How do you level it every single time you move and park it? You'll be hunting for where to get propane all the time. You'll have to pay what they ask, because you won't have much choice. Driving any kind of trailer on the road requires closed cabinets that lock so everything doesn't crash out as you drive along. That adds weight and expense. The refrigerator needs to have a lock on it. If a jar or bottle of liquid falls out and breaks, then rolls up and down the length of it for several hours, staining carpets that won't dry in winter, leaking into a floor furnace, unbeknownst to you....well, you get the picture.
You might want to talk to the people who are priced out of housing in major cities and are trying to live in their motorhomes, mostly in the industrial, not-very-safe neighborhoods where they are sometimes allowed to park at the side of the road. Being rousted by the police is a constant thing. Drugs are a constant thing.
I have yet to keep mice out of a trailer or motorhome, because the driver's compartment has openings where they can squeeze through from the engine. A half an inch opening for a mouse is a boulevard. The pack rats smell the mice and follow, chewing an even bigger hole. They go up tires, go across the axles, and that wooden flooring will have a gap, or the sink pipes will have a gap around them, or they will chew one. Once they get into the wall space, chew on wires....repairs begin, tearing off walls begins, and being near a DIY store is crucial. Crawling underneath is crucial because chances are that's where they are getting in. Fashioning a hardware cloth covering over their new access point requires crawling underneath, not with nails or screws in case you screw into an electrical line, or puncture a PVC
water line.
And as with any major project, if it doesn't work out, if it doesn't suit you, can you
sell it and get at least half of your money back?
I am at the 25-year point where things are needing to be repaired and replaced in a rural setting. I spent the last 5 days, 9 hours of labor each day, came in to find the counters covered with
ants. Way too tired that day to deal with them. I emptied the counters, sprayed them with Simple Green, but didn't wipe it off. They haven't been back...surprised me!! All of this said, it's doable, but the circumstances are difficult.