Shipping containers are increasingly being repurposed as innovative living spaces, evolving beyond their traditional role in cargo transport. In this episode of Boxcar Universe, we engage Evan Glickman along with the team from Tectume Adv, who are pioneering the concept of prefab living through intelligent design and expedited construction processes. Their approach not only promises to enhance the efficiency of building but also aims to address the growing demand for sustainable housing solutions. We delve into the myriad possibilities that these container homes offer, whether for additional space, generating rental income, or creating off-grid retreats. Join us as we explore the future of container home living and its implications for modern housing.

Takeaways:

1. Shipping containers have evolved into innovative living spaces such as homes and off-grid retreats.
2. The concept of accessory dwelling vehicles offers a practical solution for additional living spaces without extensive permits.
3. Constructing container homes enables a sustainable lifestyle while circumventing traditional bureaucratic obstacles associated with real estate.
4. The affordability of container homes makes them an attractive option compared to traditional housing solutions.
5. Utilizing shipping containers for housing can significantly reduce costs while maintaining high build quality and structural integrity.
6. The flexibility of container homes allows for various applications, from guest houses to portable offices or even storage solutions.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. tectumeadv.com
2. stardustbuilding.org
3. idealhomeimprovementaz.com
4. boxcaruniverse.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Tectume Adv
2. Mr. Electric of Phoenix-Metro
3. Ideal Home Improvement
4. Stardust Building Supplies

Shipping containers aren't just for cargo anymore.

They're becoming homes, adus and off grid escapes.

Today on Boxcar Universe, we're talking with the team from Tectoum Adv who are redefining prefab living with smart design, real engineering and faster build times than traditional construction.

If you ever thought about adding space, creating income or, or building smarter, you don't want to miss this one.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has searched for ways to shelter themselves from the elements.

Over the centuries, these shelters have evolved from bamboo huts to concrete towers.

The last few years, there's been a push to save the planet.

Are you ready to embark on a more sustainable lifestyle?

Look no further.

You're about to enter the adventures of container home living.

And now, contractor, radio and TV personality and your host for Boxcar Universe, Steve Dubel.

Hi, I'm Steve Dubell, host of Boxcar Universe.

And here's what's coming up on this week's edition of Boxcar Universe.

We have Evan Glickman and Carl Iscat here from techtune.

So we've got a great show planned for you.

I want everybody to hang tight.

That and much more on Boxcar Universe, your home for remodeling and renovating your world.

And we are here fully revved and primed and ready to go into a full year of boxcar information for all our listeners out there, all across the country, actually all across the world.

And you know, just, just recently I had the pleasure of meeting Evan Glickman and Carl Iscat over at the Maricopa County Home and Garden show which is here in Phoenix.

And they had an example exhibit of one of their mobile container home units, home slash office.

So we're going to get into that right now, but let me bring Evan into the conversation first.

Evan, welcome to Boxcar Universe.

And how are you doing today?

I'm doing great, Steve, thanks so much for having me on today.

Great, great to have you here for our listeners.

Tell us a little bit about you, the company and what inspired you to create techtune.

Oh, awesome.

Well, so I come from commercial Real estate did a bunch of transactions of value add and distress department for a real estate investment trust back in the day.

And then once that market more or less dried up, it got too competitive.

I was looking for something to do that was more impactful.

And I came up with the idea of building apartment buildings, building housing in Mexico and transporting it to the United States.

So trying to do something that was a little bit more impactful for the US housing market than what I used to do in private equity, which was looking through 500 deals, trying to find the one that was slightly undervalued to purchase for my fund.

And so I had this idea to build in Mexico where the cost of labor was really low.

And then I built my company off of that.

And I opened up a small factory in Hermosillo, Mexico which is south of Phoenix, and had the idea of converting shipping containers as a way of expediting that idea, because for a bunch of reasons which we could get into, shipping containers are a great unit to build my modules out of.

Built a 19 unit apartment complex as a prototype project to cut our teeth.

On.

On getting stuff across the border, meeting every code, every fire requirement, et cetera, et cetera.

And then having done that process, we wanted to expand our offerings to something that we could sell to retail, something that could go into your backyard.

We took pretty much our exact module for our apartment complex and, and realized if you put it on wheels, certified it as an rv, you could cut out so much of the excess costs that are involved with development.

And what I mean by that would be permit costs, inspection costs, utility hookup costs and on site labor.

So basically when you're doing a build, there's a whole host of costs before you actually get to anything vertical, above the ground.

And those costs are pretty, pretty large and they're growing larger for Phoenix.

So if you could put something, like I said, on axles and have it be self contained, the amount of savings you get is really quite, quite interesting.

