It’s a tough time to be a home buyer. Prices for real estate continue to climb, making it a lot harder for people to buy their dream home. If you think property ownership is out of reach, maybe you should consider a non-traditional home instead.
A growing trend among home buyers is to buy, renovate, and live inside shipping containers. They’re cheaper, super durable, and there’s a lot of freedom to customize.
Here’s everything a first-time shipping container buyer needs to know.
Shipping Containers Are Cheap to Buy
As unconventional as shipping container homes are, they’re more appealing then you might think. One of their most convincing traits is how affordable they are.
Prices for shipping containers range from $1400 to $4000. A number of factors determine the price: the size, condition, and age of the container. For example, a brand new 20-foot by eight-foot shipping container costs only $2800. When you consider how much that amount of space would cost in a New York City apartment, it seems like quite the deal.
Those numbers sound like the ultimate bargain when you compare shipping container costs to the current housing market. According to Business Insider, Hawaii ranks as the most expensive state to buy a home with the average cost being $636,451. The lowest home prices are in Virginia, with their average homes costing $102,236.
If you want a more spacious living situation, you’ll have to pay more money. It can still cost relatively low and be just as spacious as traditional real estate. For instance you could buy five different shipping containers for $2800 each. To reduce costs, you can also consider using a one-trip container that is cheaper to buy than a brand new one.
Investing $10,000 into a renovation can leave you with a cozy, modest home. If you wanted to build a shipping container home more comparable to a traditional home, you might spend between $150,000 and $175,000. That’s still a significant amount of savings in comparison to the homes on the real estate market.
You Can Customize Them However You Want
After deciding to create a home out of shipping containers, it’s time to customize it to your liking. You might be surprised at how customizable shipping containers are. What starts out as a large steel box can be transformed into a one-of-a-kind home with a bit of time and imagination.
Like a traditional home, you would have to design the home with standard features like a good foundation, proper insulation, and standard utilities. Once that is figured out, you can start working on installing windows, doors, plumbing, heating, and anything else you want to include.
The container’s steel structure gives you a strong and cost-efficient base to work with. Since it’s already standardized and durable, this saves builders money and speeds up the construction process about 30 percent faster than a normal home.
Since shipping containers give you a blank slate, there is a lot of creative potential. From where you want outlets to go to the color of the walls, everything is up to you. You could turn this unusual structure into a liveable home.
Building a shipping container home could be a fun project for do-it-yourself fans and anyone looking for a less traditional lifestyle. The shipping container can be what you make of it since the aesthetic, designs, and special features are all for you to decide.
Shipping Container Homes Are One-Of-A-Kind
Real estate is not only costly, but it’s also time consuming. It can take months for a deal to close and you’ll end up paying more money for realtors, inspections, and purchase fees in the process.
A shipping container home gives you a lot of freedom and can save you time. Plus, it doesn’t require a down payment. There are plenty of containers to choose from that will meet your preferences and dream home characteristics.
The growing buzz around shipping container homes means there are plenty of examples online to inspire your construction. You can build a modest home, a multi-storey unit, or a luxuriously modern abode — whatever suits your style best.
Start looking around for examples of shipping container homes to help you get a better idea of how the process works. Just make sure to read up on the regulations that come along with this type of living situation, since they vary from place to place.