Landshare Network: Turn Raw Land into Passive Income with Tiny Homes

Ellie Madsen (00:00)
And it has happened. really recently to the time or around the time that we formed Paradise Tiny Homes. We had a lot of people who were displaced. Their homes were taken out by lava. And if they were able to move it, if it was portable, many people could have just taken their whole home with them.

Other natural disasters too, you know, get a tsunami scare or anything like that. You could technically hook up and move out of dangerous way. But there’s a lot of reasons why transporting it can be awesome. And one of them is to be in a community setting where maybe the land that you’re on

doesn’t permit a bunch of homes to be built there, permitted permanent structures, but you may have a spot that allows for multiple temporary structures to all be clustered.

And that is a great opportunity for lot of people, both from a real estate standpoint, if you’re investing in land and don’t know what to do with it, but also if you’re looking for an affordable solution for housing and you can’t buy the land yourself, you can then lease it from somebody.

Kristen Knapp (02:36)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Ellie Madsen, who is the co-founder of Paradise Tiny Homes and the founder of Landshare Network. So thank you for being here Ellie. I’m excited to get into it. You have a really unique company where you’re working with tiny homes, you put them on trailer foundations, but before we get into that, how did you fall in love with real estate in beginning?

Ellie Madsen (02:45)
Thank you for having me, Kristen.

Well, my parents grew up in renovating apartment buildings and being able to then flip that to invest in a long-term rental of three units, a triplex, and then later an eight unit apartment building that my father still has to this day, but that’s been their lifestyle business and a way for them to be able to spend time with their kids when they were young, us kids.

be a little bit more free with their time. And so that was my introduction to real estate and that always seemed to make a lot of sense. Finding kind of ways to leverage real estate creatively has been something that’s always been on my mind and I am now in Hawaii, which is extremely high priced. So finding solutions is something we’re passionate about.

Kristen Knapp (03:46)
That’s amazing, and you founded Paradise Tiny Homes with your brother, is that correct?

Ellie Madsen (03:50)
Yeah, so we were both really interested in tiny homes because it seemed like such an easy first step. My brother Dan was really into construction. He’s been building all kinds of things his whole life since he was a child. So he has the construction know-how and I love design and I love business, figuring things out.

So we got into that partnership thinking, okay, well, let’s try it. Let’s build a tiny home on wheels because together, if we join our funds, we’ll probably be able to pull it off and also with our different compatible skill sets. So that’s what we did. We designed a tiny home and we went for it and we built it. And we said, you know, if it doesn’t sell, we have this awesome tiny home. Maybe we can rent it.

but we had an open house and it sold to the very first people who got there at six in the morning. And so it just kind of turned into a business from there because we kept showing this tiny home and the interest in it was just phenomenal and really encouraging and motivating for us to keep going. We were able to pre-sell units from that point forward after people saw our

Kristen Knapp (04:45)
Wow.

Ellie Madsen (05:51)
work.

Kristen Knapp (05:51)
Wow,

how many units did you pre-sell?

Ellie Madsen (05:53)
From, I mean we were just building one at a time and we kept that up for for about a year and a half. The most we’ve ever built in a year we had eight going at one time at the same time, all custom. So yeah, each one turns out completely different, but we do like to focus our time on one unit and really put everything we have into it, viewing it as.

Kristen Knapp (06:07)
Yeah.

Ellie Madsen (06:18)
you know, our creative outlet for one. We have pride in what we do and we like to make small places feel like you’re living large, you’re living in luxury. Yeah, and you definitely can if the thought goes into it, they can feel better than a typical standard size home.

Kristen Knapp (06:27)
Yeah.

I love that. And what are some of your like tips and tricks that you used for making a small home feel roomy? Like I’m sure you do a lot of consolidating space.

Ellie Madsen (06:45)
So here in Hawaii, we get to capitalize on bringing the outside in. So if you add a nice covered lanai, you just expanded your living space by that much. We love to be outside here and we don’t even have that many bugs. It’s not too bad.

but we put these French doors on their side and used them as windows on either side of the kitchen so they fold out and open. And then we had a bar top on the outside of the building that you could sit at and use that as an interactive space to serve your guests and have it just flow and be really open. But lots of windows, lots of natural light coming in from every direction makes a lot of difference for sure.

And other than that, it’s just feeling the space. I love feeling cozy in my space and it’s actually comforting to know how manageable it is and how easy to maintain and clean a small space is. So that to me is luxury also.

Kristen Knapp (07:41)
Right?

And so in case people are kind of unfamiliar, what constitutes as a tiny home? What is the square footage?

Ellie Madsen (07:50)
I mean, I think it’s a little bit subjective, there is kind of a tiny homes on wheels are known to be smaller than just your any tiny home. Different locations will have different square footage to kind of throw in that category. But I would say if it’s 600 square feet or less, that’s definitely tiny.

Kristen Knapp (08:12)
Yeah,

amazing. so yeah, yours are on wheels, they’re on trailer foundation. So people are parking them. So it’s not necessarily, it’s not like a community itself. These are mobile homes.

Ellie Madsen (08:24)
Yeah,

so you have the privilege of going anywhere. It’s total freedom. And there’s security in that. Some people find owning land to feel secure. But I really like the ability to be able to relocate if something should come up and you need to move. And we’ve dealt with a lot of natural disasters, for instance.

We have a lot going on here in Hawaii especially, but other places also. Just to name a few though here, we have lava zones where you may invest in property that was cheap because there’s a strong possibility the lava could come your way in the future down the road.

And it has happened. really recently to the time or around the time that we formed Paradise Tiny Homes. We had a lot of people who were displaced. Their homes were taken out by lava. And if they were able to move it, if it was portable, many people could have just taken their whole home with them.

Other natural disasters too, you know, get a tsunami scare or anything like that. You could technically hook up and move out of dangerous way. But there’s a lot of reasons why transporting it can be awesome. And one of them is to be in a community setting where maybe the land that you’re on

doesn’t permit a bunch of homes to be built there, permitted permanent structures, but you may have a spot that allows for multiple temporary structures to all be clustered.

And that is a great opportunity for lot of people, both from a real estate standpoint, if you’re investing in land and don’t know what to do with it, but also if you’re looking for an affordable solution for housing and you can’t buy the land yourself, you can then lease it from

somebody.

Kristen Knapp (10:44)
Yeah, that’s amazing and I’d love for you to talk about just the opportunity surrounding tiny homes with affordable housing and how expensive everything is getting and how it helps people really get into the housing market.

Ellie Madsen (10:58)
Sure. So you can’t take out a typical mortgage on a tiny home because it’s not real estate. So that’s a challenge at times, but you can still get different loans for them. But as far as what they offer, you can really do a lot of the same things. We’ve seen people use these as Airbnbs. And if you go really simple with them too, we see a rise in

boutique hotels, glamping, people who are looking for the most affordable, straightforward way to have multiple units, whether that’s for housing or not. It benefits the local communities regardless because the people who are investing in short-term rentals, if they’re looking for alternatives also.

and they’re getting things like tiny homes and glamping sites and everything to make that profit. That means that they’re not going up and buying the homes that could be long-term rentals for the local communities. But then also, it is a great housing option also. So you have that for the local residents who could purchase one of these and have, whether it’s their mom, their family staying on the same property as them or…

just having it for themselves. And we’ve seen people purchase these, own a home, and then rent out their main home and stay in the tiny home because they like it more and it’s just made more financial sense to them at the time.

Kristen Knapp (12:16)
That’s interesting. That’s a really interesting model right there. Yeah, mean, really does help people. You were saying before the call, you were saying how people get priced out of paradise. And I think that’s a really interesting concept, how prices are rising and people have to maybe adjust where they live, which is heartbreaking.

Ellie Madsen (12:38)
Yeah, and some places are loosening up some of the rules to build. Over here we call it an Ohana dwelling, which is an ADU. So another unit built on your property. But these units are really simple. As far as…

Kristen Knapp (12:48)
Hmm.

Ellie Madsen (12:58)
a turnkey option where you’re not dealing with the construction on your own home turf. You’re just having a turnkey unit that is custom made for you, brand new and delivered. Yeah, but there’s there’s a lot of options as far as modular units and all kinds of portable tiny homes that different companies are building and they all vary in quality and style, but it’s great to see more and more options pop up all over.

Kristen Knapp (13:25)
Yeah,

and you were saying that one of your biggest strengths is the design. So you guys take a lot of pride in your design, I’m sure.

Ellie Madsen (13:32)
We do. You know, I study tiny homes. I look at so many layouts of what other people are doing.

Of course, I’m the designer, so I like what I do. I wouldn’t produce a product if I didn’t think that it was the smartest and the most elegant way and the most practical way, which are often the same. Usually if something works really well, there’s absolutely a beauty in that. So.

Kristen Knapp (13:43)
thing.

Yeah.

Ellie Madsen (13:57)
I think the more time spent meditating on every little detail, the better it’s going to turn out. And that’s why we do kind of keep things smaller so that we can pay attention to every little detail, especially when people are asking for…

You know, one or two little custom things in a tiny home, it changes everything. If you have one or two requests, you’re like, all right, the whole bathroom and kitchen are gonna change. Okay, how are we gonna figure this out? But we do. And that’s the fun of it, is seeing how each one can be a little different. they’re all one of a kind. And I think that’s special too, built for the person who own it.

Kristen Knapp (14:19)
Yeah.

that is very special.

And so working with Tiny Homes kind of got you interested in land and I know that you founded the Landshare Network so I would love for you to talk about how this experience helped you with that experience.

Ellie Madsen (15:28)
So it came to be from a lot of people calling us for tiny homes are people who may have just purchased land and they’re weighing their options. They’re saying, okay, should I develop? And if I do develop, should I get something small to stay in while I’m building my house over the next five years? So we do have some people who are purchasing in that capacity. But…

Seeing that there’s a lot of people with land who don’t necessarily have a solid plan for it, but they want to do something with it. And then on the other end of the spectrum, a lot of the people who are calling us are looking for a home, but they haven’t purchased land yet. And the beauty with this is because they’re so easy to move.

You can technically own a tiny home and not have to invest in land if it doesn’t make sense or be in some of the most beautiful locations, multi-million dollar, gorgeous acreage that you don’t have to buy, but you can still have the best of both worlds and that you can lease that land, park your unit and have something that you still own and you love and it’s yours and the security that, you know, if your lease is up and they see they sell their property,

three years down the line, you can still relocate and have pretty much the same thing you began with. So the Landshare Network is an idea that was brought from connecting with these different types of inquiries. I’m like, I have land, what should I do with it? I have a tiny home, where do I put it? So I started connecting people just by saving numbers in my phone and trying to help out as much as possible. But I knew that…

Kristen Knapp (16:59)
again.

Ellie Madsen (17:04)
you know, having a tiny home, the more options of placement you have, the more free you are and also the more secure you feel. So I wanted to really drive that and just open up the options. And as a real estate investor and somebody who is looking for ways to make more passive income, that’s not just Airbnb. This is a really cool way to profit from your land without having to develop it at all.

We see raw land being added to Landshare Network that has no improvements. We see other options that do have amenities and do have utilities, which they’re able to charge more for that. So we see people charging $1,000, $2,000 a month just for a parking space, which…

That’s decent, Anom.

Kristen Knapp (17:49)
Yeah,

making money. That’s amazing. And how do you, I know you started out with just saving numbers in your phone, but how do you connect to the community and how do you build the awareness of this?

Ellie Madsen (18:01)
So I started adding properties to our Paradise Tiny Homes website. And then that grew into a new website called landsharenetwork.com. And I built that website myself. I’m not a web developer, but I plan to invest in that now and make it something that works really, really smooth.

But right now it works perfectly to go to landsharenetwork.com and add your property by just filling out a form. And then you show up on a map and people who are looking for tiny home parking or even other things to do with their land, it can be farming or storage. Maybe they want to store a boat or a shipping container. They can add their property to Landshare Network and people will see it. And they can search by location or even by use.

Kristen Knapp (18:48)
Well, I mean, I think it’s awesome. I think that you’re making a big difference in the community and that must be very gratifying as well.

Ellie Madsen (18:54)
I hope it helps. I see it helping a few people already, which is really fun. It’s fun to see the connections and the tiny home community is pretty tight, you know, so it’s a lot of word of mouth too. That’s how it has been. Do you have a spot? you know of any little secret tiny home community kind of thing happening? And this is a way just to make more people aware. A lot of…

A lot of landowners got excited, which I wasn’t expecting as much. I thought more of the excitement would come from the tiny home owners.

Primarily, but the landowners are like, ⁓ I can make money from just my raw land. This is great. I would love to add it. And that to me was an eye opener. Like, okay, this is being well received on both ends, which that’s what we need to connect the right people. So I think things are really falling in line and watching the connections be made is just gonna be.

super fun to come because I can already see it forming.

Kristen Knapp (19:53)
We’ll remind everybody how to find Paradise Tiny Homes and how to find Lancer Network.

Ellie Madsen (19:59)
So we are on Instagram, are on Facebook, Paradise Tiny Homes and Landshare Network. And then our websites are paradisetinyhomes.com and landsharenetwork.com.

Kristen Knapp (20:11)
Well, thank you so much, Ellie. I think people learned a lot about the tiny home concept. And yeah, thank you for being here.

Ellie Madsen (20:18)
Thank you for having me. Yeah, anybody send me a direct message anytime, email me. My number is out there too. You can send me a text or call if you want to connect and ask more questions about Lanter Network or Tiny Homes in general. Thank you.

Kristen Knapp (20:32)
Awesome. Well, thank

you so much and everyone please check out Paradise Tenning Homes and Landsharing Network and we will see you back next time. Bye.

Ellie Madsen (20:40)
Thanks, Kristen. Bye.