The Benefits of Living in a Tiny House Community

Ben Vanderwerf, the owner of Big Ben's RV Park, joins the Less House More Moola podcast to discuss his journey into the tiny house community and the process of building a tiny house community. He shares his experience of building his own tiny house and living in it with his family. 

Ben also talks about the challenges and regulations of building tiny houses in Colorado and the importance of checking with local municipalities for permissions and restrictions. He explains the different regulations for tiny houses on wheels and tiny houses on foundations. Ben discusses his plans for his community, including the amenities and services offered, and invites anyone interested in joining to reach out to him.

For full show notes and more information visit: https://bit.ly/4ddxhBc

Go to www.altamericandream.com

Transcript

0:05

It takes a brave and independent mindset to go tiny. If you are trying to figure out your tiny pivot, this podcast is here to inspire and connect you with the other unconventional, gritty, inspirational people within this community. I'm Laura Lynch, your tiny house friend and host. On this show, we are always going to come back to money because as a financial planner, this is the question I hear the most. How do I make this work for me financially? Well, that's my jam, so jump in, let's go. New episodes drop every Thursday. Well, Ben Vanderwerf, welcome to Last House, More Moolah podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today to talk about communities and parking and building codes and all kinds of interesting things. Super excited to have this conversation with you. Yeah, thanks for having me. So you and I sat side by side at the Colorado Tiny House Festival, which I've just sort of recapped on an earlier episode. And we didn't get to talk that much because gosh, we were like pretty flooded with people while we were there, which was awesome. So tell me the story of how you got interested in Tiny Homes. Well, pretty much it's probably along the same lines as most of the folks here. They started watching HGTV and got fell in love with the DIY programs that they had. tiny house nation all kinds of stuff that that was on on HGTV and I just got inundated with the fact that hey I can do this I can do this and so I can do this turned it to I'm gonna do this turned into hey let's find a trailer and let's let's start actively working towards this and then what was it about four years ago I started took me about two years to build my tiny house for my family, but late nights and weekends will do that to you. And we got it all set and it's been great. We've been living in it for four years and really enjoying it. So how many people are living in your tiny house with you? I've got myself, my wife, and three kids under five years old and a 45 pound dog. That is amazing. And I think that it's so great whenever you see families that are able to, you know, just choose a different path, right? Because that notion that everybody's got to have their own bedroom with their own screens and you know, that it kind of separates people. And I think it's great to have everybody kind of in the mix and a little chaos. yeah, for sure. We got three of them running around in there and they just, they have heyday. Yeah, that's so good. And you're in a place too, where you can spend a lot of time outside. So that definitely makes a difference. Definitely. Awesome. So you embarked on this DIY process. So I'm sure you learned a lot of things, but what are some of the highlights of what you learned in building your own tiny house? Well, I'd say I grew up in the trades industry. My dad owned an HVAC company. So I was in the new construction jobs. looking at all the different things going on there. My dad pretty much taught me plumbing, electrical, heating, cooling, carpentry. I kind of learned the gambit of everything. So it just kind of came naturally to me. Found the trailer itself, had a family member do a little bit of welding on it, changed out the axles, beefed them up a little bit. But what I learned... Learned a lot about myself, really. lot of late nights and weekends will definitely have you thinking about your sanity. And in between jobs, at the time I was working all over the Midwest, so I'd leave for days at a time, come back and try to figure out where I left off and where I had to go. how far I had to drive into Lowe's to get the next pieces and parts. And it was an hour and a half commute just to go to Lowe's every time I needed something. Yeah. Yeah, that is definitely a big part of the work that we've been doing here is our trips to Lowe's. And I think about when I'm looking at building community or thinking about land or any projects, like how scheduled and organized, can I possibly be to minimize those trips? And yet at the same time, if you're on this project, you want to get it done. And so you don't want to be waiting for days, you know, for your errand day or whatever. So definitely that can be a really big part of the challenge if you're out in, you know, out in rural land, figuring out what that supply, because especially if you're building it for the first time yourself, like you won't be able to perfectly project manage the whole thing and make sure that you have exactly the right number of two by fours or what have you. Yeah, you're exactly right. was, I did this one a little differently than I will do them in the future. I'm actually looking to manufacture them here pretty soon, but this one I did with steel studs and thinking that was going to help me with my weight. ended up being helping me with my weight, but costing me a little bit more in the pocketbook to actually think about the weight end of things there. