When did mobile homes become good?

[LetalisK]

My wife and I have been doing a home search lately and I've noticed that mobile homes are really nice. I've always thought mobile homes were a step down from apartments and had a certain stigma with them, but it's hard to hold on to that belief when I end up seeing mobile homes with 3 bedrooms with full walk in closets, 2 baths, a jetted tub, and large kitchens with islands that are 1/3 the price of a shitbox little house you can get in the middle of the ghetto and the monthly payment is about 1/4 that for an apartment with none of those things and less square footage. I remember mobile homes from a long time ago and I don't remember them being this nice. Is this a recent development or have I just been blind?

On a side note, I noticed a few of the monthly payments for mobile homes actually did reach apartment levels, but that was only after the local home owner's association tacked on a fee more than double the monthly payment itself. How does that work? I know they hopefully provide a bunch of services, but how do they attain the legal authority to enforce that?

Edit: Or rather manufactured homes, as I learned they're actually called.

 

[senordesol]

I think you had them confused with trailers. My grandparents have a pretty sweet mh from the 70's.

 

[LetalisK]

I think you had them confused with trailers. My grandparents have a pretty sweet mh from the 70's.

Huh, I think so. Just did another google search and evidently there is trailer, mobile home, and manufactured home, though often the names get switched around interchangeably.

This is the type of thing that I'm talking about:

Edit: I guess it also turns out that kind of home isn't mobile at all, but the name just stuck when these replaced the really old school mobile homes that actually are mobile.

Still, question stands! I don't even remember these manufactured homes being very nice.

 

[madwarper]

Simply put; If you've got the cash, they can be as nice as you want them to be.

 

[IndomitableSam]

I looked at one a couple years ago when I was debating buying a house. My childhood babysitter is a realtor and told me to stay away as you don't own the land, so the owners can do whatever they want and charge whatever they want. We've actually had one in the city decide to sell the land in the spring, so people who have lived there for decades have to up and find somewhere to move, and they obviously can't sell their places either. So they're basically fucked. It was a pretty awful story to watch unfold.

 

[tippy2k2]

Finally! My post-closing powers in the mortgage department will save the day!

While they have some strong upsides, there are a lot of downsides that still make them iffy ideas. However, pending where you are in life, it might be your best option.

1). They don't survive. A manufactured home (generally) is not built to last forever. It's very unlikely that you will ever have a manufactured home passed down generation to generation because they are not built to last.

2). The land is what gets you. While the home itself is usually cheap, buying the land (or renting the land) gets to be really expensive. During my brief housing search (before I realized I was still too poor and drank myself stupid to forget about how my student loans are poisoning me), renting the plot of land for my new home to go cost just as much (or more) as buying a nice apartment and/or townhome.

3). They don't resell well. See point #1.

As to your later question about HOA fees, you are renting the piece of land that they are providing. That's what you're being charged for. Why it's so freaking expensive I couldn't tell you...

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Finally! My post-closing powers in the mortgage department will save the day!

While they have some strong upsides, there are a lot of downsides that still make them iffy ideas. However, pending where you are in life, it might be your best option.

1). They don't survive. A manufactured home (generally) is not built to last forever. It's very unlikely that you will ever have a manufactured home passed down generation to generation because they are not built to last.

2). The land is what gets you. While the home itself is usually cheap, buying the land (or renting the land) gets to be really expensive. During my brief housing search (before I realized I was still too poor and drank myself stupid to forget about how my student loans are poisoning me), renting the plot of land for my new home to go cost just as much (or more) as buying a nice apartment and/or townhome.

3). They don't resell well. See point #1.

As to your later question about HOA fees, you are renting the piece of land that they are providing. That's what you're being charged for. Why it's so freaking expensive I couldn't tell you...

This. Especially in areas that have to deal with hurricanes or tornadoes on a regular basis, the stigma has less to do with what they're like when they roll off the assembly line, and more to do what they tend to wind up as after the first decade or so. If it weren't for the way they fall apart and tend to either be on rented land[footnote]Which is either expensive, only open to old people, or incredibly trashy, your pick[/footnote] or on land you'd be better off building a real house on, I'd take a trailer over an apartment any day.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Huh. My cousin lives in one of those, and for the most part it's a pretty alright place. Tippy's right about them though, because it sure as hell doesn't feel like it's built to last.

 

[DefunctTheory]

My cousin builds manufactured homes. They are surprisingly nice, I agree, especially if their put together right (On top of an actual foundation, instead of the 6 inch concrete stilts that are becoming depressingly common).

The problem with them is mostly that the people who put orders in for these things and actually install them cheap out when it comes to the foundation. If you put a proper one in, they can be just as durable as a house built on site.

 

[antidonkey]

Also remember that they can be a pain to repair. Often times you can't just run down to Home Depot to get what you need. You might have to order from the home's manufacturer. There's also something about them that always feels plasticy to me. I feel like I'm surrounded by it whenever I'm in one no matter how nice it is. My ex-wife has an Aunt that has a nice mobile home but every time I was in it, it felt like I was hanging out inside a beer cooler. The whole thing is very odd and quite possibly specific only to me.