manufactured homes

[Gene]

If it's not in a park, it should always be easy to sell.

[TLF]

I am considering making an offer on a great piece of property (5 acres) here in WA. The home is a 2001 2/2, 1100 sqft, silvercrest manufactured on a slab foundation. Looks new from the outside and seems solid, the insulation ratings are around 30 for the roof and 26 for the floor/walls, siding is wood, roof is comp, vinyl windows, forced air heat. I am just hesitant since it's a manufactured.. Will it be too hard to resell? Do these homes actually depreciate, like I've heard? Anyone have firsthand experience buying/selling these types of homes? Appreciate any feedback.

Thx! TLF

[barbarow]

I have no feel for what values in your area are; but, the manufactured homes here in Florida are appreciating in value.

[Charlie Bress]

This particularly true of homes built to the post hurricane Andrew building codes. This regardless of park or not. Charlie

[Edwin Pawlowski]

That was true of the old trailers, not a modern manufactured house.

[maxinemovies]

We're in the process of buying a Silvercrest. On a permanent foundation, it's considered real property (as in real estate) rather than like a trailer, and will appreciate.

Silvercrest is one of the best. The home is only four years old. What model is it?

Regardless, have a home inspection done, like you would for any other house you'd want to buy.

Maxi

Email addy upon request.

[TLF]

I don't know the model but I have asked this of the manufacturer, awaiting response. I gave them the SN so I would imagine they can tell me everything I want to know. I do know it was built in their Oregon plant and has 2x6 framed walls. I talked to the seller today and he said it is anchored to the slab foundation and is considered real property, but I see the listing agent calls it out as a mobile/doublewide.. maybe something to do with WA classification laws. At any rate, this is on 5 (rural) acres that borders dry pasture on 2 sides and backs to 40 acres of cedar timber on the opposite end. In a small town, 8 miles from a larger one that has most everything needed..

Thanks all for your input!!

-T

[Ralph Mowery]

If it is a Mobile home, it should have a title just like a car. If it is a modular home then it will not have a title.

[Mort Guffman]

I have heard that it costs more to finance these homes and to insure them. I would check these two items out first.

A friend was going to have one put on his property. The homes are nice. Well built and configurable to your liking. He liked the quality and the house a lot, but the interest rate and the homeowner's insurance made building a regular home a better choice for him. He lives near Tampa.

Mort

[Oscar_Lives]

The main problem is that manufactured homes don't appreciate in value. They are percieved as being very negative by potential buyers, and their quality is suspect. Therefore, the value drops like a rock, even if bolted on a foundation.

Manufactured homes are one-half notch higher than trailer-trash homes. You'd be better off renting.

[maxinemovies]

Baloney. Where do you get your information from? I've been researching manufactured homes for a couple of years and nothing could be further from the truth.

Check out

and take the "factory tour." It's a video of how they build. Our home will have 2 x 8 floor joists and 2 x

6 exterior walls. Typar wrap. We've bumped up the insulation. It's going on a permanent foundation and WILL appreciate.

The bank is eager to give us a construction loan at a competitive rate, which will turn into a mortgage later at less than 6%, the going rate for conventional stick-built homes.

Manufactured homes aren't what they used to be. Not only are some companies building real quality into the houses, but the general perception in the public is improving dramatically, especially in more rural areas.

And we're city folk, not country bumpkins who were raised in a trailer park. We were both raised in the suburbs outside New York City, moved into the city, then to Los Angeles. We've done our homework, and now that we want to live out in the desert, we have every confidence that Silvercrest is definitely the right decision for us.

Despite what you might think of manufactured homes, many people are quite excited to have them available. They have beautiful floor plans that can be tweaked and upgraded and most of the homes bear little resemblance to earlier mobile homes.

Please get your facts straight.

Maxi

Email addy upon request.

[maxinemovies]

Pop on over to their website

and see if you can find it there. I'm curious and would love to know what it is.

Listing agents around here, and even our banker, keep calling it a mobile home, even though they know it's not, and admit that they're doing it out of habit. Just having trouble keeping up with the latest terminology. But they also know full well that a manufactured home on a permanent foundation is real property and will appreciate.

The land sounds beautiful. Got pics on a web page somewhere?

Maxi

Email addy upon request.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Sun 12 Jun 2005 10:58:50p, maxinemovies wrote in alt.home.repair:

Manufactured homes can be taken even another step further and ordered and installed as a modular home. A modular version has bumped up construction and is also ground set as a manufactured home can be. The cost for the same home model is slightly higher, but the payoff is that they usually qualify for slightly better mortgage rates.

[Nathan Gant]

A trailer or manufactured home is no match in value in the long run for CBS (concrete block/stucco) houses. Unfortunately there are people who will try to put it on par with CBS homes.

If you can't afford CBS, likely now with current housing costs, I would go for it, a manufactured home is something that you can adapt to, but they are sometimes difficult to sell and you definitely won't see much of an appreciation of value outside of actual land appraisal itself. Assume that you'll lose money in the manufactured home in the long run, but the property might end up being worth substantially more than the house.