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Especially when if you're not moving it a lot. Yeah, no, it's been parked right there for the last four years. So you parked it right there. You parked it on some land that you found. Yeah, yeah, we found a little rural town out here in Colorado. out on the prairie, right off was looking at half an acre of land in the town of Aruba, Colorado, about 20 minutes east of Lyman, went to the town hall to ask the clerk what kind of regulations they had, if there was any kind of restrictions for the town, got to talk with her a little bit, and she literally just looked at me and said, nope. You can do that here. You can build your tiny house and live in it year round. Go for it. So yeah, we, we bought ourselves a half acre lot here in Aruba and just started digging in, got our garden space made up, built a tiny house. We've even brought the in -laws out from North Carolina. They're living with us now. So it's, it's, it's been great built an office. Yeah, that's awesome. So your little town, you're you're kind of in your little town. Yep. In town limits. Yeah. Wow. That's really cool. Not very many. mean, unless it's a planned pocket neighborhood, there aren't very many places where in town you could buy a lot and put a tiny house on it full time. You're exactly right. Yep. So how did you know to go to that town? Did you sort of wanted you wanted to be there anyway? or were you kind of looking around for places that were more easygoing when it comes to tiny houses? It was even more simpler than that. We could not afford anything towards the front range towards Denver. It was just way too expensive. Come to find out the regulations were a little more strict on the tiny house, but tiny house into things. We ended up found a place out here, a little piece of property. We were just looking for land. That's all we were looking for. little piece of property, something we could manage. It was between this one and another one. We ended up found another lot just west of here. So we're kind of battling back and forth with figuring out, we want this one? Do we want that one? So we went and talked to the one here and ended up the town will let us do what we wanted to do. And we just went with this lot. And so are you connected to all the town utilities? Yes, we are. Awesome. Awesome. That's really cool. So you found your own tiny life and you made it happen and built your own tiny house and got some land and you're in a town that's accepting of that. And so then when did the idea of your community come into your mind? Yeah, the community was always an idea, pipe dream, just didn't know what was going to happen with that. One thing led to another and this town, the town of Ariba just happened to have a dormant campground that had been dormant for 20 years. They ended up told the owner that all she had to make sure that the land was manicured, mowed and all that because of the ordinances that they put in place. And come to find out one thing led to another, we got in contact with the lady and she was very gracious to the idea of letting us turn it into a space for people, an RV park, tiny house community, and she was on board with it from day one. So did you buy the land, the park from her? Not yet. We've got an arrangement with her to where, yes, we're going to be purchasing it from her. We've got a lease on it right now. We're able to do whatever we want to do with it currently. So we've got control of it. Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome to find someone who has an asset like land and they're engaged and excited about your idea. And so you come up with a creative solution so that you can move forward and create this tiny house parking idea. And then eventually the revenue that gets built there allows you to buy it out. That's so awesome. Exactly. Yeah. So we talked to so many people, I feel like people that were coming through the Colorado Tiny House Festival were asking about building a community. It seems like people, a lot of people that want to go tiny, want to help other people go tiny or help their family go tiny or build some sort of, you know, community in the sense of folks that are, you know, can garden together, cook together, live together kind of thing, which is an amazing vision. I think there's a lot of young people out there thinking about this. So if someone out there is listening and saying, hey, I would like to go tiny myself and also have other people around me doing that. And maybe I have the wherewithal to do the research and, you know, figure it out. Where does someone start with that project? I would say that the biggest thing right here, especially in Colorado, I'm not sure the different states around, but I just I know Colorado right now. Obviously, I'd love to in the future expand out to the different states, do this on a broad scale. We'll do that at some point in time once the cash flow gets there, but I know Colorado and there's different, different counties, different municipalities, they all have different. Ordinances, zonings, restrictions, different things that they have. I'd say the place to start is check with your own municipality, your own county, see where they stand on it. If they are friendly to it, pursue it a little further. See where it'll be possible to do it. If there's permissions that need to be gotten, acquired. backs that need to be padded or you're doing a great job. Come on now. That's where I'd start. I just start with your own local municipalities, see where the friendliness is. I've heard some horror stories up towards actually the town that we had our tiny house festival in, the town of Brighton there. They found out that there was somebody living in a backyard of somebody's with a tiny house and they had a big fit about it. And that, that was a big hullabaloo that kind of blew up into local television and, local social media that the county or the town was doing this to them. And it got a little bit of backlash. so I just checked to see where, things are at with. the permissions for doing it first. Yeah. And there are a lot of people that are kind of flying under the radar and, you know, kind of not necessarily going through the process because the process isn't very streamlined and it doesn't exist in a lot of places. And, you know, so you have to, you know, kind of ask forgiveness, not permission perhaps, but asking forgiveness means you got to move your tiny house potentially. And then, you know, that puts you in a bad spot. So you know, maybe starting a friendly conversation and exploring things before you get going, especially if you're going to try to do it for more than just you, is probably a really important first step. And who knows, maybe it's the first time that they've ever been asked the question and maybe they've got some mobile home parks that are, you know, an eyesore that they'd like to see someone, you