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OREM — A tiny home will be featured for the first time at the Utah Valley Parade of Homes beginning Thursday.
The tiny home, built by Utah company Irontown Homes, is just 575 square feet with a 222 square foot loft. The home is equipped with a kitchen, living room, full-size bedroom, full bathroom and loft. Potential buyers may also customize parts of the home.
“About a year ago, we saw a big uptick in tiny homes,” said Kam Valgardson, general manager at Irontown Homes.
“Up until recently, tiny homes have kind of been a kitschy, out-of-the-ordinary type of idea. … The industry hasn’t really been developed at all … but recently with millennials coming into home ownership and starting families and making purchase decisions, we thought, ‘Ok, we’ve got a factory that builds modular buildings and we’ve got expertise in that. … We could elevate the tiny home from this out-of-the-ordinary thing to something nice, something permanent.'”
Irontown’s tiny home, the Sledhaus, is built to be a permanent structure, though it can be transplanted if the owner chooses to move. The house comes fully completed with countertops, mirrors, carpet and wood floor, Valgardson said, but can be picked up with jacks and placed on a trailer to be moved to a new location.
“We’ve all been in mobile homes, we know what that feels like,” Valgardson said. “The buildings we’ve built for 30 years are permanent modules. They’re designed to not be moved around a whole lot, but they are able to be moved around.”
A tiny home is an option for those who want to buy their own home, but don’t want to be subject to hundreds of thousands of dollars in mortgage payments, Valgardson said. Irontown Homes also markets the tiny home as a mini-cabin and is often sold to those with recreational property.
“Folks that have a property … just don’t want to spend $300,000 to build a cabin. They just want to spend a $100,000,” Valgardson said.
The tiny home also works well as an accessory dwelling unit for homeowners with open space on their property. According to Valgardson, every city in the state is zoned to allow an accessory dwelling in the backyard, so quite a few customers are opting for a tiny home.
Irontown Homes also recently sold 54 tiny homes to a buyer who plans to start a cabin community in Yosemite.
The tiny home’s retail price is $104,999 for the standard model while the show special is $85,000 plus delivery. Additional upgrades to the home are also available.
The home can be found at 92 W. 2070 South in Orem during the Parade of Homes from June 8 - 24. The home will be open for walkthroughs from noon until 9 p.m. every day except Sundays and Mondays.
“The big thing is, you’ve gotta determine what your goals are. If you want to have a tiny home that’s wheel-mounted, essentially an RV, there are products for that. If you want to have a more permanent building, like we are offering … there are a lot of benefits in that direction too,” Valgardson said.
