First time Manu Home buyer needs advice, help

[rmurray]

What you speak of here is not the foundation...The blocks you speak of in the market you are in is only skirting...It does NOT even touch the bottom of the house..For this price..you are not even getting a footing on the curtian wall..The blocks are laid directly on the ground..often not mortered..and then stuccoed into place..

This is for the looks of the home...not the stablility..

[Peggy]

Then there's really no point in doing the concrete blocks, right? Or DOES it make the house more re-sellable just from a purely aestheic point of view?

[rmurray]

Looks and desirablity are all in the eye of the beholder...The block skirting is only for looks...not structure...

Many folks have the same misconception that you posted...and this might effect resale...but who knows..Candidly..I tell my customers that landscaping will do much more for resale..and they might consider spending the extra money on that...Many manufactured home customers do very little landscaping....This would help the looks of their home a lot..

[Peggy]

While we're on that subject, is there any reason why I never see shrubbery planted in front of a house to hide the skirting? Azalea bushes or some other flowering shrub would add a lot to the looks of the home, but I never see anything at all in front of the skirting. Is there some reason why you can't do this? This may be a dumb question, but I'm asking anyway.

[Randy Eaton]

Hello All,

If you go with concrete walls around your home or cinder blocks they are strong enough to support the dirt, which is back-filled against the walls in a pit set situation. In the Northwest the perimeter walls does help support the home. Every four feet there a shims placed around the wall for added support. My point is when you pit-set a home and backfill against the concrete or cinder block walls, they are able to provide the necessary support. With flimsy skirting you cannot backfill and the home is block above ground and you loose the appeal in my opinion. The main point here is having your home pit-set., level with the ground. How you do this is up to you.

Randy Eaton

[rmurray]

That is my point here...Landscaping is one of the best resale improvements that any homeowner can make...There is no reason that there is no plant around most manufactured homes in the SE...I guess many buyers like the low maintenence feature of the homes..and this goes for their yards..

Boxwood hedges are particularly good a hiding the skirting..They grow slow...but do not require much maintenence and little water or sun...

Of course..Azaleas are an Augusta trade mark and almost every home here has some...a few have hundreds...Really nice in the spring..same time as the Masters Golf Tourney..