[TLF]

MAXI -

email me at snowripper_at_gmail_dot_com and I will send some photos, I am curious what model your home is.

Thx T

[CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert]

A home is going up across the street from me now. It has poured basement walls, and they brough in the main home parts in pieces. The home body in 2 parts, and then a 2 part roof, and 1 2nd floor extended window. They build the garage on the spot. And not they are bricking the thing up.

I was disappointed to see this thing going up when they started because I though it was going to be some rinky dink elcheapo job. I'm pretty impressed at this point and wonder if my own home was build in this fashion, though I doubt it due to its construction.

Is this a manufactured home I was looking at?

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Mon 13 Jun 2005 10:52:33a, CL (dnoyeB) Gilbert wrote in alt.home.repair:

It's more likely a modular home. There are both similarities and differences. The following link gives a good explanation of both:

[stevethompson]

I had shopped for existing homes, both stick built and manufactured, and all realtors I spoke with said manufactured homes on permanent foundations, in this area, appreciate comparably to stick built. We happened across five very private acres and couldn't resist. Last year I put a new Silvercrest on five acres outside of Yelm, WA. I put it on a stem wall foundation; the personal property title was eliminated after the final inspection. My research found that Silvercrest was one of the best in this part of the country. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I upgraded to a 6:12 roof, Hardie lap siding all the way around, Hardie shakes on the gables, and I built a gable roof attached deck on the front. From the outside, nobody knows it's a manufactured home. The wood stove installer, the satellite tv installer, and furniture and appliance delivery people have all been inside and didn't know it was manufactured till I told them.

There are some telltale signs if you know what to look for. For instance, the interior marriage walls are six inches. This may or may not be obvious, depending on your floor plan. All the sinks plumbing comes up through the floor at the back of the cabinets, rather than out of the wall. There won't be an attic access hole unless the previous owner put one in-they're not required by HUD. That was one detail I missed during the purchase process. Kinda silly, I think. While they were setting up my house, four different contractors needed access to the attic. The first contractor cut the hole at a location of my approval, and I went ahead and trimmed it out.

If you're a hard core DIYer, there are a few idiosyncracies to be aware of. Manufactured homes are inspected by L&I at the factory during the construction process, and L&I inspects all remodeling, changes, and additions to the home, rather than the local building department. If you live in Pierce or King county, this can be quite an advantage as you won't have to deal with those county building departments. When you go to the L&I office to pull a permit, the first thing they will ask for are the D.A.P.I.A. drawings. D.A.P.I.A. drawings (I don't remember what words DAPIA represents) are the manufacturer's engineered drawings for your home. Drawings are for new construction at the factory and for most repairs and remodels once the house is installed. The factory field rep told me if they didn't have them available in house, they could have them in 24 hours from an engineering firm out of Chicago. L&I has a pamphlet available that tells all about their responsibilities and a list of repairs, fixes, and remodels that need a permit.

My house had a couple rafters that twisted and bowed. The factory sent out an independent contractor to do the repair. He had to have the drawings in hand to do the work. I changed out a bathroom window I didn't like (I put in a larger one); I had no problem getting the D.A.P.I.A. drawing from the factory. The deck I built was a peculiar process. Basically, I built a dormer on the house for which I obtained a drawing and had inspected by L&I. The rest of the deck was freestanding and was inspected by Thurston County building department. There is a correct method for tying together the dormer roof and deck gable roof for a seamless looking roof line.

All wall studs are 16 in. O.C. except for the 6 inch marriage line wall I mentioned earlier. You'll find that wall has extra studs and blocking.

One thing I don't like but have to live with is that the floor insulation is blown in. Manufactured homes have a fabric belly pan, and that holds in the insulation. So, to get to in-floor plumbing or wiring, or whatever, I have to slice the fabric, salvage the insulation, do my work, put the insulation back in, and seal up the slice with a special belly pan tape. There are a few tricks to make the process easier, but it's just a bit more hassle than removing and replacing batts.

Manufacturers do use some proprietary materials. My common living areas have 9 1/2 foot ceilings with 7 1/2 inch crown moulding. Imagine my surprise to find out the crown was made of styrofoam. Once installed and painted, you'd never know. I was able to scrounge a couple sticks from the factory service team. I've never seen the stuff retail. The exterior trim around doors, windows, and corners, and the fascia, are 5/4 O.S.B. with a wood grain face. White wood is a good substitute as long as it's not too close to the O.S.B. so that the differences would be glaringly obvious.

Hope you enjoy your new home, Steve

[Oscar_Lives]

Sounds like the salesman did a number on your independent thinking.

[cowboy]

face it, dude

no matter whether you call it "manufactured home", "mobile home", "modular home" or whatever.......

IT'S A TRAILER

you can't polish a turd!

WAKE UP, PEOPLE!