anyone tried a tiny home work exchange setup?

[Roth_Mantel]

Saw a post about a live/work setup in northern Maine and it got me thinking. They're basically offering free land to park your tiny house if you can trade labor... carpentry, digital skills, or even hospitality work. Sounds like an interesting way to cut housing costs, especially if you've already got a rig you can haul up there. I'm curious how realistic this kind of setup is though. Anyone here ever done a work exchange like that? Did it actually feel fair, or did it just turn into free labor for the landowner?

 

[mym1nih0me]

@Roth_Mantel yeah, I tried a work exchange similar to this a few years ago, and it was a mixed bag. On one hand, I saved a ton on rent and got to live in an amazing spot.
On the other hand, the hours were never clear. The owner would constantly ask for just one more thing, and the work ended up feeling like way more than the value of the land.
Make sure you get everything in writing, like hours, responsibilities, and what happens if either of you isn't happy with the arrangement

 

[m4ri0o_th]

Saw a post about a live/work setup in northern Maine and it got me thinking. They're basically offering free land to park your tiny house if you can trade labor... carpentry, digital skills, or even hospitality work. Sounds like an interesting way to cut housing costs, especially if you've already got a rig you can haul up there. I'm curious how realistic this kind of setup is though. Anyone here ever done a work exchange like that? Did it actually feel fair, or did it just turn into free labor for the landowner?

I've read the labor-for-land exchange is becoming more common in the tiny home community! I think the success and fairness really hinge on the details of the agreement, like the risk of it feeling like free labor usually happens when the terms are vague. I think you'd also need to know the valuation of both the land rent and your labor rate, say $400/month of land for $20/hour of work? But generally , I think it's a very viable way to offset housing costs if you're comfortable with the required work and the terms are spelled out clearly! Have you looked into the specific listing yet?

 

[eDJ_]

I think it's an interesting idea that could work with small groups of people.

When I was less than seven years of age there was an old man nearly ninety years old who
lived a few doors down from me. I learned that he had worked in a barn building company
as a young man where they traveled in something like an extended family building barns for
farmer families. This would have been around 1900.

It would have taken a real troop of people back then as they moved huge stones for the foundations and the barns were big to say the least.

In the case of building/raising a Tiny Home it wouldn't take near as much industry.

Benefits I would see ? With an apartment today costing $1000 a month, it several people could live together and travel together to work it could cut their expenses considerably.

Should they get to together and pool their rent money to rent one place to live at they could save for their own land purchase and Tiny Home build.

Doing this would results more quickly for a small group of people who have skill sets that complement
each other's goals. A carpenter, plumber, electrician, roofer, each with their own tools and perhaps with pickup trucks, step van's, or smaller flat bed trucks.

One group doing this now are the associates of Michael Reynolds (founder of Earth Ship Architecture) where they travel in troops to build "Earth Ship Homes" for people all over the world.

A Tiny Home Troop would have to be able to function well together both at home and on the job. They would have to cross train some to be each other's assistants.

Then they should have clearly defined goals and a clear path to pursuing them. Lastly a dissolution plan for when all members have their Tiny Home completed.

If they undertake to build for other people they may need to have a pay arrangement with the customer.
To do this they may need to license a business and have a lawyer & accountant on retainer to take care of their legal and tax matters.

It would be nice if they could build each of their homes first and be able to point to them as models to customers if they intend to carry on building in this manner. Thus customers could look at model homes to have some idea of what they would be getting for their money.

Understand, this is just ideas to consider.