know, sprucing up or what have you. So it can be win -win. It can be. having great conversations. So let's zero in a little bit further on Colorado. There has been a recent state law governing the construction of tiny homes, which has both in some ways brought tiny home construction a little bit out of the shadows and into more, you know, regulation allows things to get more black and white clear and processes to be created. But it also means that, you know, builders have to figure out how they're gonna. get that done and owners have to figure out all the nuances and so it makes it you know more complicated too. So can you really unpack and explain what you've learned about the Colorado law for those folks who are you know tiny home curious in Colorado? Yes there are two kinds of camps there's the traditional tiny house on wheels community side and then there's the tiny home side of things which the Regulations were put in for the tiny home side of things tiny house on wheels Are your traditional tiny house on wheels? The regulations for those are governed by the auto industry here in Colorado They kind of dictate the RV industry. They've dictated that anything that falls outside of the building codes is is classified as an RV. Anything that's governed by the auto industry classified as an RV fall under those RV guidelines. So that's what kind of gets a little hairy when you're going to these different counties, going to these different municipalities. Not a lot of these towns and even counties allow RVs to be lived in year round. So that's kind of where this whole ball of wax is coming from here. Everyone wants to go tiny. They think the traditional tiny house on wheels is the way they wanna go. And that's great. That's the way I went. I love them. Love them to pieces. I love the versatility of them. Yes, they're mobile, but they're not necessarily one to be moved around from here to there. When it comes to the building aspect of things on a foundation. That's where the the Colorado regulations were put into place. They want these specific tiny homes to be on foundations built to residential codes and never moved again. It's almost like a park model, but even that park model, it all depends on how it's built. If you're building with For instance, if you're building with two by fours, that'll fall under a park model RV tiny house on wheels construction versus building codes here in Colorado and abroad, they want you to build with two by six walls. So obviously you're gonna lose a lot of space with a two by six wall on the tiny house on wheels side of things, but if you wanna live in this thing year round, Anywhere in Colorado you're gonna do this through the Department of Labor the housing industry side and there's last I heard There's there's not many if any approved builders for The Department of Housing side of things everyone just thinks of tiny house being tiny house on wheels And so they're going to their Mitchcraft or their BHV Adventures, which is my manufacturing company. They're going to these places thinking, these new regulations will allow me to live in a tiny house year round, but not necessarily. It all depends on how it's built, who it's built by, and the different codes and regulations that you go by. But that's only Isn't that only though in places where there are recognized building codes and in places where the jurisdiction of the local is adhering to Colorado state law on the building codes or like how are you managing this great area right of having building up an RV park that's going to allow tiny home on wheels and people are going to live there? Yep. So We've kind of not skirted by, we've come under the jurisdiction of our municipality. Our municipality does not have any restrictions against living in your RV year round. So that's how we're able to kind of get under in the gray area of we can live in our RVs year round. Now, will I have tiny homes in our community? Probably not. for the most part. We're gonna want them to stay mobile. We're gonna want them to stay classified as those RVs so that we can kind of skirt those state regulations for now. What I might do is I might in the future take a couple acres here in town and I might do a little development for those tiny homes on foundations and I might allow those to be purchased. Yeah, that's kind of where it falls is does the jurisdiction allow it? Do they allow RVs to be lived in year round or do they not? And if they don't, generally speaking, they will let you put up a tiny home, in which case I know last year, our municipality here of Ereba, they did pass those those laws in an ordinance coming down from the state saying, tiny home on a foundation. Yes, we allow those, but we're going to make sure that we regulate them to follow the state laws and follow the building codes of the locale here. To summarize, sounds like in Colorado, if you want to live in your tiny house on wheels, you need to find a place where you can park it, where RV living is allowed. And so you have found a place where RV living is allowed. And so you are welcoming tiny homes on wheels to your community. Yes, ma 'am. Yep. We are doing that. We're going to welcome anyone that has a tiny house on wheels. I've got around. 30 spaces where we're gonna have a nice community set up, a little nice, quiet community, have our community garden, have space for community, have space for those barbecues, getting together, enjoying everyone. That's so awesome. So 30 spaces, that's a good amount. And you've been out talking about this at the Tiny Home Festival. When will the community be ready? And how is the parking working from a lease perspective? What hookups do you have? What's up with the internet? Tell us all the things. Great. Okay. Yes, I do have 30 spaces. There's around 30 spaces. I and my in -laws will be moving over end of September, beginning of October. I've got all the water, all the sewer in place. All I'm working on is gaining the interest, seeing where people are at with wanting to come out. All I have to do is put electric in place. We'll have full hookups. Full hookups. have, we just got fiber internet into our town, into our parks. So we're working on getting that all set up. We'll have laundry facilities. We'll have that community garden. This weekend we're getting 400 ton of gravel that we're spreading