A woman is living the dream in a luxury tiny home in her back garden for which she pays no rent or mortgage. Precious Price purchased a gorgeous three-bedroom home in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2019 and would rent out the spare bedrooms for extra cash.
However, once the Covid-19 pandemic hit, her bookings came to a halt so she came up with a new genius plan, the Mirror reports. The 26-year-old decided to get to work by building an outer house in her huge backyard and made the decision to rent out her entire home.
She told CBNC: "I stared out the kitchen window into my huge backyard, something clicked - I could use that space to build a tiny home to live in, and fully rent out the main house."
The savvy homeowner started by applying for all the necessary permits including building, electrical and plumbing. Once she got the go-ahead, official work began in October 2020 on the shed and Precious hired a local contracting team to lay a concrete foundation.
To give the appearance of a light and airy feel, the 26-year-old painted the walls a shade of blue and added some homely touches. Inside the tiny abode, she is able to fit a queen-sized mattress daybed that folds up as a couch on the main floor along with a full bathroom, kitchen and breakfast corner.
While living in a tiny home may seem rather luxurious, Precious said she's been forced to make some life-changing adaptations. She writes: "I've had to downsize my wardrobe and shoe collection. But rather than getting rid of clothes I still want to keep, I store some at a friend's house. Every few weeks, we do a wardrobe swap."
Keen to save as much ash as possible, Precious rented out her main house during the building process and rented a room at her neighbour's home. The tiny house was finished in March 2021 and Precious initially rented it out on Airbnb to start paying off the costs but moved in permanently at the start of this year.
All in, she believes she spent around $35,000 (£29,000) on the project on all of the structural and material costs from the labour to the prefabricated shed structure. Instead of taking out a bank loan to pay her bills, Precious who boasts 9,000 followers on her YouTube channel put around $20,000 (£16,500) of it on credit cards and cashed out $8,500 (£7,000) in stocks.
With her newly found income by renting out her main home, she was able to pay off all the debt in 2022 and now brings in almost $32,000 (£26,500) in gross rental income by charging between $89 and $129 (£75 and £125) per night and $1,300 (£1,075) for monthly leases. Breaking down the monthly associated costs for both homes, Precious spent a total of $1,580 (£1,300) - $1,200 (£1,000) on her mortgage and property taxes, $190 (£160) on electricity, $110 (£90) on water and $80 (£65) on internet.
She explained: "All of this is covered by the $2,725 (£2,250) I make from renting out the main house, which means I'm able to live in my tiny home for free." Additionally, Precious says the home has given her a 'ton of real estate options' including rental income and back up housing for herself or family members.
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