This Tiny Home From Walmart Looks Like an iPhone
gizmodo.com
You can now find multiple listings for prefabricated homes on Walmart for under $16,000, but you'll inevitably run up against zoning codes.
  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    31·
    2 months ago

    I’m not sure how much demand there will be for a house in that form factor, but it might make sense as a sort of guesthouse or spare bedroom or similar, an easy way to extend a house’s effective space.

    Honesty, if you’re going to aim to go serious with prefab houses like this, I’d think that it’d make a ton more sense to make the thing modular. Like, sell a selection of prefab “rooms” and then just have the end user hook 'em up. If you do that, I’d also think that you’d want the exterior to be modular, as it’s something that people are going to care about.

    Second. I am absolutely boggled that Walmart is selling this. It’s clearly intended to evoke the iPhone, with the “Apple” name even being on the Walmart site. I’m sure that Apple is not affiliated with this. Apple is litigious as hell about their phone design; at one point, I recall them fighting a case on a design patent that merely covered the rounded corner rectangle.

    kagis

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.

    It’s from a Chinese manufacturer. I can absolutely believe that Chinese companies are making infringing knockoffs of all sorts of stuff in China, flying below the radar. But Walmart offering them in the US seems like it’d be a prelude to litigation.

    • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      In the pic it doesn’t seem to have a home button. What kind of iPhone is that? What kind of home is that? They could at least install the doorbell button that way.

    • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      83·
      2 months ago

      I think you are either too wealthy or too attached to city living to understand the point of these.

      Tiny homes:

      • are affordable to anyone with almost any income, not just $80-100k+ a year incomes (which are practically mandatory now to buy a home in the current economy)

      • Can be set up literally anywhere that zoning allows for

      • A good choice for off-grid/prepper lifestyle

      • A good choice for solo living or for a couple to share with no kids

      • BigPotato@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        Hell, at that price point, buy two and have an awning setup in-between them to link them.

        Privacy from the kids and still under $38k.

        I’d get one as an in-law suite even!

      • burgersc12@mander.xyzEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        For the 18k they’re charging you could get like 3 12x24 foot sheds, plus some shit to put inside of it, which is a hell of a lot better than one 20x7 hut.

    • Grimy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Apple doesnt own all white rectangles with rounded edges. You can’t sue for that.

    • Zahille7@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Apparently the Walmart site is kinda like Amazon, where anyone can sell anything as long as they fill out the right stuff.

  • RonnyZittledong@lemmy.worldEnglish
    241·
    2 months ago

    I bet in 3 years this things roof and window seals starts to fail and it is just a moldy, leaky pile of shit

    • iAvicenna@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      no in three years this thing will cost $100000 because some shareholders will realise that this is the only feasible home ownership for the younger generation and mass buy them.

      • formergijoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        It is 19x20 feet. The article points out that this puts it 20 ft2 under the minimum required 400 ft2 for housing units in the state of New York. Even this isn’t feasible.

    • lordnikon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      Yeah just like an iPhone when the battery starts to go. You buy a new one and they “recycle” (sell in a poorer country or landfill)

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    2 months ago

    I’d have a look. Been figuring ways to make a cabin at my swamp property. A decent storage shed easily costs $17,000, depending on a dozen factors.

    I sure wouldn’t be an initial buyer. Let other people test them for me thank you very much.

  • ALilOff@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    2 months ago

    I’m getting strong dystopian feature vibes from the pods.

    I feel I’ve seen this in a sci-if movies when the characters live in extremely overpopulated areas.

  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    How’s the insulation on that “home”?

    I kid, there’s no way in hell those are adequately insulated or waterproofed.

    Enjoy your corroded tin can.

    • mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      I watched a video for one and it showed them caulking the joints after unfolding the building.

      You are probably right about the insulation though. Walls are pretty thin, so you probably can’t fit much in them.

      I wonder what the head clearance is on them too.

  • 3ntranced@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    Honestly in today’s economy, this is like all the space I need. I have started selling off things that won’t fit in a car in a moments notice because of how unstable the market is I never know how long I’ll be residing somewhere.

    For 17k I don’t think this includes enough to be enjoyable but I’m all for prefab homes that are purpose built. If you can throw it on a trailer and move it to some plot of land you buy all you have to pay is utilities. Not a bad deal when the alternative is wageslaving to afford a barely addiquate home if even.