And so that's, that's what made us decide to do our adv product, which we call the accessory dwelling vehicle, which is a completely self contained container on axles, with solar, with water storage.

And the idea of it is you get the same build quality as an apartment building, as a house, the same container, the same studs, the same electrical.

But you don't have to deal with any GCs or inspectors or architects.

You could just drop it on your parcel of land.

So basically it doesn't require any of the, like you say, any of the, the building Inspections along the way.

Because technically, it's built in a factory and it's all certified and checked out when it.

Before you even ship it to wherever it goes.

Correct.

Which makes life a lot easier, too, because the only thing that you have to deal with then, obviously, because it's on wheels.

I mean, you could almost put it anywhere as long as you.

As long as you had some type of way to have utilities.

Well, exactly.

So, I mean, when we were building our project.

Our project, our apartment complex, we.

You just realized in that process, there are so many things that are out of your control.

Like, I'll give you an example.

Our electricians just didn't show up for an inspection to get our, you know, main electrical connected to the panel.

They didn't show up three times in a row.

And, like, you know, it's just such a pain in the butt.

And we were paying them a lot of money to do this project.

And then, you know, for a homeowner trying to do an addition and trying to manage these different contractors and inspections and officials and architects and designs and permits and.

Did you submit this form?

And do you have that thing?

It's just.

It's so much time and money and.

Yeah, for this one, we sort of certified as an RV from the factory, and.

And it's a completely, wholly encapsulated unit.

So again, you drop it down, and you can always add utilities if you wanted to, but, you know, those costs are in the tens of thousands of dollars per utility you add, like, depending on where they are.

Right.

Then water's there, electricity is there, sewers there.

And this just lets you.

It lets you have something today that you could build off of and do what you want afterwards if you want.

But it is certified as an rv, so there are a lot of places that you cannot do that.

So I don't want to be glib about the restrictions that an RV does have.

Legally, you check your zoning, check your hoa, make sure that it's something that, you know, that you can legally park an RV there.

And if you can legally park an rv, you can park this because it is an rv.

Exactly.

And there in, obviously in Arizona, I think, is a very good place for.

For what you.

For the type of unit that you have.

Because being that there is a lot of parts of, you know, not just Phoenix, but all, you know, Flagstaff, Prescott, where there are RV parks everywhere.

Because this is a, you know, place that people come to, I don't want to say, well, yeah, they kind of come and kick back a little Bit because they want to get out of wherever they're living and they want to just relax and take it maybe for a vacation or something.

But I think again, having something that, I think the unit that I saw that you had at the home show is it's a little more than a traditional RV that you can get from any other manufacturer here because of the way that it's built.

And it is more like a traditional home inside.

Oh, it's built like a house in every way you could imagine.

It's got a concrete subfloor, it has tile floor, it's got custom tile showers.

It's got a, you know, a nice wooden, like a hardwood entry door.

I had a full picture window, like an 8ft tall by 7 foot wide window in one section.

The difference is again, it's, it's in the legal certification as an rv.

It's, you know, it's just legally allowed to do things that a, you know, typical house wouldn't.

Yeah, and exactly.

And that's, you know, that's an option and I think, you know, our listeners need to take into account because if they are going to be looking for, you know, I mean, I can't tell you how many people I run across during the course of contracting and speaking with homeowners that, you know, I say, well, you know, I'm looking for, you know, I want to get an RV and I want to go on the road whether it be for a month or a weekend or a vacation.

And you know, you travel all the way around Phoenix and where there are lots that are big enough, where people have a side gate or just that extra parking area where you'll see an RV or something on the side there.

I mean, that's just part of, you know, what people have experienced and you know, for those can afford it, I think it's very important because, you know, that's what we're here for.

We want to be able to work and enjoy time with our family and our friends.

And you know, I think it's a, it's a, it's a great way and it's a great product to take out on the road.

How does it, I'm just curious, how does it fare being with all these things built as a home fair on the road, as far as, you know, vibration and this.

Are there any special issues and stuff that you need to do to, to handle being that it's over the road?

Yeah, well, I, I do want to make one thing clear.

It's really designed for a semi permanent installation.

So it's designed as a guest house or as a off grid cabin or as like something, something for you to enjoy a specific place.

When we do the installation, we sell it with delivery included.

And when, when it's farm delivery, there's going to be like a couple of little things that get, you know, there might be like a crack in the drywall because it's, it's real drywall.

So something like that that will come and do a quick fix as the final install.

But it's not designed for regular over the road travel.

It's designed for a semi permanent.

There are again, the RV allows what allows us to put it places without these inspections, without these permits, without you know, having to hook up utilities to it.

But it's not our warranty, doesn't cover, you know, taking out on the weekends over and over again.

That being said, the fact that it's built into a container gives it an enormous amount of rigidity and structural strength.

