Well, we can legally get a building permit to put one in any backyard in Ontario, so the possibilities are now endless. However, finding a backyard that is both available and willing to have you is a piece of the puzzle that no one has solved yet. So, most of our clients are putting them in a family member's backyard.

Well still leaves me nowhere. I don't have family who own property. So I guesse I will never know what it's like to own a home. 60k a year apparently is not enough for a mortgage. A d land requires a 50$ down payment. Making it impossible for a blue collar guy to ever own a home or property

@@whoispriest Yes, I hear you. We have many people contact us just like yourself. No one in the family has a property suitable for a tiny home. Either they all live in condos, or they all rent, or the properties are too small to fit anything in them. It is very frustrating, I know. It's why we've tried multiple times to create a tiny home village, but that keeps getting stopped one way or another as well. One day, one day, we keep saying...

@@UpSizeDown why not set up an REIT, and make the community self funded. when have enough to purchase first plot of land sell lifetime leases for tiny homes to generate a return, all tiny home leasees would own a share of the REIT and once a year either participate in profit sharing or purchase addition land to do same.

@@whoispriest That's a great idea. Except that although funding is an issue, it wasn't the biggest issue. The biggest issue is getting a township to agree to what we wanted to do. And when we did have a township fully on board, it was the other investors that wanted to go a different route (seasonal versus year round living). We have had some other challenges in business as well, so once we've cleared those up, we will get back at trying to make a village happen. A REIT could be the way to go.

Lol. That is ironic. This unit would cost a bit more now, but we've also come up with several different variations of this layout. We call it the Sugar Maple. We have a very different feeling variation on Airbnb. See here: www.airbnb.ca/rooms/1032638014043583083?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=70943496-5d9b-4a1a-8ecc-3444b6aef08d

@@UpSizeDown It's beautiful. I live north of you, and have designed a tiny house that we are building this summer. I look forward to joining the growing ranks of tiny house dwellers. :)

This is a great idea! I've been thinking about an updated video myself, so this is just the urge I need. I'll get that going in the next month or so. I"ll post a link in the description of this video when I'm done, and if you've subscribed, you'll see it there too. Thanks again!

@@danielott7823from a Vancouver island. I’m looking to sell my home and acreage with a suite. I’ll have enough equity to pay in full for recreational land in the interior or southern BC . Then build tiny or buy an RV till my tiny home is built. We Need some updates. I think one pro about tiny home communities… if a mass forest fire were to threaten your property at least if you built moveable you can move it.

@@tracywatts1459 sounds great, Tracy. I'd love myself to buy some interior acreage and put some tiny homes on it. Can we at least help with you tiny home build?

I am not sure about that at all.

Hi @bobbim1410. Done right, you can legally place a tiny home in any backyard in Ontario (provided it fits of course!). So if you know someone with a backyard, either urban or rural, who would be willing to have you live there, you're all set! As for seeing some tiny homes in person, why don't you make an appointment to come to our construction yard? email me directly to set that up. [email protected]

You can certainly live in one of our tiny homes. We don't have a video on KZbin, but watch this story about a tiny home we made for a young lady in a wheel chair in London, Ontario: london.ctvnews.ca/tiny-home-gives-independence-to-london-ont-woman-with-disabilities-1.6188549 You'd have to figure out how to pay for the tiny home, as we don't provide financing, and you have to have someone's backyard to put it in. In the case of the young lady in London, we placed the tiny home in her parents' back yard.

Everywhere! You can put a tiny home in any backyard in Ontario, provided that the back yard is big enough, and provided that the tiny home meets the Ontario Building Code (all of ours do!) and that you get a building permit. Where do you want to put one?

looking to settle down in Bancroft, Ontario@@UpSizeDown

@@johndesousa7379 You can email me directly to talk about this more. [email protected] Things have changed so much since I put this video out. The code rules about room sizes and ceiling heights and the rest are still very much the same, but the zoning rules have really opened up. Basically, I can legally put a tiny home in any backyard in Ontario. Exactly which township changes how it works just a little bit, but they all have many similarity. As long as the back yard is big enough to fit the tiny home, I am certain that I can get you a permit for it in Bancroft. Send me an email to get started, even if we're not building it but just helping you get a permit.

we have a solution for that. But it has to be the person that owns the property that gets the financing on the tiny house.

Yes, there are a lot of laws and regulations, as there are in many places throughout the world. These rules and regulations are there to protect people from unsafe conditions. We have proven, however, that it is possible to build within these rules and regulations, and the more we do it, the easier it gets. You just need to make sure you work with someone (like us!) who knows what they are talking about and can navigate through these regulations with ease.

