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I'll give you another reason to buy a mobile home. People we know have found out that their plumbing on their 11 year old house is defective and will all have to be replaced. 11 thousand dollars. Its a manufacturing defect in the plumbing. The manufacturer is already bankrupt and there's a class action suit, so none of the victims of this crap will ever seen anything on their loss. Stick built. After this many years, try to get the builder to stand behind it.
This is one of the problems with stick built homes. Builders are building cheaper and cheaper and cutting more corners. Are the mobile home manufacturers doing the same? Probably, but at least they have national standards they have to meet. Your local builder only has to satisfy the local govt. inspector, who can probably be bribed. No thanks. I've had enough.
I'll give you another reason to buy a mobile home. People we know have found out that their plumbing on their 11 year old house is defective and will all have to be replaced. 11 thousand dollars. Its a manufacturing defect in the plumbing. The manufacturer is already bankrupt and there's a class action suit, so none of the victims of this crap will ever seen anything on their loss. Stick built. After this many years, try to get the builder to stand behind it.
This is one of the problems with stick built homes. Builders are building cheaper and cheaper and cutting more corners. Are the mobile home manufacturers doing the same? Probably, but at least they have national standards they have to meet. Your local builder only has to satisfy the local govt. inspector, who can probably be bribed. No thanks. I've had enough.
Hmm. Obviously You DIDN'T read my post on page two. Just over a decade ago, to the tune of $3200.00, we replaced the ENTIRE plumbing supply lines in our 1982 model MH. ALL the polybutylene {?} supply lines began to burst.
WHY? It was the gray polybutylene {?} "plastic plumbing" very common in MHs as lightweight and easy to use in that period of building, the ones that turn brittle as they age and deteriorate.
OH, the manufaturer knew it and still sold it afer knowing it to be an issue, Unfortunately we did not know the manufacturer had a compensation system in place to cover ALL the piping...if you applied and waited. We knew it was for those built/installed AFTER a certain time when the mgfr still sold it knowing of the defect {after ours was built}, but They ALSO would cover ANY of the piping that was submitted for replacement.
The problem was, the plumber who replaced it for us, wanted their $3200 up front, and not wait for the reimbursement so they didn't tell us! We didn't find out til about 8 years later about the coverage for ANY piping submitted for reimbursement.
SO, NO MHs are NOT necessarily Built "better" in my estimation, they are built the same way stick builts are...to MINIMUM code, CUTTING corners where they can, To BARE specifications.
"Trailer-trash" reputation aside, I think it would be a bad idea because of natural disaster. The things don't exactly do too well with tornadoes/hurricanes/earthquakes.
"Trailer-trash" reputation aside, I think it would be a bad idea because of natural disaster. The things don't exactly do too well with tornadoes/hurricanes/earthquakes.
I've seen first hand the months of miserable living people have after a tornado or hurricane, waiting for construction crews to get to their house, permits to be pulled, repairs made, inspections made, insurance to pay off. After hurricane Wilma, neighbors across the street were out of pocket for six months. (Our house suffered no damage for various reasons).
In two weeks, a manufactured home can be totaled and removed, in less than a month a brand new one can sit in its place - or - in literally days a replacement used home can be trucked in and fully functional.
OP, the premise makes no sense. Yes, its true, you might plan to never move, but that almost certainly will not happen. Usually people move for a variety of reasons, increase or decrease in wealth, the neighborhood goes bad, job moves and opportunities, marriage, divorce, etc. etc. We always did the oposite. We always bought a house, keeping in mind that we will have to sell it one day. We treated the house that way also, so any decorating was in neutral colors, making it easier to sell. And my formula worked. Unless you're a farmer, you'll probably move some day.