That really helps a lot for all of those issues.

So we would never even think about putting tile into a normal typical RV that's made out of foam with fiberglass skin, right?

Yeah.

So no, it's, it's the structure of the container protects it from the vast majority of those of those items.

No, and that's good.

And I want to make that.

The reason I brought that up, I wanted to make it clear to everybody, you know, that if they are looking for something to go over the road, then maybe this isn't what you really want.

But when you have something that you want to plant, like you said, somewhere you want, especially, you know, if you want to have an ADU here on your piece of property, this is an easy way to do it.

I mean, and you'll be able to put it as long as they allow, you know, an RV on your property, like you say, you almost could put it anywhere because it's on wheels.

And if by some chance, you know, like you say, if you, if you have it on your property and you're living there for a couple of years and you move, much like I tell everybody else when they ask me what about container pools and stuff like that, I said, well, you know, the advantage of having a container pool on your property is that if you decide to move, you could take it with you.

The same with this, you could take it with you and put it on your new piece of property, which is really good.

And the other thing about RVs is RVs, the useful life of an RV is like 10 to 15 years.

And if there's a problem with it, they're pretty difficult to fix.

So again, if you have a roof leak or something like that, it could easily total your rv.

It's not a fixable product.

It's more of a, I'm not going to say disposable, but it's built in that similar style ours because it's got studs, insulation, drywall, subfloor, you know, all those things.

And it's built out of a container.

It should last with minimal maintenance, you know, outlive all of us.

And if there is a problem, any handyman can fix it.

It's not, it's not made out of plastic or made out of fiberglass.

It's, you know, the same drywall and spackle that you could buy at Home Depot.

You know, the same paint, everything's the.

Same, you know, and I think that that is a great point to make.

And the other thing you brought up too, that came to my mind is you're talking about traditional RVs.

And I've had people call me about, well, I've got this problem with my plumbing in an rv.

Okay, Plumbing in an RV is not like plumbing in your home or in your, or your units, your advs, because they have, they use different kind of supply lines, they do use different kind of valves.

And if you're not familiar with that type of stuff and specific, I mean there are mechanics out there and plumbers that do nothing but work on RVs because they are so specialized and they're built a certain way.

But when it's built like a home, like you say, any handyman could really handle anything that, you know, goes on inside of that, you know, you know, a leak, a drywall crack, you know, anything that you need to maybe upgrade shelving or anything like that that you need to put in.

Being that it's built, you know, it shouldn't be a problem at all for somebody who's skilled.

It's 100% exactly right.

It's, it is a.

Again, I can't stress enough enough.

It is built to the same standards as any of our other products are, you know, our permanent products.

It, just because it's on wheels and we certified was just a way to shave at least $25,000 in six to eight months off of the timeline.

For somebody who wants this type of an off grid cabin or this type of a backyard structure just to shave a lot of that red tape.

So the cost of solar, the cost of batteries has been dropping precipitously and unfortunately the cost of bureaucracy and all Those things has dropped, just risen and risen and risen.

So in our estimation, those lines have crossed.

The bureaucracy is too expensive, and the solar is so cheap.

It's cheaper to add solar and encapsulate in axles than it is to actually build it normally.

Right.

I hear all that stuff, you know, and one of the things that I loved about the unit that we're talking about that I saw at the Home and Garden show is that, you know, for all our listeners, when you figure you open up the end of a container, you see this one big, like, entranceway which would normally be going in the container, which could be, you know, 8 to 10ft high, 8ft wide.

Well, you've created a big picture window which is part of the living area where you could be laying in bed, wake up in the morning, you know, doors are open, you could see if it's not.

If you're on a nice light lot, you could see wildlife, you could see the sunrise.

You could have coffee and watch all the prairie dogs run by.

But no, it's a great.

It's a great way to be able to enjoy life and see something like that.

I mean, that's just that I think that.

I think that part of the design was really cool.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's good.

All right, we're going to take a short break.

When we come back next, we're going to be talking about one of the other projects that Evan and Carl have worked on and created over here in the city of Phoenix called Stacks on Polk.

So I want everybody to stay tuned.

You're listening to Boxcar Universe.

This is Steve Dubel from Boxcar Universe.

And if your home needs a transformation, Ideal Home Improvement is a team you can trust.

From kitchens to bathrooms, room additions, windows, roofing and flooring, even full home renovations, we deliver craftsmanship, communication, integrity every step of the way.

Licensed, bonded and insured.

Ready to upgrade your home?

Ideal Home Improvement.

We build it better because your home deserves it.

Stardust Building Supplies is your home improvement thrift store.

Find salvaged and gently used cabinetry, doors, window windows, appliances, lighting, plumbing and much more.

