Trade in value

[Daisy]

We are looking to buy a 1782 square foot double-wide Skyline located on 2 acres in Washington. We asked a Fleetwood dealer if they would make a trade for a triple-wide and the answer was yes. To our dismay we were told the value of the Skyline, after moving it to their lot and setting it up for sale once again, was in the neighborhood of $12 to 15,000. Does this sound reasonable? We did some checking and found a similar model for approximately $65,000.

Are we getting hosed?

[rmurray]

Trading a double section is a very expensive proposition...You mentioned that you found a similar model for $65K....Was that used?........Sounds very high for a used 1700 sq foot average home....Actually sounds like the price of a new home this size and quality.. (here in the SE..1700 ft Skyline would be no more than $50K new)..

Remember when a dealer trades...he is buying it from you for speculative resale..He has to move and set the home twice..costing many thousands of dollars..After he goes through all this..takes months and months of time..lots of risk..spends money reconditioning...he expects to make a little money on the final resale..

Trading a multi section home is always very expensive...The value of the home is as a package with the land..once removed..its value drops a lot...Just remember this is $13 to 15K MORE than you would have gotten for a similar stick built home on a trade..

If the land is that important..and you hate the home..only you can decide if this is a deal you want to consider..There are places where this is common strategy to be able to get land in the area...In the town I lived in as a kid in the Chicago area..it is not uncommon for a person to buy a 50 year old small home for $300K..spend tens of thousands to tear it down..and rebuild on the lot..just because folks think the location is soooooo good.

[Daisy]

The $65K price was for a new Skyline model of equal square footage. I was comparing the new value of a similar home to his "A.C.V." of the 5 yr old house we are looking at. He is allowing $7K to relocate the used house and set it up on his lot for resale. I do understand that he has to make money on the used one therefore he's not going to give us nearly what it cost new. It just seems that the depreciation isn't worth it. Are we better off buying the double-wide and adding on? I've heard pros and cons regarding major modifications to MHs.

The land is actually what we want and it's unfortunate that there is only a double-wide on the property.

After our investigations we are hoping that an add-on will not be a problem. Thanks for your response.

[rmurray]

Moving any permanent home off of land for resale is very expensive..You would have a worse problem if the home was a stick built on the lot..

As far as adding on...there should be little difference than adding onto an existing stick built home..If you do it professionally there should be no problem...but add-ons can cost more than most expect..usually about $75/ sq. foot..maybe even more..These add-on costs are the same if the home is stick built or manufactured..