62: The Secret to Zero-Cost Van Life with Van Builder Nate Murphy

Want to turn your nomadic dreams into a reality without breaking the bank? Our guest, van builder and YouTuber Nate Murphy, has spent four years living the van life and boasts 18 years of experience building products, houses, and tiny homes on wheels. Join us as Nate shares his stories, challenges, and the joy of crafting your own space.

We discuss the intimidating aspects of van building, including handling electrical and gas systems, and how you can approach these hurdles. Nate introduces the concept of 'zero cost van life,' explaining how selecting the right van model and thoughtful planning can help you sell your van for profit or break even after a few years.

Get ready for some practical advice as Nate reveals his tips on building a van on a budget, and how you can source free materials and resources for your build. He speaks about his course and webinar on zero cost van life, curated with lessons drawn from his own experiences. From the fulfilment of creating your own tiny home on wheels to the transformative experience of van life and its financial benefits - Nate's insights are sure to inspire you.

Links mentioned in this episode:
Zero-cost Vanlife Webinar
DIY Hero Course
The Van Conversion Guide Ebook

Follow Nate:
YouTube
Instagram

Check out the full blog post on TheWaywardHome.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, building out a campervan is expensive and time consuming. We're still working on our van build two years after we first got our Sprinter Cargo Van. But what if I told you there's a way to live the van life at zero cost? Tempting, right? Well, that's what we're talking about today with van builder and YouTuber Nate Murphy. Let's go. Welcome to the Wayward Home Podcast. All about van life boat life and nomadic living.

Speaker 2: 0:23

We'll bring you tips, interviews and stories from the road and on the water.

Speaker 1: 0:27

Now here's your host, Kristen Haynes. I'm Kristen Haynes with the waywardhomecom. I spend half the time in my Sprinter Van and half the year in my sailboat in Mexico, and I hope to inspire you to live nomadically as well. So what if I told you that you could live van life at zero cost? Sounds like a pipe dream, right? Well, we actually have a van builder and YouTuber, nate Murphy, here to tell us that living at zero cost van life is actually a possibility, which is really exciting for this episode of the Wayward Home Podcast. Nate lived out of a van for four years and has been building out vans, products and homes for 18 years. So, nate, I'm so excited you're here and joining us on the Wayward Home Podcast today.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Well, thank you for having me, Kristen. It's a real privilege to be on your podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Awesome. So let's just go back to the beginning and what originally inspired you to start living the van life.

Speaker 2: 1:17

So originally we're going back like 10 years. I was living in London and I was mostly running my businesses and I just kind of really wanted to shake things up and just change my life. So I left London, I decided I was going to focus on rock climbing for three years. This was like a passion that I had for a long time but never dedicated all my time to. So I thought, ok, I'm going to save some money and I'm just going to go and I'm going to see what happens.

Speaker 2: 1:44

So for the first year I'm sort of just traveling, backpacking some long term Airbnbs. And then I came back to Europe and I'm like, ok, well, I want to find a way to travel cheaply and effectively, and the van is a common choice for climbers. So it was sort of felt an obvious path to go down to some extent. So, yes, I bought a van, I fitted it out and that was the start. That was the start of my van life, just a way to kind of focus on my passion without costing an enormous amount of being really flexible with my life.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Oh, for sure. And so that whole time were you living van life over in Europe, or did you also go to other places as well?

Speaker 2: 2:26

So actually I was pretty much using the van at base. For probably six to eight months a year I was in the van, and then the other four to six months I'd probably be on another continent. So I was in Yosemite National Park, so I do seasons there, and then I'd like maybe get in New Mexico and then I'd be in Asia. Then I come back to Europe and there's my home. My van has been parked up somewhere and I'm back in the van for like six months or something. Can I do like a shamanese season or something like that?

