Thomas Frey //February 27, 2014//
(Editor’s note: This is the second of two parts. Read Part One.)
In the movie Fight Club, author Chuck Palahniuk makes a rather profound statement when the lead character Tyler Durden says, “The things you used to own, now they own you.”
We make many tradeoffs throughout our life and most of them somehow pass through our internal filter for what constitutes the good life. In doing so we find ourselves caught up in an endless quest for more, which invariably costs us time and money at every turn.
One of the biggest boat anchors for our lives tends to be our home and the gigantic home mortgage that comes with it. We sacrifice much for the sake of paying our mortgage. Here are some of the things we give up:
The Missing Pieces
Currently no city has stood up and labeled themselves as “tiny home friendly.”
This means there are no tiny home neighborhoods, no tiny home parks (like trailer parks), and no rules, laws, or ordinances governing their construction, installation, and transport.
If you own a tiny home and drive it into a new city, you may have difficulty finding a place to put it. Yes, you can always pull into a local KOA campground and hang out there with all the RVs and campers, but tiny homeowners are looking for better ways to integrate into a community.
These missing pieces mean huge opportunities for the future. Here are a few of the opportunities for someone wanting to capitalize on this trend:
Final Thoughts
Think of this as an obvious backlash to the banking, mortgage, and credit card industry. It’s also a backlash to glutinous consumption, poor job opportunities, and young people feeling betrayed by older generations.
Living in a trailer house has a bad connotation. But living in an even smaller tiny home, that has many of the same features as a trailer house, is suddenly all the rage, chic and cool tied up into one super cute little package.
But the big thing this trend offers is freedom, and that’s not easy to quantify. It’s not just an efficient lifestyle, but a culture, a door-opener, a character-builder, and untethered nobility all rolled into one.
Cities will have to adapt. People without permanent ties to a community are difficult to regulate and factor into city planning, but people with tiny homes will happen anyway.
I’ve only mentioned a few of the possible opportunities ahead, but there will be many more. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on the tiny home movement and how it will affect your thoughts on home ownership in the future.