Save money, be green and support the community.

Shop and donate at Star Building Supplies Valley locations.

For more info, visit stardustbuilding.org.

All right, we are back and you're listening to Boxcar Universe.

And we're here with Evan Glickman and Carl Iscat from Techtum today.

And we're talking about.

In our first segment, we were talking about their great adv product accessory dwelling Vehicle.

But we want to get into a little bit of another project that Evan had started and created and get some insight from Carl as well.

Let's talk about Stacks on Polk.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So, like I was saying earlier in our conversation, Stacks on Polk was our prototype project.

It was the end of the experiment of can you build housing in Mexico and ship it to the US And I was coming from a commercial REIT background, so I was focused on really multi family commercial projects.

And 19 units was the smallest commercial project you can pretty much do.

So I wanted to prime the pump for going through all of the motions for a larger commercial project out of containers made in Mexico.

So I found.

I chose Phoenix because it was a good sandbox for this project.

It was a good depth of market.

Pretty easy build, pretty, you know, pretty pro development city.

It was close to Mexico.

And it just worked out well for the.

For, you know, all of the.

The full analysis worked out that Phoenix was a good spot.

And then that piece of land that we found near Papago park was a really nice central location that we thought was going to have a decent amount of upside in the future, which it has done so far in the few years we've owned it already.

And that's how Stack started.

Well, I think it's really in a good location because it's right off the freeway, off the 202, and it's leading right into all the stuff that's going on in North Scottsdale.

I should say North Tempe.

Excuse me.

So there's a lot of things to be able to do there, and you're just close to everything.

You know, what was on the lot before you purchased it?

Was there anything there or was it just an empty lot?

They were.

There were, I'm gonna say, two and a half derelict homes, all tear downs, one in the process of already being torn down by time.

By time.

I know how that goes.

You know, I saw another.

You know, they have those other shows that are on tv, too.

You might have termed it maybe zombie home, because they had those zombie homes that are just so dilapidated.

You know, are they really worth saving or.

Let's just bulldoze them.

Obviously, these were just ready to bulldoze.

So you didn't even need a bulldozer.

Just a strong.

A strong gust of wind would have done it.

Oh, a haboob would have taken it out, right?

Yeah.

Oh, my God, that's so funny.

But anyway, so you started to build them.

So the whole complex is 19 containers.

45 containers.

45 containers.

Okay.

But 19 units.

Yeah.

Okay, great, great.

And how long did it take to build all of them?

So my process took a while, so I took it step by step because every stage of the process was another major risk hurdle for the overall hypothesis.

So, like, for an example, you know, spending $50,000 on a set of architectural plans for containers, that money was.

Could have gone to zero if something else broke.

So I took it very cautiously, step by step, over a couple of years with COVID in between.

And then the actual build process was pretty fast.

You know, we did the assembly from Mexico.

Only took like, you know, four days of assembly because we didn't really know what we were doing at the beginning.

And then we got thrown for a bit of a loop because the state inspectors, this was a state jurisdiction project.

Even though our plans had been stamped and approved by our.

By us, our licensed engineers, them, the state reviewers, and the city.

And we'd also been approved by a third.

A third party authority having jurisdiction, a third party inspection service.

Like, basically the same authority as the state, the local.

State inspectors found issues a learning curve with this, like with the fire assemblies between the units.

Again, it had already been approved by everybody and then built in Mexico, approved for that build.

And then when they came here, there was a major issue that they discovered to their credit, it was an issue, but they didn't give us any resolution for that issue.

So it was a year and a half of back and forth.

I had to hire a special third party, very expensive fire engineer to give us a retrofit issue for that.

It's a very silly problem.

And if you had designed it with that in mind from day one, it would have cost you nothing to avoid.

Right.

I bet.

I bet.

Based on what Carl showed me the other day, showed me the area that we were talking, that you're talking about between the containers.

And it's like, yeah, it should have been real simple when you were building it.

Yeah.

Again, just one tweak of the pen would have saved a year and a half, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But that's part of that was.

That's part of the.

That's part of priming the pump.

The state inspectors had never done a project like this before.

Never.

They had, you know, the person who approved it.

You know, it's hard to understand these things without Seeing them the first time.

But yeah, the hardest part was they didn't.

Typically when you're doing a build and there's an issue, a really good, experienced and seasoned inspector will just tell you, oh, look, just change this to that.

Like, okay, this is up too high.

If you move it down 2 inches, you're good to go.

Just make that change by the next time I'm back or send me a photo of it with this change and you're good to go.

That's the guys you want to work with?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

But the thing for, for those guys to do that, you really need to use traditional construction where the issues are well known and very well understood.

And that season inspector had seen that issue 50 or 100 times before and knows exactly inside and out.

