Resilient Homes

Resilient Homes

Off grid, disaster resilient, affordable homes.

Highlights
  • Strategic. Disaster resilient homes readying for climate change.
  • Vision. To become leading provider of resilient, biophilic and SMART homes.
  • Targeting remote workers. 18.9 million post-Covid embracing remote work.
  • Off-grid compatible. Ready for solar, geothermal and hydrogen powered integration.
  • Quick to build. Using manufactured and on-site concrete panel technologies.
  • Return. 8% interest + 15% of cash flow.
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The Problem

Is it now undeniable that as our carbon footprint increases so will the number of natural disasters, and that this will affect millions of people every year. Homes will be partially or completely destroyed. Reliance on stick built construction has made this problem worse since stick built is generally not disaster resilient.

Outer Community Builds, LLC (the Company) has a vision to become a leading niche provider of sustainable, resilient, biophilic and SMART homes. Our target market is the growing number of Americans (18.9 million, post-Covid, according to a study by Upwork) who are either embracing remote work or joining farmsteading communities. Our homes will have a deep connection to nature, integrating biophilic and feng shui elements, in addition to multi-disaster resistance.

In 2022, more than 3.3 million Americans lost their homes to natural disasters. In 2021, nearly 15 million homes were impacted by severe natural weather.  Disaster resilience needs to be addressed. In 2022, the cost of natural disasters over the past five years has been estimated to be $595.5 billion. The cost of damage over the last 10 years (2013-2022) has also been historically large, and estimated at $1.1 trillion as a result of 152 separate billion-dollar events. Homes are susceptible to various disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, landslides and forest fires. We prioritize designing and building homes with superior disaster resilience. The World Bank recognizes resilient infrastructure as a top priority for countries prone to natural disasters. We aim to achieve a high index rating for resilience to disasters with our designs and materials.

At the same time, the building industry has been a significant contributor to climate change. We plan to address this impact in a number of ways:

  • Transportation of materials for new home construction generates approximately 30 tons of CO2, based on an average of 65 grams per ton per kilometer. To reduce our carbon footprint, we aim to minimize the transportation of materials. 
  • Currently, there is a high reliance on wood for housing construction, which is not disaster-resistant. 
  • If designed correctly, concrete can be used to create disaster-resistant homes and to reduce carbon footprint. Ordinary concrete generates around 410 kg of CO2 per cubic meter. By incorporating fly ash, this can be reduced to 290 kg CO2 per cubic meter. Our goal is to reduce this carbon footprint by 50%.
  • We plan to implement CO2 offset programs in Asia to balance out the carbon generation from our homebuilding.

35% of Americans live in rental homes. Skewed high demand for select urban areas, plus higher mortgage rates, has pushed up prices and rents all over the U.S.. Land availability in urban areas is limited and prices of land have skyrocketed, making urban construction unaffordable.

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The Renderings
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The Solution

We plan to offer design/build services for disaster-resilient homes in remote and rural communities emerging on the outskirts of the cities. Our homes will be designed to deploy quickly and consistently, over and over again. Offered in sizes ranging from 800 - 2,000 square feet, they are designed to withstand earthquakes, forest fires, hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding. They are also designed to be off-grid compatible, allowing for integration of solar and geothermal technology, and eventually hydrogen power. We offer a complete package of green energy and sustainable living in a sustainable and affordable home.

Our homes are designed as Scandinavian-style barn homes, with smaller windows to protect against debris during hurricane and tornado conditions, and shutters which protect from flooding and other natural disasters. Floorplans include two options: 1,000 square feet on one level, with two bedrooms. And 2000 square feet on two levels, with three bedrooms. The width of the homes will be between 20-24 feet, lengths between 50-80 feet, and heights would be 20-26 feet maximum. Our pilot home buyer has chosen a plan of 1,250 square feet on one level, with two bedrooms and a simple loft of 300 square feet.

Homes will be built using one of the below panel technologies, all of which have insulation at their core and all of which will have exterior cladding resistant to forest fires, and will be installed on structures that are multi-disaster resilient. 

Stand and shoot which involves spraying concrete onto standing insulated panels.

Onsite cast insulated concrete panels which involves casting and assembling the panels on site.

Steel-coated insulated panels which can be snapped together. 

These panels will be used for the walls and roof of each home, and tied down to the foundation to counter high winds and tornadoes. Rockwool is the preferred insulation to use where forest fires are a threat. Each home can be built in approximately four months, including building permit approval and inspections, making it a fast and efficient option for our customers.

Our homes will include systems and features such as masonry heating, cooking, baking and hot water furnaces, Energy Star appliances with very low energy consumption, solar systems with battery backup, propane generator backup and wall heaters and LED light fixtures. These energy-efficient homes will be able to function off the grid, using solar energy, and reconnect their owners back to nature, while reducing their carbon footprint both during construction process and occupancy.

