The Manufactured Housing Forums

I am considering purchasing a manufactured home. I live in close to Spokane WA. I have been looking to purchase a $200,000 home with around 5 acres. I am wanting something private with lots of trees. After 6 months of nothing quite meeting my standards, I am thinking about buying land and a manufactured home. The long term plan would be to build a house while living in the manufactured home. I have heard some bad stories about manufactured homes. I would appreciate advice on quality manufactures. I don't want to spend a fortune, but I don't want to buy something that isn't going to last. I also hear that it is more difficult/costly to get mortgages for manufactured home. I would like to be able to rent out the manufactured home later on. Thanks for your advice.

If you put it on a permanent foundation - this can be a slab, it depends on what the lender considers permanent - then it appraises just like any other piece of real estate (you actually do documents to de-title it from DMV). We thought about building a house ourselves (we live on five acres in Oregon) and, after deciding how long we wanted to work (hint: not forever!), we decided on a Karsten triplewide. So far (six months) everything has been outstanding. If you buy the land and home separately, try to find a lender who will do a construction loan that rolls into a conventional mortgage. In hindsight, we would have done that - saved some decent loan fees.
As to later rental, pay attention to the property's zoning, to make sure you actually can put another home on the property. We can't - knew this going in, and appreciate the low density - though some get around it by building "guest houses."

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. The top manufacturers build a home that exceeds most site built homes in quality and even amenities, all at lower price points. My issue with your situation is that you will have quite a bit of "sunk" cost with putting a home, even temporarily, on that land while you wait to have a home built down the road. The manufactured home can be resold, but not the land improvements for that home. Some can be re-used for the new site built, but most won't. I have had this talk with quite a few others, and to me it is hard to justify. Call me with more questions or shoot me an e-mail. I am in Ohio, so I can't help you directly, but perhaps indirectly.

Gary

We live in Clarkston, Washington and we have available a space for rent. The rent per month is $190.00, it seems hard to find someone out there that will take care of their home, yard and pay their space rent on time. We are still looking, do you know of anyone?