With the tongue-in-cheek name of Clever Tiny Homes, three San Diego entrepreneurs are hoping to revolutionize the manufactured home market.
They’re aiming to become a billion-dollar company within the next three to four years.
Founder
Clever Tiny Homes
“Our goal is to be one of the largest housing builders in the U.S.,” said Jonathan Palley, who started Clever Tiny Homes in 2022 with co-founders Didi Zhao and Asa Feinstein.
Palley, Zhao and Feinstein took what they learned building a back yard granny flat during COVID to form their own company, building what has euphemistically become known as tiny homes.
“We were spending a lot of time talking about the housing crisis that we face as a country and a region as well,” Palley said. “We basically said there’s an opportunity to look at houses and ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units) as a product that’s manufactured at a very high quality, kind of take that Apple-like approach to the product, verses the custom build and be able to drive down prices and drive-up quality.”
As their name suggests, tiny homes are small, but so is the price.
The basic studio model that Clever Tiny Homes sells is 220 square feet, priced at $64,955.
“Obviously, tiny homes aren’t for everyone,” Palley said.
Scaling Up
But as home prices continue to skyrocket, Feinstein said that people are deciding that they can make do with less space.
“It feels much larger than it actually is, thanks to the high ceilings, very bright colors, very big windows – all those things really,” Feinstein said. “The first comment people always make when they walk inside is, like, ‘Wow, this feels a lot bigger than I was expecting.’”
The homes that Clever Tiny Homes build make the most of the space they have.
Six windows, including an eight-foot-long window over the kitchen countertop and large windows at both ends of the homes, give them an open feel.
Everything is built-in, including a queen-size Murphy bed that folds up into a wall to turn the bedroom into a living room.
Buyers can add washer and dryer hookups, composting toilets, a dishwasher, and electric ovens, and heated floors, but the model isn’t designed to be customized much beyond that.
“We’re like a car company, where there’s a model and there are some trims that you can get, but it’s not a custom-built car,” Palley said.
The homes are built on a trailer chassis, with wheels attached.
Palley said that what distinguishes Clever Tiny Homes from conventional motor homes is the quality of the materials.
Where a conventional motor home might have prefabricated bathtubs and shower stalls, Pally said that theirs are tiled.
“The materials that you’d find in these homes are the exact same materials you’d find in a normal, site-built, quality home. The only difference is that the foundation is a trailer.”
The tiny homes have vinyl plank flooring, wood ceilings, and black trim around the windows.
The homes are made in a 55,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Ensenada and can be shipped anywhere in the U.S.
The company lists San Diego as its home base, but it doesn’t have brick-and-mortar headquarters. Its San Diego staff works remotely, Palley said.
The company had an initial workforce of five people and grew to a staff of 80 by January.
“We should double that within a month,” Palley said. “We’re scaling up very aggressively and are very fortunate to have a lot of customers who are looking for our product.”
Clever Tiny Homes will be featured at the TinyFest at the Del Mar Fairgrounds March 16-17, where the company will debut a one-bedroom model of about 400 square feet that will be priced at about $100,000.
Feinstein said that zoning changes and legislation “have really opened the doors for these types of homes to be placed in back yards throughout California and in certain cities, including San Diego.”
Clever Tiny Homes
FOUNDED: 2022
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
FOUNDERS: Jonathan Palley, Didi Zhao and Asa Feinstein
BUSINESS: manufactured housing
EMPLOYEES: 80
WEBSITE: www.clevertinyhomes.com
CONTACT: 888-301-2088
NOTABLE: Clever Tiny Homes aims to become a billion-dollar company within the next three to four years.
