The Manufactured Housing Forums

My husband and I have been traversing our local metropolitan area trying to find a good quality, affordable manufactured housing. We've encountered four major types of resellers/sellers/homes:

1. Repo people who wholesale the homes to you with no refurb (these homes are generally badly in need of too much to even consider. At the very least it makes it hard to believe that the home is structurally sound by looking at the interior condition)

2. Repo people who buy them and refurb them and sell them to you at more than you'd pay to refurb them yourself but without all the hassle. (I think there is a too-large markup on these homes myself. In fact I'm quite sure they are marking the homes up more every time I talk to them. There seems to be a new price on the same home each week.)

3. HUD or bank foreclosures listed on the MLS with realtors. These homes are also generally in poor condition with much work needing to be done and at a higher price because they are attached to land (which we don't need)

4. Private owners whose homes may be clean (but outdated) and are asking a bit too much for their homes as well.

So after about 9 months of looking casually and a week or so of looking pointedly, we are worn out. At this point, I don't trust any of the resellers but would prefer to buy from an owner-occupant if possible.

There seems to be a tremendous shortage of good quality homes being resold (by this I mean a Solitaire or other very structurally sound home) and we are needing one quickly.

All the manufacturers and specs are beginning to run together in my head and I'm starting to wonder if there really is any difference between them at all and if we should just buy a "shell" for a few thousand dollars and completely gut it and refurb it ourselves (we have a friend who does this who can help).

I refuse to buy a new one and take the depreciation hit. The only new home I would even consider is God-awful expensive.

So there. Does that sound high-maintenance enough for you? Any advice or things to look for that are TRULY important would be greatly appreciated. It's getting hard to determine what is a real selling point and what is just "fluff."

Thanks a bunch!

If you buy a new home and put it on your own land there is no "depreciation." Manufactured homes are not like cars that depreciate when you drive them off the lot.
My wife and I bought a very nice Southern Energy home and some property. With purchasing the home, set up costs, and purchasing of the land it came to about $130,000.00. For the mortgage it appraised at $158,000.
Only you can decide which way you want to go. Good luck, do your research, and know what you are getting.

Here are THREE paths to follow if your looking for manufactured housing repos.

There is a Repo Liquidation In Progress on line..AND THEY ARE OFFERING FINANCING! These pre-owned homes are newer models with many of the same amenities found in a new home but the price is significantly less. The MANUFACTURED HOME FINDER at
www.mobilehomeowners.net is the newest and easiest way to locate the BEST BUYS on NEW USED and REPO manufactured homes in your local area. &#160 Instead of spending your day driving from one retail center to the next, you can know before you leave home which local sellers have the inventory and finance programs that best suit your needs.. The MANUFACTURED HOUSING MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE   Listings from private owners, dealers and BANK REPOS - As many as five photos of each home listed. Instant maps to each home for sale.   Financing and Insurance quotes available for each home in the listing. The most comprehensive collection of MH of all types sizes and locations on the World Wide Web.

Thanks for these replies.

Celtlund, I'll have to disagree with you on the depreciation factor. The way I'm looking at it is this: If I buy a new home, it may cost about $75-85K in the range we're looking at. In ten years, it will only be worth about half that. My site built home will be worth more than I paid for it...my manufactured home will be worth less. I can assure you that this is true as I have been shopping for them and comparing the same floor plan in new and used models. There's definitely a big depreciation factor.

David: thank you for this. I am going to look those up immediately!

David: The first link was super helpful. That seemed to contain some I'd found elsewhere but also some new ones.

The second site doesn't have a searchable database but merely provides your email address to people it seems.

The third link came up null.

Sell your site built house without the land and see what you get for it..15% at best..Certlund was suggesting that you look at a manufactured home as a house..when tied to real estate it WILL react to the local housing market the same as any other home..There are hundreds of thousands of folks in this country now who would die to sell their stick built homes for what they would have paid for it only 3 years ago. Some places in this country site built homes have LOST as much as 50% of their value from just a few years ago..No one would EVER try to sell a stick built home separate from the land because the losses are horrendous..Manufactured home actually do much better in this instance...

The third link did have a typo ... but it is fixed now !!!

Since the end of the housing boom and the loss of value to all types of existing homes, those built off site, in factories have held a higher percent of their original value when compared to those built on site.

"The cost of manufactured homes is significantly lower than the cost of site-built homes. This gives them an instant appreciation between what the home actually cost the homebuyer and what its market value is. In some cases, a multi-section manufactured home has sold for more the second time than the first. Properly setup and well taken care of, you are talking about a fantastic investment potential.

"Consumers Union assessed the financial appreciation of manufactured-housing units, by examining the relative appreciation rates of manufactured housing and site-built housing, as well as the factors affecting the appreciation rate of manufactured housing. Their analysis includes an extensive literature review of previous work in the field, as well as primary research using data from the 1985–1999 American Housing Survey Panel and county appraisal data from several counties in Texas. The stereotypes of manufactured housing are built upon very real differences in appreciation experienced by the people who own them. The large proportion of manufactured homes in rental parks contributes greatly to the lower appreciation experienced by manufactured home owners as a whole, as land ownership is an important driver of appreciation. High variation in the individual appreciation rates of manufactured homes also causes a higher proportion of manufactured homes, even packaged with lan d, to lose value over time. Even so, average appreciation rates of manufactured homes packaged with owned land are statistically in line with the site built market, and there are few inherent reasons that a home built in a factory should perform differently than one built on site. Our analysis suggests that consumers can make decisions which can improve the appreciation of a manufactured home. Land ownership, location, purchase price and maintenance expenditures are among the factors that predict appreciation, and should be considered when attempting to increase appreciation in a particular unit." Consumers Union Report

You can download the Consumers Union Report at no cost HERE