In the inaugural weekly news post, I wanted to talk about the future of housing, and how it relates to notes.
Tiny homes are becoming very popular, in part because of the cost of housing and materials to build houses, but also because people are starting to move away from giant houses filled with stuff.
One of the really interesting things about tiny homes is the variety of housing materials they can use. You have mobile tiny homes, which are treated like mobile homes, but are more closer in construction and luxury to stick built homes. And then there's new technology, like that described in this article. I first became aware of 3-D printed concrete houses in an article on replacing poor quality housing in Mexico and was very intrigued by the idea.
One of the challenges with building tiny homes, besides local building codes, is financing. These are not traditional houses that can get conventional bank financing. There's only a few banks that will loan on the mobile tiny homes, and it is primarily a cash business right now.
How do notes fit in? As note investors, we have a lot of flexibility and insight into how to value non-traditional homes. Because of this, we have the opportunity to become the originators and provide a service that will help our communities transition to alternative housing.
What are your thoughts? Would you loan to a tiny home built in a non-traditional way?