Maybe I'm reading this the wrong way, but I find your post just a tad derogatory.
This house seems rather well maintained and, with a garage and a fair bit of land, this seems a good price (unless it's out in the middle of nowhere or something)

You might want to check into the Small Homes forum. Not everyone feels the need to live in a monster home, especially if you're single, retired, or just starting a family and don't want to live in an apartment.

What is your point with this post?

This cute fishing cottage near me needs work (we went to open house) but has fantastic location.

Here is a link that might be useful: cottage

Chris - I think your being too sensitive. I do not particularly like McMansions, large homes or feel the need to live in one. But 540? Building a house that small just seems a little weird. I was trying to have fun. I like to smile and grin and it doesn't mean I'm laughing AT anything. I'm just enjoying the weirdness and differences in life. Sorry your such a grouch.

Mary, that sure is a teeny little house, but I bet it could be fixed up to be a really cool bachelor pad. I bet that Nate dude from the Oprah show could do wonders with it!

We have a small house...1700 sq' Lots smaller than our 2800 sq' last house we sold not long ago. It seems small in comparison but I just love it. It is perfect for us. I realize 1700 doesn't seem small to a lot of people, but it does to us right now. Very cozy :-)

I have one home not much bigger than that for sale at 670 sq ft. It has a lovely, deep full and dry basement. It also has a brand new furnace, insulation, decorative tiled bath, and a fuel bill for the whole year at about half of what I pay out in one month for mine in winter. Wet plastered walls, full front porch, landscaped lot, arch ways, original hardwood under new carpet, tall ceilings, crown molding, pantries, yadayadayada. The last people living in it said they didn't feel constrained at all, except for large sit-down meals. So far, the prospective buyers who have come to look have been empty nesters, singles, or just starting a family type. The rooms are surprisingly large (like 11 by 14 bedrooms) and the arches, instead of the typical interior doors don't hurt any and there is good use made of built-ins and closet space.

Not for everybody, for sure, and definitely not the typical mind-set these days of bigger is better, but they laughed all the way to the bank after their utility bills are paid and taxes come due. Both of the people who lived there last were outdoorsy and didn't spend that much time inside anyway, and part of their basement was an office room. The spare bedroom had a piano in it and was the music room. It was a comfy little nest.

I expect to see the one for which you posted the link come down even more. It's cute but I have a pretty good grasp on the price it's going to go at. I'd be curious.

We have a small house...1700 sq'

huh, that is not very small...

I don't know, Mary, it looks almost like what you've been looking for -- small house on big lot?

It's bigger than a lot of apartments. You could add onto it if necessary.

Ok so far its winning for the smallest house.
Although that cute fisherman cottage for over a million for 800plus square feet has got to win for most per square foot. Holy Cow! I suppose its really the land?
I've had a lot of friends in the little bunglalow neighborhoods of 800 and 900 sq ft. Many of them were built very well. But I've never seen a house this small. Especially in the country lthough there are a fair amout of 1000' similar and 1200' brick ranches etc in the country that were built later.
Just makes me wonder what the story was when it was built. Guess most people wonder about big amazing old houses. I wonder about everything LOL!
I have wondered if I could make it work.......but I think its just a tad too small. I can't quite suck up that small a kitchen and would like one extra room for office/guests. Let see, that makes what, 100' for an extra room and say another 50 on the kitchen...so my minimum would be 700? I do think I'd prefer 1000. If the came way down on price, way down so I could maybe add a room I might take look. A lot would depend on what the surrounding area/neighborhood/lot was like. But I don't think they'll come down that much.
I hope its perfect for somebody.
I'm definately a frustrated buyer. But I enjoy looking and bumping into all the variety out there even if its not for me.

