Amazon sells dozens of tiny homes you can build yourself to save thousands - take a look
There's no hard-and-fast rule about what size qualifies a "tiny" home, but they usually are under 500 square feet. They're cheaper, more affordable options for people that can't afford bigger houses, or those simply looking to live the tiny home lifestyle.
It should come to no surprise then that the tiny home started to grow in popularity during the recession starting in 2007, when families were forced to find less expensive and simpler ways to live.
Source: U.S. News & World Report
Tiny homes have spread beyond a fringe movement: They've spawned reality TV shows with cult followings, and have entered the mainstream as a feasible option that many people may actually see themselves living in one day.
Hopping on this tiny home trend is Amazon, the one-stop-shop for all your needs delivered to your front door. Amazon offers dozens of various tiny home models that come in kits — sort of a bigger version of how a IKEA furniture is bought.
It depends on the model, but some of these tiny home kits will come with other home-building materials, including window glass and roof shingles. Many of them say that construction is fast and easy — although I've yet to personally test that claim.
Source: Amazon
Many of these tiny houses are sold by a wood-production e-retailer called Allwood. Allwood makes — as the name suggests — structures made entirely out of wood.
Allwood tiny homes generally range between $8,000 and $50,000, depending on the structure's amount of square footage.
These Allwood homes are often advertised as cabins and not full-fledged residences, likely because the tiny home comes with only bare materials and few features.
It is possible you'll need outside expertise for building the tiny home. While most of these tiny-home kits come with floorboards, they don't come with the materials for building a foundation laid underneath that ensures a home is secure and stable.
Even in an 11,000-square foot not-so-tiny home called the Allwood Eagle Point, amenities like gas, electricity, and plumbing aren't set up.
It seems it would be difficult, and take skilled craftsmanship, to add amenities to these homes to make them habitable all-year round.
Instead of these tiny homes functioning as full-fledged residences, Allwood has other suggestions: For this $16,800 Allwood Bella, the company suggests making it into a lake house, a garden cottage, or a standalone retail building.
Meanwhile, a North Carolina-based seller called WNC Tiny Homes suggests using its Brunswick model as an "extraordinary office or shop." However, this model, which costs just over $8,000, has nearly $2,300 in shipping fees.
Source: Amazon
If you're feeling a more Oregon Trail-wagon vibe, Allwood inexplicably offers a tiny home inspired by that. The Allwood Mayflower costs $7,790, and the listing says it only takes two days to build.
Source: Amazon
In comparison with Allwood, models sold by WNC Tiny Homes are a bit more costly. For example, the Craven model, at only 88 square feet, costs over $16,000 after shipping.
Some of these homes are, more obviously, not made to work as a permanent living space. This one-room, 106-square foot Allwood Halmstad home may function better as a poolside house or backyard work station. However, the benefit is that this model would likely take a shorter time to build: only eight hours, by Allwood's estimates.
In contrast, this 400-square-foot Vermont Cottage would take around 40 minutes to construct, according to seller Jamaica Cottage Shop.
Some of these tiny homes comes with raised loft areas, tucked into the triangular area where the roof slopes down, to make the most of the small amount of square footage.
Many of these homes with lofted areas advertise the smaller space as a bedroom, accessible via a ladder.
The slanted roof makes hitting your head a strong possibility, and standing up in a lofted bedroom like this is entirely out of the question.
Some of the tiny homes on Amazon come with extensive front porches, like the WNC Tiny Home Jackson model.
While it may be daunting to drop over $20,000 on a bare-bones tiny home like the EZ Log Structures Verona, it seems cheap compared with the price of an apartment of similar size in the heart of Silicon Valley or New York City.
Even this large 1,330-square foot Allwood Eagle Vista model costs less than buying a house would generally cost. At $65,650, this home has enough space to fit multiple bedrooms and living areas.
Source: Amazon
An interesting tidbit about Amazon: the maximum handling time sellers are allowed to put in the Amazon system is 30 days. Many tiny home listings, including this $64,000 Ecohousemart log house home, notes that the manufacturer will need at least 120 days for the house to be delivered.
Source: Amazon
Although many of these build-it-yourself tiny homes are pretty simplistic and cookie cutter, there are some listings on Amazon that have more unique looks. This EcoHouseMart Lounge home is uber modern looking with lots of windows — which are not included in the Amazon kit you'd be sent.
But if you're not looking to undergo a major construction project when you get a tiny home, Amazon also sells other types of tiny homes that come as-is, including numerous trailer tiny houses on wheels that are made for easy traveling.
These wheel-equipped tiny homes essentially function the same as RVs in that they're made to live on-the-go and on the road.
A few of these tiny homes on wheels are incredibly well designed to ensure the most is made of the small amount of space to live.
The interior of this tiny Nemah house, priced at $50,000, looks ripped right from a HGTV reality TV show.
For an even more unique look — but still that same, simplistic tiny home feel — Chinese company Weizhengheng specializes in container homes that can easily expand and shrink to be customizable for a variety of uses.
The MODS 40 tiny home was designed from an actual shipping container.
While the exterior is entirely unassuming, the Amazon listing shows an interior with sleek wooden floors that could make you forget you're inside a shipping container.
Unfortunately, many of these tiny home listings on Amazon have just a few reviews, and these customers often seem to be people who didn't purchase the home and left a comment to troll other users. That means that a lot of these listings haven't been vetted, so I can't vouch just how easy it would be to actually order one of these homes off of Amazon.
Have you purchased a tiny home off Amazon? I'd love to hear from you; shoot me an email at pleskin@businessinsider.com.
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