Depreciating investment?

[Rex]

Hello,

My wife and I have retired early and have purchased a 1 year old Palm Harbor. We currently live in a "stick built" home that we've owned for 30 years. We needed to move from the high cost of living area of the Denver metro. We need a ranch style home with less yard to care for as we are indeed empty-nesters. We looked for a home in Colorado equivalent to our home in square footage and amenities and couldn't find anything without going into debt again and insuring the work-a-day grind just to pay for a home. (Been there, done that already!)

We are moving to AZ into a planned community that is 8.5 years old with covenants and you hold the deed to the land that your home sits on. The homes are all set on foundations with crawl spaces. The community owns its own sewage and water systems.... What does one say to the people who say we've made a huge mistake in buying a "manufactured home"? Comments that we'll never realize what we've paid for this home when we sell down the road, that it is just like purchasing a motorhome and that it depreciates no matter how you care for it??? That it depreciates by 1/2 the minute we move in? We are selling our home in Denver that is approximately 2300 sq ft and moving into a modern MH of 2200 sq ft. We looked at "stick-built" homes and none, had the amenities that this MH home had, and nothing close to the price we'll be paying.

It seems like a smart move to us, but there does seem to be a great deal of snobberism amongst people who think that we are downgrading our lifestyle.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Rex

[rmurray]

Good point...misconceptions are great in our industry..;.Even here in the Murray household..I had to have a discussion with my 19 year old daughter about the homes I have sold for years...

At least you have upscale friends...comparing us to motor homes...not the usual camper...

You know...they are right...I you sell your home and demand that it be moved you will only return about 50%...I bet that is more than they will get for their brick home under the same circumstances...

I hope you know..onec the home is placed on it own lot and sold as a package..it eill perform as well as any other type in the same location..Sounds like you have found a great location for future appreciation...That said..

I doubt you want to take on your friends and make them enemies...You might remind them that you will be living mortgage free...with..money in the bank..You will not be tied to mortage payments and will be able to enjoy your self..Resale will be the kids problem...not yours...This might be a soft appraoch that they will understand...all the while you know better..

Feel confident in your informed decision...This is an arguement you will not win...Invite them to visit your home and see their eyes open..

[Peggy]

I'll bet your friends buy a brand new car every 2 or 3 years even though, as we all know, a car depreciates by a huge amount the minute you drive it off the lot. Does that mean they're making a "huge mistake"? Clarke HOward would say Yes. Your friends - like so many other people - don't understand that the appreciation factor is based on the LAND - not the house. Their homes are not appreciating - the land the homes sit on is appreciating. And if you and your wife are going to stay in your beautiful manufactured home forever, then resale isn't a problem anyway! During the past few months that I've been doing my homework on manufactured housing, I'm running into more and more people who say they would never have considered a "mobile home" until they walked into one and saw how nice they are. I think the buyer demographics are changing, but it's slow because so many other people lump all manufactured housing into "trailer park". And while I have your ear (or eyes) I've often wondered why, in this politically correct age, it's okay to denigrate trailer park denizens, but it's not okay to denigrate ghetto dwellers. You'll never hear a deejay or TV comedian referring to "ghetto trash" but you often hear "trailer trash", which is odd because most of the "ghetto trash" are parasites living off the tax-payers while the "trailer trash" may hold down jobs and be self-supporting. Strange times we live in...........

[Rex]

Many Thanks to you for taking the time for your input.

Yes, it is strange times and I too have always hated the "trailer trash" stigma of affordable housing. I'd rather be living in a home that is supported by hard earned income, unlike the likes of a Enron CEO Kenneth Lay and his teary wife regarding the loss of everything except several multi-million dollar homes purchased on the backs of retiree's pensions and employee's life savings, no remorse from these morally corrupt individuals. Good honest people live everywhere, and by the same token, scummy trashy people live in multi-million dollar homes too.

Smiles,
Rex

[Rex]

Hi MMurray,
Thanks for taking the time to offer some advice and insight. Your "soft" ideas were exactly what I was feeling regarding the purchase.

It is my opinion that a lot of "Boomers" are going to come to the realization that the status of the biggest house does not make the winner in life. That there is more to life like being able to enjoy retirement 10-15 years earlier than what the government says is appropriate and saving enough money along the way to do the traveling, hobbies, slower lifestyle that affordable housing provides. One of the doctor's that I worked for had a very wealthy patient that I came to know quite well. One day I asked him about being wealthy and the freedom of worry that he would seem to have. He told me, "I've been poor and I've been wealthy, I prefer wealthy, however when it's all said and done we all look at the same cover on our caskets. Health, happiness and family are our greatest wealth."

Smiles,
Rex's wife

[rmurray]

If it will make you feel better...take a look at this link..Check out the facts not the old wives tales..

http://manufacturedhousing.org/DR_under ... alues.html