The house my parents lived in when I was born was similar to that. Not quite as small, but probably pretty close (and also in Michigan...). Many years later we drove by it and they had converted the attic into a room and added a spiral staircse up to it. I'm sure that was a space-saving choice but it was so odd to see this teensy house with a spiral staircase going up the center of it. lol

Right now, with the local and national market the way it is, I'm glad I'm in a 2000 square foot house as opposed to a 4000 square foot. In the current market, I think the smaller homes are selling quicker. Reality has set in under normal circumstances. I still believe that large families and people who can afford a large home should do so if they want or need it.
My first home was under 1000 square feet. Sometimes, I actually miss the smaller home. In some ways, my life felt more "organized." Whether it's more square feet, or more money, we usually add more things to our life to complicate it, given the opportunity.

Our current house is about 2000 sf (including the finished basement area; probably 1400 sf on the main level) with a garage under the house. It's too big for us -- we could easily live in half the space if it were arranged well. But a smaller house in our area would cost much more than what we paid for this one in 1999, so we're staying put for the foreseeable future, even though we have a couple of rooms that we never use.

One of the big walking-tour attractions in the NYC neighborhood of Greenwich Village is a 9-1/2 foot wide townhouse, with the interior walls measuring just over 8-1/2 feet wide! The total square footage isn't bad - depending on who you trust, the house is three stories and either 30, 35 or 43 feet deep - but it's certainly a skinny one. In a city where 16-20 foot wide townhouses are standard, and the 22-25 footers are showpieces, a house under 10 feet wide is a novelty.

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of skinny townhouse

Our house is not particularly small, but compared to many on this board it probably is. It's around 1200 sq ft with the largest lot we could find. We were looking for a big yard so that doesn't seem strange to me at all. It's an interesting little house, and cute too. :)

You think that's small. Take a look at this house: http://www.nicholasjohnson.org/politics/general/zktg0428.html
(Sorry, I do not know how to post links correctly.) Now, that's SMALL!

But 540? Building a house that small just seems a little weird.

The older I get, the more I think how cool it would be to live with less and in less space. I also crave coziness now more than ever. If I were single and pet-less, I'd love to give it a go. Seems like it would be a very liberating experience.

Compared to apartments in large cities, this house could be considered large. Plus, as OP mentions, it has a full basement AND a garage.
My first house was 845 cozy sq feet and I loved it. Orginally, it was quite a bit smaller - closer to the size of the subject house. At some point, the attached garage had been converted to living space.
It sold a bit higher than avg per sq foot, in part because the value of the property was in the land.

A couple of people have mentioned the size vs. city apts so I did a little googling. Now I'm sure there are extreme apts out there but a lot of the
efficiencies I looked at in D.C. are about 450-550. I found a Residence Inn that had 600 sq ft. So its a house on the the med to large end of an efficiency apt or a Hotel suite with kitchenette.

People live in efficiencies and even hotels - but with a house it seems the issue is what these people have run into.
Any improvement seems overkill.
For me if I bought the place I'd want to put up at 2 car garage (the 1954 thing is probably a wreck) and a tool shed. Maybe a fence. A nice screened in porch. Garage=20,000, tool shed 1500, fence for an acre ? surely over a 1,000, screened in porch......
Now maybe you shouldn't expect to get all money back for improvements but you don't expect to sell for what you bought either. But who's going to pay for all that on a 1 bedroom house?
I'm in the same boat as everyone else here, seems like a neat idea.....for somebody else. I might consider it more strongly if it was a forever thing. And the lot/location was too too perfect.
I do think its sort of cute. I do not want a large house. Just a bit bigger.
My perfect house in Michigan was 1100-1200. A 3/1 ranch built after the war like a freaking well-built tank. You had to squeeze by the dining table in the dining area just a little bit but otherwise it was perfect. Not just the size but some of the l differences in layout suited me better than other extremely similar starter ranches I've looked at.
I swear when I retire I'm going to build an exact duplicate:)

What would you do with an extra 130 sq ft. in a house this size?

At any rate, a little interesting and fun little property. I will drive by this weekend just to see - anyone else noticed everything looks 5 times better on the internet? Even if the pictures aren't very good? I'm always so disappointed.

Mary, the house was built in 1930. It may have fulfilled someone's dream. Maybe it was the home of a young farmer and his bride.

You ask:
"What would you do with an extra 130 sq ft. in a house this size?"

