the home depot co-founder is my special guest. sunday morning futures, don't mitts. >> i'm bob massi. for 35 years, i've been practicing law and living in las vegas, ground zero for the american real-estate crisis. but it wasn't just vegas that was hit hard. lives were destroyed from coast to coast as the economy tanked. now, it's a different story. the american dream is back. and nowhere is that more clear than the grand canyon state of arizona. so we headed from the strip to the desert to show you how to explore the new landscape and live the american dream. i'm gonna help real people who are facing some major problems, explain the bold plans that are changing how americans live, and take you behind the gates of properties you have to see to believe. at the end of the show, i'll give you critical tips you need

to know in the massi memo, because information is power and the property man has got you covered. [ woman vocalizing ] thanks for joining us. i'm bob massi. if you've ever looked around your house and thought, "you know what? i need to downsize," well, you're not alone. but more and more, well, people are taking that to the extreme. tiny houses -- i'm talking 95 to about 170 square feet -- are becoming more popular. there's even movies and tv shows about them. >> the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, it's all included in that small square footage that, for most people, is the size of their master bedroom. >> they're usually mounted on 20-to 27-foot trailers and can be towed pretty much anywhere. someall it a movement. but it seems clear that ny of those deciding to live tiny, well, they're doing it as a direct result

of the housing meltdown. they just don't want to spend their money on things like mortgages and be saddled with debt anymore. mario soto lost his home in the financial collapse. >> i lost everything. i put almost $300,000 down payment, taxes, insurance, mortgage, everything, and it was gone. >> he began paying off his debts and started over, but didn't want to go down that same path again. >> i realized, well, what if that happens again? that was $300,000 i'll never see again. someone else got it. but not me. >> he decided he wanted to build a tiny home. his last construction project? a birdhouse in fourth grade. >> about a week later, it fell apart. >> but he reached out to the tumbleweed tiny house company, and they helped him build his own. now, on the tumbleweed website, you can order already-built tiny homes, or you could start from scratch. >> the minute i saw one of their tiny houses, i said, "this is it. i'm doing it." >> tumbleweed provides the floor plans, options for just about anything you could think of to make it

uniquely yours. >> the plans have details of every piece of material you need. it was a learning process. but my house hasn't fallen down yet. so i think i did a pretty good job. >> mario, let's go see your tiny house, buddy. >> let's go check it out. come on. let's do it. welcome to my house. >> thank you. okay, so show me around. >> i have a pretty cool kitchen. we have a nice sink right over there. cook soups. range hood, stainless steel. >> big sink. >> it's a big sink. this kettle gets the heat that is naturally being generated. and instead of it going to waste, it's converting that heat into electricity. >> from the outside, it might not look very high-tech. but inside, it's a different story. >> my phonlows me to open my front door, control my air conditioner, actually run my tv. i have air sensors in here that sense the air quality, humidity, and the temperature. >> mario says his saltwater batteries can power his home for 20 years before they need to be replaced.

it looks like a bunch of batteries, like from a golf cart. >> they are actually similar in the sense that they provide power. once i get solar panels, which will be on the outside behind me, i won't have to worry about power. 100% i will be off the grid. >> and then a place to sleep. >> a place to sleep. gotta sleep up there. >> bunk bed. >> my tv, because you gotta have a tv. >> 55-inch. >> when i'm cooking, i like to watch a good movie. or maybe i'm listening to music. i can actually swivel it out. >> so what's underneath the bunk here? >> it's a really nice mirror. >> and behind the mirror? >> there's a lot of things. let me show you. so all i do... open it up. this washer and dryer, it's ventless, gasless. >> where do you take your shower or your bath? >> check this out. roll it back. now i have my shower hidden in the back. pull it right back in. and there we go. >> all the amenities of home, my friend. >> all the amenities of home. >> but many tiny house owners, you know, they're running into a big problem. there's no place to put them. >> arizona and, uh, many