And I was asking a lot of these guys at the state for a new, a new type of project that they had never, never seen, you know, that hadn't.

Hadn't realistically been done in this way throughout the whole like before period.

So there's been other projects, multifamily projects that have been built outside of the U.S. although the examples I can count on one hand that I know of, you know, and I did a lot of research for a few years before this and none of them have been built out of actual containers like normal shipping containers.

You know, there's been concrete builds and things like that.

So this, this was a very brand new product for them.

Yeah.

Carl, you came in to the project after things have had started rolling already.

Tell us a little bit about your experience in this project.

Sure.

I'd been working with a architect, flipping houses here locally in the valley and always been fascinated by container homes and the construction of them.

About a decade ago, I started designing a hunting cabin when I was living in northern Idaho and kind of shelved it and came back and came to work for restaurant companies and building restaurants is what I did and had the opportunity.

I was between houses and I drove by the project and walked in and introduced myself to Evan and his site super.

And said I'd love to learn about construction of shipping containers.

I've been fascinated with it for years.

And Evan called me back and we decided to work together.

And it's been.

Been fun, you know, and challenging for sure ever since.

Oh yeah.

When the rest is history and here you are.

Well, you know, we feel like this is the beginning of something great, you know, an opportunity to actually make an impact and solve housing and make it economical for everyone.

I think the possibilities, like I had said so many Times are endless when you talk about the need for housing, not just for the general public, but for other things.

Like, you know, one of my passions is to be able to get, you know, build container communities for homeless veterans.

And I would love to.

And there's a gentleman we had on the show a few times in the past who actually was a politician from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and he went out and created a six container community and it didn't take a very long.

I think they had it, they had it created in about six months.

They had it done.

In fact, he gave me the blueprint, he said, just, you know, you're ready to go.

You know, here's the plan.

I'm like, okay, so now I just have to find the investors to do this.

But the other possibilities to obviously too are, you know, you know, with the advs to thinking about, you know, Evan, have you ever been approached or anything, especially like some of the disasters like the fires in L. A or anything like that for temporary housing?

We've had some approaches that was part of the calculus for the adv was in Los Angeles city and in San Diego city there's some new legislation which allows for an RV certified to this RV standard to be used as a permanent adu.

We built this thinking about that, but we were approached by some native American tribes.

We approached by one of those looking for something for their, for their, you know, for their, their housing needs.

And we've been approached by a couple other, a couple of like affordable housing style solutions.

Like for instance, we just had a call yesterday with someone looking for affordable like artists workshop, live workspaces.

We get those calls every once in a while.

The issue for that, it's not an issue, but the big thing for that is the funding sources for those things.

Takes a very long time in my experience and especially in today's political climate with a lot of that type of funding has really dried up.

It's much harder to get those projects across the finish line from conception to actual build.

But we'd be happy to talk, be happy to do it.

You're not going to find a cheaper method to do an affordable housing build than what we offer.

You just won't.

Yeah, I mean, and I think it's so important that one of the other things that, you know, we've spoken to different people about, which unfortunately is a problem, is the red tape of government getting in the way of trying to help people in disasters.

In every, every company I've spoken to around the country, I've had on the show that actually has units they create for a lot of different purposes like you do.

And like for instance in Hawaii, when they had the fires in Hawaii before the fires in la, you know, I spoke to the gentleman who was the owner of the company almost a year after the Hawaii fires and they were still having problems because of the government's red tape.

I mean it's amazing, you know, and who knows with the government that's in California how long it's going to take before the people that are, you know, were displaced are going to have a home.

Because I actually went out to Los Angeles, not too, I think it was about two months after the fires and met with a lady who was out there who actually was a reporter and she was reporting on the fires and then her dad had built a home in another part of la and all of a sudden she gets a phone call at six o' clock in the morning and as she's reporting the fires in this side of town saying that her dad's home, which he lived in on the other side of town is gone.

It just went up in flames.

And it's just like.

And then when I had gotten out there, I had contacted her and we went out to the property and it's amazing when you see stuff like this, how you wonder like when you think of fires, occasionally you think it's going to sweep through a neighborhood.

Her house.

And they had, this is all after they had cleaned it up already.

Okay.

Where you know, her house and maybe the house next to it were gone and they were head fired.

But yet you go to the house that's south of them and nothing.

Just the way the winds blew.

Yeah.

And then you go to the next block up the hill and the whole street's wiped out.

I mean, you just don't know.

But the problem is the government gets in the way.

And at the same time too, something like disasters are over, you know, overwhelms insurance companies and they, they don't have enough people to go around to take, to take, to be have appraise all the properties and the damage.