I bought a brand new Palm Harbor 3 bd 1 1/2 bath with the sunken tub, fireplace and all the upgrades because I
was tired of paying rent. It was only a few years later that the home needed all sorts of repairs including the metal
roof was buckling. Being a single lady I sold it! I would not recommend buying one. I always felt uneasy when bad
storms would pop up! Also by the time I paid the lot rent and the mortgage it was $800 a month(a lot back in '98) not including insurance and property taxes. (nothing like having a mortgage & a landlord)!!! I definitely bit off more than I could chew. I like the inside of Mobile homes but I don't like the outside. It seems no matter if you are in a park or on land next to someone it always looks junky. Skirting gets old and starts sagging! Now I live in a small one bedroom apt where everything looks nice and neat outside and where all the maintenance is taken care of for way less than the mobile home. Glad I got out from under that 30 year mortgage nightmare.
Palm Harbors are, IMO, overpriced. Lot rent, as has been discussed, is a killer. Mortgages enforce other constraints like having to pay for overpriced insurance. Skirting is often considered as a cheap afterthought, when concrete block skirting is stable and rodent-proof. Repairs vary wildly, just like in houses. Sorry your experience was so bad.
As with almost everything, you get what you pay for, including both MH and stick built homes. Better quality costs more, although mobiles will generally cost less than similar homes of the same quality. Part of it is economy of scale. Part of it is quicker turn-around time, too.
If you are planning to rent a lot, I wouldn't do that as MHP rents and conditions are serious issues as the homes age and MHs in parks don't hold their value at all; you might not be able to sell it -- or even rent it if you needed to move. Double-wide MHs on their own land do much better, and if you are a conscientious homeowner, you could even see some appreciation, depending upon the area. Single-wides are not likely to hold their value but they're much cheaper than double-wides, and if all you need is 800-900 square feet, could work well for you.
In my state, if you remove the wheels and hitch, your home then becomes real property and is taxed accordingly. In some towns or in some areas of towns, you can only have double-wides and have to remove the wheels and hitch and put the home on a foundation because they want MHs to be virtually indistinguishable from stick built home.
Around here, "mobile home community" often means a development with singles and/or double wides on 0.4-1 acre lots that are owned...those with lot rent are called trailer parks. I'm not sure which of those the poster was referring to.
I'm in a relatively low cost area compared to a lot of the US and 3BR apartments (I'm assuming the mobile is 3BR) that aren't in the ghetto rent for $775+/month. That's of course $9,300+ per year or $46,500+ over 5 years (assuming no rent increase which is definitely not likely). It would take some whopping utility bills to put a dent in that amount.
Not just utility bills, but also repairs. I just don't get the appeal of all the disadvantages of home ownership with none of the advantages, assuming you're renting the lot. Now, if you own the lot, that's a different story.
In this day and age, I think a mobile home is the right housing choice to make. Housing is no longer an investment, its pure cost. The reason you can't count on housing as an investment, is that there is a good chance, that your investment will go down in value. If the economy in your area goes bad, if the neighborhood itself declines in value, all kinds of things can and do happen to people who have lost a great deal of money on their real estate investment.
So a mobile home is a great housing choice. It can last many years. I know this because I know of mobile home parks in Fla. that have homes that have been remodeled and fixed up and have been there since the 60's and look really nice. Any building, whether mobile or stick built will need updates and improvements over time, new windows, roof, doors flooring etc.
A mobile has other advantages. 1. It can be moved to another park if the rent goes to high or the owner doesn't keep up the property. 2. It has another advantage that a lot of folks don't think about. Its all private property. The mobile home park can kick people out of the park. It can have rules about excessive noise, barking dogs, etc. With a stick built home, you have no control if you have a neighbor with loud parties, barking dogs, doesn't keep up his property. In a mobile home park, such a nuisance can be kicked out and the house removed. In a city neighborhood, you have no control over what is going on in the streets, or who is snooping around the neighborhood, casing the neighborhood for potential crime victims. Not so in a mobile home, park. They don't like the look of the guy, its private property and they can kick him or her out.
I think this is very location dependent. They are getting rid of mobile home parks in my area. The folks who live in them often have no other viable place to go.
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