In February, Amazon was again in the news when it announced that a new option was now available to customers - a 'prefab home' with two bedrooms, which could be delivered to you already assembled, directly to your plot of land. And even with built-in appliances and furniture!
Where there are trends, there are TikTokers. For example, this guy, LA-based user @hittaa_jeff, saw the news, immediately placed an order, and a few weeks later he was already delighting his subscribers with an “unboxing” video. However, as sometimes happens, not everything went so smoothly...
More info: TikTok
The author of the video recently saw the news about Amazon starting to sell prefab homes - and placed an order on the spot
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
"Literally after today, y'all could take my card. I don't need it. I'm 23 years old. I just bought a house off Amazon"
"Take the card, take the card away. I bought a house on Amazon, I have a whole house on Amazon, it'll be here on the 29th. Ah, all I'm saying is go buy your house. The house was originally $24,000. After tax and everything, it came up to $26,000, still not bad.
But... I just bought a house on Amazon. All I'm gonna say is, Amazon is really like a dangerous place, because it's like, really? Houses. I didn't even think twice about it. I just did it. I don't even know where I'm gonna put the house."
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
"All right. The house is here. Today's the 29th. The house got here at like, eight o'clock in the morning"
"Before I show you the house I want to thank Karina because she was an Amazon specialist. She's seen my TikTok and she says she follows me and she loves me. She loves watching my videos and everything. She gave me a great job.
The house is not supposed to be this color. She gave me a whole different color house and on the papers, it says the square footage is way bigger. So, mwah, kisses to you, Karina. She gave me two-piece- two couches, y'all. Oh God, like, I'm sorry. She gave me two couches. And yeah, thank you, Karina, so much. I'm gonna show y'all the house."
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
"Oh, and another thing. She also helped me find the place that the house is in storage at right now"
"Because I have not bought the land yet. I really wanted to see how big it is. So they opened it, they unfolded it for me and everything. So when they deliver it, they're gonna put it back down. And when it gets to the location, they'll put it back up.
They only charged me $750 for that. If it's here every week, I have to give them $150 every week, because it's stored here. And then they're just going to keep it up like this just in case I want to come back and visit it anytime. Yeah, so let me show y'all the inside."
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: hittaa_jeff
Image credits: Trygve Finkelsen (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Marques Thomas (not the actual photo)
You can watch the original video here
The house finally arrived but the man nevertheless found some disadvantages in it
So, the Original Poster (OP) admits that, having seen the advertisement, he was instantly swayed by an impulse and immediately placed an order. Well, you get it - people are used to the fact that you can buy and deliver anything on Amazon, but a home is something completely different. And the author of the video simply could not resist this impulse.
Moreover, the man admits that he hasn't even bought a plot of land on which this house could be put, so for now he has to pay $150 a week just for storing his purchase. And yes, the company charged the OP $750 for unboxing. However, perhaps over 20M views for just two videos were really worth it...
The house itself, taking into account taxes and delivery, cost the author approximately $26K, but this amount, of course, does not include the land on which the house will stand, connection to all municipal communications and other related payments. However, as Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind used to say, "I'll think about it tomorrow!"
And today, the TikToker discovered that the house also has some disadvantages. Firstly, the walls are not the same color as in the photos on the Amazon website; secondly, almost all the decoration inside is plastic 'marble' (I wonder if he expected real marble...?) and, most importantly, the height of the ceilings.
The original poster says he's 5'8" tall, yet he still raises his arm and rests his palm on the ceiling. In general, to put it mildly, this is not a palace, and the man doesn't yet know what he will do with the house. I wonder if the terms of purchase of this prefab home include the possibility of returning it?
And here you can see the whole review
Well, if we were the author, we'd not be in a hurry to return the house - after all, even taking into account all the additional payments, it turns out to be quite inexpensive by the standards of California, and in general too. For example, Fixr.com indicates the average cost of building a 2-bedroom house in California at $1M-$1.68M, and the most budget option, according to the same source, is $400K. So a turnkey house for $26K looks like a good option... at least for Airbnb purposes.
By the way, some commenters on the original video advised the man to do just the same thing - to buy a couple more homes with home delivery (excuse the pun), put them all in a picturesque place somewhere near the river, and rent them out. Ain't that a startup idea?
People also noted in the comments that the total amount of payments for installing one house will be, according to the most conservative estimates, four times more. "Lmao you'll end up spending like 100K cause there's so much more you gotta get..." someone reasonably wrote. "Including land, papers cost like 5K... and a whole bunch of other things for it to work like water/electric... etc."
But, perhaps, the main question from commenters wasn't related to the house per se, but to the author of the video himself. Many people wonder what it is that the original poster is doing that he can afford to throw away $26K just on a whim? Well, while the author has not yet given an answer to all these identical questions, you can write what you yourself think about the very idea of prefab houses in the comments below this post.
People in the comments claimed that the whole amount for the house will be way more than $26k, yet the idea isn't that bad
