So how much does it cost to build a tiny house? Well, that depends. Some tiny-house dwellers built their abode for less than $10,000, while others spend upwards of $30,000.
It really all comes down to location, housing materials, and labor. Here are the general rules of thumb when it comes to setting a realistic budget for your tiny house.
The cost of building a tiny house is about $300 per square foot, Zack Giffin, the host of the TV show "Tiny House Nation," told Apartment Therapy in 2016.
Ariel Celeste Photography/Shutterstock
That's more expensive than the median price per square foot of a house in the US in 2016, $101.72, per Apartment Therapy.
Ryan Fitzgerald, the owner of Raleigh Realty, told Reader's Digest you should budget at least $65,000 to build a tiny house — but others have spent way less than that.
Ryan Mitchell of the website The Tiny Life previously told Business Insider it cost about $30,000 to build his 150-square-foot tiny house, including solar panels. "Even after accounting for the cost of the house," he said, "I've saved over $100,000 going tiny."
But it's possible to build a tiny house for less than $10,000. One couple told Tiny House Build that they shelled out just $8,000 to build their 24-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, 13-foot-tall house.
And Teri Page of Homestead Honey said she built her 348-square-foot house for $8,270, though her neighbor's 120-square-foot house cost $21,200 to build. The key difference was that her neighbor hired laborers.
"Rural areas usually have more lenient laws, so choosing rural areas may save you money," Rachel Preston Prinz, who runs an architectural firm, told Reader's Digest. "But what you save here might get eaten up on connecting to the utilities' grid."
Materials: Building materials involve everything from lumber and roofing to doors and windows. Mitchell said materials make up 80% of building costs.
Nicolás Boullosa/Flickr
Fitzgerald told Reader's Digest that you might be spending $25,000 on building materials, but Page said she spent only $7,800.
Most tiny houses begin with a trailer. Mitchell wrote on The Tiny Life that his trailer cost $3,600, but Reader's Digest said it could cost as much as $35,000.
Here's a breakdown of some key estimated costs of the actual home itself, according to The Spruce and The Tiny Life:
Insulation: Mitchell recommended closed-cell spray foam, which costs about $3 per square foot for 3-inch-thick foam, and said that costs overall can range from $500 to $3,000.
Electricity and plumbing: The cost depends on whether your tiny house is on or off the grid, as well as whether you hire out the labor, which is required by law in many locations.
A tiny home in California.Nicolás Boullosa/Flickr
Owners of tiny houses may spend about $1,000 on plumbing and $300 on wiring, while solar panels can cost about $3,500 to install, according to Realtor.com.
However, Mitchell estimated that the total cost of both ranged from $750 to $3,000.
Labor: Building costs really come down to who's behind the labor. According to Mitchell, the average tiny house costs between $10,000 and $30,000 to build yourself, and twice that if you hire someone to build it for you.
But you can also compromise by buying a tiny-house shell — a finished exterior with an unfinished interior — and personalizing it. A standard shell at Tiny Home Builders ranges from $27,000 for a 12-foot house to $36,000 for a 28-foot house.
Lowphoto/Shutterstock
That's without things like electrical wiring, plumbing, and dormers (sloped roofs that create extra space).