Speaker 2: 2:54

So the van was like replaced at home, so it was like a base for travel but also to leave and have all your stuff in and come back to, which is very different if you were like backpacking and things before, because there's only so much you can carry and you know if you're doing a lot of climbing, big walling, you need a lot of big walling, equipment, portal edges and huge bags and tons of gear. You just can't. You can't have that flexibility and travel all the time. If you're not living out of a van or something, you'll have a place.

Speaker 1: 3:25

Yep, yep, that is so true. And so you built out this van on your own, of course, right, and was that challenging? Or what was that like for you initially to jump into the van build space?

Speaker 2: 3:37

So I jumped in the first van build and I was like really, really keen to do it quickly, just because I was really excited to go climbing, basically. So I made it like this really intensive build and it was. I think out there there wasn't like a huge amount of like very easy, accessible information back then and I mean there were some blogs which were quite good, and then on YouTube YouTube was this like hellscape of, like you know, some old guy in a van talking about insulation for an hour and you're just like this is just, this is terrible. So when I was building the van, I thought, okay, well, if I document this, this will be useful for other people. I would just show everything in like half an hour, like the whole process. This is what works, this is fine and that updated really really well.

Speaker 2: 4:25

But in general, I have a background in industrial design, so I think, like, especially the planning parts and the making isn't very intimidating for me because I've made stuff in the past, but it was. I think it's a fantastic project. It's a really enjoyable thing. You're making a tiny home on wheels, I you know, and it's so many different layers. You've got to make some electrics, you've got to do some plumbing and then you get to go and use it and I think that process for me it was, I loved it. And I know a lot of other people even if they've like never built something before, once they've completed it and they're just like, wow, I made this and now they use it and they go on there. I think it's a fantastic thing to do.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Totally, and so you started out with this YouTube channel, and I know your YouTube channel is now huge, and so did that just start out with you showing these various this van builds on there in an easy way for people to digest.

Speaker 2: 5:16

So actually it started out I was just sharing my process of dedicated into climbing and kind of like, okay, what happens if you just dedicate full time to climbing and how does that progress? And I was sharing sort of like sort of travel vlogs with very, very heavy climbing thing. But then I did do like a car conversion. It was like it's $100. I just sort of made some cupboards and that was like my best performing video. So when I was doing the van, I'm like, well, I reckon like if I made a video about the van conversion, it will get like more views than that and maybe you know, it will turn into something. And yeah, it did really well. So off the back of that original sort of van video, that's really what gave birth to my channel. Like you know, realistically that's a chunk of luck, but I was just prepared to sort of take advantage of that luck and then turn it into something bigger and more and sort of grow it and scale it.

Speaker 1: 6:09

For sure, and so, yeah, so a lot of people started, you know, watching you on there and what do you think are some of people's biggest concerns when building a van? I know this is challenging for a lot of people who have never, even you know, built anything. So what were you hearing from people and how were you trying to help people build vans?

Speaker 2: 6:27

So originally, I mean, I just had loads and loads of questions because I had like millions of views. So people just fire me at questions. Okay right, I'll just convert this into like an ebook. I'll just sell an ebook and that works. But in general, people are most intimidated by electrics. That's the thing that people always for. Only that's the thing I'm most concerned about. Sometimes people are worried about, you know, doing the big cuts in the van because it's intimidating. You spend a lot of money on this vehicle and now you're gonna cut a hole in it. That's definitely a scary thing, but that's something like it's not too bad in general. But the electrics for a lot of people there's like some theory. You've got to become, you've got to understand some of the stuff you're doing and you always want to install something which is safe. So I think there's definitely an intimidation factor. And other than that, I guess you know gas people are concerned about. But yeah, often people get a professional to install parts of the gas system at least.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Yeah, that's true. That is a good idea to, if you don't know a certain thing, to hire someone to do that component and is that something that you've seen people do is like they'll build some of it but then hire the plumbing or hire the electricity or like the gas, like you said.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Yeah, I mean that's kind of frequent. Mostly it's gas. Sometimes in certain places. To have your van ensured, if you want to rent it or if you want to sell it for rental or something, then you need to have like gas safe or compliance systems and to do that you need like a professional to at least sign it off, and they often don't really want to sign it off unless they basically installed it. So a lot of often it's gas systems. People do that. Electrics yeah, some people get someone to help them with the electrics, but actually you've got a good electrical sort of schematic and you know what. You basically can follow a plan. It's not so complicated. You just follow instructions carefully and try to do a tidy job and actually if you do that it'll work. Maybe you're not able to like design the system to be super optimized and efficient, but you can actually make it. That's the bit which isn't too complicated.