Thanks for your comments, @gloriawilliams1580 . It gives me a chance to respond to them the best I can. You have to understand first and foremost that we are in this industry at all because we have personally lived beyond our means and want to provide as affordable a solution as possible. We have not gotten rich off of this venture at all, far from it. We have built many homes with no profit whatsoever, and even several that cost us more to build than the client actually paid us. The fact of the matter is that the cost of everything has increased over the years. Sure, a DIYer can get used materials for one home, and if you're not getting a permit you can get away with not putting in some items. But once we are building to the building code and getting inspected and building more than one, we need to use new materials and put all the right stuff in, which costs more money than most people think. Talking about $/SF only works when comparing a 2500 SF two storey home to another 2500 SF two storey home. Once you go smaller, or you go to a bungalow, everything changes. Regardless of the size of a home, you still need an electrical, gas, and sewer service run from either the road or the main house on the property. Going off grid costs even more. Regardless of size, you still need a heating system that passes HVAC engineering (wood stove isn't enough), and they don't make smaller cheaper systems than that which works for a 1500 SF house, so your $/SF for your heating system alone for a 500 SF tiny home is 3x the price of the 1500 SF home. (i.e. $10,000 / 1500 SF = $6.66/SF vs. $10,000 / 500 SF $20/SF). And that's just heating. The same goes for appliances, plumbing fixtures, etc. You still buy the same price appliances and plumbing fixtures, but you're spreading the cost over a much smaller footprint, so your $/SF skyrockets. It's not a fair comparison. Unfortunately, yes, a tiny home today costs more (whether full cost of loan / mo. cost) than my first house did, but that's economics and inflation at work. If you compare to the average of $800,000 for a regular home in southern Ontario where we are, you're still coming out ahead, and you're getting something brand new and something that reflects who you are, not the person you bought it from. Hope that helps!

Well, we'd love to build you one! Tell us where to ship it!

We are excellent home builders who pay a lot of attention into making this your home with personalized touches. We are very good at our passion. It has taken us many years to realize that we need to stick in our own lane. We are not good realtors or land finders. We tried. So, no, we can't help you find a place to put your tiny home.

many of our clients (even those who opted for A/C) have reported that the home stays quite cool and A/C hasn't been needed. Of course, for those who really want it, it IS an option.

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed the video, but SO MUCH has changed in 3 years since this video was put out. We can now put tiny homes (as long as they are built to the Ontario Building Code) in almost any place in Ontario. However, Burlington is probably the hardest.... You can do it, even though there is absolutely no zoning written to allow it. If they turn it down, and you appeal to the province, the province will force the city to allow it. So Burlington knows this, and they will just allow it "as of right". You will have to go through a minor variance though.

there are so many places this is legal now. The by-laws in most Ontario towns and cities have changed so much since this video was made. However, you must fully build to the Ontario Building Code and obtain a building permit. But we have placed our permitted tiny homes as both secondary homes and primary homes in many different areas of Ontario. Kingston would be no different. Do you have a property to put this on?

I've seen this vary in a wide range, and sometimes cover more things than others, and that doesn't always mean more expensive. Some of the more expensive ones covered less than the cheaper ones. I would suggest that an average of $700 per month would cover site services (such as water and sewer / septic). Pay less in site fees, and you may have to cover site services yourself. Pay more, and hopefully you get more included.

Hi, Cris T. Usually, people are talking about tiny home to use their money in the best way possible for the most return on their dollar. With the codes in Ontario about what has to happen in the basement in regards to insulation and vapour barrier and even radon mitigation, you are looking at an additional $30,000 or more. I highly recommend just building a larger tiny home and putting the $30,000 into something above grade instead. But, to each their own. It's not out of the question, for sure. I've discussed it with several clients, but no one has gone forward with anything like this due to the additional costs.

we only have one right now that is at drywall stage. email me [email protected] to chat more.

Hi, Sheri. This is not a common scenario, but it is one that I have examined for clients. It would end up not being that much different than pre-building a pier foundation and then lifting the tiny house in place. This "lifting in place" would have to be done with a crane. The biggest difference would be that the services are connected to both the basement and the house. If you're building in place, I guess that is no problem. If you are interested in having the tiny house pre-built (by us for example), and the foundation built on side (obviously, has to be), then the services would have to be coordinated and connected later. We've done this, and it's very doable.

Well, our units don't have ladders... We build main level bedrooms. As far as affordable, it depends how you look at it. Our homes are much more affordable than larger homes, but inflation has made them more expensive than many people would like. Unfortunately, we don't make a lot of money building these. Due to the cost of materials and labour these days, we have to cut our profits much lower than a regular home builder would, just to be able to sell at all.

Hi, M Khan. Whom did we call about what, exactly? I'm not sure of your question. We totally understand the housing market being unaffordable for most, and that's exactly why we are doing what we're doing, building homes for people.

We do not. There are many others that do. We personally find it restrictive on creativity, as you are starting with a set size, instead of making it the size you want.

@@UpSizeDown Who else does?

@@bladerunner983 I don't know. I don't keep track.

@@UpSizeDown The reason I asked was because I still wanted you to convert the container into a home. But I wanted to go with more than one container.

@@bladerunner983 Sorry, we can't help you.

We don't have any tiny home villages. It was a dream that has never been realized. The red tape is very thick.