A startup based in California will help you basically rent out your backyard space by building a small house. This earns you a good amount of money – $16,000 a month net profit! (Worth mentioning, this is only available in California for now.)
Based on RENTcafe data, the average rent in Los Angeles, CA for a 792 sq. ft. (about 74 m2) apartment is $2,368. To get a nice apartment and only for yourself in a good neighborhood can cost you even between $3-$5k. Because of such rocket high rent prices, 9 out of 10 Californians consider affordability a big problem in their state, some of them are genuinely considering moving somewhere else.


Now, consider this. People are desperately looking for affordable housing that has all their needs and standards met. How about renting a whole tiny house and having it all to yourself? For only $2,251/month.
The client is happy, so is the owner who can earn $16 000 net profit per year. The house itself costs $185,000 in total, this includes all legal fees, delivery – basically everything you need. Order it and watch it appear in your backyard within 3-5 months. In just 11.5 years the initial investment will pay itself off.
Well, how about managing the rental process? They got you covered – an assigned property manager who will find a tenant 99% of the time. With an in-depth investigation of each individual to make sure all is good, you can just sit back and watch the money drip into your bank account.
So, How Does It Look?
Epic! It looks nice, warm, and welcoming. All amenities are included, including electricity and water supply connected to the main house. To check the usage, counters can be added to know exactly how much a tenant is consuming and possibly charge extra?


Walk inside it yourself and have a look:
It seems though, the initial idea was quite different than what the company is. At first, they built a house cost-free and shared the profit with the landowner, but now it seems that this idea is no longer a part of Rent the Backyard company. Could be that there were issues with raising enough investments to fund it? Keep in mind, one unit costs $185 000, so if there are 100 such orders they would need $18.5m and would make the money back in more than 20 years – quite a stretch. Now you just order it, pay for it, and own it, no profit sharing. Here is an ABC video filmed with both co-founders in 2019 with the initial idea:
If there are any custom additions needed for the houses it will cost quite a bit, unless it is just a colour change. So the price of $185 000 is for the default house, it could cost more.
Is It Worth It?
Yes! Definitely. That is if you own a property in California. While overall the investment will pay off, you have to keep in mind that you will have someone living in your backyard almost all of the time. If privacy is not super important, then this is something to strongly consider.
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