Tell me about mobile home living (pluses and minuses)

In My Humble Opinion
41

Depending on zoning in wherever you end up, plunking a mobile home on an empty lot you own rather than in a park might be an option.That is what we are doing on the lot we just bought in Nevada - $9300 for 5 acres unimproved, and I checked zoning and it is legal to put in a mobile home [some areas you can not place a mobile home on a lot that did not previously have one.] We are going that route because we own the land outright, and we need about 5 years lead time before we can replace with stickbuilt, but we understand the negatives going in, I lived in one of the older 70s vintage [heh] mobile homes [singlewide, 2 bed 1 bath] with many of the negative features mentioned in thread.

Not to mention, the community we bought the land in is about as rural as you can get, it is like that place in Tremors 1 … 45 miles from Tonopah and the only food shop is a convenience store. [since we grocery shop currently once a week, the idea of not being able to nip out for some forgotten ingredient at the drop of a hat is not a big deal.]

42

My parents bought a mobile home and set it on a lot at the lake.

I remember the bouncy floors and very narrow doorways. HVAC constantly cycled on and off. I helped my dad paint the roof with a special reflective paint that was supposed to help with cooling.

They sold the property after about 9 years. The trailer was still in good condition. But it was a place we only used on weekends & holidays.

43

Pretty awesome how not even living in a trailer home will be affordable soon.

44

Hail storms are a good opportunity to get a deal on a mobile home.

My parents bought their mh after the local dealer put several damaged ones on sale.

The hail damage was superficial dents on the siding.

45

In the OP, you mentioned Ojai.

I vote for Ojai. Been a long time since I have been there. But it was incredible. The beauty of the valley. And there was advocados and lime trees growing side by side. I thought I was in heaven. And the air was filled with the scent of lime flowers.

Krisnamurti lived there and I had the opportunity to visit with him.

Yes, get thee to Ojai!

46

Well it’s also a shit deal the way it’s set up financially.

  1. Renting a mobile home, along with the lot it’s on, makes perfect sense. If the landlord raises the rent too much, you just leave instead of renewing the lease. Moving your stuff to the next mobile home park or apartment down the road is going to cost a few hundred bucks, typically. (the biggest costs being one time pet fees and other related fees)

  2. Buying a lot, like some of the posters upthread, can be extremely affordable in the right location. Then you buy or rent a mobile home to site on it.

The problem is it’s idiotic to rent the appreciating asset and to buy the depreciating asset.

47

We’ve recently moved into a manufactured home in a senior park. We love it.

Several years ago, knowing that we were going to be retiring soon, we bought a smaller trailer in a park in Morro Bay that we visited every other weekend for a few years. Loved it, loved the area. Decided to move from the valley to the coast for good.

In the SLO area there are several options. There are some nice parks in Atascadero or Paso Robles. If you are averse to paying rent there a couple of parks that allow you to buy the lot. We didn’t look in SLO, too far from the coast.

We got the most bang for the buck in Santa Maria.

Ours is a fairly large space (about 1700). Gated, golf course, pool, hot tub, etc. Full size appliances. We even have separate freezer.

This is more than likely the last place I’ll live so I don’t care about depreciation, etc (not that these are, in fact just the opposite).

For us it’s perfect.

48

Trust me, I would love to “get me to Ojai!” But Ojai is expensive. I just looked on Realtor.com, and anything that would likely be in our price range (assuming we don’t want to have a mortgage, which is the whole point of moving out of the Bay Area) is either a mobile home or a tiny condo.

49

Yes, they depreciate.

But, what if you bought one say 10-15 years old and it has already depreciated to the point where it really cannot anymore?

So lets say you buy a $100,000 mobile home brand new and it drops 10% a year. The first year thats $10,000, the next it’s $9.000. Then $8100 and so on. It will probably level off around $50,000 and thats a good time to buy.

50

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51

Please watch this. (Only NSFW because of some language).

52

I live in a “mobile” home. It’s only mobile in the very loosest sense. It’s tied down to concrete foundation posts and a brick skirting. It’s about 1400 sq. ft., much larger than I could afford with a stick-built house.

The subdivision I live in looks like a pretty typical suburban subdivision, with half-acre+ lots; almost all of the homes are mobile aka manufactured homes, with a few modular homes (a more expensive type of pre-fab homes). In the region where I live, trailer home parks have pretty much been zoned out of existence, except for a handful that were grandfathered in, but they’re slowly disappearing as they get bought up and redeveloped.

I did some research before buying my house; the model I bought was made by a very reputable manufacturer, and, after 12 years, I have no complaints about the manufacturing or structural quality. My house has survived multiple hurricanes, as have almost all of the other manufactured homes in my subdivision. During Hurricane Florence I lost a 4’ x 8’ section of roof, and had water damage in the interior, but I have friends who have a stick-built house that had almost exactly as much damage. Florence also did so much damage to one home in my neighborhood that it had to be completely gutted, but that was one of the higher-end modular houses, and plenty of stick-built houses in the region were damaged at least as badly.

One thing I (stupidly, in retrospect) did not do was research the dealer/installer. It turned out to be a shady, fly-by-night operation, and a lot of aspects of the installation were VERY shoddy, which started becoming apparent a year or two later, after the warranty had expired, and the dealer had gone out of business.

If you buy a new manufactured house, I’d urge you to carefully research the manufacturer, the dealer, and the location where you want to install it. By the way, that’s one of the hidden costs of buying a manufactured house. While there are some dealers that sell home/lot packages, you may wind up having to research and deal with a manufacturer, a dealer, a property owner/developer, and various contractors.

