Recently, tiny houses are gaining more audiences unlike before. People are beginning to awaken to the values and appreciate tiny houses.
As more people begin to desire a unique lifestyle, the demand for tiny houses is on the higher side. So which is cheaper, to buy or build a tiny house?
You’ll save a lot of money if you build your own tiny house than buy a new one. On average, you’ll spend between $80,000 – $150,000 to buy a tiny house, while it costs an average of $5,000 – 10,000 to buy your own tiny house, according to research.
Tiny houses reduce over-consumption and unnecessary expenses. This leads to an increase in the standard of living of those who own tiny houses.
Many people have come to see the need of having a tiny house, therefore the majority of them want to know if buying or building is the best option for them.
They need accurate information that will guide their decision before they proceed to buy or build a tiny house.
There are factors we need to consider before we can come to the conclusion if buying or building a tiny house is cheaper.
The truth is that when you’re building a tiny house by yourself, it’s relatively cheaper compared to buying a tiny house from commercial builders.
However, read on to find out which one suits your available budget.
Before we proceed further, let’s take a look at some of the factors that may affect both in a similar way:
- Budget
- Cost
- Time
- Like and Dislike
Budget Effect — Buying or Building a Tiny House
You might be having a tight budget and you are as well constrained by your budget on which decision to take, to either buy or build a tiny house.
Whichever one you decide to go for, I am sure you have prepared a budget.
Apparently, no one embarked on building a tiny house or considered buying a tiny house without first of all budgeting for the cost.
The budget is the only similarity that buying and building both have in common. Because whichever you choose to do, either buying or building there must be a budget for some amount of money somewhere.
It might not be a huge sum of money, but whatever amount you set aside for the project is called a budget.
The essence of a budget is to guide you not to overspend or under-spend. Hence, when you underspending is much better than overspending.
When you overspend, it means the aim of building a tiny house or buying a tiny house has been defeated. This will make you incur debt that oughtn’t to be so.
According to research by Iproperty Management, roughly 68% of tiny homeowners in the US. are without a mortgage.
This means, that if you overshoot your budget to the point of borrowing then you have defeated the aim, making many people switch over to tiny homes.
So, it’s much more advisable to under-shoot your budget than to over-shot budget.
You might be asking “how can someone overshot or undershot their budget when they are either buying or building a tiny house?”.
You can overshoot your budget during building if the necessary materials that you need to buy increase in price against what you budget for.
Likewise, you can overshoot your budget during the process of buying a tiny when it comes to likes.
Sometimes, the one you prefer or like might be on the higher side than what you budgeted. This will definitely increase the budget and might lead you to taken-up mortgages.
The truth is, budgeting plays a very major role when you’re considering buying a tiny house or building one.
So make a decisive budget before you proceed to buy or build a tiny house.
Cost of a Tiny House — Buying or Building
The cost of building or buying a tiny house is solely dependent on the following factors, which are as follows:
- The size
- The finishes
- The material used
- The location
Though the cost might increase or decrease depending on the changes in the factors stated above.
The cost of buying a tiny house can also be influenced by the mind-blowing design of both the exterior and the interior.
Buying a Tiny House — Cost Effect
The cost of a tiny house isn’t constant but varies with change in the factors stated here.
When buying an already made tiny house, the interior is what you should be more focused on, and the roofing.
According to The Spruce, the average cost of buying a tiny house ranges from $80,000 to $150,000.
Meanwhile, the price is not constant as it might increase or decrease depending on the environmental factors.
A well-designed custom-made tiny house in a highly respected area will not have the same price as a tiny house in an area that is yet to know its value of a tiny house.
Buying a tiny house may be quite expensive and demanding. it becomes demanding when your choice of a tiny house is above your budget.
One of the ways out is to go for a market survey before buying an already made tiny house.
Market surveys will save you from unplanned expenses and become debt-free. It will also make you buy your choice of a tiny house.
Building a Tiny House — Cost Effect
However, building a tiny house is quite cheaper than buying an already made tiny house.
Place both houses on the same level of scale, you will discover that building your tiny house is cheaper than buying.
According to Moving, the average cost of building a tiny house by yourself ranges from $5,000 to $10,000.
