I just introduced myself in previous thread and hope I can get some good advice. My fiance and myself will be getting a new mobile home in the next 6 months and would like some opionions on what people consider the best brand of mobile homes. We would rather have a wood frame home but can't afford that now so we don't want to waste money on a "trailer" that everone but us knows is not very good.Thanks for any help.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2001

Answers

Southern Energy manufactured housing seemed good to us when we were looking.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2001

Marshfield homes are good too. Made in central WI, so they're well insulated and fairly easy to heat and cool.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2001

Be aware that mobil homes that are to be set up in Florida must have a more severe wind rating than others. The tie downs and framing are increased noticeably,. Insurance and permits will not be issued to lesser units.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2001

We lived in a mobile in Jacksonville, FL and our insurance bills were horrible--and after Andrew went through, they went up some more--and we were told if we were late on any of our insurance payments for any reason (lost in the mail etc) our coverage would be dropped and not reinstated. Seems like they were just looking for a way to get out of insuring the mobile. Just FYI.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2001

Ask about energy efficiency ratings, too. I know people who live in mobile homes near me (tampa) who pay as much as $200/month for utilities- some of those homes can heat up in the summer, literally, like a tin can. You might find out that what you save on rent/mortgage payments gets spent on heating/cooling anyway.

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2001

I'm not trying to start a thread drift, but how about a Quanset instead of a mobile? Check it out.

Steelmaster USA

You can get a 40 x 80 ft. long for about 8K, and people make homes out of them all the time. They drywall an inside area for living, or you could blow insulation on the ceilings. They are guaranteed I think 25 years and are very strong. You can make them longer anytime you want by adding on.

Steve and I were going to go this route if we sold this place, but we're staying here now. I wanted my house in one half, and the animals in the other half, with windows and a door into the barn half. Would be great for milking and feeding in the winter. I would love to live in one of these, with a painted cement floor, and my outdoor wood heater, and my wood cook stove inside.

Be aware when you visit the website, the thunder will scare you the first time it rumbles!

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

Not to burst your bubble, but by the time you add up increased insurance costs and high heating/cooling costs, and the expense of a concrete pad and tie downs (GOOD ones, not show ones) you might as well build. Mobile homes aren't cheap, and they have low resale values.

Around here you can get a metal pole building of around 24x40 with 10' sidewalls built for $6k or less. That's with no interior finish and doesn't count the cost of a pad, but its not that hard to convert such a building to a living space. Slap in some extra doors and windows and finish the interior and you're good to go, for a lot less than the cost of a mobile home. A WHOLE lot less if you will take on the interior finish work yourself.

Just something to think about.

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

I would like to talk you out of this also. Now if you were in your 50's or 60's need a place to live and die for the next 20 years or so, than go for it. Think different! How about building a 24 by 24 steel garage? You could eaisly stick frame inside rooms, sheetrock, plumb etc. By learning one skill at a time. When my husband and I moved to our woods, our skills were very basic ones. In fact looking at our outhouse I couldn't believe for a second the same person who built that, built our house! But we learned, one thing at a time, and were professionals once we were finished with each learned skill. Who was to know that I am a fantasitc dry wall finisher because I look at it as iceing a cake, something I can do very well! We now in fact own our own construction company, Handyman Services, because of learning through building here. A trailer is a mistake because it depreciates the day you bring it home, to the point of....go to the trialer lot, see how much a new trailer is, and how much a used, just say 10 years old is. Thousands of dollars. You will never be able to sell it for what you owe! I hope for your sake you rethink this trailer idea. Vicki

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

Looking at the price of used trailers is excellent advice. Keep in mind that trailer lot prices are way over what you could get if you want to sell or trade in. Check newspapers as well. What they ask and what they finally get are usually worlds apart.

Those things depreciate by 1/3rd their value as soon as they leave the lot. You can't sell or trade it in for what you owe on it.

