So, I’m enlisting my parents’ assistance in hunting for a more permanent place to hang my hat. My DVD collection and book collection are simply outgrowing my apartment living space.
Now, my parents have apparently located a modestly priced double-wide trailer (from some pre-fab home outfit around here, I’d guess) that honestly sounds delightful.
However, my problem is… some part of my brain is reluctant to think of any kind of trailer as a “house”. Anybody out there that can help combat that prejudice with reassuring stories, or reinforce it with tales of homeowner horror?
I think the bad vibes from “trailer house” come from the trailer parks that they are parked in.
My parents have a trailer home out in the country on 2 acres of land that is really quite nice. My sister had bought a triple wide (sitting on 40 acres) that they customized the inside and outside (laid hardwood floors, added decking to the back and front, wallpaper and tile floors etc). You could not tell it was a trailer at all unless they told you.
We were looking at buying a double-wide at one time (I forget why we didn’t put in a bid on it, but it had nothing to do with the house itself). The house was quite nice, 4 bedrooms, 1 and 1/2 baths, laundry room. One of the features I loved was that the master bedroom was on one end of the house, and the other three bedrooms were on the other end. I think Tiggrkitty’s right; it’s the Ol’ Trailer Park Blues that are playing in the back of your mind.
I live in a mobile home in a beautiful mobile home park.
Do not expect your double wide to grow in value. Consider it just as you would a car purchase; it’s value will depreciate every year, not appreciate, no matter how much you add on to it, upgrade it, etc. If you do buy a mobile home, try to buy the land also or have an iron-clad lease agreement, otherwise you may find yourself being evicted because the land owners want to sell. Most mobile home parks where I live will not accept older (more the three years) mobile homes in their parks. Check the floors and plumbing. Older mobile homes were built with inferior plumbing and particleboard floors, which dissolve when they get wet.
There are insurance companies that specialize in mobile homes (Foremost is one) so get good replacement insurance. It is not expensive.
When my father retired, we had to move off base (obviously). When I found out that we were moving into a double-wide, I did everything but refuse to move with them. I was horrified by the idea… As has been said, I had that “trailer park” image in my head, and saw us all sitting around a barrel fire drinking Keystone Light.
It is a beautiful home, and like someone else said, you’d never know it was a trailer if they didn’t tell you. Honestly, you could just call it a modular home, and pull it off. This, of course, depends on the trailer - there are some that live right up to the “trailer trash” reputation.
I note your location is West Virginia. I dunno what the weather situation is like up there, but I will tell you my one prejudice against mobile homes – tornadoes. If West Virginia gets tornadoes with any sort of frequency, I would definitely think twice about getting a mobile home.
Alabama (where I live) gets tornadoes on a regular basis throughout the spring and summer. I have seen countless mobile homes completely destroyed by a tornado, even a small tornado. Several years back, I had a friend who sold mobile homes. Even though they have augers that supposedly keep them anchored in the ground, and even though they’re supposedly manufactured to withstand winds of a certain speed, my friend said he would never attempt to ride out a bad storm in a mobile home. It’s just too dangerous.
Having said that, three of the homes in my neighborhood growing up were mobile homes, and they’re still there. Never got hit by a tornado. They’re quite nice, too.
You’ve not seen trailers in the last fifteen-twenty years, have you? You can get a pretty damn nice trailer for quite a bit less than a modest house would cost you. My aunt’s trailer is ten years old or so (or maybe older, time flies the older I get), and she’s got a nice big kitchen with all the built-in goodies, master bath with garden tub, walk in closets, you name it. In that respect, it’s nicer than my house by quite a bit, 'cause there damn sure aren’t any walk-in closets or garden tubs around here.
The only thing I would warn you about is where you decide to put your trailer. If you’re going the trailer park route, carefully check over the rules and regulations of the park and check around to see how well those rules are enforced. Most trailer parks have rules about noise, lawn care, etc., but some don’t enforce them, so you can wind up with a place that sounds great on paper but is actually full of loud drunks who leave their junker cars up on blocks on waist-high lawns. That’s the beautiful thing about a well-run, respectable trailer park (and yes, there are plenty of those out there), you’re not going to have any truly bad neighbors for any length of time, because their asses will get kicked out.
If you’re going for your own lot, I’d second Palikia’s suggestion to buy a lot rather than renting it. If the landowner wants to sell and evicts you, it can be hard to find a suitable place for your trailer on short notice, so you’re kind of up the creek.
Thanks for the input so far. Further information - there would be no trailer park here… I’d have to insist on buying a lot at the least.
Also - WV gets bad thunderstorms, flooding, hail - but very, very, very rarely gets tornadoes. The topography helps to break them up, I’m led to believe.