I too have lived in double wide mobile homes. And I loved the space I had. The beautiful clean lines and decor. Actually I miss the amenities that I had then and not now. At the time I could purchase a nice brand new manufactured home at 1/4 the cost of a house built on site. I currently live in a 100 yr old home that has great charm but can not compare to the sleek beauty of a manufactured home.

For 15 of the 18 years of our married life my wife and I lived in a mobile home. One of them was 14X80 feet.
It wasn’t the roomiest place. Neither was it cool in summer or warm in winter.
What it was, was inexpensive.
After living in the 14X80 single wide home for ten years we sold it and found that we had spent the equivalent of $14,000 to live in it. $1,400/year is not a bad price.
Not only that, but it was relatively safe. Though we did not ride out Hurricane Katrina in it, it withstood 125MPH winds with no damage other than a little rain water that was blown in around the doors. I can’t say that for a large number of stick built houses in our South MS area.
I have a feeling that many of those who frown on mobile homes may have to re-think their approach.
Do what is wisest and best for you would be my approach.

Mobile homes can serve a purpose but you should be aware of a few things too. I worked in our city offices and what I find out about mobile homes was.

1. The value of a mobile home goes down each year like a car. The value of a house goes up. You will not be able to see a mobile home for anywhere near what you purchased it for.

3. Many banks will not loan you money for a mobile home refinance so if you are hoping to refinance to get a better rate or another reason, you may be out of luck with a mobile home.

I would rather purchase an older fixer upper house and fix it up slowly ourselves which is what we did. We paid very little & the house we have no is worth so much more than it was when we first purchased it.

My husband and I live and have raised our boys for theheats past 16 1/2 years in a double wide. When we first bought this place, it was the only thing we could afford after moving back up to this area to be close to my in-laws. Our mortgage payments are under $400 a month and we have a large back yard full of fruit trees and 2 berry patches. We also have a garden on the side of the house and a good sized detached garage. Our pellet stove is able to heat our whole home. Due to having a low house payment (way cheaper than rent in this area), we were able to have me homeschool our boys for their last 9 years of school.

Could you nicely fit a homeschooling family of 10 in one with space for school books and long-term visiting mothers-in-law?

Who are reputable manufacturers?

It is wonderful to see how others have found mobile homes to be a frugal alternative!

Hindsfeet asks about space for a family of 10, books and visitors. Our home is 2400 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths. One of the reason we purchased our home is that 3 of our bedrooms have connecting bathrooms. As we have been previously and expect to again in the future be involved in parent care, baths in bedrooms were a big seller to us.

The reputable manufacturers in my area would be Solitare and Palm Harbor. We do not know the name of our manufacturer as our home was not new when purchased, but our home inspector said it was very well made.

I agree to a certain extent with the post and the comments. However, growing up in a trailer (wasn’t called a manufactured home then) I have a different aspect to share. Maybe because we lived in a tornado-prone area or it was my mom’s phobia, she flipped out over ever tornado watch/warning/touchdown from 2 states away. Tornadoes are more likely to lift up and rip up a manufactured home than houses. Now of course, a house can be torn up too but there’s more likely to be survivors from a house than a manufactured home. For safety sake, I would choose to rent an apartment or house over buying a manufactured home. I’m also wondering about fire, as manufactured homes decrease in value you wouldn’t get as much from insurance as you would in a house. I’m also wondering if through buying a house you would get more tax breaks than with buying a manufactured home (I’m just not sure how a manufactured home would be defined).

For various reasons, a cheaper area or fixer upper house might be the better option. I don’t have a bias against mobile homes in general (think the people living there are “poor” or anything) but many cities do try to push the mobile homes out of the city limits, etc. I agree that a mobile home would be a more frugal alternative and should be considered overall but please consider all aspects before jumping in.

Your bank and your insurance company may tell you the home hasn’t depreciated, but that does not definitely mean they’re right. First, your insurance company is likely considering “replacement cost” of the home should it be destroyed in a fire or other disaster. In such a case, you would want your insurance to get you a new home rather than pay you the market value of a depreciated home. So, the insurance company wants you to keep it insured for the value of a new home. And that doesn’t even consider that the insurance company charges rates based on how much you insure the home for.

