There was an interesting article (I think in NYT) about “park model home” parks. Over a year ago. I don’t have time to do the search right now, but it definitely piqued my interest for the future.

Jacob, check out this site:

http://www.rvparkstore.com/

I’d be interested in living in such a place. The Tumbleweed Houses look quite inviting.

We actually have a client that owns a mobile home park – it is about 130 units I think. The accounting is ridiculous between the rent and water bill payments. Not to mention the late payments, bounced checks, middle of the night move-outs, etc. I guess what I’m saying is you have to be careful where it is located and what type of tenants you attract….but that’s with any rental I suppose. They have a manager that lives on site and he says it is a 24 hr/7 day a week job.

That sounds totally awesome. I wonder how much control you’d have over your own park and how many regulations there are.

My grandparents live in a trailer park with manicured lawns and shared fruit trees that is pretty cool, so I know there are a variety of ways you can handle these parks.

If it’s not a preexisting park, getting the zoning change can be a problem.

Include a community garden area.

I am also an aspiring RE investor with an eye towards residences.

My only thought about your idea about investing in RV parks is that RVs will probably be a declining market in the long-term. Will you have enough RV business? I’d doubt it, personally. But if you could convert it to mobile homes, that might be something.

Mobile parks/homes can provide cash flow, but the flip side is that many people who live there have cash flow problems themselves and may find it difficult to pay you on time, or at all, even though they may have the best intentions.

But of the two – RV parks and mobile home parks – mobile homes are probably the better bet, since they do tend to ride out economic flutations better and mobile homes have improved a lot in quality.

The tumbleweed homes with organic gardens would attract earthy types with money, who want to be kind to the environment. Your tenants would not be deadbeats.

The great thing about RE is you don’t need to invest the whole amount, just the down payment. The zoning would be the biggest hurdle, nobody wants another “trailer park” in their neighborhood.

The problem with your plan is your are too frugal to pay someone to do the maintenance, so it would turn into a full time job for you. Isn’t that why you saved and saved, to not have a full time job?

As an owner-occupant of a fourplex in Minneapolis, this has been a great way to live inexpensively. It can be tricky to find a small building in a good neighborhood at a fair price — no surprise there. If you are working with a housing budget of $500 (think that’s what you wrote) for both of you, if anyone can figure out a way to do this in CA, you can.

Search “very small houses”

There is a long history of these in America.

Thoreau on walden pond. The temp houses built after the San Francisco earthquake. the log cabin it self, from settler days.

I like you idea

@ Tom Blum: look at Tumbeweed houses, like Jacob mentions. They’re built on utility trailers, and are thus classified as “vehicles” rather than “residences” and are exempt from minimum square foot requirements.

Nonsense, everything worthwhile absolutely /can/ be in Portland. Come join the cool kids.

(Said very tongue-in-cheek because I’m busy trying to organize a small home movement that’s NOT centered around California.) Would love to have you in my neck of the woods, though!

There is another aspect to being a landlord that no one has mentioned, laws regarding tenants. I mention this because my parent owned 3 4-plexs in Texas. They got tired of the weather and the small town politics and moved back to Washington state in Spokane. They considered buying property in Spokane for rentals, but decided against it due to the laws on the books heavily favoring tenants. That is, if your tenant doesn’t pony up the rent it is a long drawn out process to evict them. In Texas the laws are more favorable for landlords.

So I would say n-plexs are a good investment if you are ready to be a landlord. I would strongly recommend against renting out single family homes. Here is why:
If you have a 4-plex and one unit is empty for a month you lose 1/48th of your possible income. If you rent a single family home and it goes empty for a month you lose 1/12th of your income. If you have a mortgage on the property, you just lost all your profit on the single family home. Whereas the 4-plex you have not.

As for a trailer park with mini houses. I would seriously doubt there is enough demand for that type of residence and would be fairly risky compared to other options.

Good luck to you either way. Being a landlord can be a tough job with a lot of pitfalls, especially if you do all the work yourself.

I live in Portland, hope to build a Tumbleweed-style house on wheels in the next couple years, and have been looking for a place to park it here in town. It’s currently illegal (though probably doable) to live in an RV in someone’s yard/driveway in Portland, and few of my friends have the space for it. And the RV parks are, well, RV parks. So I’ve been dreaming about a tiny house park like you describe for a long time now. Ideally it would contain a shared laundry facility and an indoor community gathering area, as well as the amenities you mention. Other ideas: wireless network, solar energy, rainwater catchment, composting. You wouldn’t need to do most of the maintenance; it could be provided by qualified residents in exchange for a discount on rent.

The big advantage of Portland is that you’ve already got a built-in small group of interested renters. I know of three other soon-to-be tiny home builders here, and there are sure to be more. Yeah, you could get cheaper land elsewhere, but I can’t think of a better place to start such a project.

There are many opportunities to earn money from income property. I did that with apartments and a shopping center for 13 years. If you pursue this, make sure you get expert help.

You could go into the rental business. You could become a landlord. Quicker, and lots less expensive however, would be to just have someone crack you across the head with a piece of 3/4″ steel pipe.
Results would be the same.

Real estate listing for tiny houses:
http://tinyhouselistings.com/