Smart House is both a selection of efficient housing designs and an implementation strategy package for getting ordinary people into home ownership.

We began our investigation by asking “what is going into houses that makes them so expensive, and what can we control to make them more affordable?” We started by looking for things that we really don’t need such as extra rooms, decorative trim, layering of materials, assembly details, construction waste and so on. Next we looked at the actual cost of materials and installation to see if conventional construction is really the most cost-effective method. Finally we looked at things that can be done at no extra cost that can reduce operating costs and add value, convenience and beauty, such as flexible design to take advantage of solar orientation.

Smart Houses
The result of our inquiry is two product lines, the Shed Boy: a simple efficiency dwelling unit, and the Smart House: an expandable live-work loft house. By themselves, each can provide a variety of market solutions outlined below.

Smart House Package
Used together, they become a Smart House Package: a strategy where the Shed Boy is used as a rental unit in the back yard, and the income generated helps offset the mortgage payments.
• If the rental income they produce is applied directly to the mortgage, we could consider the payment equivalent of a $20,000 a year income boost. (e.g. if you make $50,000/year you can qualify for a $1300/mo mortgage. Apply a $500/mo rental income and you are now paying $800/mo, which you can qualify for at $30,000/year). Even if considered conventionally, an extra $500/mo is a nice perk.

Low Cost-High Design
By using an architect designed home rather than a minimal tract-house or manufactured house design we can provide the new owner a huge opportunity of built-in equity. A Smart House should easily appraise for $100 per square foot more than the cost we can provide it for. Every time we succeed at this we have given someone an economic boost.

Implementation
We can help implement housing goals, both by providing Smart House Packages, and by helping people understand and believe that they can become home owners. Here are a few strategies we could use and benefits we can showcase:
• Infill Housing:
o Close to services.
o Reduce burden on infrastructure.
o Save money on transportation. Walk, Bike. Transit.
• Mixed-Income Neighborhoods:
o Turn renters into owners.
o Provide rental housing in otherwise unaffordable neighborhoods.
o Avoid “income ghettoization”
o Create vibrant communities.
• Immediate owner benefits:
o Instant equity-Smart Houses will appraise for more than they cost to build.
o Income-Shed Boys generate positive cash flow.
o Location-more money can be applied to a desirable lot.
o Size-more money can be applied to a bigger or nicer Smart House.
o Savings,-less income need be used for shelter.
o Low operating costs-tight, well insulated, and solar oriented.
• Flexibility:
o The Shed Boy can be delivered or built on-site, and the future owner of the Smart House can live in it during construction.
o The owner can contribute sweat equity to the Smart House.
o The Shed Boy alone can be used as emergency housing, worker housing, an efficiency dwelling, an accessory dwelling unit, (laneway housing, granny flat etc.) a cabin, cottage, bunkhouse, studio, kiosk, job shack etc.
Opportunity
We are very excited by all this and believe that we can make a real difference with the Smart House concept. It has the best of all worlds: it is a market-based product which does not rely on grants or subsidies; it provides a real ownership and equity opportunity to those who are currently excluded; it creates local economic opportunity for builders and suppliers in these rough economic times; and it encourages growth and vitality and diversity in our communities.