I own a mobile home in a mobile home park. My mortgage payments on my house are quite affordable, as is my lot rent. However, the two payments together total right around what I would pay on a regular mortgage for a regular house.
While I enjoy the park I live in, in the long run I’m losing money by paying lot rent every month. So, I’ve decided to move in a couple of years.
I’m torn between putting my mobile home on some land or just buying a house. I could probably buy a half acre to an acre for around $10,000 and make mortgage payments on the land equal to what my lot rent is now. By the time I retire, I’ll have both the home and the land paid off.
Or I could just buy a house. However, with the money I can spend I’m not likely to get a house in a particularly good neighborhood, nor am I likely to get a particularly nice house. Believe it or not, my mobile home is actually quite spacious and very nice. I don’t really want to downgrade.
I live in a moblie home too. I have friends that think I’m crazy because I want to buy the home I’m in now, instead of buying a house. The way that I see things is this, I cannot afford to buy a very nice house, but I can afford to buy my very nice moblie home, however I am aware that moblie homes do not go up in value, they depreciate. That would bother some people, but it doesn’t bother me at all, I would rather have a nice place to live then worry about whether or not I’ll make money from it. And if I do buy it, I will have it paid for long before my friends with house mortgages. I should say that my mobile home is already on it’s own property. If you buy property, you would need to make sure that it’s got a well and septic or is approved for them, if not, the property is useless to you. Also, from what I understand, if you have your moblie home on a foundation instead of a slab, it will be better for insurance and it will be easier to sell later.
If I were you I’d keep the house and buy land. You never know … you may come into a LOT of money someday and be able to build your own house.
I like mobile homes. I’ve seen double wides that are as nice as a “real” house anyday. They depreciate, yes, but you can offset that by taking good care of it and maybe adding onto it as time goes by.
Or do as countless others and buy your property, move your home, pay them off and when you are in a better financial situation, build your dream home on the other end of your property while renting out your old mobile. While mobiles do depreciate over time, they are an excellent investment as a rental.
You’ve got many good answers. Besides the mobile home depreciating on you, another important financial decision that you should consider is also paying for higher insurance rates for the mobile home compared to a house of the same value.
Actually, my $10,000 figure was a WAG. I haven’t spoken to any realtors yet to show me any land, so I don’t really know much about land values around here. But thanks; I’m encouraged now.
I’d buy the nicest piece of property I could afford. I would look for an area less than 3 miles from an interstate, 20-30 minutes outside of populated areas. Look for counties where the population is spreading so that your land will hopefully appreciate but is currently 30-40% cheaper than in established areas.
Then I’d buy an economy car and commute to work each day.
Check out zoning laws, of course, because a lot of places don’t allow mobile homes. And be sure to talk with a realtor about water, sewer and electric. If they’re not readily avail, the cost per foot to run them from the street to your lot may be prohibitive.
Land is nice to own. Remember if you want a lot for your mobile home many are not serviced and you’ll have to pay for sewer/water/gas to get to your site… mind you, many lots to build houses on aren’t either (if you are outside of town)
Either way, it really depends what you want to do. Personally, if I were to buy land I’d get at least a couple acres if you can afford it. Some breathing room is nice.
I’ve actually been thinking of selling my home (which has about an acre lot) and trying to buy 5-10 acres a little further out and getting a mobile home. Presently I pay my mortgage plus board for my horse. If I had a few acres I could move my horse (I’d have to buy him a companion horse) and my 5 dogs would have more room. Plus, at the rate that land is being gobbled up in Middle Tennessee, if I don’t do it soon, I’ll never be able to afford it.
One thing to be careful of, as mentioned before, is insurance. Working in an insurance co. I can tell you mobile home insurance is very risky to write. My company, for instance, will write mobile home policies only for homes that are kept in approved mobile home parks. A mobile home on its own lot would most likely not qualify for a mobile home pol.
Aww, come on now. I’ve got a bunch of mobiles as rentals, on private lots, acreage and in parks. Insurance is readily available and inexpensive, at least for replacement value of the home, in the neighborhood of 90.00 to 200.00/year
What you will pay through the nose for though is insuring the contents. It’s my personal opinion that underwriters don’t think that anyone who lives in a mobile should own more than 10,000 of personal property.
What I would do is what others have suggested: buy a nice piece of land, move the mobile onto it, and later build your own home. Even if you choose not to build a home, the value of the land will almost certainly appreciate, offsetting the depreciation of the mobile.
Yeah, well, these caravans are often 28’x70’ palaces. Even though they are considered mobile, they are mostly never moved. They are often built to higher specifications than conventional stick homes.
Heck, even the slummy mobiles some of us live in are 12’x60’. Mine is almost 40 years old, original vinyl flooring in most of it, real wood paneling, three bedrooms. My only complaints are the walls on most of the old ones are too thin for adequate insulation and the darn vinyl flooring refuses to wear out so I can change the decor.
Newer mobiles are made with full 6" walls and are paragons of energy efficiency.