As for the bank, they may be factoring in appreciation of the land over 20 years. Depending on where you live, the land likely appreciated enough to compensate for any value lost in the home.

Finally, I wonder if the bank and insurance co are factoring in all your upgrades. Is it that your home is worth now, with all those upgrades, what the house was worth new, without the upgrades.

Based on your story, you bought this land at least 15 years ago. You didn’t mention where in the desert it was, though. If it was near Las Vegas or Phoenix, your story might well be the result of the boom in land values in those areas. So again, the profit you received might be a result of the appreciation of land, rather than the value of the home itself.

Do you know of anyone who bought a home and put it on rented land (say in a mobile home park) and also had the home appreciate in value?

I live in Florida, a state where mobile homes are plentiful.
If you are considering living in a mobile home park, factor in lot rent and/or maintenance fees.
Also, there are usually two kinds of parks: Adult communities and general population. Sometimes the retirees in adult communities can be a little too focused on their neighbors and fussy about appearances, noise, visitors, etc. For example, they may complain about extra cars in front of your home when you have guests or noise from visiting grandchildren.
General populations parks are just that. If it is cheap to live there, you may have some trouble makers in the community you don’t want to live around. (I know there are VERY nice parks- but this is just something to consider. (Investing in motion-sensor lights can cut down on vandalism).

Also, if a hurricane comes, be prepared to go to the nearest public shelter unless you have a friend or family member who will take you in until the hurricane has passed. It is foolish to stay in a mobile home and hope for the best.

Donna:
Wow what exciting plans! As the writer of this post about 2 years ago, I thought I would try to comment. Your ideas sound very innovative to me, but I have absolutely no building experience. Husband and I are not of the “handy” variety. Husband did say to be sure you would have roof ventilation.

We are still living in our double-wide mobile home which is about 11 years old. We have lived here for 5 years and still are most grateful for our home. I believe there would be some appreciation if we were to choose to sell and due to the economy that is a good thing!

Perhaps you may get some comments from someone more knowledgeable than I.

If in a park they depreciate. The depreciation, loan interest (rate is very high), and lot rent add up to quite a lot. Not to mention the cost of repairs and maintenance. Mobile homes are prone to water damage from leaks around windows, doors, vents, roof flashing and inside faucets, tubs/showers, water heaters and air conditioning units in the house. They also seem to have issues with water damage at the base of exterior walls which leaves wallboard and floor damage. I have had four and am currently in one. The only reason I am in one is because it is paid for, is in a nice park, with a good landlord and is in a convenient location. Houses in my price range would require me to get a 30 year mortgage and spend almost half my take home pay. Most are in neighborhoods which are not showing much love. Still, if I was to have to make a decision of whether to buy a $100,000 (or less) house or buy a new singlewide and go in a park I am not sure what I would do if the total of payments was the same. I’d likely go with the house since over time they usually go up in value. My math on my situation. In 1995 I bought a new singlewide for $26000 furnished. Had I kept it and paid for 15 years I would have had a total of $27000 in interest and $26000 for the home…$53000 for a home now worth maybe $10000. A loss of $43000. Lot rent paid over those 15 years started at $135 and ended at $200 so average of $170 for 15 years/180 payments comes to $30600. Add $43000 loss and $30600 lot rent and my cost of living in it would have been $74000. Divide that by 180 months. That comes to about $400 a month. Had I bought a house at that time, assuming my payment could have been $470 a month, the numbers would be as follows. (based on $295 mh payment and $170 average amount of the lot rent) I would have had to borrow 50,000 and the rates then were at 8% or higher. If I had put down $5000 I would have had to find a house for $55000. I could have refinanced it and gotten a lower rate and perhaps paid ahead on the loan. In any case I would have 15 years left to pay on a mortgage at $470 month. If I refinanced only once at the 15 year mark down to 4% the payment would go down to $420 a month. Lot rent is now $210 a month, so half of what the mortgage payment would be. Lot rent will only go up over the next 15 years. The house payment would stay the same. The mobile home would be paid for and the house would not. Today, house prices are down and i can get a nice house for $85000 in my area. payments on that would likely be $470 a month for 30 years. A singlewide in my area ranges from $33000 set up in a park, heatpump, steps, skirting, etc to $53000. Interest rates are around 10% last I heard. Using $8000 down as on the house, the $33000 mh would be $268 for 15 years and the $53000 mh would be $483 for 15 years…plus my lot rent of $210 a month. Total now would be $478 a month for the cheaper one and right at $700 for the nicer one. So, if I bought a house NOW I would be in the same situation I would have been in in 1995! IF I bought the less expensive singlewide. Isn’t that ironic! What I did not calculate was this…if I had kept the same rate and payment at the 15 year mark, I would have paid…$4000 on the principle over 15 years. I would have paid $27000 in interest. If I refinanced it to half the rate at the point I would owe another $12000 in interest with $46000 remaining on the balance. Total would come to $85000 if refinanced. Current market value would likely be better than what I would have paid for it. What living in the singlewide did for me was allow me to have enough money left over to pay my singlewide off after 8 years. It allowed me to then pay off all my bills and get out of debt. It allowed me to save $40000…yes, $40,000 that I would not have been able to save if I had gotten a house in 1995. Now, I am in the position of knowing I have money in the bank…peace. I also could sell the singlewide I am in now for $10000 and add to it my savings and put down $40,000 on a $85,000 house. And still have $10,000 in savings. But, despite the ongoing lot rent, I like having the savings and a paid for home.