But I think if the government had in cases like this where they had, you know, I want to say emergency conditions and they would have the legislation in place, God forbid there's a disaster, not just in fires, but in floods where people like yourselves and other companies around the country with were able to go in and supply the needs for housing and food and other things without going through all this red tape, I think, you know, it would be, it would be a really great thing.

But I Don't know who's going to make the push for something like that, but it's.

It, it's definitely needed.

It's.

It's definitely needed.

I think we've got a great fit.

If you were to have a, you know, you have your property that's been damaged, destroyed or whatever, and in the meantime, when you're going through that permitting thing and the city's rebuilding the infrastructure, that is the plumbing, the electrical, putting power poles back up and you know, redoing everything.

What if you were to be able to put in a off grid, self sustained cabin?

Yes.

You get to hook it to power when the power and infrastructure is back and, or the plumbing, that's a bonus.

But while you're going through your construction process with the city and your architect and the imaginative, the demand and the stress that's that putting on it, at least you're not relying on a friend or family that you're staying with, with your dog and your kids and you've got something on your own property, maybe.

So kind of the way we look at that part as well.

Yeah.

So, Carl, were there any other issues besides that issue about the issue with the fire where you had to get the engineer and come up with a solution for that?

Anything else that came up along the way?

Yeah, that was a major one.

You know, obviously the weather in Phoenix and the rains and sometimes you see how boobs do when the rain blows in sideways, you know.

Oh, yeah.

Waterproofing and making sure that everything was bulletproof, which we've, you know, we've gone through some great tests for ourselves now and happy to report that we don't have anything going on there.

And you know, every time that we figure something out that we want to make a change, we obviously implement it in the factory right away to new products.

So.

Sure.

You can already see the differences between what Evan built at Polk Street a couple of years ago to what we built a couple of months ago down in Mexico.

And you can see the difference in the cabinets and, you know, finishes and flooring.

So, you know, it's, it's fun to see that we can immediately impact our design right away.

It's just, you know, we can implement right away if we, we think we've got a better way to do something.

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think again, that's key to be able to go and make changes relatively quickly so that.

This way.

Yeah.

So you don't, you know, if there is a problem, you know, it's like you don't want to Have a recall?

Sure.

Like so many cars, they don't want to have a recall.

Okay.

But we're going to take a short break.

When we come back, I want to, we want to get into a little bit about, you know, obviously I'm sure a lot of our listeners are thinking about, well, how much does it cost for one of these ATVs and you know, what other uses could you possibly have for something like that which we briefly touched on, touched on in our first segment.

But we want to get into it a little more.

But I want everybody to hang tight.

You're listening to Boxcar Universe.

Hi, I'm Erica Thompson, the dominating designer, a hard working artist with a sense of humor.

What is the dominating designer process?

It's just like what you see on tv.

We discuss your wants and needs about your project, go over your ideas.

Then I provide you creative, one of a kind options that fit your budget with respect to your home's value.

When we finish your project, you are set to enjoy your new space.

I would love to help you with your upcoming project.

Please reach out to me on Instagram thedominatingdesigner.

Hi, I'm Sean with Mr. Electric and I have a tip to help make your life better.

One important reminder is to call a qualified electrician when you have frequent problems with blowing fuses or tripping circuit breakers.

When a circuit breaker trips or a fuse blows, it's indicating that you have a problem with some other part of the circuit.

If your breaker trips more than once, you should have a quality electrician come out and take a look at it.

Contrary to what may be acceptable, you really shouldn't try to continuously try to reset the breaker because there may be a problem somewhere else down the circuit and you could be causing a fire hazard.

There could be a loose connection or some other form of problem on the circuit and every time you reset the circuit breaker, it could be causing a spark at the other end.

We recommend having a qualified electrician come out and check on the condition of the circuit and make sure that the circuit does not have any problems.

And it could just be a bad breaker also.

But you definitely want to have qualified electrician check that out.

To have someone come out from our team may only take a portion of a day, but it could potentially save you a lot of money for your life.

And that's just another way Mr. Electric has the power to make your life.

Better govern the future of sustainable lifestyle living.

With Boxcar Universe your go to source for cutting edge container home and container pool information.

Want a Dream container home or pool.

We can build it for you.

Hi, I'm Steve Dubell from Bockscar Universe.

For the latest in container innovation and expert insights, tune in to our weekly podcast, Boxcar Universe.

Ready to start your project?

Listen, learn and build with us.

All right, we are back and you're listening to Boxcar Universe.

And we are here with, with Evan Lichtman and Carl Iscat from techtune.

And Evan, one of the things that I'm sure everybody is asking about is, you know, costs.

Let's talk a little bit about costs and how it compares to other traditional RV type units because we kind of went over some of the advantages of your adv unit.

But let's talk a cost a little bit because everybody has a concern about what's in their pocket.

