Can someone enlighten me about manufactured homes? I am going to look at one tomorrow. What should I be looking for? I know some people refuse to purchase manufactured homes. I have heard about the lower resale values. but what sort of things should I be especially on guard against when I look this thing over. Appreciate the help.
Just about everything about them is supposed to be ‘better’ since they’re made in a controlled environment. But until they’re more mainstream (a lot more mainstream) they’re still going to have that trailer park stigma attached to them.
If I were buying one, just to deal with the stigma that’s going to come along with it, I’d one one with a full basement (assuming houses in your area have full basements) and mixed in with regular stick built houses. I would guess that those two things would help with the resale value a little bit.
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Since this is asking for opinions, let’s move it over to IMHO.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
A lot depends on how they are made. There are two manufactured homes near me. Both came in two sections, a front half and a back half, and were placed onto foundations with a basement.
The first home did not include stairs from the basement to the rest of the house. So to get into the basement you had to go outside. Many years later, the basement has been finished off into a living space, but there’s still no direct access, which is kinda weird. This comes off as kind of a “cheap” house and very much reflects its value.
The second house has proper stairs like you’d expect. The previous owners also added on a really nice deck/back porch to it. The current owner enclosed the back porch, added on a small deck, added on a nice front porch as well, and added a 2 car garage. The house in its current form competes very well with the stick built ranchers in the area. The fact that it’s a manufactured home doesn’t really affect its value much. Even so, some folks will always think that manufactured homes are built cheaply, so that will affect the value somewhat.
Well built manufactured homes don’t get dinged too bad on value. Cheaply built ones do.
We’re also in an area where there are a lot of ranchers. The manufactured homes don’t seem out of place. If it was a neighborhood of all cape cods, for example, the style of the house could have a big effect on its value.
I do happen to know a lot about living in trailers and manufactured homes. When I was doing it, there really wasn’t any stigma involved because of the location.
Are you looking to buy a new one, or is it already placed? Due to the fact that they are moved whole, and then bolted together, if the sides don’t match by even just 1/4 of an inch, it will show. They also get a lot of flexing while they are being moved.
I honestly liked my trailer better than my middle quality manufactured home. I knew that my trailer was a cheap POS and didn’t expect much out of the insulation. I expected better from my manufactured home, but it really was about the worse decision I could have made.
Is it classified as a modular house or a mobile home?
If it’s a mobile home, there are differences in the quality of some of the interior materials used (depending on age and manufacturer). The biggest difference for me though was the actual process of buying. We’ve just bought our third property, and this happens to be a mobile home (doublewide). I actually love it despite the crap quality of a few things (cabinets, window casings, bathroom fittings). It’s cozy and home-y and has a nice layout.
What is a giant PITA is trying to finance the thing, and trying to insure it. You’ll also have to do a whole title transfer just like with a car, because it’s essentially a vehicle unless it’s been de-titled. Ours is on piers and tied down so it’s no longer mobile and has been de-titled; we were able to get a better financing deal that way.
Ours is a cheesy little house, but actually I love it 
I REALLY love the land that it’s on and our location, which helps, but I’m liking this house a whole lot more than I thought I would.
Make sure the furniture doesn’t come with it … or even the appliances. You can purchase better quality furniture and appliances somewhere else at a lower cost due to not being included in the final financed price for 30 years of interest charges.
Get them at Lowes or Best Buy or Home Depot or Sears … good quality stuff with replacement guarantees and even if you finance those items it would probably only take three years to pay off.
Be there when it is delivered on site, bring a lunch and something to drink and some duct tape and simple tools.
Good luck
This house is already moved and isn’t going anywhere. What was the worst decision you ever made? moving or buying a manufactured home?
I’ve heard that it is difficult to heat a manufactured home b/c the walls are thinner. The home I am looking at is huge which would add even more. I wonder if you could spray foam insulate a manufactured home to increase the R factor of the walls. ?
Sorry I wasn’t clearer but his home is already pinned down. It isn’t mobile anymore.
Buying that home.
The disclosure things required when one is buying a stick built house is much different than buying a manufactured home. It was and is still a nightmare. The foundation wasn’t done properly, so it moved. The owners didn’t mention that little thing and they didn’t have to because of how they were selling it.
