Question: I am thinking of looking at some doublewides and was wondering what the opinion is in here?
I figure that a home around 1600 se or maybe a little more should be sufficient. 3 bedroom, 2 bath.
I do know that in the last 10 years or so, the quality has greatly improved.
What do you think of living in a home of this type and do you know of any good resources for research?
Answer: I’m just not ready to agree on this.. Diffinately the home built before 1976 (pre HUD) were crap. 8 years ago I purchased a 1975 double wide for $500 and the depreciation wasn’t from neglect, it was from cheap, light material that couldn’t stand up to ordinary daily use. The construction and finish quality looked like someone was building a mock up or stage set for a high school play.. A sharp blow to any door or wall could knock it down.
Houses built from ‘76 on were built to a HUD standard and so far the builders are just building to that standard and not much more.. Nothing near the quality of a custom home. More on the order of a low end ‘developement home’.
Recently they have been offering a higher quality home in the $80k to $100k range with long term financing.. Even if that price and the quality seems good, your over looking the cost of the land and utilities..
If you already have land and utilities, you can have a pretty nice custom home built with full basement and attached garage for that kinda money..
Only recently will banks and credit unions do a home loan on a Manufactured Home and they still have a special catagory (not really a true home loan with VA or FHA, etc). These require it to be on a perminent (concrete) foundation. That can cost $10K. Without bank financing your at the mercy of the home dealer and they will just sell your contract off to some high interest institution. I doubt that you would ever benifit from the often published super low interest rates. Very hard to get ReFi on a moble. It takes to long for the owner to get any equity, similar to buying a new car..
The Manufactured Homes only appreciate in value due to inflation or appreciation of the land.. I live in an area where 15% of the homes are post HUD mfg’ed homes and the only way to get a lower interest ReFi is to trade in the old and hope the dealer can get you a new loan that is 2-3% above that available for a regular home.. A 10 year old mfg’ed home appraises low and hasn’t appreciated much more than what the vacant land might have.
The dealers off site lots are full of trade ins that they will try to dispose of someplace outside of the area. (protecting the potential market)
I know I’m stepping on some toes but I’ve been around a long time and I’ve known a lot of people who have purchased mfg’ed homes and I’ve never known any of high quality that retained value or appreciated (aside from the improved land).
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