How former renter built off-grid tiny home to escape bills

Desperate to escape the endless rent and mortgage repayments, a 35-year-old man with zero construction experience took a gamble that wiped out his monthly bills. Ivan Gradoboev was working and living in Sofia, Bulgaria, when he realised he was trapped in a financial cycle he couldn’t break. “I just hated the feeling of being in a never-ending rat race, which I’m sure everyone who’s renting or paying a mortgage can relate to,” Mr Gradoboev told UNILAD. “You just can’t stop, because if you do, it’s only a matter of time before your life starts falling apart. “The only tiny little problem was that I couldn’t afford to buy even a small apartment, let alone a whole house.” With $11,000 in savings, Mr Gradoboev realised his money wouldn’t buy a traditional home, but it was enough to purchase a small 200sq m patch of agricultural land and basic building materials. Determined to cut costs, he turned to YouTube, spending hundreds of hours watching construction and off-grid technology tutorials. MORE: Man buys entire town for $1.9m, regrets it ‘Wrong land’: Mistake costs Aussie couple $500k ‘Never buy it’: 23yo’s backyard hell warning Ivan Gradoboev. Picture: gradoboev.vanya/Instagram Gradob...