When it moved, pipes broke and doors stopped closing properly. I’ve moved to a different state, but I can’t sell that place, and I can’t give it away.
Other people seem happier with theirs. Maybe I just got a bad deal because I didn’t know what to look for.
the stairs problem was easily settled by boxing in a staircase.
I visited a friend who bought a manufactured house and it was very nicely laid out with cathedral ceilings in the center.
Almost bought one myself because of the price. The only downside I could see was the low roof line. It gave it away as an MH. Would be nice if the shipped them with hinged roofs that formed a more traditional line but then it would require finish work on the inside.
If the price is right I would definitely buy one as a starter or as a way of downsizing upon retirement.
I’m sure the stigma will go away at some point. It has to, because a house is generally the only bespoke thing the average person will ever purchase - the only common item that has proven resistant to production lines.
General contractor/carpenter here. If you know someone in the trade, have them look at it with you. My experience has been the lower price is not just because they “are built in a controlled environment” but also because they are paying the guys at the factory wayyy less than tradesmen in the field, and the quality can show it. Take a level, check the counters, the tile, check how straight the walls are. Look for cracks in finishes from settling. Look at custom built homes at the same price, although they may be smaller. Find out which company built it and do some googling.
Things like insulation aren’t necessarily a problem. A 2x6 wall will be either r19 or r21 (unless it’s foamed). A lot of places have code requirements for this.
We’ve got multi-million dollar manufactured homes around here, but the only real savings I’ve seen people achieve are a shorter time to occupancy.
very helpful. thanks.
I’ve yet to work on a single stick-built home that had any wall square to another. That’s why cabinets are designed to be relief cut to fit the wall.
Walls that are built on jigs are more likely to be closer in tolerances to one built from scratch. Jigs don’t care how much money the tradesman is making. When I ordered the roof trusses for my garage they arrived banded together and they looked like they were made from a single piece of wood. The tolerances were remarkable. Considering all the problems I had keeping (2) 30 foot long walls straight during the process of mounting the trusses I was happy I didn’t have to deal with inaccuracies between trusses.
The house/mobile home we just bought is older and has had some work done to it so it’s a bit of a mish-mash of cheap and better. I’m in SC so winter insulation is not as much of a big deal as summer cooling is. It does heat up quickly though, at least the end that’s not covered by trees. Good blinds and good windows will help, but good A/C is definitely important!
The seam strips in the walls bug me the most. I’m going to try and get rid of them but I gather that keeping the walls from showing cracks can be hard because they do move. I’m hoping that since this one is on piers and tied, and we are not in a frost zone, that I can get away with it.
This is the house we got. The pictures are from our walk-through just before buying, and I took shots of things that concerned me as well as general layout. The final two pictures are the house empty and newly ours, and then the last pic I took yesterday. Yes, that’s a Longleaf Pine sapling Xmas tree, borrowed from the back of the property. I’ll return it to the wild in a few days 
Anyway, I am generally the world’s worst snob, and I grew up in CT in gorgeous old Colonial houses. But I tell ya, this cheesy little house makes me very very happy
No arguments from me that maintaining tight tolerances in the field is tough, but I’ve seen issues in manufactured homes that are kind of mindblowing–like tile that is 1" out of level in 4’. My favorite was the one that had one of the floors built in a mirror image of what it was meant to be–somehow the plans got reversed when they were printed. And it was the middle floor. The other 2 floors sat at the entrance to town for some time.
Cool.
My trailer (yeah, the salesman kept saying “Mobile Home”, but I was the one paying for i t.) is easier to work on than the house we are in now. I know where all the wiring and plumbing go to repair things because I saw it go together.
what you describe is pretty shoddy work. I wish I knew who built the house I looked at. Looked good without bringing a level with me. My big concern is with the ceilings. It’s appears that most of them are built with cathedral ceilings which means they form a tube of some kind with insulation, vented space and then the roof. I’d like to see how that is done.
In theory, they’re building expensive houses using the jig concept. The various parts are trucked in for quick assembly so everything has been engineered ahead of time. I like this type of construction because it bypasses the problems associated with outside contract plumbers and electricians who like to cut holes they shouldn’t in areas that get covered up. I’m not an engineer and generally overbuild things but I know enough to consult a book before I cut into a floor joist.