Building a tiny house by yourself has many advantages. You will customize it to your own taste and give it the best design you want.
Doing it by yourself will help you to save money, even though there are factors that may tend to limit you, but when you continue at it you will be glad that you did.
Building a tiny house has a positive impact. It makes you learn new skills, which you may not have thought is possible.
A tiny house that you construct on your own will increase your exposure and impact your own life.
Building your own tiny house is cost-effective and also builds your own capacity for learning new skills.
The major challenge many tiny house builders encounter is how to acquire land. But this shouldn’t be a problem.
If you don’t have a piece of land you can build your own tiny house with a moveable trailer. This trailer can be towed to anywhere of your choice after building.
Starting to build your own tiny house might look difficult at the beginning but when you start, you will definitely end it.
The whole idea is that before you start, get most of the materials you need to build the house. This will go a long way to ease the work for you.
Time Effect — Buying And Building a Tiny House
In life, time plays an important role in regulating our activities. No one wants to waste time on something that can be done in another easy way — save time ideology.
Most people who buy tiny houses believe in the ideology of saving time.
They prefer spending money in exchange to save time or pay more to acquire a tiny house than wasting time.
Time is more important to them, time is their major factor to consider when it comes to spending money.
They see time as more expensive than the dollar increment they will pay to own a tiny house. This is their motivation that makes them buy a tiny house in an expensive way.
How does building a tiny house become time-consuming? Yes building a tiny house by yourself takes a lot of time.
It’s more time-consuming when you have not built a tiny house before. The process of framing a tiny house takes much time.
Framing a tiny house might take quite some days especially when you are doing it alone without any assistance.
When you’re in a hurry you can’t build a tiny house. Those who build a tiny house are those who are patient.
This will save you more money and also have a tiny house of your choice.
Buying or Building a Tiny House — Like And Dislike
Like and dislike is major factors you put into consideration before buying a tiny house.
Here’s what you should know:
Buyers tend to overshoot their budget if what they like is above their budget.
This is what will likely increase a tiny house budget for buyers. Therefore, buyers are always advised to go for a market survey before buying. This will save them from budget overshooting.
The likeness is what also affects buyers of a tiny house. They buy with comfort in their mind.
Dislike is a disadvantage to the sellers and an advantage to the buyers. This leads to an undershot of buyers’ budgets.
Most times builders are advised to build their tiny houses with fairly used materials or seek help from their friends or family.
This will enable them to build their tiny house with a proposed budget without not going into a mortgage.
Once a tiny house is built with a mortgage, the aim of the tiny house has been defeated by the owners, which means the idea of being debt-free is ruled out.
You may not have done it before, but with the help of friends and family, you can build your tiny house as low as $5,000.
Benefits of Building Instead of Buying a Tiny House
Building your own tiny house has rewarding benefits and profitable advantages.
It makes the builder new to the adventure of learning a new skill that may not have seemed possible.
Building your tiny house by yourself gives you an opportunity to learn and gain construction experiences.
Building your own tiny house helps you to save more money than buying. Especially the money you could have spent on labor.
You don’t require to be certified as an RVIA before you can build your own tiny house.
It’s a dream come true when you finally build your own tiny house. Starting from the beginning to the end.
Indirect Cost of Owning a Tiny House
At this point either you buy or build a tiny house doesn’t count, which way you have to pay for indirect costs.
For clarity purpose, what is the direct and indirect cost for either buying or building a tiny house?
Direct cost is the total cost of either buying or building a tiny house whereas the indirect cost is the cost you pay for towing your house.
When building your tiny house, especially on land that is not yours, bear in mind that you will have to pay for indirect costs.
The cost of towing your tiny house from one location to another.
Conclusion
What could be more exciting than having your own tiny house?
Many who build their own tiny house from the beginning to the end are always filled with joy not just because of the house, but because they learn new skills.
This is so because it’s totally different from your field, still, you built it by yourself.
So far, building your own tiny house is cheaper than buying a tiny house. The cost difference is on the high side.
If you can be patient, build your own tiny house instead of buying. The building will help you to save more money than buying.
The building is more advantageous than buying your own tiny house.
