Prospective Buyer in Wisconsin

[Matthew J Edelman]

Hi, my name is Matt. I live in Milwaukee, WI at the moment and work about 45 minutes outside of the city. I'm 27 now and have been thinking about buying a home for awhile now. I make about 30k a year and while I could afford a small used stick built home, I'd rather buy something a little more economical and not have a death pledge (mortage) for the rest of my life. My ultimate goal is to have some land in the country and eventually live off the grid and use sustainable methods of living. If it wasn't for this board, I would feel alone when it comes to the idea of owning a manufactured homes. Most people I know, still see the stigmatism in mobile homes, trailer trash, you name it. It's what they automatically start thinking when I mention buying a manufactured home. I am sure we all have been there.. After visiting my ex g/f's family's home several times and also having a child hood friend that grew up in one, I have an idea of what they are like, and I'm really interested in buying one as an alternative to stick built or apartment renting. I just purchased to two book set on this site, and am more or less basically looking for some advice as to the brands, etc that are available in Wisconsin. I've driven past Steinberg homes, which I believe is just a dealer. I remember my friend lived in a marshfield home which is made here in Wisconsin as well. I'm intersted in living in possibly the Dodge or FonduLac area, and don't even know where to start when it comes to finding land as well. Whenever I buy something, I always try to do as much research as I can, so I know what I am getting into, but I feel like I am so uninformed. Having a mortage is a scary enough process, let alone buying a house that I'm afraid will have problems down the road. I know Rmurray and Gary seem to be the experts here, but I would really also like to hear from others as well. Btw, do the both of you live actually live in Manufactured homes, or just sell them?

Sincerly

Matthew Edelman

[rmurray]

Manufactured homes are far more common in the areas of WI than you seem to realize....It is true that those in the Midwestern cities...Milwaukee, Chicago and a few others have old wives tails for impressions of manufactured homes...My own mother still lives in Chicago area and she cannot get the idea out of her head that all manufactured home owners are gypsies...

My only experience with in the area you are talking about was a trip last March from Chicago to Grand Forks, ND on the Amtrak...I made a special effort to observe the manufactured homes on the way..and saw many well appointed manufactured homes in the area you are mentioning...I was much more surprised at how many I saw between Chicago and Milwaukee..

I would suspect that when you get out into the areas you are looking in..you are seeing many manufactured homes that you do not even know are manufactured homes...Many of those I observed were set on ground level foundations with attached garages built on...Most really looked good..

The most important thing is to locate the home well...for your needs and for future resale....first thing to do is to learn a little about the area you want to move to...go there..drive around..spend the day...think about your needs...schools, job, churches, visits back to the city...do you want trees or open land...Check out the classifieds...call local real estate persons...ask folks in the area...talk to folks at work..

For mortgage info..go here and bookmark the site..

http://www.mtgprofessor.com/

Most important..you are doing the right thing...getting up to speed...learning and asking questions...

One thing that bothered me a little..you said.."let alone buying a house that I'm afraid will have problems down the road"...Everything you buy will require care and maintenence...if you buy that older brick home..you will be buying perpetual care...problems come with every home...actually manufactured homeowners are very satisfied in general...well over 85% never have any problems with their homes....

Stop back here often..

[Paula]

Matt, my husband and I ordered a brand new Skyline A205 (28x48 sectional) from Castle Home Sales in Mauston, WI. We've been dealing with Rob over there for over a year and he has really been great! Our home is being built in the Lancaster, WI plant and should be rolling off the line today or tomorrow. We toured the plant last week Monday and were very happy with the methods they use to build their homes and the quality of the workmanship.

When we were looking for dealers, we also looked at Steenbergs, but didn't get a good feeling from them. They closed their Plover location (which was where we started looking) and when we went to their Janesville location, it looked like a ghost town. The office was "scary" and they were offering "rock bottom prices" because they were supposedly getting rid of all their manufactured homes and would be more of a modular dealer for that location. I don't know if they ever did sell the rest of their homes, or what their deal was, but I just didn't get a good feeling about them. We also visited their WI Dells location and weren't thrilled with that one, either.

Other dealers we talked to were Fonk's Home center in Union Grove and they were very nice people. They had a lot of Rollohomes and were a little on the expensive side. We also talked to Blackhawk Home Sales in Baraboo and they were great, too! We decided to go with Castle because they had very high customer service ratings from Skyline and Rob has been great to work with!

We live in IL but bought the home for our property in Central WI and have been very happy with everything so far. HTH!!

Paula

[Tahlborn]

Matthew
Most all of the homes available in Michigan (where I am from) are available in Wisconsin.
(I grew up in Madison).
Steinberg is a good dealer to start with, they usually stock a wide variety of models to start browsing.

If you have the time, check out my website at http://www.angelfire.com/mi/TimsManufacturedHome The site needs updating, and several of the links no longer work, but the basic information is valid and hopefully useful.

Tim