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For $37K, You Can Live in a Shipping Container
Well....would you?
For $37,000 you can live in what used to serve as a shipping container. Steve Harrigan reported today on a new out-of-the-box idea that could solve several problems at once. Florida-based New Generation Builders is taking old cargo shipping containers and retrofitting them into dwellings. To look at one, you might think of a mobile home, but the company's owner, Steven Sawyer, resents the comparison. He notes that when a hurricane comes through, it levels mobile homes. But Sawyer says by using corrugated steel and concrete pilings to anchor down each side, his homes will be totally undamaged. Sawyer also wants to target green buyers, since he's taking junk out of ports and turning them into homes. There are two models currently: 20 x 8 feet for $37,000 and another that is 40 x 8 feet for $57,000. Both come with a fold-out sofa that's the size of a queen bed. This could be a wildly successful business model, since it only costs $2,000 or under to get a rusting shipping container from a port. Would you consider one? <script type="text/javascript" src="http://video.insider.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=3544277861001&w=466&h=263"></script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href="http://video.insider.foxnews.com">video.insider.foxnews.com</a></noscript> http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/05/07...ping-container |
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A co-worker has been talking about doing this for a couple of years. He's wanting to stack them, bury one in the ground and has a plan. In truth I suppose they could make the outside look a little more interesting than they arrive and they can do anything inside that can be done in a steel structure building.
It's not for me, but I guess it's a thing. People are also building houses inside of old grain bins. Those people have obviously not paid attention to what happens to them in high wind. |
Is this really a new idea? I remember reading about this 10+ years ago and have heard it multiple times.
I would ponder doing something like this in retirement on cheap land. However, reverse mortgages would accomplish almost the same thing if the goal is to free up capital. The only advantage this would have is lower utility costs, taxes, etc. At some point I'll learn more about reverse mortgages, but I'm still several years away from that. |
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Some poor bastard in a favela who had this idea 30 years ago but didn't pursue it because he got laughed at by his friends is absolutely fuming right now.
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Not a new concept at all. It's getting less feasible though. The tend had raised the price of used shopping containers from what I've heard.
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Put wheels on them and they are called "trailers". Tornadoes search them out.....
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Abandoned ICBM silos or bust
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I like the idea of those underground homes, if you're talking about retiring to a remote place for peace and quiet.
http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-conte...in-house-2.jpg |
My first house growing up was a ground home. Roof was ground level.
The thing I would worry about is rust. Humidity. So they probably sit on a cement slab? Bolted down? Moisture in between those levels. Most shipping containers I have seen after a few years have rust holes. Then imagine that in Missouri's weather. |
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