I would add another bedroom and perhaps a half bath.

This is as close as I could find in my area. I'm sure there are smaller but I'd have to spend hours plugging in different zipcodes.

Yours looks like a steal compared to this one...much less land & no garage.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: 625 s.f. house...

Here is a cute one, but no inside pics.

Here is a link that might be useful: 440 sq ft

Here is a cute one, but no inside pics.
Here is a link that might be useful: 440 sq ft
Now that is small, I'm surprised Michigan has such small lots, I thought that was a CA thing. Of course, it is bigger than my present lot, here that would be a longer than usual lot size. 30 feet is the standard lot width.

The smallest I found in my area is 756, the lot is 2256 sq ft. Recently redone but small.

Here is a link that might be useful: 756 sq ft

Check out the kitchen in this one!

Here is a link that might be useful: TKO in a tiny house

Well 440 is winning the prize. And on a slab ouch.

They did a nice job on that kitchen. Still not enough cabinets but what are ya gonna do?
748 seems a bit more doable and the garage is great. No basement though.

Both in Michigan. Must be the cold winters:)

This is the smallest I could find in my area, 456 square feet. Apparently, the homeowner really likes blue. Also, check out those taxes! $2700 on a house that small?

Here is a link that might be useful: 456 sq ft

Hm, no pictures of the kitchen or bathroom. Nice porch though.
I haven't actually looked for really small houses, I just bumped into the one.
When I went to realtor.com to look - their advanced search only goes down to 600 sq ft :)!
In the MLS I can only search by 1 bedroom.

I'm not sure this is a winner because to me it looks like it might actually have been a trailer though they call it a bungalow

The next closest was 441 - ! Nancy beats it by one sq ft!

There were one or two other high 4's, more 5s, most in the 6-700 categroy.

Here is a link that might be useful: 300 sq ft

I can beat 440....

http://homes.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?zp=47421&ml=3&bd=2&typ=1&sid=f1d68d48d6b64034858b902553fb664c&pg=3&lid=1076752898&lsn=29&srcnt=342#Detail

It's not a bad location here in town. Probably not a bad little house. I'd look if I were single....

Here is a link that might be useful: 420 sq. ft.

Vivian wins!
Vivian I went to the realtors webpage but found no listings/more pictures.
I did notice it was built in 1902(3?) where it seems most other of these smaller homes were built in the 30's +/- when industry was growing and they were built to house workers. Wonder if it was once a farmer's foremans place or something.

I know there was a home in my county for sale awhile ago that was smaller than this. It was an old Depot Station for a train that was converted. I can't seem to find it, but I did find this one.

480 Sq. Feet.
http://www.midhudsonmls.com/reports.asp?fromsearchresults=1&ID=256861&ReportID=FULL&PropType=1

Actually, at the time this was built, we were big into the limestone industry (really still are). We have quite a few tiny, tiny houses. Lots of immigrants (Italian stonecarvers mostly), and I suspect that the mills weren't paying very much in terms of wages.

When we were living in WI, we had a friends living in a 586 sq. ft. house (it's in the city assessor's website). And there are 2 adults and 4 kids under 9 living in that house, plus baby #5 on the way. Now that's small! They have big yard, though.

6 people in 586? I'm stunned. Good for them though. for not caving on other decisions. still. dang.

I think a lot of companies, say your limestone companies, used to actually build these little houses for the workers. Some places probably made them pay exorbinant rent to live it them, like the coal miners. In Battle Creek where I lived a lot of these little houses were for the workers who worked in the cereal factories I think.

I did drive out of my way to go by the original house posted here. It looked fairly nice, tough to do driveby's someone is ALWAYS right behind me. I'm not actually considering this place but if I were, despite the lot size their are neighbors all around including behind and no real screening so it was unsuitable for me.
Their big issue is i think that this is for sale right next door.
Which would you take for essentially the same price? The bigger house on a slab? or a tiny house with a basement (not a walkout but lets assume its dry).

Here is a link that might be useful: house next door for sale

I've got 420, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: 420