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This tiny home from Walmart looks like an iPhone
Idaho

This tiny home from Walmart looks like an iPhone

As if the obsession with tiny houses wasn’t enough, Walmart is now selling manufactured homes on its website for $15,900 or less. The promise is four walls and a bathroom that you can set up with two friends and a few hours of work. The same third-party company sells an “Apple Cabin” in the classic shape of an iPhone via Walmart’s website. This miniature apartment has just enough desk space for a MacBook and not much else.

Before your millennial eyes water at the thought of finally owning a home, consider that permanent housing will never be as cheap and easy as putting up walls and finding a place to rest.

The self-build homes in question come from Cheryl Industries, a Long Island, New York-based brand that sells coat hanger-style shelters and shipping containers. The company is selling the same 19-by-20-foot expandable home on its website for $36,000. The Apple Cabin has an MSRP of $24,000 from the original retailer and $17,400 at Walmart. The smallest version of the iPhone-like dwelling, which is barely larger than a shed, sells for $11,800. This ultra-small version of the Apple Cabin has just enough space for a bed and a toilet. There is no shower to speak of.

Walmart Apple Cabin 3
© Image: Walmart

Walmart says it will deliver the product to you using a flatbed truck, but any potential buyer must have a forklift on hand to unload it. Cheryl Industrials even recommends renting a crane for this task. The larger, non-Apple house weighs 7,849 pounds and is over 19 feet long. The largest, 20-foot-long Apple Cabin weighs 4,563 pounds. At least Walmart says shipping is free and that the pod house doesn’t require putting up walls.

According to Cheryl Industries, both homes are made in China. Building the 19-by-20-foot house requires opening up a few walls and then holding everything in place with drywall anchors and screws. Before you ask: No, you are not allowed to screw screws into the walls to hang your family portraits. At least a toilet is pre-installed, but the plumbing is up to you. Walmart also recommends placing it on a concrete base.

The products have been available at Walmart since August. People magazine first spotted them at their current price. Amazon also sells a lot of prefabricated houses and has been doing so for years. Still, none of the devices the online retail giant offers look like an iPhone, if that’s any consolation.

Anyone who’s posted Instagram videos of people turning a bus into a working RV has probably dreamed of owning a (relatively) inexpensive, tiny home. These types of homes are intended to be collapsible and transportable, similar to other manufactured homes (also known as trailers or mobile homes, but trailer parks already have a bad reputation despite being largely the last examples of affordable housing in the United States).

As any manufactured home owner will tell you, there are difficulties that go beyond simply owning your new home. You’ll have to find space for it, which may mean dealing with the variety of municipal zoning laws that could prevent you from ever putting down roots. In New York, for example, Appendix Q of the New York State Residential Code limits the maximum size of tiny homes, also known as Accessible Dwelling Units (ADUs). All homes labeled “Tiny Homes” require a floor area of ​​at least 400 square feet, meaning none of these Apple Cabins meet the criteria.

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