Speaker 1: 8:26

That's amazing, and yeah. So, talking about all this, and you know what I said at the beginning, that you've come up with this concept of zero cost van life, which is, that's, of course, very attention grabbing, because buying a van is expensive, building a van is expensive it's like what? How do you do that? And so what is? Tell us a little bit about that concept of zero cost van life.

Speaker 2: 8:46

So really was born from my first van and I was thinking, well, if I build out a van and I do like a decent job for sure I can use this for three years like full time, live in my dream seeing whatever I want to do doing what I want to do, and I should be able to sell it at the end of that three years or whatever, and I should either break even or I should be able to make a profit. In my first van, like it wasn't like perfectly set up for resale, it was a bit of a climbers' debt bag van, like it looked nice, it was good, it was missing like features that a lot of people would want. And then with my second van, I'm like I'm not making those mistakes again. I'm like installing the features that majority people want and I set it up. So I set it up in a way so that it could be sold and it would fit the market a bit better. And then I made, like you know, 15,000 profit or something and that you know, after using it for three years. So it was.

Speaker 2: 9:41

And then, basically, when I come to my third van and we're starting to make a course, I was like really trying to put this into like a way to formulate it to understand okay, exactly how could you take people with the steps to design and build a van which will give them the best chances of like breaking even or making a profit after they've used it for a bunch of years? Because then you know you could buy a van and you're like, okay, it's costing me a lot of money but it won't really cost me money because later I'll sell it for profit or I'll break even. So basically that makes, like owning a van, ownership free. Of course you could like say, well, you could build out of an, you could rent it. But that's like work as well, you know, and there's risk and there's a cost to your van. But if it's just for your personal use, it's perfectly possible to break even or make a profit after you've used it for a bunch of years.

Speaker 1: 10:30

Yeah, I love that concept and probably the first part of that is choosing a van that someone's going to want to buy. So you have to put some effort and time into picking probably the right model, and how do you coach people or what do you suggest for types of vans that someone should choose for resale.

Speaker 2: 10:46

So I think this also is like sort of depends on where you are in the world. So there's like a slightly more limited set of vans really in the States and there's a few more variation in Europe because you have a lot of panel vans used for basically everything in Europe. So it sort of depends on that. But I guess really it's not so much the type of van, it's more about the feature set and the mileage and how much you spend, you know. So I've got this like what I call like the golden rule. And basically the golden rule is like really rule of thumb, but it's you shouldn't spend more than like 50% on the build of the like the base vehicle cost. So if your vehicle costs you 20,000, don't spend more than 10,000 on the build because the vehicle would depreciate all your stuff. So if you did the inverse of that you spent 20,000 and you bought on the build and all the kit and it costs 10,000 van then when that $10,000 van's got like a huge mileage, People buying they don't care, they don't really understand how fancy the kit is, They'll just see an old van and they won't want to pay the money that is kind of technically worth.

Speaker 2: 11:51

So it's like looking at A for like what, how, your budget. But then the other aspect is, which is really important is like, like, realistically, what are your skills? If you're going to want to sell a van at the end and you want to sell it for like $100,000, you've got to make some pretty like nice features and you've got to have a like good, high level craftsmanship. Like you can sell a $100,000 van if you've done like a really shorty job, People just won't buy it. So it's also matching your skill set, the budget, the van, the initial van costs and mileage.

