A millennial homeowner built 3 tiny homes in her backyard and earns $4,550 in rent from her 4 tenants

Emilie Karas’ tiny home on wheels and ADU in Portland, Oregon.

Courtesy of Emilie Karas

Emilie Karas built two accessory dwelling units and a mobile tiny home on her Portland lot.
Portland allows homeowners to add up to two ADUs and one tiny home on wheels to residential lots.
Karas rents the units, providing affordable housing and generating income.

Emilie Karas had no experience in construction when she purchased a rundown six-bedroom house in Portland, Oregon, in early 2020.

But after the contractor she had hired to demolish and rebuild the home quit when the pandemic hit, she was forced to skill up quickly. Becoming an amateur building project manager set her up well for what happened next.

In 2021, the city of Portland made it legal for homeowners to add up to two accessory dwelling units — also known as backyard cottages or granny flats — and a tiny home on wheels or RV on their residential lots.

With her house still under construction, Karas decided she might as well take on a few more projects.

So she got to work building two ADUs stacked on top of each other and installing a prefabricated, fully furnished home on wheels (THOW) — a moveable tiny home on an 8-by-24-foot trailer — all in the backyard of her quarter-acre lot.

For the last two years, Karas has rented out the three homes while living in the main house with her wife, Ellie Johnson, and three roommates.

The extra homes and rented bedrooms give Karas an additional income stream, create affordable housing for a city with a severe housing shortage, and foster a sense of community that Karas said she craves. She’s not alone — across the US, cities and states are rewriting zoning laws and homeowners are reimagining backyards with tiny homes in mind.

“I’ve always lived in community like that. I love it. I think it’s really important,” said Karas, 38.

Emilie Karas (right) and her wife, Ellie Johnson, have three roommates in their six-bedroom house and four tenants in their tiny home on wheels and two ADUs.

Courtesy of Emilie Karas

Affordable ‘infill’ housing

ADUs and mobile tiny homes won’t solve the nation’s housing shortage, particularly in urban areas where higher-density housing is critical. But they’re creating much-needed affordable housing for both renters and buyers, especially in neighborhoods filled with single-family homes on large lots. They also offer homeowners a way to boost their property values and generate extra income.

Karas, who works for the Oregon government’s employment department, charges $1,500, including utilities, for the one-bedroom ADU, $1,850 for the two-bedroom ADU, and $1,200 for the tiny home on wheels. In total, she earns $4,550 in rental income from four tenants.

Karas built her ADUs relatively cheaply. ADU construction costs vary, typically ranging between $100,000 and $300,000 per unit, excluding permitting fees. She said she spent about $300,000 in total building the two ADUs, and kept costs low by doing a lot of the interior handiwork and project management herself. She estimates that it would likely have cost around $500,000 to build the two units if she’d outsourced all the work. And Karas received help from a local nonprofit, which provided her with a low-interest loan in exchange for renting the units at affordable rates.

The THOW was significantly cheaper. Karas paid about $60,000 to buy the home fully furnished and have it delivered from Florida, where it was manufactured. And she paid another few thousand dollars for Kol Peterson, a local contractor and tiny home advocate, to install it on her property.

Peterson also rents out a THOW he owns in Portland and said his is the “least expensive housing available on that block and incredibly lucrative for me as the owner of it.”

Karas emphasized that the THOW was the easiest to add because, in the city of Portland, the structure is legally considered a vehicle like an RV and doesn’t require the lengthy permitting and inspection processes required for regular homes and ADUs.

“It creates an even more affordable option for folks who maybe are lower income to have a really safe, beautiful home,” Karas said of her THOW. “They have to live in community with other people, but we have a really great vibe.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

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