on all the tiny house community roads. We're getting things ramped up here. Everything will be pretty much ready within reason. I have about nine, 10 sites that I'll have that I can pretty much just put the electric in just like that. If I have people that want to come out in a couple months here before winter sets in, kind of get things established, get things skirted, get things ready for the cold, I could have everything up and going within about a month or so. So awesome. And so Sounds like that people that are retired, people that are working remotely, all of the families, it sounds like a great place for a wide mix of people. Is there any particular focus? Are you looking for any specific type of tiny house or person or just anybody who's interested in being out on the plains? I'm not looking for anyone specific. I'd love to see a variety of people in the community. I enjoy having people around, getting to talk to them, enjoying the different walks of life. I could care less. I'd love more families out here in the community. It'd be nice to have some kids around. trying to underpin our aging community around here, which is what I did with my kids and just trying to move some folks out here, get some community established, get some more businesses established here in town. mean, if somebody has a business they want to relocate out here. We just had a coffee shop that opened about a month ago. So we've got a coffee shop, we've got a little general store that's kind of opening back up. We've got a little bit of amenities, but it'd be great to see a little bit of growth here in the community itself. Yeah. My town where we are is, I think they say 300 people or something. So we have really good ice cream. We have really good pizza. We have a little general store that's been here since the 1800s. It's awesome because you get to when you go to the post office, they know your name. And when you go to the gas station, they know your name. And it's just the most, I don't know, for me, having been in a place where I was anonymous for so long, I just love these small towns. And of course it comes with pros and cons, right? Because everybody knows your business to some degree, but also you just get to see people on a more routine basis, which allows you to develop a deeper relationship with the people around you. And so I just love the whole small town concept. And I think there's a lot of people out there that are really looking for that. yeah. Yep. I would love to say that once we get this one established, bring cash flow up. I would love to step more towards the places where people want to live closer towards the front range areas. been to the tiny house festivals and everyone's been been asking man, do we have anything around around Denver around Colorado Springs around Greeley around Loveland? I just have to tell them not yet. Soon. Yes. Yes. Soon. Awesome. Well, Ben tell everybody where they can find you social media website. How do they get in contact? All the things. Yep. We are on Facebook. right now I've got Big Ben's RV Park. You can go on www .bigbenzrvpark .com. Check us out there. Kind of got a page dedicated for the tiny house community. I'm still building it out. Still trying to get a few things worked out, ironed out. If anyone wants to call, talk to me. They can call the office number there on the website. Happy to talk with anybody. I will say that if anyone doesn't have a tiny house that would like to come to our park, I am the builder, manufacturer of tiny houses as well. We do give a discount if you go through my company as well. Monthly rate is 600 a month and that includes everything water sewer electric internet laundry There there is a membership fee of $250 right now. We'll probably have a tiered tiered system for our Membership stuff you get different different package amenities for for different levels if you if you want but If you have us build you a tiny house that drops from 600 down to 500. Awesome. Sounds like a lot for that, you know, small amount of rent. And, you know, as we talked about at the festival, right, once you become debt free, because you own your home and you're just paying, you know, $600 a month, my gosh, you can move into a lot of communities and you pay $600 a month in HOA and CDD fees. So, you know, there's always going to be some reoccurring cost. so. but owning your own roof and then having somewhere to put it where there are other people that are just like you and thinking about, you know, community gardening and minimalist lifestyle. And it just, think it sounds like a really cool place and there will probably be, you'll probably be full up before you know it. I sure hope. Yep. We're, we're a little slow to get started. I understand we're a little behind the game. I opened last year around Labor Day and with the RV side of things. I've been developing the tiny house community this year, but we're close to getting to the point where we can accept people in. Awesome. Well, Ben, thank you so much for sharing your passion for this and your story and, you know, taking us through the process of how you got started with the community. I think that's really inspiring for folks to know that you don't have to show up with a few million dollars to get started with this thing, right? You just find the right person who is, you know, has So a place, asset, some land, you know, that needs a new idea and you bring that new idea to them. Yeah. Yep. And the communities kind of accepted us with open arms here. They they've loved the idea of us bringing folks back in and underpinning the aging community here. So it's been great on quite a few fronts. Yeah, so good. Well, thanks again. You're welcome. Thanks, Laura. Hey. Thank you for taking the time to listen to Less House More Moolah. I have another free resource on my website for you, the Unconventional Values Quiz. In just two minutes, you can pinpoint your style of freedom seeker, security guardian, adventure enthusiast, or community builder. Check it out at thetinyhouseadvisor .com. And one more thing, podcasts don't have algorithms like social media does. They only grow by word of mouth. and reviews. If this podcast is helpful to you, would you please post a review on your podcast app and tell a friend who is trying to live a values based life? It would totally make my day.