Our target market is the work-from-home and farmstead community, some of whom derive income from agriculture-based activities and are located in isolated areas. Some are seeking to find more time with their families, or simply live more self-sufficiently, reducing their cost of living and providing an alternative to an urban lifestyle.

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About the change

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About the Project

The Company has identified an off-grid, co-operative farmstead community in Utah, located on a 500-acre site, developed by a non-profit organization and known as the Utah OSR Land Co-op. The co-op plans to sell 250 memberships in the co-operative, each with a 2-acre lot to build on, resulting in a 250-home community.

The co-op is located on the Riverbed Ranch property, about 55 miles west of Santa Quin and about 40 miles north of Delta, and claims to be “Utah’s first and only off-grid farmsteading community.”   The property is 1,245 acres, about 3 miles long (north to south) and about 3/4 of a mile wide.

A membership of $35,000 entitles the member to exclusive use of the land to build a home, green house, barn and water well. The target market is families and individuals who want to live a more self-reliant and self-sustaining lifestyle. According to the organization “most of the 125+ families, who have joined our community so far, joined for one (or more) of these reasons:

  • To live a lifestyle independent of mortgage, power, and water bills.
  • To live a healthier lifestyle, eating pesticide-free food and breathing clean air.
  • For safety, either from things now, or things that may come down the road.
  • To create a place where their family can all live, learn and work together.” 

Initially, 500 acres have been plotted and approximately 250 lots created. Each membership share allows the member control over a 2 acre lot, water rights, a vote for co-op board of directors and the ability to sell services through the co-op. Each member must agree to build a passive solar home with a county-approved septic system, a shop or barn for animals or storage, a greenhouse, a well and to plant a garden or an orchard within three years. Infrastructure for each home along with outbuildings is expected to cost each family between $225,000 and $450,000.

Infrastructure planned by the co-op includes a recreational vehicle campground, providing temporary quarters for members who are building homes, a greenbelt to include a hiking trail and creek, high speed fiber optic internet to be provided through Elon Musk’s Star Link system, and a co-op store for importing and exporting goods.

Of the memberships available, 125+ have been sold, and three homes have been built, with another 15 homes under construction towards the 250 total that will need to be built. To date, a variety of home-building techniques and materials have been used including stick built, insulated concrete forms, straw bale, panelized, and sandbag homes. The location is remote and accessible only by gravel road, making it difficult to access during the winter. The lack of a ready-to-implement building solution  is one of the reasons cited by members who have chosen to exit.

Each member will require a compound of 10,000 square feet minimum, to include their home and a patio, a greenhouse 600 to 3,000 square feet in size, a workshop and garage, a home office, a storage shed for agricultural produce, and the necessary space for HVAC, solar and other smart systems.

Our first pilot home of 1,250 square feet has been negotiated for sale at $200,000, and we expect it to cost $160,000 to build. The targeted construction period is four months. Septic, solar and water well will be provided by the customer. The home planned is a Scandinavian-style barn home with a sleeping loft. While the site has limited disaster threats, the home has been designed to be disaster resilient in the event of possible earthquakes, floods and high winds.

Once the pilot home has been completed, we plan to expand by building self-sufficient teams, each with its own equipment to execute orders. Each team is expected to include one senior engineer and two junior engineers. They will undergo extensive training for two months at Gulf Concrete’s facility in Mississippi, followed by hands-on training at two construction sites. Training will include everything from reading plans to sourcing and installing panels, integrating utilities and final finishing. We plan to increase the number of teams as the business expands, and over time, rely on fewer sub-contractors.

We plan to build 71 homes over the next six years starting with homes in the rural farmstead co-op located in Utah, or other similar location.  Your can view a summary of our growth projections here and detailed projections here.

The project team includes:

Architects: David Clayton of DEIV Architecture 
Structural Engineer: Lucas Bellani of Cassaforma (specialist in stand and shoot panel design) 
General Contractor: Richard Sims from Sims Construction 
Architectural Plans: Civic Consultants, Inc. 
Materials Strategic Partner: The panels and concrete are being supplied by Gulf Concrete

The anticipated schedule for the pilot home is as follows:

May 30, 2023    Plans finalized
June 30, 2023    Plans approved
June 30, 2023    Contractor permits acquired
July 15, 2023    Construction start
October 30. 2023    Construction complete
November 30, 2023    Final inspections

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The Site
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About the Competition

We expect our primary competition to be high-value mobile home suppliers. There are some 33 manufacturers of manufactured and mobile homes in the U.S.. These homes are manufactured using stick built construction, which is wood-based. Wood is an unsafe material to use in off-grid homes where propane and wood are stored in bulk and used interchangeably for heating purposes. Also, the fear of forest fires makes stick built housing solutions less attractive for remote settlers.