Speaker 2: 12:23

So I mean generally, I think like if you've got like a lower end van, you know it's like you know five to 12, $15,000. I wouldn't like to make a profit, but you can probably break even. But in that middle or upper tier, then you can. Then you can make some money. And again in my mind, like it's not so much like making a profit, which is a well important, but I love it, the idea, the concept that even for the lower budget vans you can live your dream for like three years or something, have the best time, full time living all of it, and then you can sell your van and it costs you nothing. I think that's super cool.

Speaker 1: 13:01

Yeah, I think that's such a great concept as well, because not everyone wants to live this way indefinitely, and just thinking about that before you do the build and before you buy the van is a great way to actually start the process so that people can end up selling it, because, like you said, the level of workmanship has to be decent enough for the resale value.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely yeah. And the feature set. You know like if you're spending $100,000 of the van, you know maybe you like a Bay Area tech bro, but otherwise you're generally like a bit older because you've got some money and you want an internal shower, you want a decent fridge, you want a reliable. You know you've got to put the features in. Like you can't be. Like well, I'm a debt bag like surfer and I don't need a fridge, I use shower, but you still think you can sell it for $100,000? Like no, they didn't want that.

Speaker 1: 13:49

Yeah, and especially because there's so many vans you know on the market and so many custom builders that are building these beautiful vans that are selling, you know, used. Now it seems like people have to up their game a little bit to compete. Have you been seeing that type of thing?

Speaker 2: 14:03

I mean, I think like the general standard expectations of bands over the last sort of like eight years or so has really gone up because it's I mean it's partly driven by, like YouTube channels like mine or maybe blogs like yours, is you highlight these really amazing bands and people are like, oh, I need that? Probably don't, but, like you know, it drives this standard up. You know my first band like it was aspirational at the time, it looked really cool. If I publish that van now people will be like, oh, what's the stuff? You know it would not be, it would not do that well. But my latest van it's like I've had to upgrade my stuff, like I made a van to make the course, so it was like we call it the demo van on the course and it just had to be like at a higher standard, with more innovative thinking and like more fancy kit just to show all the stuff that people want to install, but also to be aspirational so that when we put the content out it gets views.

Speaker 1: 15:02

Yeah, that is true. Gone are the days of what we used to do, it's camp in the Chevy Astro van, with a simple bed and fridge system. It's like people don't want that. They want something that looks like an apartment, you know. So I feel like Instagram has driven a lot of that, as you were saying.

Speaker 2: 15:18

It's kind of insane, I think, really what it is? It's like the consumerism of, like consumerization of van life. You know it's like gone are the days where people are like, oh, I'm going to make something, I'm going to live a bit rough, and it's like people want the things because they've seen the things Like desires, pretty memetic. You see it, you want it, and people, it's very easy to get into this track of mind where, like, you see what's available and you think, well, if I don't have a bed which zips up and down and you know like 2000 amp-hours of lithium batteries and everything else, I'm just going to be miserable in my van. You know it's going to be rubbish and it's not true.

Speaker 2: 15:57

Like I mean, maybe if you're like really really low ability to like take discomfort, but for, in my mind actually, I think it's all a bit of a misnomer. Like, often, like the more basic it is, the better the adventure, Like luxury and comfort somehow takes it away. Like I felt my first van was the best van for climbing travel. My current van, oh, it just feels too fancy. You know, it's a weird thing, right? Maybe this is like a problem I have, you know, but like it's too, it's where's the adventure? When there's like almost like no suffering, you know there's no, nothing can go wrong. It's like got so much power and so all this stuff, and you're like, well, it's just like being in the palm. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 16:44

Yeah, yeah, that's funny you say that because, yeah, I do still think of van life as kind of going back to basics and giving stuff up, because once you regain those things they become like incredible again. Like we don't have the running hot water in our van and whenever I get running hot water I'm like, oh my gosh, I really appreciate it and I think you know that's part of the van life. Allure to me is taking that step back out of modern society and being like more like a backpacker, where I have the things that are more comfortable than a backpack but I don't need like the fanciest things that are out there right now.