Yeah, absolutely.

So that was really the whole impetus of our whole company is designed to reduce costs.

And I think the adv product really shines in that aspect.

So as of, for instance, at the home and garden show, the tiny home across from us was selling for $180,000 and ours at that, the one we showed there was around 70,000 with all the upgrades and minus the show discount.

And the other thing that you really have to keep in mind is that $180,000 tiny home did not include the site work.

You will still need a full permit, which needs, which means you need an architectural set of plans, you need an electrician to hook up, you need water and sewer.

So again, we really think that we're coming in at around 50% of the price of a traditional build.

And that's again, because our cost of labor is so much lower at our factory in Mexico and because of the ways that we've built it to get rid of the red tape and bureaucracy for some of these.

For some of these types of things.

Yeah, I mean, again, we're back to that, you know, government bureaucracy, which is sometimes just, you know, it just gets in the way.

I mean, that's real costs.

It's not free.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, and I think about, you know, because everybody has a budget and I think for the most part, you know, you know, me involved in contracting all these years and doing remodeling, the last thing that I like to do is give somebody sticker shock.

I do not like giving people sticker shock.

You know, that's why I Always ask them, I said, well, please share me your budget range.

Because a lot of times, you know, some people will tell you if you say, what's your budget?

And they'll say, you know, like, you know, 150,000 maybe for a remodel or something like that.

But some other people, they're like, well, if I tell him how much money I have, he's going to use it all up, you know.

And so that's why I learned over the years, you ask the range and if they give any, you know, like pushback, I'm like, well, I don't want to over build your remodel.

I want to stay within your budget.

And I think they, most of the time, they appreciate it.

So when you ask them, well, how much do you want to spend for, you know, an adv, you know, and when it's in your budget, obviously the ones that you saw at the home and garden show that were across from you, yeah, they're nice, but they're expensive.

And like you say, you have all these other costs involved in it that until you sit down and talk to them about it and talk to the to, well, where's your lot?

Because every lot, no matter where it is, it's going to have a different.

If you want to hook up facilities, you know, utilities, it's going to cost you.

I mean, you know, Carl, you were just talking during the break, you know, a gentleman who, I mean, you talk about.

I don't think people realize sometimes what the cost of hooking up utilities are for sure.

Yeah.

So we're dealing with a potential client in Heber.

So a lot of people can afford the dirt outside of the city.

And you want to escape the city in the horrible months.

Why would you want to do that?

Right?

You know, you go somewhere like strawberry, you know, 20 degrees cooler, sure.

This guy's got property up there already three quarters of an acre next to a relative.

So the power is five grand once he wants to bring it in.

The septic is 40 grand once he wants to bring it in.

But right now we could use it this summer until he has the budget to make this all work.

So literally, can you imagine the view?

So we have the, you know, we have the capability.

All you got to do is bring us up there, back us up to your view.

You can be off power right now, generator and, or, you know, trucking in water.

If you don't have a water source and you can get the water, you can take the water away.

You can bring in the power via the sun Or a generator.

We can get you off the grid right now and buying land without, you know, even really looking for the help of a general contractor.

And if you can be handy, you can do this.

Yeah, and at the same time too, you know, with the solar on it, you should be able to generate an extensive amount of power.

I know we had a custom built system for our friend over on the west side of the valley, Susan, who owns the Shed, she's known as the Shed gal.

She's in 99th Avenue at Thomas.

And I found a gentleman who builds custom solar units.

He built a solar unit for her office area.

I think it's like 15 by 32.

And it powers all, everything that they have in the office.

Lights, computers, everything.

Plus if we had a container home model there, it had enough power from the solar to power the lights and everything in it.

So yeah, I mean off grid solar is, Solar's come a long way in the last 40 years.

You know, people ask me, well, do you use solar?

I said, yes, I can get your solar system.

That's not, that's not a problem.

But I think some people have a stigma about solar because, you know, going back 50 years, solar was just brand new.

Sure.

And you know, but I laugh sometimes when people turn around.

You know, we're living in an age here that, you know, you know, we're not going to be on this planet forever.

However, people turn around and they say, well, I, you know, I don't think the technology has come along that far.

I'm gonna wait.

And I'm like, how long are you gonna wait?

How long are you gonna wait?

I mean, you know, I mean, you may be gone by the time it gets to the point where you think it's okay and it's come up to, you know, your standards.

But no, it's come an extreme amount of long way and we've gotten past, you know, at least I think from the people that I know in solar that where people aren't trying to rip you off where.

Especially with some of those leases.

Those leases were unbelievable and they were just a money grab, you know, and the salesman was making out like a bandit.

And the poor people who got the lease thought that they were, they were making out because, oh, I don't have to spend that much money.