There are existing barn home manufacturers who build with logs or steel. Log homes are very expensive, and steel homes are generally kits with no customization available. One Florida-based company builds flood-resilient homes on stilts, and round hurricane-resistant homes. To date, they have sold 5,000 homes in the state of Florida. But the exterior shell of their homes are built out of wood, and they have large windows which might be broken by flying debris in the event of high winds.

Below is our analysis of our competition

  Mobile and/or Manufactured Homes Barn Homes Disaster Resilient Homes
Number of companies 33 25 + 3
Products

Foundation or chassis-mounted, stick built homes; may include Installation

Barn and pole sheds/homes made from steel or timber in elaborate designs; sold as kits; no installation service

Stick built on stilts or circular; Two targeting concrete based homes with on-site assembly

Prices Low end - $80-160 per sf; Custom modular - $130-310 per sf Average $120 per sf Shell only $250-500 per sf
Strengths

Large Volumes  - 10% of total home market

Have a hold in agricultural sector

First mover

Weaknesses

Need large factories
Heavy logistics
Targeting low-income
Orientation for energy + ventilation not possible
If wood based then wood heating and propane would be threat

Sold as kits
Labor-intensive

Largest of 3 uses, stick built.
Not easily scalable

There is also competition from different panel and composite fiber cement blocks which involve assembly at site. These offer solutions for walls only, and not the roof of the homes.

There are also the stick build builders who use wood framing for constructing the homes.
 

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The Models
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Marketing

We believe unmet demand for our homes comes from three distinct sources:

Unmet aspirational demand. All generations aspire to own a home but only 48.6% of Millennials do, compared to 68.6% of Gen-Xers and 78% of Baby Boomers. Those who do not own homes and are looking to migrate out of the cities may be our first potential customers.

COVID and the emergence of remote workers. Post-COVID, approximately 18.9 million Americans now work remotely. Some remote workers prefer to migrate out of cities and seek a better work-life balance.

Disaster resilience. In 2022, more than 3.3 million Americans lost their homes to natural disasters. There is an emerging group of potential customers seeking disaster resilient homes.

Some of this demand can be fulfilled on ranch lands. In 1935 there were 6.8 million ranch farms, compared to 2 million today. States such as Arizona and Texas are permitting conversion to low-density residential on vacant ranch land.

Our first project at Riverbed Ranch, in Utah, provides us with built-in marketing opportunities. The members of OSR are well connected through social media, word of mouth, and have organized weekly online meetings. Members who don’t live in Utah visit the site often to check on activity there. The pilot project we built will be our primary marketing tool for this community, to be used as a demonstration of the homes we can build, open to all to inspect.

Online presentations to members have already begun, with several members attending a kick-off meeting. Since meetings are recorded they can be viewed by more than the initial attendees. We expect to be added to the newly revamped OSR website as a home systems provider for the community. The OSR is planning to create similar co-ops in Idaho, then Arizona, Alberta, Canada, and Wyoming.

The product design, process and materials can also be used for the hospitality industry and also accessory dwelling units (ADU) where a demand of 4.7 million units is projected. This allows us to target alternate markets.

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About the Developer

Suresh Mirchandani, the founder of Outer Community Building, LLC, is a construction technologist focused on mass sustainable and affordable housing solutions. He has 43 years of business experience as consultant with a history of working in the environmental services industry, specializing in building materials, construction methods, and solar-based energy over several verticals, including banking, renewable energies, healthcare, construction and logistics, and across different countries, including India, China, South Africa, UAE, Germany, Spain and Italy. From 2005 to 2017, Suresh was CEO of Single Watts Solar Energy P Ltd. He also was involved in providing EPC Services to an Australian Company, SunEngy, who built a floating solar plant on a dam for the Tata Power Company of India.

From 2018 on Suresh was a consultant to a variety of companies including BSBK, where he consulted on urban and rural affordable housing, Neptune Industries Limited where he managed their Building Materials Construction Technology Division online and Titan Machinery. Suresh also designed and developed machines for the manufacturing of interlocking bricks along with sales promotions to Indian brick manufacturers.

Suresh migrated to the U.S. in June 2021, after an 18-month COVID lock-down in India. Since June 2021, Suresh has collaborated with Harbison Walker International, developing refractory concretes; Sristi Ventures India as consultant for rockwool insulations, working on a total integrated panel system for tilt up and concrete spray over insulation panels; and Gulf Concrete on insulating materials and concretes. Suresh incorporated Smartiltup Homes, Inc. in July 2022, in order to research and develop new construction technologies and materials related to the building industry. Two primary areas of focus are solar hydrogen home systems and SMART systems independent of WiFi for remote homes.