Speaker 1: 17:14

So it's kind of funny like you were saying that trend is the more fancy.

Speaker 2: 17:19

Yeah, I mean if you're like, say, you're working full time, you're digitally mad, you want just like perfect reliability, then yes, sure, spend $15,000 on your electoral system or $20,000. But I didn't know. I think the big downside to it and it's like people should spend what they want on the van and have the fanciest van they want. I'm like 100% on board with that call. But what I worry about is that people see all the fancy stuff. They think they need the fancy stuff, otherwise they can't have an adventure or it'll be horrible, and then they don't do it. That's the bit which, like kind of like I feel, makes me uncomfortable about the consumerization of our life, because you just feel like if I don't have these things and I can't do it, and if I can't afford these things, then I won't, and I feel like that's going to make people miss out.

Speaker 1: 18:07

Yes, I totally agree with that and that's why I always tell people I started in an Astro minivan and we lived out of that for three years and it was fun and it was cheap and anyone can do it, and so I try to keep that going that just try it in any van. Throw mattress down like go have fun.

Speaker 2: 18:23

Yeah, Just like, even just given like a week or something. It doesn't have to be like a five year trip. I think the thing is like people build it up. They build up what they need and they build up the trip and like everything must be perfect. It's like a wedding or something right. They start off, all, do something simple and then like they're like $50,000 down and they've got like jugglers or like a trapeze or something. Yeah, but it's mission creep. It's super common and I can't blame people for it, but it's yeah, yeah, anyway.

Speaker 1: 18:52

Yeah, how it is. So, in terms of someone doing these builds and selling, you know, not even to make a profit, like you were saying, but to break even, like, what kinds of components do you think are necessary now for a van build that someone can break even on?

Speaker 2: 19:07

I think what the buyers are looking for now in general, they're looking for something which is aesthetically nice, doesn't? That doesn't mean expensive, but it's like doing nice design Like Google pictures of, like luxury shallows and just kind of rip off their color schemes and things right. The other thing they're looking for is usually like ventilation. So they want something that can go in and drive a fan which would drive the air out. They want a fridge. They want a shower doesn't have to be internal, could be an external one, but they wanted to be hot and they probably want a heater.

Speaker 2: 19:42

But depends a bit where in the world you are for that and to have the heater then you might be running off a refittable gas system or diesel. But I mean these are like the real basics you know people want. These are like real tick box things. I mean if it's like a dirtbag van and you're selling for 10 grand like people don't care, but if it's like $40,000, you just have to have like proper ventilation system, decent decinish power and so on. Yeah, fridge, some kind of shower, yeah, and heater.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Yeah, so you decided to build out a course. You had a YouTube channel. You were getting a lot of viewers and questions, and so you built out this course to help teach people this process. And that's super handy, because I also think that there's a lot of information out there and there's information overload. And so tell me why you decided to build this course and what you want people to get out of it.

Speaker 2: 20:39

So I mean, before I've been selling an ebook and the ebook is now into like 14th edition, so it's like way better than it was the first time I wrote it, because I just smashed it out just to like solve the problem of people asking questions and to try and drive some revenue, to be quite honest. And now it's in the 14th edition. We sold tens of thousands of them and I just always had this like sort of feedback over time that people would like more. You know, like people asking questions about things in the ebook and you're like, well, you know there's, there's any so much like information you can write down and have big pictures and diagrams. So really I set out with like one mission and the mission was like how can we make building a van as like as absolutely easy as possible? How do we tackle like the big, scary things people have? So really what we ended up with is okay to do this, we're going to need to build a van, we're going to film everything and we're going to put in a different system so you can understand these. Different things show different like ways of building things, different finishes, and then that, turned into a course, is like 170 videos. It's like it was a monster project, cost an absolute fortune to put together and we had. And then we got lots of materials to share with that and then we should.