Frankly, I’d actually advise you to look at purchasing a used manufactured home. If it’s been in place for at least a couple of years, it’s had a good “shakedown” period, and any manufacturing or installation defects will have become apparent. You also won’t have to deal with all of the miscellaneous property development issues that often go with installing a new manufactured home (sewer water hook-ups if you’re well-placed, installing and hooking up septic tank and/or well if you’re not, installing a driveway, etc.). Get a good house inspector who’s familiar with manufactured homes to do a thorough inspection first. All houses have issues; a used manufactured home will have known issues; a brand-new one may have a lot of issues that you only learn about too late (as I did).

53

Since the cabin I used to live in burned to the ground in 2017, I’ve lived in a mobile home. I’d say that the quality of the experience has a lot to do with arrangement with the park owner. If you can get into a park where the “mobile” home is anchored to a foundation and you actually own the ground under it, that is a great set up. You just pay the mortgage plus annual grounds maintenance fees. Sort of like a free-standing condo. The more usual arrangement is another story altogether. I tend to call it the worst of two worlds – you own and are responsible for the box, but you pay rent on the ground on which it sits. Most parks have very strict rules regarding lawns, clothes lines, pets, vehicles, boats, etc. all of which may be enforced by idiots on power trips. Getting out of that arrangement is complicated. You have to sell the box to someone who can afford the mortgage plus rental fees. If you can find the first type of arrangement, I’d go for it. Otherwise, I’d be very careful about it. If I’d had my druthers, I would not be where I am. Necessity is a mother.

54

Couple of questions. What is the usual interest rate on these mortgages? How much do typical new mobile homes cost per square foot?

55

Reconsider the idea of keeping the SJ home. In the Bay Area, the rental income will certainly be more than your mortgage. You don’t have to deal with renters if you don’t want; there are agencies that do this for you (not for free, obv.). You can also use it for an equity loan.

A house in San Jose is a MAJOR asset that will benefit you more the longer you live.

56

park homes or mobile homes must be purchased using a personal loan, companies will not give mortgages on them
if you cannot get a mortgage now, then how do you expect to get a personal loan for a mobile home, even the cheapest will still be upwards of several tens of thousands of pounds to buy and personal loans will not be over 25years

if you really cannot stand living at your parents anymore, yet are apparently still “young”, then your best choice by far would be to rent in a house share with others your own age. It would be sociable and you will learn a lot about life, not least being how to get on with a mix of people

as you have seen trailers in America, surely you also saw that people living in them are often described (with good reason) as “trailer trash”

in summary: do not consider mobile homes:

  1. financially they dio not make sense, and
  2. socially they make even less sense
57

What an odd post. Literally nothing in it is true, and you don’t even seem to have read the OP.

It’s true that it can be more difficult to get a mortgage on a “mobile” home, and that they are often only available at worse terms than you could get for conventional stick-built homes, and some mobile homes won’t qualify. But as long as they meets certain minimum size and quality requirements (which pretty much any modern manufactured home will), and as long as they are legally and literally tied to a lot of land which you own or are buying with the mortgage, manufactured homes absolutely qualify for conventional mortgages, as well as FHA and VA loan guarantees.

None of which even matters for the OP. They indicated that they already own a home, with a mortgage, but they have enough equity in their high-cost, high-property value area to be able to sell, pay off the remainder of the mortgage, and still have enough left over to buy a home in a lower-cost are outright. Where did you get the idea that they are unable to secure a mortgage, or that they are living with their parents? Did you even read the OP?

As to “trailer parks”, as I indicated a couple of posts above, I live in a “mobile” home. It’s in a suburban neighborhood with half-acre+ lots. Trailer parks do exist, but it’s common for modern manufactured homes to be installed on conventional lots of property owned by the home owner. But beyond that, many “trailer parks” are actually well-maintained, friendly communities.

As to your contention that those living in such communities can be described with good reason as “trash”, that’s simply an ugly, and pretty random, insult.

In summary: re-consider your post:

  1. Factually, it did not make sense
  2. Socially, it made even less sens
58

This is not necessarily true. Say the home is worth 1 million dollars and is paid off.

What that means is that “all the eggs are in one basket”. The OP would have a million dollars in assets, all invested into a single asset.

This is risky. Yes, you can buy insurance. Yes, it’s unlikely for the value of a property in the Bay Area to go down.

But:
1. It’s still just 1 asset. The usual mix of low fee index funds and bonds is far more diversified
2. What’s the upside? Index funds you may see 10% over decades. Yes, in the last few years, Bay Area homes have skyrocketed in value, but how much higher can they actually go? There are limits. Bay Area is not the only tech hub. There is a ceiling on how high salaries for the workers there can go, and with those salaries, there’s a ceiling on how much house anyone who actually works there can afford.

59

This may be wise advice, but probably not for us. First of all, we’re not interested in all the problems that come with being landlords, even by proxy. Second, we’re not really all that interested in having an “asset.” We want to have a home that’s paid off (which our current one isn’t) so we can lower our expenses when we’re retired. We have no kids to leave our house to, and aside from having enough so both of us don’t have to worry about money in our old age (we have a modest lifestyle and don’t care about “keeping up with the Joneses” as long as we have the things we want) we don’t have a lot of needs.

I know we have a long time to decide, but our current feeling is that we should move to the Central Valley area to be near (but not too near!) the spouse’s family. We could get a beautiful house there, bigger and nicer than our current one, for what we can afford to buy outright. It’s not my favorite area (I’d rather live in Ojai or San Luis Obispo, or here if the house were paid off) but it’s nice and quiet there and I think I’d be happy. Spouse will have his family, and since I’m pretty much a hermit anyway (I’m a writer and spend a lot of time in the house) then it should work out pretty well.

60

but who’s going to manage the place–collect rents, do repairs, etc–that will cost