Neg. the best price

[Kathy]

I would like to purchase a top quality Jacobsen in the next year or so to put on a piece of property I own. I am wanting to do some custom floor planning, as I want to stay in this home a long long time. If I am going to a dealer with a modified floor plan that I want them to build, do I have any leeway at all in the price? Is there any negotiating I can do. Ive never been good at haggling...I guess I hate to insult people, but I dont want to be taken, either.

[Randy Eaton]

Hello Kathy,

I have written a book that deals with this very subject. You can order it on the main page of this web site. Click on the book store link, you'll see my book called, "How To Buy A Manufactured Home And Save Thousands Of Dollars" There is room to negotiate if you understand the process.

Randy Eaton

[Dan O'Flaherty]

If a retailer has to special order a custom home, you have less room to "haggle" than in other situations. Seeing your a bit away from the time, why not talk to a retailer give them the plan, and get a pricing. You don't know if the price is too high, until you know what it is.

[Kathy]

Randy, I do intend to buy this book. I bought your other book already and found it very informative. I was just going to wait til I was closer to actually purchasing the home to buy it.

I currently have a single wide on this same property. Am I better off trading in or just trying to sell outright?

[Randy Eaton]

Hello Kathy,

I would try to get as close to retail for it by selling it myself. If that does not work then trade it in.

Randy Eaton

[Karl]

Do you know of many retailers willing to trade? We have a 95 16X80 we'd like to sell. We owe a little more than what it is worth--maybe $2,000 or so. We'd like to buy a modular home for our private lot. Usually when trade is mentioned, the retailers we've dealt with tend to quiet down.

[r murray]

Dealers trade all the time....but..if you say you are 2K upside down..I assume that is from full delivered retail..
When a dealer trades...he in effect is buying your home for resale...like any business..product is bought to resell at a profit after all expenses of the sale are covered..

In your case...there is the intial move to the lot...cleaning, reconditioning costs if any, interest on the money invested for the time it takes to sell, redelivery to the new customer...probably new skirting, sales commissions and finance costs if any...

This means you are probably many more thousands upside down than you think..Unfortunately you are also competing with the large lenders who selling thier repos to dealers at very large losses right now...

If you have a large equity in real property and do a real estate mortage...there are some programs out there that can allow you to roll this upside down balance into the new loan..Is this smart...Onlyyou can decide...Good Luck

[Karl]

Thanks for the information on the trade in. I hadn't thought about the extras involved that would put us more "upside down" than we'd thought. We'll probably continue to try to sell it privately at least through the summer and then try the trade in route if we can't get a buyer. We recently moved the home to a new location and we like the park so much we're almost reluctant to sell it now, but I'm thinking this new location will make it more attractive to buyers.