Speaker 2: 21:52

We wrote the ebook to help give that context. And then we also teamed up with Electro engineer. He's got his own company but basically he provides electrical consultation as part of the course is included in the fee and he'll basically design you your electrical system. So you get a diagram and you can. You can order the stuff off him or you just order the stuff independently and then you can basically just follow the instructions and you know be safe. You know it's like all correct. It's like correct for your alternator if you're ending it. It's like correct for everything's going to work like perfectly and it will be and it will be safe. So it's like tick that box.

Speaker 2: 22:28

And then we have a community where basically I talk to people in the community literally every day and they're just like asking questions, looking for advice or sharing things and basically it's just trying to like they're not, make them, make people feel like they're not alone, they can access like quick information. When they're like stuck, then it's like show them every single process in high detail so they can like watch and do and watch and do and then, yes, solve that electrical problem. So that's what we set out to do and I'm just know I'm super happy with all. People are on the course, seem very happy with result, which is great. So, yeah, I hope that answers the question.

Speaker 2: 23:04

Yeah, that's really cool because I feel like a lot of people are worried about the electrical system, especially if they're not an electrician, and there's so much info out there and I'm not convinced it's all accurate and so, yeah, that's kind of there is a problem in like van life and like, in a way, the first time I built out of van and in the book this is like quite a while ago, so there just wasn't that much information, but like that was the first ban I built. Now I do have like a technical background or industrial design, but you know there's a lot of people who become influencers in van life and they built one van and one van only. They probably followed someone else's information and now they like need to give advice because they want to sell product or affiliate stuff. So you end up with this like weird merry go round of like information and like weird information or like over conversation for things like they're doing like stuff you haven't really need to do, but that's what they think and that's what they sell. So you end up with this a really confusing world of information. So that was the thing it's like.

Speaker 2: 24:05

You know, I've got a lot of experience in the last like 10 years of bands found building and I can just put that all in one place and then it's just like, don't worry about all of that stuff, this will work and just follow it and it will work. You know, I have like 10 years of owning bands, you know, and it's worked, it's fine. And I think it's just takes that endless research out of it. People talk for days of our installation days. It's yeah, I can't, I can't, I can't even involve myself in it. It's like debates about insulation is like, yeah, do these, they'll work and it'll be fine.

Speaker 1: 24:40

They worry about it. I think that's great that you're taking this concept and Putting it in steps and orders and kind of simplifying it for people, because it is overwhelming, especially if someone's never built a van, and so if someone has like no building experience at all, do you think they can build out a van, or do you recommend they take a class and get some experience? Or what kind of skill level Do people need to build a van?

Speaker 2: 25:03

So, so in general, like it I've said this for a long time but like I really really believe like anyone, anyone can build out a van Like it's nothing in. Building a van is like so like domain specific that you can't figure it out or do it. It's like everything in a van. It's quite small, you know. It's not like building a house. The like, the genuinely like. You screw something up, you can undo it. It doesn't cost enormous amounts unless you, you know, really made some tragic mistake. So and the thing is, it's like that's my belief, but it believes backed up by just seeing people who do it and do it and do it.

Speaker 2: 25:38

I've met personally on the road a lot of people who, like, followed my e-book or the people going through the course and it's like this, almost like this really nice connective, universal experiences people have, because they're like you know, when I started do this, people were just like, yeah, I don't think, like you know, they like doubting them or they really doubt in themselves, but they just like, keep at it, they learn the things and then they're like suddenly like comfortable using a jigsaw and a drill and like they figured out how to do Pre-drill and screws and all these things which, like you know, someone who's been building for a long time just takes for granted.

Speaker 2: 26:11

But, like, coming back to basics, like you know, just how do you use a tool, like we, like, we have a whole module in the course how to use the basic tools, what they are, what the features do, because it's not obvious and and but this, yeah. So this experience I Seen again, again, as they go through this process and they've built this thing and it might not be the most perfect Cabinetry, for sure, and like, but it's a, it's a good looking man, it looks good, it does the job, everything works. They're like super proud, it's like being a transformative experience for them. And you know, and they just realized, like, yeah, I could do more. You know, they've, they've gone from like so someone who thought they could not put up a shelf, now they've built a van and I think it's like, once they like buy the van, they pull the trigger and they go on that journey and at the end of it, they've, they've changed, they've, they've learned something about themselves, about what they can do, which maybe like, isn't it? But they couldn't believe it before.

