How Would You Manage a Very Small House?

No matter how clear you make it in your description, people WILL complain that it was smaller than expected. Just expect people to mention it and maybe mark it down a star, even though your description points it out.

I agree with Ken that having a second bathroom would be a benefit and makes it very attractive to two couples traveling together. I can speak from experience because I have a whole house rental that has two huge master suites and the majority of my guests are two couples traveling together and they all mention how hard it is to find a place with two master suites.

6-8 people in a tiny house is far too crowded, IMHO. I sure would not want to stay in a house of that size with 6-8 people!

I you choose to keep it a 3 bedroom, you could put bunk beds in the smallest room for two kids.

Best of luck with your tiny house!

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Can you make the two small bedrooms unique? For instance, if you made one of the smaller bedrooms into a bunk room (with proper built in bunks, with a reading light etc), you could attract people using this- and in another room, depending on the layout could you put a bed in there that goes from wall to wall and put shelves for bedside tables and make it look super cosy with lots of pillows- something like this https://www.google.com.au/search?q=wall+to+wall+bed&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB761GB761&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2moOI1NXWAhXKwbwKHSOMCsgQ_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=702#imgrc=Vkdp8WPUeI0l7M:

Tiny house! So cool and trendy; I think it will do great. Especially if kid and dog friendly.
I would go with the twin air mattress for the extra room, to start, and assess your market a bit before making major improvements. You can make a economical wall hung drop-down desk in the tiny room, with a butcher block top and a couple fold down shelf brackets from Home Depot, which is useful during the day and can disappear at night.
Folding chair or pretend you’re Shakers and hang the chair on the wall. If you can plumb in an extra sink with a mirror somewhere without too much expense (the big bedroom?), toothbrushing, shaving and face-washing can occur even if someone else is occupying the bathroom.
My two-person unit is only 300 sq ft, with a big hunk taken up by a large handicap accessible bathroom with a roll in shower and deep closet with a washer/dryer unit. It has only a kitchenette corner. People really like the way it is organized; a commercial interior designer who stayed there sincerely complimented me on the layout.
So not being a design genius myself, my secret was that I thought about it a really long time before tricking it out and renting it,and stayed in the unit myself to ponder how it could be set up to maximize space. I used the old tricks of transparent resin chairs and transparent table top, and going vertical with lots of shelves, particularly floating ledge shelves, and added tons of non-floor lights – torchiere wall lights and ceiling lights (overhead and can). I hung a snack/fruit basket from the ceiling. I added convenience touches so it is very functional, which distracts my guests from the small size. The place is lousy with electrical outlets, compact trashcans, & USB outlets. I think live plants also open a space up (tough, drought-resistant ones given my blackish thumb).
I also think it makes a small space more appealing if it is indeed quirky or has a theme with art, decor items, glassware, etc. Mine is “our nation’s capital” cuz, well, that’s what’s nearby. Being in the Southwest gives you lots of options. The Goodwill store is your friend. Can you paint the front door with a Southwest teal or earthy red – cheap and will look good in the listing photos.
Like you, I have an outdoor space which expands the room – a teeny deck (more transparent furniture!) and a decent size yard with a grill, firepit, hammock, lots of plantings and some intriguing statues and bird bath and feeder for creature entertainment. I am limited by my permit to 2 people, I think 5 people is the absolute max with one bathroom. Good luck!

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Love it. The house is white and it could use a good pop of color. I love color so I am going to have to restrain myself a little in such a small space. But a fun bright door will be fun!

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I love the wall to wall bed but my only concern for an Air listing is how hard it looks to change the sheets if you have a lot of 1-2 nighters.

Small space & dogs & no fenced yard.

Food for thought, if you don’t have the outside fenced space for dogs, consider placing a weight limit on the dogs allowed. For example if you placed a limit of 35 pounds maximum 2 that means you would accept pets up to the size of a small standard Schnauzer or corgie.

Example wording: small to medium (<35lbs), well mannered, house-trained dogs welcome.

My personal pets are a yorkie (8 lbs) & Schnorkie (Schnauzer/Yorkie) 7 lbs. I really enjoyed having my Schnauzer & yorkie on trips (Schnauzer died 1 year ago) so pet friendly is appealing. Currently my schnorkie is too young for travel (House-training…God knew what He was doing when he made puppies so cute or I don’t think I could handle the mess of house-training). OK too much information…

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Your dogs sound sweet. We have a great big fenced yard in back that had held the biggest dogs I have ever seen when we bought the place. Actually like 3 sets of fenced yards so I will probably tear down the fence in the front of the house because who wants to feel like you are in a cage on the patio? I do hope no one brings dog THAT big though, as the house is still small and I am concerned more about indoor damage. Also…this may be thinking too much, but will having a large yard that I allow dogs in result in a large, poop-filled yard? Or can I expect owners to pick up after their pets even if the dog is outdoors mostly?

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I have a pet friendly rental, So far only 1 guest has bothered to clean after their pet. One dog was enormous and left landmines to match!

I have a Maltese shitzu cavalier poodle he’s fully grown and only 15 pounds (6kgs) so I think your calculations of a small dog are a bit much! :dog2: :dog: :dog: :dog: :dog2:

So do you actively pick up poo as part of cleaning/landscaping? Do you pay a yard guy to do it? Or do you just kind of leave it out back and figure that part of the yard is only for dogs?

I havent had a dog since I was a kid and back then we earned 10 cents a poop we scoped lol.

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Of course I cleaned it up! Next family had young children…

I provide and point out the dog poo bags and the bin. Only one guest has ignored it with two dogs and then commented on the poo in the yard… yeah some people!

Wow, just – wow. When I traveled with 2 dogs I was so grateful and zealous I realized I was bagging not only my dogs’ poo but random leftover host dog poo.

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Maybe put a murphy/folding bed that converts to a desk in the tiny bedroom, so that if a guest needs the extra bed it is there, but in the meantime it adds usable space?

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