Found this site searching for this exact subject. We currently own a home, but circumstances are forcing us to move to a state where real estate is much higher. Because I renovate houses we can purchase a MH on a few acres and I can do whatever, within our budget. BUT we are finding since the real estate crash that purchasing a MH can be the biggest hassle you can imagine. Those who purchase a MH are actually penalized to paying a higher interest rate, regardless of money down, because of the past crisis. MHs by the tens of thousands carried loans which failed and now banks and lending institutions want nothing to do with them. We are currently trying to purchase a fairly nice used one, but the process is crazy. There is little reason to pay higher interest rates for a home which carries a stigma to begin with (even though it is made with the same materials as a site built house, by law), and may be difficult to resell no matter how it is fixed up. For young kids starting out it may be the answer, but for those in a situation like ours it makes no sense. Lenders are few, they gouge, and it’s a shame, but that’s the way it is. When we sell our current home we can just pay off the note, but until then, just getting in with a conventional loan is a real hassle.

My husband’s grandparents lived in a singlewide trailer on the family farm for many years. When Grandpa inherited his parents’ house, they moved there and the trailer has been occupied by renters part of the time and empty part of the time. We moved into it recently and are very happy, much happier than we were in our big (rented) house in town. Our big house had only one bathroom and was not very energy efficient. The trailer has 2 bathrooms- an amazing luxury for us with 5 kids in the house! and though it may not be any more weathertight than the house, a smaller space is cheaper to heat and cool. Because it’s laid out so well, there seems to be just as much, if not more, usuable space.

I have been reading the comments and I have another viewpoint in the stick-vs-mobile debate. My ex-hubby and I moved years ago and bought a beautiful new home in a nice neighborhood. Soon after, ex-hubby lost his job and we had to move. We had not lived in the home long enough for the home to appreciate and therefore lost a pile of money in closing costs, upgrades, realtor fees, etc. At the same time, one of his co-workers, not wanting to live close to the city, chose to put a new MH on an acre, and a long commute. He was able to recoup all of his expenses when he sold.
Another time, we were transferred and had to sell our home at a loss, due to the bottom falling out of the market. You don’t ALWAYS have a good return on real property, whether mobile or stick-built. Even stick-built houses can depreciate, depending on the age and care of the property and whether the neighborhood is going downhill, plus the state of the economy in the area.
My new husband lived in a single wide for 5 years and then put a new double wide on his 3 acres. He rented the single wide out and it made his new house payment. He now rents out both trailers. We just had the whole property appraised and the property had appreciated over $50K.
I am not necessarily a proponent of mobile homes, having never lived in one myself. I am considering it, though. My husband and I recently moved to the oil boom area where housing is way over priced. If we can find an affordable piece of land, we will probably look for a good used MH and save all the money we can.