other states aren't regulated for such small dwellings. >> zoning laws vary from place to place. but many cities and towns have things like minimum size requirements for homes. >> and these tiny homes do not qualify. >> that could make finding a spot for your tiny house very difficult. >> even the rv parks turn them away because they're not technically motor vehicles. uh, so they can't find anywhere to plant them. >> sarah was living in louisiana when she saw a documentary about tiny houses. >> i knew a friend who was in carpentry. the next day, we went and bought an auto flatbed trailer. >> she bought some supplies, enlisted some friends to help, and started building. >> we didn't really have any plans drawn up. we just knew the idea of what we wanted to build. um, we wanted it to look like an old acadian-style house representing home. >> so this was actually -- became a passion of yours? >> it did, yeah. yeah. i really -- i enjoyed waking up and spending hours on it and going to sleep exhausted, like, cuts and sawdust.

and it was great. >> so this is sort of an extension of where you came from? >> this is my house from home. it's the blueprint. so a large part of the house is the kitchen because, um, i need -- i love to cook. and so the propane stove and it actually works. i probably fill the propane tanks up every few months, and it costs about $40 to do that. the water works and the hot water works. i think that's really important to see because every piece of this was, like, hard to do. >> sarah found some land to put her house on and was assured by the realtors that it would be the perfect fit. but the city, of course, disagreed. >> i bought a piece of property in south phoenix and, um, put the house on it. then i went to the city to get the permit. and they wouldn't give it to me. initially, they said the house was too small. and we had looked at the universal building codes. and it was -- it was fine. >> how many square feet is this? >> 160. but it's probably like 110 walking space.

the city said that i couldn't, um, live in my own house on my own property because it needed a foundation. it couldn't be on wheels. they wanted me to take a crane, lift the house up, take the house off the trailer, which they didn't understand was, uh, built on the house. >> there's so few people involved in the tiny home movement that they don't really have a lot of power to regulate, um, pushing the state to have places where they can zone them. >> i was trying to sell it. somee graciously offered me their backyard. and so that's -- that's how i'm able to live in it and enjoy it. >> how many people have you had in here at one time? >> i think we had about, like, 30, i'm gonna say. >> 30 people in a tiny house? >> mm-hmm. so it doesn't hinder you from having guests. everyone has to be comfortable real quick. >> still to come on "the property man," i'm standing in someone's backyard right now. yep. this is a backyard pool. and the story of how it got here is wild. plus, there's a lot you need to know before buying or installing a pool of any size.

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♪ >> welcome back. i'm bob massi, the property man. across the united states, there are more than 10 million residential pools. most of them don't look like this one. but i'm gonna tell you what you need to know if you're considering installing a pool of any size or if you're thinking about buying a property with a pool. but first, if you want to talk about pools in arizona, you turn to red rock contractors, run by rick chafey and brett blauvelt. the folks at red rock design and build some of the most insane pools you could ever imagine. >> we recently worked on a we had a pool up on the roof, back of the house. actually has got a acrylic panels. you can look out and see into the backyard. all glass tile. just gorgeous.

got a couple in hawaii we're doing where you can look out onto the 18th golf course and out to the ocean. um, we've done some really cool edge details where we, uh, bring the water up to the deck level. >> ♪ ♪ ain't nothin' but a party goin' on in here ♪ >> i'm not standing at some resort. this is a residential backyard pool, believe it or not. how did this all come about? >> uh, like any other residential backyard pool, we got called to come look at a project. it's an outdoor oasis and -- and it's almost a water park. you know, it can be a studio at night where you can have the biggest party you've ever had. or it can be a kids' play pool for, you know, 100 kids. >> there's a 60-foot tube waterslide. >> it starts at the top of that waterfall, comes down through it. has a couple, uh, skylights in the top to let a little bit of light in. >> 15 different fire features and more than $250,000 worth of controlled lighting and automation. >> waterlls, water slides, cantilevered sun decks. basically