What is your reason for buying?

[RuthieG]

What is your reason for buying a manufactured home over a stick built or even a modular? There seems to be many many people who are making that choice and my husband and I have to come to a decision as well. Could you share with me the whys of your decision.

[Eileen]

I can give you several reasons why I'm making that decision. Number One - money! You can't "stick-build" a house with the same square footage for anywhere near the cost of a manufactured home. When I consulted a builder of custom homes that I know about my decision, he pulled out his calculator and started figuring the cost per square foot of a house I'd looked at and said, "DAMN! that's only $27 a square foot! There's no way I could build a house for that. The minimum would be $50 a square foot." Then he went on to say that he and his wife had lived in a "mobile home" for 6 months and that "there's not a damn thing wrong with them." And this is coming from a man who builds $500,000 houses. I also consulted with a civil engineer I know and got the same answer. He said he had lived in one for 5 years while he was building his site built home (it just took a while). He said the same thing the first man said - "Not a damn thing wrong them."

Reason Number Two is - it's getting harder and harder to find moderately priced houses (at least in the Atlanta area) that have any kind of land with them. And I mean - even a half acre. These builders are squeezing houses on a quarter of an acre and who wants that? I call these developments "middle class ghettos" because you can practically reach out and turn off your neighbor's radio if you want. There's no privacy, no greenery - NOTHING! These new ghettos sit out in the blazing sun right on the street which is very undesirable to me.

Reason Number Three - and this is a reflection of the sad state of our country and the sad state of the average American's mentality --- NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS! These groups are made up of busybodies with a Nazi mentality who want to dictate everything his/her neighbor does. Got a pickup truck in your driveway? It's gotta go! Got paint starting to peel on one corner of the house? Paint it immediately or pay a fine! See that hose in the driveway? Roll it up and get it out of sight! Want to put up a privacy fence? You have to bow before the august presence of these inferior little worms before you can begin. These people are so ignorant and so much in need of getting a life, it's PATHETIC! I realize that the home buyer knows from the get-go that neighborhood covenants are part of the purchase and they enter into this volutarily when they get to the closing table, but the scarey part is -- it's getting almost impossible to find a subdivision that does not have these nerdy little Home Owners Associations, therefore the only option is to buy your own land somewhere and put your own house on it! Folks, America has gone the way of the horse and buggy! Then you have the Association dues -- and if you don't pay them after a certain period of time (I guess it varies) they can legally take your property away from you! Yes! That's absolutely true! I got an e-mail from a friend of mine in North Carolina recently who said her HOA sold a man's property on the courthouse steps because he hadn't paid his HOA dues. Talk about being on a power trip! What happened to private property rights? Where are Thomas Jefferson and James Madison when we need them? Nobody seems to even QUESTION the right of your neighbor to tell you what you may do with your own property! They think it's perfectly normal to live in this type of environment. But that's a result of our government school system which teaches nothing about the natural rights of man (derived from God, not the government) and THAT'S another subject entirely!

So all of THAT is why - God willing - I will soon have my own 3 or 4 acres of land with plenty of natural beauty and privacy!

Good luck to you and your husband!

Eileen

[RuthieG]

Great answer Eileen.......I know that the Manufactured route is going to be the best for us but I just know that there are plenty of happy people out there buying and I'd like to hear what they have to say......Thanks for your answer......

[MRM]

Do you want to know why these areas enforce these rules? To keep the neighborhood from becoming a ghetto.

You made a comment about "paint pealing from your house". Why on earth wouldn't you want to fix the paint problem? A garden hose should not be left laying in the front yard when not being used. Yes housing prices are rising, and people want to keep a nice neighborhood. Unfortunately, there are people who by houses in this neighborhood that have this attitude “this is my property and I can do with it as I see fit”. If you want to by the 4 acre parcel in the middle of nowhere that is fine, but if you live in these subdivisions you need to keep your neighbors in mind. (If you want a good example of what I am talking abut visit a trailer park).

Now lets talk price, Your manufactured house may seem nice now, but how long is it really going to last? I just purchased a brick house (about 55 years old), and every bit of the house is in excellent shape. How many double wides would be in decent shape in 50 years?

When the homes are new they are nice, but they do not hold up like a house over the long term.

[Randy Eaton]

Hello MRN,

I agree with your statements that site-built homes last but a quality built manufactured home on a concrete foundation will also last. Manufactured homes of today are constructed much better compared to even 5 years ago. Many developers are considering manufactured homes now then site-built homes because of this fact.

Randy Eaton