Missouri resident Michael Loftis adopted an “off-the-grid” lifestyle with his family four years ago when they hit the open road in an RV to explore the country. Even with four children under the age of seven, Loftis found the experience exhilarating.
“We were already kind of adventurous people. We like being in secluded locations,” said the 41-year-old former real estate broker. Loftis and his family’s journey stretched from the Florida Everglades to Wyoming’s Grand Teton national park.
In 2020, Loftis imagined a home base for his family to return to after their trips and began building an off-grid cabin on the farm where he grew up in Thornfield, Missouri. Over the six months, he estimates that he spent $50,000 on the project.
The COVID-19 pandemic eventually complicated the family’s plans to hit the road again, so Loftis and his family moved permanently to a house in a nearby town.
Now, the cabin serves as a getaway for travelers seeking a quiet escape from their daily lives and brings in around $4,000 during the warmer months of March through October, Insider verified through records provided by Loftis.
Loftis said he wants his guests to be able to “disconnect” while they’re staying at his Airbnb and enjoy the nature surrounding them.
“I just want you to enjoy the property, turn off your cell phone, walk through the woods, sit by the water, and have a cup of coffee in the mornings,” he said.
The early foundation of a home being built
Loftis broke ground in January 2020, with the help of his second cousin, Jerry, who had built similar properties during his career as a craftsman. The parcel of land was located on his family’s farm in Thornfield, Missouri, located about 4 hours south of St. Louis.
He selected a location near a small spring on the property, dreaming of living in a home where he could “hear the water running all the time.”
Initially, he thought the project might take them three months, but it ultimately took them six months to complete it.
They focused on making a basic, “stick-built” home. In total, he estimates the project cost $50,000.
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In total, Loftis said the project cost $50,000, including two-by-fours, floor joists, windows, roofing, insulation, hardware, wiring, and plumbing.
He estimates they were able to save about $30,000 from using materials stripped from the old farm as well.
Loftis said his worst mistake was when it came time for energy installation.
“Going off the grid is expensive,” he told Insider.
Initially, he just used a gas-powered generator for the cabin. When the property hosted its first visitors, Loftis says guests loved the experience because it lent an authentic feeling of being miles away from the everyday.
But, as a short-term rental owner, he discovered the process required multiple visits to the property to show guests how to operate the generator.
He then bought a hydropower system for $8,000, but it ended up being too complicated for his needs. They spent an additional $3,000 on repairs to the system to keep it operating.
Eventually, he gave up on his previous efforts and installed a solar-powered system for another $6,000. By his estimates, a traditional electric installation would’ve only been $10,000 altogether from the start.
He used recycled materials from his family’s farm, including barnwood and tin roofing.
Even before he knew guests would be using the property to disconnect from digital life, Loftis wanted a vintage, “rustic” feeling for the cabin for his family.
During construction, they pulled materials from structures on the farm built in the 1940s. They used barn wood for the interior walls and weathered tin for the roofing.
The choice added to the delays, Loftis says. Barn wood “twists and moves” and it is not as easily “slapped on” as newly-purchased products.
“It just takes a lot more time to work with the old material, but it looks better than the new material,” Loftis said.
Loftis and his family lived on the property from November 2020 to April 2021, before making it a permanent short-term rental.
In 2020, Loftis had initially planned an RV voyage to Alaska with his family. But, when the pandemic continued through the year, they decided to move into the newly-built cabin.
They eventually abandoned the RV life and moved into a permanent home this year in a nearby town, though Loftis says his family has still used the cabin as an escape a few times after moving out.
Now, the cabin rents for $120 a night and he mostly sees millennials trying to “disconnect.”
Once Loftis listed the property on Airbnb, there was immediate interest. After documenting the building journey on his YouTube channel, Loftis Party of Six, he says some viewers were itching to see the house for themself.
The property currently sleeps up to 6 guests and rents for $121 per night. Loftis says there’s a drop-off in the winter months as fewer people want to brave the cold.
Guests, he’s observed, are mostly of the millennial cohort — typically, younger people looking to get away from busy, digitally-connected lives.
“I always have these mid-20s to late-30s visitors who love being secluded and want to disconnect,” he says.
Though it is advertised as “off-the-grid,” the house does include a flushing toilet and running water, but no wi-fi.
Loftis furnished the property with “rustic” accents from nearby antique stores and even bought a vintage gas cookstove from Facebook Marketplace.
Loftis wanted his guests to feel completely transported and to be able to soak in the calmness of being alone in the middle of 50 acres.
He scoured antique shops for furniture, rugs, paintings, and a clawfoot tub to make the property feel like it was stuck in time.
The antique find he says that he’s proudest of is a 1920s gas-powered cookstove, which he drove four hours north to Illinois to get after finding it on Facebook Marketplace.
It comes with an extra layer of difficulty for guests, as Loftis takes extra steps to make sure they’re using caution around all the old appliances.
“A lot of people just always use electric products. They haven’t used a flammable propane product before. So it’s a learning curve,” he said.
For his next project, Loftis wants to build a treehouse or a lookout modeled after 1950’s fire towers.
Loftis has caught the bug and wants to build more out-of-the-box short term rentals.
His vision for the next project is a tall, stilt-like structure that will either resemble a treehouse or vintage lookout tower, where guests will be able to sleep in a square room at the top. He envisions guests feeling like they’re on top of the world.
“I try to be as unique as possible and find something that I think would draw people in,” he said.
