General questions from potential 1st time buyer

[John]

am in research state now and have already found a lot of (overwhelming) amount of information online. I have some specific questions:

1) Is there a directory of Mobile Home parks that are resident owned and not 55+ anywhere? I ask because I live near a resident owned park that is a 55+ community. I would like to find a community that I do not have to pay a monthly rent for the land my home is on. This way, securing financing might be easier. The VA does not guarantee loans for manufactured homes on rented land. I would also prefer a community that does not prohibit motorcycles within the community, which I have seen.
2) In the event that I cannot find a resident owned park, can I request financing to include a 5 year or more lot lease?
3) I would be interested in learning more about purchasing a home that has been repossessed/foreclosed. At about what year did the product quality due to materials and processes really begin to improve? How old is the oldest home I should really consider? I am not necessarily against a NEW home, I just don't like the wait time and if I can get something similar at a substantial savings, even if it is a little older, then I say what the hell....

The reading I have done leads me to conclude that manufactured housing lends itself to many of the same priveliges of site built homes; they increase in value on the same variables, they are at least equivalent to, if not better in quality to a site built home due to processes and materials used; at the same time they do not have the same level of cost. The cost factor of a site built home in our market scares us, as new and resale homes in our area are simply pricing themselves out of our budget. All things considered, a manufactured home seems to be exactly what we need at this time. I just need a little advice

[rmurray]

I am not sure of such a directory...but the state odes have a good search listing of every park in CA...At worse you could get the listings and call them..Try..

http://www.hcd.ca.gov/codes/mp/mp.cgi

There is also an excellent site with info about owner occupied parks...laws..ideas..on and on..

The Wehrman Library...You might email the site sponsors and ask about the list you are looking for..

http://www.pmcfinserv.com/wlb.htm

The sponsors web site lists 6 such parks in CA..

Another site of interest...The Golden State Manufactured Homeowners League (nothing to do with bowling though)..

http://gsmol.org/GSMOL/FRAME/frameset.htm

Good Luck

[John]

Some of this info was helpful in answering my first question, however the info there did not address my other questions. Is there anyone out there that can shed a little more light on the subject??

Thanks