Speaker 1: 27:06

Yeah, that's a really interesting point because I think there's so many vans on the market that you can just go buy and they're already built. But I'm sure it's a different because we're building out a sprinter and luckily, you know, my partner Tom has build experience I don't, but it is a good feeling that you complete these components and they're here and you're using on and living in it and you designed it, and it is a really good feeling compared to just buying something off a lot, and so I think that's cool, that you've seen that, and it's a lot cheaper.

Speaker 2: 27:32

You know, hey, that's the thing I mean.

Speaker 2: 27:34

Some people on my course and they were like I went to this, like van build show, like they're looking at, like the bands you can buy off the shelf, or like custom builds and they're just like Really expensive.

Speaker 2: 27:45

I mean, if it's like you know, like a commercial van, they got big markup and often like the materials and things can not so be the greatest. But then if it's like a custom build, then it's like High, high cost labor, because skill, highly skilled labor, and it's like complex and and and it's like either way it's expensive. So you can and then you're not gonna like get your custom builder with like a slightly older van and ask them to build it out and it'll cost you enormous amount of money because you wouldn't get the money back because the van's too old. So I think for a lot of people it's like the, it's like the nice, a financial choice, it's like the sensible financial choice, um, but also, if you do do it yourself, then does open the door for the cereal cost, van life, um, where you can basically do this and it'll cost, cost you nothing in the long run.

Speaker 1: 28:32

Yeah, that's true, because if you buy a 200,000 or 300,000 dollar custom build, there's no way you're gonna recoup your money like at all.

Speaker 2: 28:40

I'm and it's insane. Like I mean, I didn't know, maybe I'm just like a cheap or something, but like for me it's like do you think 200, 300,000 dollars on like a van? Honestly, my house cost like I didn't in dollars like 170 and I did entire innovation within that budget and it's a beautiful house. You know it's like for a van, well, just to get on the holiday or like go on a camping trip, I didn't know, and like that sort of money. You're like wow, I didn't know, maybe if you've got tons of money, cool. But like, yeah, but above was my mind. Hello.

Speaker 1: 29:14

Yeah, I know I do see some of these very expensive builds going on over here and I just finished traveling in Europe and I'm not sure I didn't see those really crazy expensive fans over there. Is it more of a thing, do you think, over here in the States than than where you are?

Speaker 2: 29:30

I think everything like we'll just get a bit more amped up in the States because like partly there's like More people with like tons of cash, um, maybe there's like a more of a culture for van life, so maybe that like attracts more, more, more money. Um, you do get like big, expensive rigs in in Europe, but I'm sure not to the extent like in california or somewhere like that, where you know there's like tons of people who just like Ah yeah, I just dropped 300 grand on a van to go away for a weekend or go to burning man or something you know it's. There's definitely less of that in in europe and and depending, yeah, you know there are wealthy parts of Europe, but it's not the same. Yeah, not the same cool.

Speaker 1: 30:10

So your course goes through, like you were saying, like every comp, every part of of a van build, and you built a van from scratch in the course, so someone can literally just kind of follow along with the entire thing.

Speaker 2: 30:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's super cool, so um so, yeah, exactly, there's, that's, that's, that's, that's really the Like, the high-level way to aim that you can. I have people who finish the van already and they're just like, yeah, I just go in, I watch it, I make some notes, I go out, I build, I go back and they just repeat.

Speaker 1: 30:41

Great. And then you talked about the electrical consultation a little bit. I just want to touch on that little more because I just know that's Many people's pain points. So Someone, will you get a phone call or a video call with with the engineer that helps design something for your specific needs? Is that how that works?

Speaker 2: 30:57

They, yeah, I mean. But well, the way we do in the course is people fill out a bit of a survey of kind of like Roughly what their needs, so we get them to think about what they want and their needs first, um, and then they have like a one-hour consultation with with tom. He's an amazing, off-grid, tons of experience electrical engineer and he's like super cool, super friendly and he'll just like go through it. Maybe he were like give you some advice of maybe like where some of your expectations are realistic, or or maybe things you can just rethink about. But in general, who like take those, those needs, the things you want, and he'll design your system and you'll get like a full electronic schematic and if you want, you can buy this stuff through him and you just basically get every single down to the lugs and cables and wires, everything a long go and you just assemble it.

Speaker 2: 31:41

That that takes like all the pain. All the pain. And the other thing is because you could buy in all of the like their small components from a reptile supplier, because if you buy stuff on Amazon sometimes it's like these Chinese things they're a bit too lightweight for the actual like. They look the same if you don't know what you're looking at, but it's, it's not. You know it's too lightweight for the current, you put them through it, things of that. So so you just know you're getting the right stuff and you can be confident that you're putting in a system that isn't gonna catch fire.

Speaker 1: 32:07

Wow, yeah, that's an an incredible value add to what people can get with your course. So that's, that seems fantastic. It's so cool, yeah, so you have a webinar, you know, a free webinar about how to live the van life at zero cost, where you can go even more In depth into this. And then you also have the course. It's for sale, and so Anything else people need to know about your offerings I'll put the links, of course, to find you in the show notes, but, yeah, anything else it's genuinely, I would say, if you, if you're thinking about van life and and it's like something on the horizon You're kind of really starting to think about it watch the webinar.

Speaker 2: 32:44

It's it tastes you through. It's obviously like I'm not gonna lie, it's it was so selling a course and we got a nice discount for you at the end of that that webinar. If you watch the webinar, but it takes you through everything you need to really know or think about.

Speaker 2: 32:58

If you want to like go towards like zero cost or Proper van life, like how to think about the market, how to assess it, how to understand you know what it is like for you, where you are in the world, what features to do, this balance between your Capability and and the price proposition, the golden rule, all these things we sort of touched on lightly and it would just basically fill you in with all of that. So, if you're thinking about it like, it doesn't sell you anything, you don't have to buy anything. It's completely free. So, yeah, I would just really recommend anyone who's thinking of doing the van just watch the webinar. It will give you thoughts which are valuable. I Spend a lot of time hard learning those, hard learning those thoughts, and so I could share that with some some authority.

Speaker 1: 33:37

Yeah, oh for sure, and that's a fantastic resource in itself. And you also have your YouTube channel still, if people just want to learn as well. So that's just Nate Murphy on YouTube.

Speaker 1: 33:48

Yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, very cool, awesome. Well, it's so exciting that you have all these offerings now. I you know I've heard about you on on YouTube, but to have this tangible course that people can actually walk through with their Own pace and ask you questions, that seems super cool. So, yeah, I'm so glad that you were able to come talk about that.

Speaker 2: 34:06

We enjoyed it so nice to sort of have a sort of face-to-face thing. It's kind of funny you in the van and I'm in a house. It should be the other way around it's fine. But I don't really appreciate it. And yeah, thank you so much for letting me come on your podcast.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Yeah, fantastic, and I'll put all your links in the show notes. People can find you and follow you and I'm really excited to go check out the Course and also look at some of your van builds again. So thank you so much for joining me and, yeah, have a wonderful day.

Speaker 2: 34:33

Thank you, chris, all right, see you later.

Speaker 1: 34:34

Remember to head on down to the show notes and sign up for Nate Murphy's webinar on zero cost van life, and if you're ready to get building right now, I'll also add a link to his course, which includes step-by-step tutorials on building a van, plus an electrical Consultation and help and access to Nate and a larger community a really good deal, if you ask me. Well, thanks so much for listening to this episode of the wayward home podcast and I'll see you next time.