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Big Places On Tiny Spaces. When The Cubic foot vs Square Foot Counts.

By John DL Arendsen

Real Estate Broker/Owner with CREST "BACKYARD' HOMES, ON THE LEVEL General & Manufactured Home Contractor, TAG Real Estate Sales & Investments 521400, 1501015, 01795582

September 02, 2014 02:50 AM

Big Places

On

Tiny Spaces.

When The

Cubic foot vs Square Foot Counts.

Part 2

In Part 1 we showed

you how to search for

and identify

"TINY SPACES"

that have tremendous

potential for

gentrification, value

enhancement and

much

"BIGGER PLACES"

We offered up some very creative ways you could remove the old "TRAILER" or "MOBILE HOME" and with a little imagination recreate that Tiny Little SPACE with a nice new BIG PLACE by utilizing the CUBIC FOOT instead of just focusing on the SQUARE FOOT.

If your one of the lucky ones fortunate enough to own a home on the bluff over-looking the ocean you're probably looking at around $2000/sf for a scraper on the North San Diego County waterfront. Or to put in much simpler terms approximately $5,000,000 for a 2500sf home. Some homes on the bluffs of Encinitas & Leucadia have recently sold for as much as $11,700,000.

The 92024 zip code is one of the priciest areas in the County thereby making it one of the most expensive areas in the Country. The bottom line is that this becomes a very solid investment as we just aren't making any more dirt West of Pacific Coast Highway 101.

If you're between Coast Highway 101 and the bluff but not on the water or coastline you're looking at $500-1000/sf for a scraper or approximately $1,250,000-$2,500,000 for a new build-out or a major remodel.

So even if the only other option were to rent or lease a Manufactured Home Space for around $2500 per month projected over a 30 year period allowing for annual escalation in monthly rent adjusted to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and by investing about $150-300 thousand dollars and either remodeling, adding on or removing and replacing it with a new State-of-The-Art HUD Manufactured home it could still be a good deal if you really want to be a part of the beach and surf culture that some of the few remaining North San Diego Coastal cities still offer.

Simply put when you do the math to own, pay taxes and insure a 2 million dollar home for 30 years at today's interest rate of let's say 3.9% interest fixed you would be looking at close to $13k/mth or about $4.6 million over 30 years not including deferred mainteance.

To live in a $200,000 Manufactured Home in a rented or leased space for an average monthly space rent of $2500 over a 30 year period in the same neighborhood as the person with the $2 million dollar home you will spend approximately $1.2 million dollars assuming you paid the manufactured home off in 10 to 15 years at 8% which is the average term for a Manufactured Home loan.

So if your goal and desire is to feel a part of that beach and surf culture and enjoy the ultimate in a quality of life experience and still live among the rich and famous you can. But more importantly you can do it in style with a new or remodeled Manufactured Home.

The 2 story hybrid, lower level 15x36 504 square foot Silvercrest Manufactured Home, upper level site built cabana turned this 30x40 1200sf space with a 500sf 1bdm 1 bth singlewide trailer in above photo into an 1130sf 3 bdrm 2 bth beach casita with enough parking for 2 Cars and two golf carts.

Upstairs upper left: The master suite has an entertainment center with a 46in flat screen SMART TV and DVD, Cable TV and full wirelsee Internet. Right: Wine nook with glass shelves to the right for wine and cocktail finery built over the enlclosed staircase conjoining the Manufactured Home with the site built structure.

DOWNSTAIRS: Upper left: Kitchen and dining area shared with MIDDLE: open area livingroom. UPPER RIGHT: Small bedroom or study in the rear. The flooring was a custom Hickory from Maine with original old time steel spikes.

When you add an additional 200+sf for outside decking and enclosed balcony to the interior 980sf it yields a net of an 1130sf CUBE. Not bad for a 1200sf lot and we still end up with a 15x20 foot driveway and patio for outdoor activities, which is most of the time, when we're not down on the beach.

Even though it sounds like we're smothering the lot with a structure the overall footprint is less than 900sf.

The Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) for the state of California, who regulates RV, Mobile and Manufactured Home Parks, Developments and Communities requires that the structure only be built to within 75% of the total lot size. As you can see by doing some simple math we managed to stay within those parameters.

The really good news is

that in California most

homes that are this close

to the ocean do not, as a

rule, lose their value

even in the tumultuous

market we are presently

experiencing.

This little beach casita is only 310 feet from the ocean. We know because we had to take a calculated topographical measurement to determine whether or not we would be dealing with the California Coastal Commission which would have been a huge obstacle to contend with.

Phew...we made it by 10 feet!

Overall there are endless opportunities with Manufactured Housing especially the way they are built today. In the old days (circa 40's to mid 70's) they were built like flimsy travel trailers with aluminum siding and 1/4 inch interior paneling over a 2x3 exterior frame wall system. In fact we used to call them "Wobbly Boxes"

Today's HUD Manufactured Homes are built according to the HUD code which is tantamount to a conventional site-built home. You can spec in just about anything you can imagine i.e. 2x6 exterior walls, drywall, stucco, wood and even Hardy Board (fibrous Cement combination), tile roofs, etc.

As for interior complements? The sky is the limit. You may order the home without any appliances, floor and wall coverings, counter tops, misc. fixtures, etc and purchase your own. However, they must all be installed in order to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy.