[City]

as a realtor i think this is a really interesting idea but i just got my license so I’m not yet experienced enough to tell you the problems with it besides the obvious that most have already stated, but I did bring it up to my mom (also a realtor but for way longer) and she brought up some good points- it wouldn’t appreciate like a normal house, the land might appreciate but just that. also, those things are painted with lead paint, which is awful for you, and would ~release its toxins~ when doing any kind of work on it.

that’s all i have to add but this is very interesting :)

I was thinking the same thing @coco??. @RussEfarmer the land will appreciate in value sure, but the container house won't. It's a fad thing that will have extremely limited interest in the future. County/city permitting would be a nightmare if they would even permit it at all. Most likely all you could resell is the land and the container would need to be demolished unless you plan on having it moved and living in it for the rest of your life. The value on the land would also take a lot longer to appreciate than land with improvements (A house, building, etc.)

Additionally, say you pull this off around $50,000 as in your cost range you mentioned. You can't really finance any of the things mentioned (to my knowledge), they need to be paid in cash. Instead you can take that money and invest it as a down payment on a house, condo, vacation rental, etc. and make a ton more money in equity. Assume the average 3 bed/2 bath home in your area sells for around $300,000 like you said. That's a 16.7% down payment and using today's interest rates and my local tax rate your monthly payment would come to around $2,400, which I'm guessing isn't too far off from how much a 3 bedroom apartment costs near you, however you'll be building equity toward future real estate investments. It doesn't sound good short-term but it pays off long-term. Especially if you can find a multi-unit deal, that can be very lucrative.