Out of these six kinds of homes listed below, which kind would you say leaves a person with more disadvantages than advantages:
A) A trailer home
B) An apartment
C) A manufactured home
D) A house
E) A condo
F) A modular home.
Explain your selection if you care to.
What is the distinction between C and F?
Depending on the owner’s situation I don’t see anything clearly worse than the others. I’d say an apartment has the big disadvantage that you don’t own it, and you could be kicked out, at a minimum when the lease was up. But even that depends on your economic situation, you can’t choose the others if you don’t have enough money. I hear a lot of people complain that condos are a poor investment of money, but if a condo costs the same as an apartment, and if that fits your ability to pay, and you don’t want the flexibility to move I’d consider it better than an apartment. On the other hand if I wanted to be able to move away the apartment would be better. I don’t know how owning a trailer works out investment wise, but the people I’ve known who lived in them seemed to like it. They’ve all been young adults or older and retired, so again, the circumstances matter.
What do you see as different between “manufactured home” and “modular home”? In my part of the US we’d consider them the same. Or are you thinking a" manufactured home" is a non movable trailer?
Modular is boxes trucked in and assemble on a foundation or slab. Manufactured could be either the same, or walls built in a factory and raised and finished on a foundation.
The disadvantage of an apartment that I disliked the most was sharing walls with other people. Not only does this translate into noise problems, but if your neighbor has a roach problem, you will too. If your upstairs neighbor floods his bathroom, expect waterfalls to show up somewhere in yours.
I’d say that apartments are the most disadvantageous, assuming that you’d be a homeowner on the other ones.
You pay a similar amount per month, but when you move out, you haven’t built any equity. On top of that, it’s a shared living experience with neighbors above and below, and frequently sub-standard sound proofing, as well as often serious limitations on the improvements you can do.
I used to work for a company that made manufactured homes and modular homes- “manufactured homes” are trailer homes, in that they’re manufactured in a factory and shipped to the home site. Modular homes were the ones that had all the main framing parts and a lot of the interior furnishings made in a factory, and assembled on site with nuts and bolts. Not all that different from a site-built home, except for the fact that they’re usually fairly small, and recognizable as a modular home.
The disadvantages to trailer homes are space, sturdiness and social stigma. Tornadoes don’t seek out trailer parks in reality, but when they do come near, they do MUCH more damage than they would to a typical site-built home, due to the lighter construction. Plus, if you live in a trailer home as your primary residence, some people are going to look down on that.
Condos are basically owned apartments from what I understand. Same problems with neighbors, but with more latitude in terms of what you can do to the condo, since you own it.
I’d add townhouses and duplexes to the list- they’re more interesting than the difference between apartments and condos, or site-built houses and modular houses.
Or what’s the difference between A, C and F? I thought many of those mobile home parks call the residences “manufactured homes”, but the old term was “trailer” or “double-wide trailer” for the rich folks. So please define your terms if you want opinions.
Factors can vary among all these choices. However, a condo has all the disadvantages of an apartment and ownership, usually with the extra disadvantage of fascist HOA dues and members.
All other factors being (more or less) equal, a detached home is much better than an apartment where you share walls/floor/ceiling with your neighbors.
Whatever the kind of home, placement also matters. I lived for several years in a 40’x10’ trailer. Now of course you’ve all seen trailer parks full of such homes, and some such parks are much nicer-looking than others, and some are downright slummy. But the trailer I lived in was not in a trailer park at all, but instead was well separated from any other human-built structures – to the extent that there was not another human-built structure in sight! Photo
It may have been just an older and slightly shabby trailer, full of bugs and mice and little green tree frogs – but given the surrounding terrain, that was all just to be expected. As far as I was concerned, it was like living in the Garden of Eden, while it lasted.
Where I live, conventional homes all have basements and huge lots which is fine for young people but not so good for old folks. When homes have basements, the washer and dryer are in the basement necessitating numerous trips up and down stairs on wash day. Also the large lot is just too much work for elderly people to take care of. The other disadvantage for us is that most of our retirement savings would be tied up in the house.
For that reason we chose to buy a fairly new mobile home in a senior mobile home park. The home is a 14’X70’ single-wide with a 13’X68’ addition with a carport on the front, a covered deck in the middle, and two rooms at the rear. We have 1300 Sq Ft enclosed which is big enough for the two of us with a third bedroom for occasional guests. We are really pleased with our home because it has 6" walls filled with insulation, a foot of insulation in ceiling and floor and all windows are sealed double-pane, so it is very energy efficient and comfortable. The best part is the low monthly outlay. We put $11,000 down and financed the remaining $54,000 over 25 years when we retired at 67. So, out monthly mortgage is $300 and our space rent in the park is $220 for a total of $520.
