Land-home packages or not?

[Dee]

The past month we have gone through the ups and downs of finding land and a double-wide. We've visited several mortgage companies and they all want to finance $100,000 for a $54,000 doublewide, a $24,800 parcel of land and land improvements (well, septic). When we backed out and said no way, we're not financing $100,000 for a MH, our salesman hung up on us after saying a few choice 4-letter words.

Would it be better to just go out and buy that beautiful land we want, take a little time and do the improvements out of pocket, then 6 months later down the road, go buy the house separately and put it there? I never dreamed this process would be so horrible. I have excellent credit, but a $78,000 land/home package is going to cost us $100,000??? After all, it's ONLY a MH! Are we being scammed?

[Randy Eaton]

Hello Dee,

That's an interesting message. I live in a $148,000 manufactured home on 3.5 acres and love. A quality built manufactured home will appreciate in value over time. I would focus your attention on well-built manufactured homes. I would do the whole package together with an experienced sales center. You will qualify for your best rates and the interest rates are very low right now, in the 6% range.

Randy Eaton

[Reginald &Cynthia Wiggins]

We are looking into buying our first home package and we need some advice on the best way to purchase a home and land at a good price and we also need to know if we would come out cheaper hiring an outside contractor to do the septic system?

[Randy Eaton]

Hello Reginald & Cynthia,

If you are having your home installed on your own property, you will need to have a few things in place before work can begin. Here are some guidelines that must be followed in preparing your site. The site must be accessible for the trucks transporting your home. The driveway must be 14’ wide and cleared of trees, rocks, overhead wires and any other surface debris. Temporary power at site should be available for installation and set-up. A building permit must be posted at the site. A temporary bathroom should be on site if one doesn’t exist.

Most site-preparation tasks, such as excavating down below the frost line, pouring concrete and installing septic systems may require technical expertise. The retailer you purchased your home from usually has qualified professionals, which are licensed and bonded that can do site improvements. If your retailer does not offer this service, you may have to contract with a separate company to prepare your site. Ask your sales consultant for names of such companies. Be sure to clarify in writing what services your contractor provides and who warrants the work. Whoever does your site improvements should spell out in writing the full scope of their services. This will avoid any misunderstandings about who is responsible for what. Regardless of whether your retailer or a separate company does your site improvements; you should follow several guidelines:

Make sure the contractor you choose is licensed and bonded
Only accept an itemized bid (as opposed to a total cost bid)
Always try to meet with each contractor at your site
Discuss with the contractor the steps involved in installation
Ask for referrals

By following these guidelines, you will know exactly what you are paying for, and how to check your site to see if the work has been done properly. Remember to always get a couple of bids/estimates to make sure your not paying too much. A good source for independent contractors is your retail center or the yellow pages. You can also contact the local banks and speak with a loan officer that does construction loans. They generally know who does good work and who doesn’t. Another good source would be the local building department.

Randy Eaton