A new tiny home community in Colorado called MarLin Village becomes the fourth one in La Plata County. It sits next to the Pine River within walking distance of Bayfield, a historic mountain town near Durango. Residents can walk to restaurants, a coffee shop, the post office, and more.
Cofounders Mark and Linda owned this land for many years as an investment property for their retirement. But they weren’t sure what to do with it until they discovered tiny homes. They share their aha moment:
“Then we just happened to see a tiny home, and what struck us was the fact that this feels a niche. These houses around here cost $400,000 to start (average cost over $700k). So there’s a void. That spoke to our heart that this was the right thing to do because that is going to get people home ownership.
There’s pride in home ownership and growth in homeownership, too. That would give them a home instead of renting the whole time. People our age, some of them, want to downsize, and this fills their needs. There’s minimal maintenance. They can go out and go hiking, fishing, traveling, whatever, and they don’t have to be home to mow the lawn, weed eat.
It’s not for everybody you know, but it for the people that do like it’s perfect.”
-Mark & Linda, MarLin Village cofounders
MarLin Village features 15 tiny house lots for full-time residence. Amenities include a community garden, lots of fruit trees, storage units, a pavilion with BBQ grill, a variety of shaded outdoor seating, and river access. Monthly lot rent is $650. This includes water, sewer, trash, recycling, and snow removal on the streets. Electricity and high-speed internet are billed seperately. For comparison, a local one-bedroom apartment start at about $1,200.
A park model tiny house Airbnb is another amenity. Mark and Linda bought this to offer residents accommodation for visiting family and friends. Also, the rental provide others with the opporunity to tiny home community life. They call it the Ruby Lantern, a nod to the local mining history.
Interested in living at MarLin Village? Apply online.