at my wits end

[Crissy]

Hi all.

I live in the Dallas/ Ft. Worth metroplex and i'm hopeing to get some help off of this web site. Recenty my personal life has taken an extreme ride down hill, no let me refrase...it's been shot out of a cannon 200 mph back the other way!! I have 2 children who went through an extremely tragic experience and due to it, my children and I were forced out of our rental home, the soon to be ex is facing jail time of over 30 years (thank God!) and we now live with family wich believe me...as much as I love em...there's nothing like coming home to your own furniture and doing whatever the heck you please. I've been trying to find an affordable living situation and have been unsuccessfull. I make 30k a year...to a single individual..you could live off this. To a single mother with 2 children needing full time day care.....this barely puts the food on the table and Government assistance simply turns their cheek at me.......so after looking at apartments, that was cut out due to the fact that I can't find something big enough for around $400/ mnth unless I want to be squished in a 855 sq ft box. Homes? You can't find a decent home for less than 60k out here unless you plan on doing major home repairs wich.....Like I have the money for that either! Sooooooooo, it comes down to manufactured homes and I have found some truly pretty ones. (and when I say "comes down" in no way am I saying that a manufactured home is on the low list, it just the last place i've looked) I've found some that all in all looks like I can afford them. "Looks" is the key word.

Am I totally insane to believe that I possibly can get a land home package for between 30k-50k? On a mortgate calculator, if I remember correctly, that puts just the payment at around 200-300/ mnth then you add on the tax and insurance. Although I'm not sure if land/home packages work the same way as a home mortgage.

Palm Harbor homes stated to me that they had a home for 19k on a lot. Beautiful home actually, I fell in love. As we talked, come to find out the interest on a home in a park will run around 11.5 % as apposed to a land/home package running around 6%. The dealer's words to me were...if this home on a lot is almost to much for you..a land home package is out of the question. I'm confused seeing as the land on the lot will run about 460.00/ mnth. A land/ home package for 45k comes to 269.00 plus tax and insurance. Am I missing something?

I've read that alot of you in here are investing much more in to your homes than I but maybe some of you are looking for something on the lower end like me or have heard of options.

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Crissy

[Tanya]

Just to clarify, when you say land/home pkge, are you talking about a brand new home being put on land? Or a used one that has already been put on a permanent foundation and is being sold? I'm assuming the former. Perhaps what he's referring to as being unaffordable is the cost of land improvements. A home put on bare land often needs a lot more work than a home put in a park. Mobile home parks have water, power, sewer etc all ready to be hooked up. With land/home pkges, you have to install the home on a permanent foundation, and depending on what utilities are available on the lot, you can spend a lot of money providing for all that. In our case, we did a land/home package on a piece of land that only had power. We had to get a well dug, install a septic tank, get trenches dug for phone, power, water, install it on a permanent foundation, etc. That plus the cost of the loan itself accounted for about $25,000 of our mortgage. But, that was our situation.
Have your salesman itemize the costs for you. Make sure you understand where your money will be going.
It's true, loans on homes in parks are higher interest. The home we own right now in a park is at 9.9%. The home we're building now as part of a land/home pkge is at 6.75. Generally, homes in parks will depreciate. Homes on a permanent foundation are a better investment.
But I'll shut up now and let the experts have a say...I'm still a beginner.

[rmurray]

The used home in a park will have much higher payments than $400 when you count the rent...

Unfortunately the cost of living has gone much higher than your goal..The only relief will be with the help of government..Many states have help groups for the other victums of crime the perps family..With this income and 2 kids..you should easily qualify for subsidised rent..utilities....day care..health insurance for the kids..

There is NO land home padkage in the 30-50k range anywhere in the country...There might be a foreclosure listed that some bank would be selling very low..You will find these at a real estate office...Good Luck