Suresh holds a Bachelor of Technology and an MBA in Finance from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

Suresh has assembled a skilled advisory team to assist in the R&D and launch of the Company. They include:

Mukundrai Patel chief architectural designer/project manager at Atticus Architecture, Inc, oversees the regulatory approval and design philosophy throughout the building process. Mukundrai graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies degree from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England in 1992, with post graduate studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

Jill Smith, AIA NCARB, will spearhead the design and construction process for the Company. Jill is the President and Managing Principal of her own firm, Civic Consultants. She has served on the Kentucky Board of Architects since 2000, including as president of the board for two years and has 29 years experience with publicly-funded projects as well as private sector work.

James R. Baty, principal at Sauter Baty & Bloomquist, Inc., and the Executive Director of the Concrete Foundations Association, has led a career focused on thermal design efficiency and concrete construction. Since 2001, he has served the global concrete industry as a manager and director within both the cast-in-place and tilt-up concrete construction industries. 

Dr. Nemkumar Banthia is materials and resilience structure advisor to the team. He is a Distinguished Professor and Senior Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia. His primary area of research is in sustainable concrete infrastructure with emphasis on nano-modified fiber reinforced composites, ultra-high performance concrete materials, waste recycling and fracture analysis.

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How will this work for you?

Each investor will be issued a Promissory Note, dated November 1, 2023, by the Company, promising to pay to the Investors the Regular Interest of 8% plus Participation Interest of 15% of the Company’s cash flow annually, along with all outstanding principal at the end of the six-year term.

Payments will be made to investors on an annual basis, with each payment consisting of Regular and Participation interest. Payments are expected to begin 12 months after Promissory Notes are issued. Until then, interest earned will accrue. A final balloon payment will be made to each investor on the maturity date.

How will this work for you?

The Company hopes to raise $450,000 in debt into their project through this offering. 8% annual interest plus 15% of distributable profit will be assigned to the total funds invested. If you invest, your return will be a proportional share of the total. Here's how you can calculate potential return on this project if you decide to invest.

Let's say you invest $4,500 of the total $450,000 that the Company wants to raise. Your proportional share will be 1%. You will receive your return on that investment in three ways.

First, you will earn 8% interest every year. $4,500 x 8% = $360, so over the period of the project (six years) you will earn $2,100 in interest.

Now let's assume that $2,000,000 is earned over the life of the project in profit before the manager takes any payments. A 15% participation interest, or $300,000 will be distributed to all investors.  Your share of that distribution will be $300,000 x 1% = $3,000.

And finally your original investment of $4,500 will be returned at the end of six years.

Now let’s add these up: $2100 in interest earned + $3,000 in participation interests + $4,5000 in investment returned = $9,600.

This is the potential return on your $4,500 investment.  See the Promissory Note + Note Indenture for more detail on the terms of your note.

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About the vision
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About the Offering

The Company is engaged in a Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) offering (the “Offering”) to raise money to build 71 homes on a 500 acre site in Utah and other similar sites.

We are trying to raise a maximum of $450,000, but we will move forward with the Project and use investor funds if we are able to raise at least $25,000 (the “Target Amount”). If we have not raised at least the Target Amount by 11:59 pm EST on October 31, 2023 (the “Target Date”), we will terminate the Offering and return 100% of their money to anyone who has subscribed.

The minimum you can invest in the Offering is $2,500. Investments above $2,500 may be made in $500 increments (e.g., $3,000 or $3,500, but not $2,736). An investor may cancel his or her commitment up until 11:59 pm EST on October 29, 2023 (i.e., two days before the Target Date). If we have raised at least the Target Amount we might decide to accept the funds and admit investors to the Company before the Target Date; in that case we will notify you and give you the right to cancel.

After we accept the funds and admit investors to the Company, whether on the Target Date or before, we will continue the Offering until we have raised the maximum amount.

Investments under Reg CF are offered by NSSC Funding Portal, LLC, a licensed funding portal.

You can review the offering documents here or as registered on the SEC website Investments under Reg CF are offered by NSSC Funding Portal, LLC, a licensed funding portal.

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About the risks

A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. 

In making an investment decision, Investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. These securities have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. Furthermore, these authorities have not passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this document.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not pass upon the merits of any securities offered or the terms of the offering, nor does it pass upon the accuracy or completeness of any offering document or literature.

These securities are offered under an exemption from registration; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not made an independent determination that these securities are exempt from registration.

There are numerous risks to consider when making an investment such as this one and financial projections are just that - projections. Returns are not guaranteed. Conditions that may affect your investment include unforeseen construction costs, changes in market conditions, and potential disasters that are not covered by insurance. Review the attached Risks of Investing for a more expansive list of potential risks associated with an investment in this Company.

Unless otherwise noted, the images on the offering page are used to convey the personality of the project or neighborhood in which the project is planned. Properties shown in these images may not be included in the offering and Investors may not receive an interest in them.

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Follow the change.