Comments/Opinions Wanted

[Pam]

I'd like to hear from anybody who has bought or sold a USED manufactured home on its own land (i.e., not in a mobile home park). If you were the buyer, did you have any trouble getting financed? If you were the seller, did you have a problem with depreciation, and how long was your home on the market before it was sold? Thanks for everybody's input.

[Gayle Linke]

We bought a 1988 doublewide in a gated community (which has both MHs and stick built) in north Texas last May. The home is a "High Chaparal" Tiffany 28 x 60 built in Fort Worth. I think they are no longer in business. The house came with porch, car port, shop building and tool shed. The lot is about 1/3 acre. It has RWA water and it's own septic tank. We paid about $40k for the home and the lot. We have no idea what it might have cost new. Our credit is in the top 10% and we only put 5 percent down. We had no trouble at all finding a loan. We went with a 15-year mortgage at about 7%. We're very happy with our purchase.

We understand from talking with the neighbors that the place was for sale for a total of about a year, nine months by the owners and three by a realtor. Several others in the same development were for sale at the time we bought ours. Some of them still are for sale.

Our motto in buying a used MH was not only "location, location, location" but "condition, condition, condition". Maintenance left undone was a frequent condition we found in our search.

Hope this helps.

[Ron Ambler]

Great comments. As board moderator, We really appreciate this type of helpful information.

[Pam]

Thank you so much! I'm getting a lot of negative comments from a friend of mine who talks down mobile homes and tells me I'd be crazy to buy one because of the depreciation factor. I also had a real estate agent tell me that she had problems getting financing for used mobile homes. Although I think this next purchase may be my last move and I therefore don't care about a depreciation factor, you never know what cards life is going to deal, so I don't want to assume anything. I've been amazed at the spaciousness and attractiveness of the manufactured homes I've looked at so far, and I've become something of a fanatic on the subject. I'm convinced that the upper-end m.f's deliver real value for the money, but on the other hand, I want to be absolutely convinced that my friend is wrong. I'd love to hear from more folks on this subject.

Thank you, Gail - I'm glad you're enjoying your new home. that's encouraging news!

[Gayle Linke]

I am happy to be able to help. I do have one more word of advise. Whatever you buy, whether it be a used MH, a used car or a used whatever, please set aside 10% of the monthly payment for maintenance. Put it in a savings account and forget about it. When something really big breaks like a water heater or a big roof repair, you will have the money to fix it. As I said, most of the homes we passed on buying were from a lack of maintenance.

Please feel free to contact me by email if you have any questions about our particular situation.

By the way, we use our MH as a weekend retreat. I don't know if that matters for the purpose of this discussion, but it's just another point of information.

Good luck.

[Ron Ambler]

Pam,

Check out my article on "Do Manufactured Homes Hold Their Value ?". Click on the Home link on this page, scroll down to mid page of home page and click on the article. Should provide info you are looking for.

Ron

[Pam]

Thank you. I did read it, and it makes a lot of sense. However, I'd still like to hear some first-hand stories from a few m-h buyers and sellers.

thanks again for your help.