I built a greenhouse in my backyard instead of an ADU. It earns $24,000 a month and I don't have to work full-time.
· Business Insider
Courtesy of Leela Rea
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- Leela Rea wanted to use her property to earn more income, but didn't want to build a tiny home.
- She built a greenhouse instead and started renting it out for small events and photoshoots.
- It's turned into a full-blown business, and in most months she earns an average of $24,000.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Leela Rea, 37, who built a greenhouse in her California backyard. She now rents it out for small events and photo shoots, earning an average of $24,000 a month. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Our family would always drive by this beautiful house in Vista. It had 100-foot trees, eucalyptus, smilax growing down the hills, and hydrangeas. It didn't feel like it belonged in Southern California, but more like the middle of the European countryside.
My oldest daughter would always say, "Mommy, that's the princess house," or, "It's the Christmas house." It just had so much character.
In 2024, we saw that the home was up for sale. Even though we were a week away from a European vacation, I told my husband, "We're absolutely buying this house."
We closed escrow while we were in Switzerland and bought the house for about $1 million. Its interest rate is nearly 8%, and our monthly mortgage payment is about $7,000.
A couple of years earlier, my husband and I had sold our wedding-venue business. Living in Southern California is expensive, and we owned multiple properties, including a home in Carlsbad, which was our primary home at the time.
We wanted a way to increase our income without having to return to work full time. For a while, we rented out our Vista home, along with the lawn and backyard, on Airbnb. We also considered building an accessory dwelling unit on the property to rent out.
We consulted a contractor, who gave us a quote for a three-bedroom, two-bath accessory dwelling unit (ADU). All in — with permits and construction — he told us to budget between $500,000 and $600,000, with room for error.
I was like, "There's no way this thing is going to cost me $600,000 to build, and I'd be earning like $3,500 a month." I have three young children, too. Would I even be able to trust them to run around with a stranger living on our property?
My background in the wedding industry gave me an idea
Instead of an ADU or tiny home, my husband and I decided to build a greenhouse in the backyard.
I'm not going to pretend that I just landed on this idea. I knew what I was doing. I previously worked in the wedding industry and have a pretty good idea of what people are looking for.
In Southern California, there are many beautiful venues, but not a lot that are small and intimate. For example, there's a beautiful wedding venue about 15 minutes down the street, and it's an insane property. But they do four or five weddings a day there, and their food-and-beverage minimum is probably around $50,000 to $100,000.
If you're having a rehearsal dinner or a baby shower, you're not going to want to spend $50,000. That's where we come in. We're like, "We'll meet you right here."
Rea has applied for a patent for her greenhouse's design.Courtesy of Leela Rea/ Natalie Wade
I've had greenhouses on my Pinterest board for 10 years. We almost went with a company from England to build ours, but the quote was way over our budget. So I sketched out my own idea, and I reached out to a friend who's a welder.
I have applied for a patent for my greenhouse design. It cost us almost $200,000 to build, including electrical work, flooring, and a fireplace. To help finance construction, we sold a couple of our real-estate properties, though not our Carlsbad home. All in, it took about 10 months to build.
The greenhouse brings in about $24,000 each month.Courtesy of Leela Rea/ Natalie Wade
We live in such a social-media, content-creation world. You give something a bomb aesthetic, people are going to come, and they're going to pay — especially with the rise of AI, people are craving something real that stands out.
Our house is on a hill, and the greenhouse is down below. There are two seasonal creeks on each side of the greenhouse. When it rains, they get really full. There are massive trees everywhere. On one path, we have a lavender field with about 150 French lavender plants, and you just kind of walk into the greenhouse. It's so sweet.
The business has taken off
We've done a lot of proposals, and photoshoots are our bread and butter. But our highest revenue events are the intimate ones, like rehearsal dinners, bridal showers, and baby showers.
A lot of the time, guests get married at the courthouse and then have a stunning little 20-person reception in the greenhouse.
I think, in this post-COVID world, people are more attracted to intimate events with their nearest and dearest. Nobody really wants a Taylor Swift wedding. You can't splurge when you have that many people.
With smaller events, you have money for the flowers, candles, live musicians, and food. You can really stretch your budget.
A baby shower in the greenhouse.Courtesy of Leela Rea
At first, I was posting everywhere to promote the greenhouse. There are different platforms that charge insane commission fees, which worked for some time. But now we get enough inquiries through social media that it just doesn't make sense.
We don't do a lot of events each year — maybe 10 to 15 intimate events. But we do a lot of photoshoots and content-creation shoots. They make good money, and you don't have to do anything for them.
When we first started, we charged $3,000 for a day rental, whether it was a baby shower or an intimate event. Now, our minimum for any event is $7,500.
Rea charges a minimum of $7,500 per intimate event.Courtesy of Leela Rea/Fiona Tang
For photoshoots, the minimum is $375 per hour for photoshoots. We also offer a full buyout of the house — which we now live in full time — but only when we're traveling. It's not like, "Hey, I want to rent your whole house today." Never. We have to plan for it. And unless we're bringing in at least $30,000 for the weekend, I'm not packing up.
On average, we earn about $24,000 renting out the greenhouse. Some of that money goes back into maintaining the space.
For events, I always provide refreshments, paper towels, and trash bags, which cost between $200 and $350 a month. We also hire a cleaning company that charges between $350 and $500. I used to do a lot of the cleaning myself, but I've paid my dues.
We're building more greenhouses based on my design
We've had a lot of manufacturers reach out and say, "Let us build a greenhouse, and we'll split the profits." But I reached out to the friend who built ours, and I was like, "Let's engineer this properly and figure it out together."
We are manufacturing here in Southern California, and there will be three sizes. I'm going to put the smallest one in our old house in Carlsbad. We already have a couple of preorders, so I'm really excited to start seeing them pop up.
This project is going to change our whole family's life.
Rea and her daughters in their backyard.Courtesy of Leela Rea
In the beginning, even my family was like, "Who would pay to rent out your house and little greenhouse?" And I was like, "Oh my gosh, let me show you."
Through renting out our greenhouse, my husband and I are grateful not to have to work full time. Some months, we're earning as much as some people make in a year. We're also able to spend more time together as a family.
Our parents' generation was always told that getting an education or working a job for 20 to 30 years was the best way to build wealth. But I don't think our generation thinks like that.
It's such a fun, interesting time to be alive. We have all these tools to market and sell our ideas in ways previous generations never dreamed of.
I feel like people need to think differently to start living differently. And I hope more moms know that they can bet on themselves. Why not?
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