Flipping is all about getting creative with your opportunities. The shrinking housing availability is both good and bad for flippers because it means properties will sell faster, but are also harder to find. This means that the more innovative you are at finding properties to flip, the more successful you will be as people clamor for any newly available housing, especially if it’s comfortable, interesting, or trendy. One particular trend that has grown in popularity very quickly in the last few years is tiny houses, homes small enough to be mounted on trailers and driven around like RVs.
Not all tiny houses are actually trailers, as some have foundations and many have a permanent address, but it’s caught the fancy of millennials, retirees, and many people in between. People are building their own, ordering pre-designed tiny houses on wheels, and buying shells to customize. The more DIY oriented have gotten creative and are converting things like old buses, shipping containers, and actual RVs. More interestingly, even people who don’t move into officially ‘tiny’ houses have begun a trend of downsizing into smaller square-footage homes, getting rid of their extra belongings, and living more inexpensively.
What This Tiny House Trend Means for Flippers
Buyer desires are shifting and any change in demand is always good news for the opportunistic flipper. While some people will always want the big estates, farmhouses, and suburban mini-mansions, a significant portion of potential home buyers are looking for smaller residences, down to what you might see as shoe-box sized. Many of these houses are smaller than your average apartment, but they’re private and they make their residents happy. This means that smaller properties, those you might have once overlooked as insufficient to sell as homes after a renovation, are now absolutely viable.
More Buyers, More Properties, More Profits
Not only does this new trend mean that you can take on lower square-foot projects for short work and profits, it is also adding a lot more people to the pool of potential home buyers. Millenials who could not afford down payments on a full-sized home are becoming home owners anyway through the tiny house movement, but it’s also important to remember this when deciding how much to invest in a tiny property. By keeping your costs and the final home price low, you are putting out a siren song for millennials who have just gotten their financial feet under them and have built up a small savings for a small home.
All The Places You’ll Flip
This change in sizing standards opens up a smorgasbord of small properties that can be flipped. You can begin to target sturdy old homes that have always been a bit on the small side, little country cottages, and abandoned outbuildings with charm and good bones. Where zoning allows, you can also branch out into small structures that weren’t originally residences, as this is all in the spirit of the tiny houses movement. Historical, if small, post offices, ‘dead’ gas stations, and empty shops are all wonderful places to start for an innovative new tiny house for the millennial home owner crowd.
Favorite Tiny House Features
When deciding how to flip a tiny property, be sure to consider the tastes of the tiny houses movement. They’re big fans of efficient uses of space, furniture and platforms that convert into tables, storage, or fold away to clear floor space. They like ladders, don’t mind sleeping in mattress lofts, and above all adore eco-friendly fixtures to the point of off-grid efficiency. While you don’t have to have all these things, even a few will make a home more charming and appealing for a tiny house buyer.
No matter where your flipping takes you, always keep your eyes out for creative flipping opportunities buyers will love when you’re done with them. For help funding your next flip, contact us today!