Friday was a great day for the Heeringa family of Hastings, and another family from the Waikato – one sold, one bought.

After floods of enquiries and around 50,000 Trade Me hits, Ilse and Matt Heeringa accepted an offer on their tiny container house where they are raising their three children.

But it wasn't a case of the highest offer gets the house. Ilse Heeringa says they wanted it to go to someone who is as passionate as they are about living simply and off the grid.

"It was 100 per cent not just about the price," she says. "We wanted the new buyer to be a good fit. His offer was very attractive across the board. This is a family that wants to embrace the same lifestyle we have. We are really excited to find the type of buyer we wanted to sell to."

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Heeringa says the new owner was contacted by numerous friends and family who had seen the story on Stuff and knew he would be interested. "He rushed down here, driving down and back in a day to have a look at our first open home.

"He has a young family and they intend to use it as their permanent home, but he will be moving it to the Waikato." 

The buyer has plans to put a hard cover over the deck to extend the outdoor living through the seasons.

The Heeringas had asked for offers over $165,000 and say the price exceeded this sum.

Now, the couple that downsized from a five-bedroom house are making plans for their next container house, to be built on a block of land they have bought near Hastings.

"We still love the idea of living simply in a container house, but we will have an extra bedroom for our daughter. We are also investigating the possibility of incorporating straw bale walls. And we will have the toilet separate from the bathroom for extra privacy.

"The house will still be on a small scale," says Ilse Heeringa. "We don't want to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars. We don't want the $1 million house. We just want to live within our means."

Heering says the house will also have solar panels and the couple are exploring the latest technology for composting toilets.