We get a lot of services for our space rent; landscaping and common area grounds are well maintained, snow removal and sanding in winter, garbage removal, water, and sewer. I only have about 1200 Sq Ft to mow and trim. It’s a perfect housing solution for us but it wouldn’t work for everyone.
The disadvantage of a house compared to a condo is that you have to do a lot more maintenance and yard work.
Trailer home, modular home, and manufactured home all have the disadvantage from a monetary point in that banks often will not loan you money on them. If you put even a nice trailer on a piece of property the bank is more likely to loan money on the property and disregard the house. If the bank has to recall the loan the house is of little market value. Second mortgage? Forget it.
The problem with an apartment is that you have little control over your future beyond the terms of your lease agreement. You might be forced to move from a home that you have had for a time when the owner changes his plans and decides to sell, renovate, or tear it down. Your home is at the mercy of the landlord’s future plans.
With a Condo you have to deal with whatever condo association that runs it and all of the petty little rules. But you are paying for the ease of letting someone else take care of the maintenance issues. If you are retired condos can be attractive.
Owning an actual stick built house and property comes with upkeep, property taxes, probably yard and building maintenance, and only you are responsible. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. You have to plan ahead because you are the only one to take care of these issues.
All these decisions depend upon what is right for you, what stage in your life are you at? If you want a home and a yard and love working outside, get a house. Tired of all that shit, get a condo or apartment. Few monetary resources but don’t want to live in an apartment, get a trailer or manufactured home.
There is no correct answer, it depends, like most things, upon money and desires.
In many countries, trailers and condos have the distinct disadvantage of not being available.
Apartments/flats, you share walls, floor and ceiling: this can be both and advantage (shared heating costs, shared maintenance costs) and a disadvantage (shared heating costs, the neighbors are at it again, lady I hate your favorite radio station).
Houses, it depends a lot on the location. Rowhouses have shared walls again. Single-homes can sometimes be close enough that it’s almost a joke calling them “single” (see for example “house porn programs set in San Francisco”), the maintenance is usually higher than when you share walls. Whether rowhouses or single, they tend to be further from stores and services than apartments.
Rental vs ownership is a different proposition. Both apartments and houses can be rented or owned.
Can you not own an apartment in the US? So you pretty much can’t own anything in the centre of a big city like NYC? But I thought people did own flats there. Now I’m confused…
Yes, you can, but the cultural push is to either own a participation in a condo or a house (both condos and terraced houses are found in the centre of cities). It’s possible but not what comes to mind to an American upon hearing “apartment” (as demonstrated in this thread), same as it’s possible but not what comes to mind to rent a house.
Thanks! I think here renting is probably also more often a flat, and buying a house, only in this thread it seemed a universal assumption: if it’s a flat, you are renting.
What an odd question.
All of them have their own distinct properties, and what some people may consider a disadvantage, others may not.
Also, what sort of disadvantages are you thinking about?
Social? Trailers are pretty much universally derided. There’s a reason that the phrase “trailer trash” exists.
Financial? It’s hard to get financing for some types of modular or factory houses if they aren’t properly certified in your state/with your financial institution.
Locational? Some areas require apartments to be leased instead of owned, some places require HOAs for condos or neighborhood houses, some places restrict trailer homes, or are too remote or too urban for manufactured homes to be constructed.
Lifestyle? Do you like doing yardwork? Condos or apartments don’t usually allow residents to manage their yards (if they even have them). Do you sleep lightly? Shared walls are not your friends. Do you want to have close relationships with neighbors? Perhaps a manufactured home in the middle of the country would be too lonely.
I will say that having lived in most of the categories you mention, condos are a pain in the ass for exactly the reasons california jobcase mentioned.
If you buy an apartment it’s usually the same situation as a condo. I haven’t noticed apartments for sale outside of major cities, but then I’m not shopping for one.
The way it generally works here in the states is that if you are renting, it’s referred to as an apartment. Generally if you own a unit inside a building, you would own it in a condominium (“condo”), or a cooperative (co-op). They are generally set up this way so that there is some mechanism to take care of the common elements of the building, and to raise funds to do said maintenance.
In Europe, if you own your flat, who pays to repair the building roof, or exterior walls? I would imagine that you need some sort of mechanism to do that.
The HOA, or in Dutch Vereniging van Eigenaars (VvE), in the Netherlands (I’m trying to think of the language used in the UK, but it’s not coming to mind. You just have a flat. Sometimes as a co-op, I think?)
It sounds like the VvE works exactly as a condominium, but there are no different words for the building. You live in a flat, whether it’s rented or your own. Flat means the building.
