A Georgia marketing consultant has found a way to live for free — by living in in her own garden.
Before COVID-19 hit, Precious Price traveled frequently for work and rented out the spare quarters inside her three-bedroom Atlanta home, a property she purchased in 2019, on Airbnb while she was away.
But the coronavirus pandemic decimated Precious Price’s rental income — and she cleverly rearranged her life so that her own payments would fall to zero.
“I stared out the kitchen window into my huge backyard, and something clicked: I could use that space to build a tiny home to live in, and fully rent out the main house,” she told CNBC Make It.
She began building her current 296-square-foot backyard abode in October 2020 — after getting all the necessary permitting for construction, electrical and plumbing. By March 2021, the tiny home was complete and, after briefly renting it out on Airbnb first to start paying off its debt, she moved in.
All in all, the undertaking paid off. Today, Price makes close to $32,000 annually in rental income leasing out her main home — for which she charges $89 to $129 a night, or $1,300 a month. That more than covers her backyard living expenses, meaning “I’m able to live in my tiny home for free,” she said.
In all, Price estimates she spent about $35,000 on the tiny home itself, she told CNBC.
To prevent herself from losing money on loan interest, she paid for her smaller residence with credit cards and through about $8,000 in stocks she sold to fund the endeavor, a strategy she shared with followers on her YouTube channel, where she has more than 10,200 subscribers.
And despite the fact she rents out the main property to tenants, her own living situation in the smaller home isn’t too shabby. The space fits a queen-size mattress in a lofted space; on the main level, a daybed doubles as a couch. There’s a bathroom, a kitchen and a breakfast nook for sit-down eating. Even more charming, the tiny home is accessed via a well-kept stone pathway.
Of course, living in such a small space still comes with a few tradeoffs, despite the perks of saving money in today’s economy.
“I’ve had to downsize my wardrobe and shoe collection. But rather than getting rid of clothes I still want to keep, I store some at a friend’s house. Every few weeks, we do a wardrobe swap,” she said.