I have to buy the system.

Well, you know, it's crazy, the price.

So the, the most expensive part of the energy storage batteries is the shipping that they.

Of the shipping cost of the batteries.

That's how cheap they've gotten.

And then the solar panels are so cheap that they're like, they're not that much more expensive than plywood sheathing.

Yeah.

It's just amazing the way it's come along.

And you could.

A good analogy, I think, thinking about how solar has come along and those people that have gotten stuck with leases is the timeshares.

Back in the day, everybody, that was the rave.

Oh my God.

Timeshare.

I had two of them.

I had two of them.

I barely got rid of both of them.

I had to give one away to a nonprofit for sale just to get my name off the lease.

And they used it as a giveaway to someone.

And then the other one, thank God I was able to sell through one of those companies when they first started having people buy back, you know, to be able to get rid of them.

But again, budget is key.

You want to be able to do it.

And again, you know the uses of what your product is.

Guys, you know, you could, you could use an office space.

Could be.

Oh for sure.

I mean a recording studio.

Recording studio, yeah.

Therapist office.

It can be anything.

It just can be a storage unit.

How many storage units do you go around in this city and you see a 10 by 10 is 220.

250 bucks a month.

What's the ROI on if you put a unit in your backyard now you have it, you have storage, park condition storage.

As long as you can keep an rv, there's no reason this couldn't be a storage unit.

That's right.

And there's no reason that you can't use it as.

Yeah.

Our cost for ones without plumbing is dramatically lower.

So we make a shed line.

That's basically what Carl's describing.

If you need a yoga studio in your backyard that doesn't need any power that you, you know, the possibilities with shipping containers, you know, this are endless.

So we can do anything from the adv all the way up to an apartment complex.

That's right.

And for our listeners, I want a note.

If you'd like to see some of these units that we're told the guys are talking about, go to techtum adv.com that's T E c T u M e a D v dot com and you'll be able to see all in the shed plus is what you're talking about, guys, where.

Yeah.

And you know, there's a lot of people out there doing.

Oh my God.

You see a lot of advertisement at least on Facebook.

I've seen of different people.

You know, you got this company or that shit Company or I can build you shit company and ship it to you.

You know, everybody's got an angle that they be able to do.

But again, I still like the idea of, you know, you have something built, you have it.

You have a place on your property, you come get the crane and you bring it in and you drop it in place and call it a day, you know, and then you don't have to worry about.

You don't have to have your yard disrupted.

You know, if it has in most of the time, you could set it on piers or even a slab.

Whatever.

Whatever works for your particular situation.

And at least that's the way it's on a solid, solid above ground.

You anchor it to the.

To the ground and you're good to go.

Yeah.

And for a shed under 120 square feet, you don't need a permit.

Yeah, see, there you go.

No permit.

No permit required.

How does that sound?

I like that.

Evan, tell our listeners a little bit how they can contact you.

I know I just gave out the website, but tell our listeners how they can reach you.

Yeah, go on the website.

You can.

There's all of our contact info is there.

Or you can send us an email@helloectomadv.com and we answer.

We answer.

I'm here in the Valley if you want a tour of the ADB or the stacks at Polk.

Always available.

That's right.

And, you know, you answer the phone.

What a concept.

You have no idea how many times people say, oh, I had one.

The other lady called me, she said she went through Home Depot, and I got a referral from Home Depot.

And she said, oh, thank you for calling me back.

No one ever bothers to call me back.

I'm like, well, maybe they're not serious about being in business.

Why would you not call a customer back?

Even if you didn't want to do the job, have the courtesy of call them back.

But these guys are here ready to serve you for your needs and build a quality product.

And guys, thanks so much for being here today.

If you are a customer, please leave a voicemail.

We get so many spam calls, so if you leave, I look at all the voicemails instantly.

If it's a customer, I call you back within five minutes.

All right?

And you may want to preface that message.

This is not a spam call.

I am a real customer.

Guys, thanks so much.

I look forward to having you back on the show again in the very near future.

Thanks for having us all right.

And thanks for our listeners for listening to Boxcar Universe.

Remember, we are your source for cutting edge information on remodeling container homes, container pools and ADUs.

So let us help build your dream traditional or container home.

And also, don't forget, spring is coming.

It's going to get hot.

It's time to look at that container pool.

So don't forget to include, as we talked about earlier, solar.

So let's live that sustainable lifestyle.

You could always email me, steve@boxcaruniverse.com if you have any questions at all or would like to get connected with any of our guests that you hear.

You know, we are on several different podcast players.

I think it's over 15 now.

So make sure you check us out.

And always remember, let us remodel and renovate your world.

Have a great week.

You're a great American.

I love you.

Sam.