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

Mobile homes serve a purpose, they are somewhat low cost compared to a regular house, there are nice mobile home parks, you just have to look for them. Foremost Insurance company insures mobile homes and my experience has been that they are very reasonable, cheaper than most, if you buy a mobile home check them out and don't automatically go with whoever the dealer recommends, they get a cut on the premium. We have a 2001 16x80 Fleetwood, if I had to to do over again I would have looked around more and researched way more than we did. Do your homework. I know folks that have doublewides and they love them. We like ours for the most part, but Fleetwood is full of $&it and I hesitate to recommend them, however, we are not really unhappy with our mobile, but have no use for the lying, coniving, sacks of chicken #$&# that they are. Our utility bills are very reasonable, we got the maxium insulation upgrade and we are always comfortable regardless of the temp outside. The anchors were truely impressive when they were put in, very long and way deep in the ground. They aren't exacty like living in a house, but darn close and for the amenities that we have in our mobile we would have to pay more than twice that for a house note. There are pros and cons to everything, do your research. We bought new, but there are really nice "preowned" that are less expensive. I have a neighbor that paid hers off in five years and only has her lot rent, plus low utilties to pay each month. Best of luck to you.

Namaste,

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2001

Boy, I hate to be negative too, but I've never heard of anyone moving out of a mobile home and wishing for another one.

You may not realise how cheap a conventional home is, if you can do a lot of the work yourself. We are building a framed house (our own design with top quality materials) and the whole framing package (1400 sq ft plus large porch) was about $7k. Add another $3k for roofing and siding and you have a well-made shell for $10k. The real cost is in the finishing, but you can do that as fast or as slow as you want, with whatever quality you want, and re-using any salvage materials you can find. We had a whole bunch of quality windows and doors from an auction before we started, so desiged the house around them! Being patient and shopping around for clearance bargains paid off for us. Our most frivolous purchase was white oak hardwood floors at $1.75 /sq ft

The biggest cost may be the foundation, but you'd need one for a mobile home too.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2001

We have lived in two mobile homes. The first one we bought *very* used and stuck it on our first piece of property. Long story, but we needed to get onto our land in a hurry. Fortunately, we found a great property, but no way to get onto it fast enough unless we had a mobile. Coincidentally, friends of ours had just finished building their house, and the beater mobile that they lived in while doing so, became available. It was a single wide, poorly insulated, old, etc., but it had a woodstove. Although we typically have rather mild winters, we had snow a lot that year, and really cold temps. BRRRR. The snow on our boots wouldn't melt if we left them inside the kitchen by the back door. We also had a furnace fire there and I was lucky to put the fire out and get out with my cat okay. The wiring in those old ones scare me!

We had a chance to buy a second property with a mobile already on it after we lived in the first one for a couple of years. Our second one was a really thrashed double wide. My mom and I ripped up all the carpeting (unbelievably filthy, etc.) and Mr. S. and I tore out the breakfast bar and some other things. We painted all the dark paneling and put in new carpeting and flooring. It actually looked good by the time we were done. This one was a Fleetwood and it wasn't too bad. We finally sold it off the property before we sold the property itself. We also sold the first old beater one on property number one and replaced it with a nicer used doublewide (hey, I guess I've owned three, then!)

Some of the nicer ones are attractive and can be well built. However, I would never buy one new. If I was interested, I would contact a bank repo department and ask to see if they have a list of repos for sale. Around here, there's usually a number waiting to be sold. You could probably get one for quite a bit less.

I would not want a mobile for a permanent home for a number of reasons, but they certainly have been a significant part of our lives.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2001

Thanks for all the replies!!!! We are looking for a repo thats in great shape. In Jacksonville they are so picky about permits, we had thought about doing a home ourselves and looked in to it but decided we didn't have that much money. You have have to have licenced electicians, plummers etc, no do it yourself. All we could do is the building (my father is a framer so no cost there).And no bank would touch us so we have to go mobile!!!!!!!!!! I keep hearing fleetwood's are the pits so we are staying away from those!!

Thanks have a wonderful week!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

Sorry to hear about the bureaucratic hassles on building your own home, Sandy, but I have to agree with the anti-mobilehome people here if only on financial grounds. It's about the only kind of housing you can find that actually depreciates in value as you own it, just like an automobile. Just not a good investment for a purchase, IMO. I'd rather find a cheap rental somewhere and save for a downpayment on a real house.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2001

I dont know much about the Jacksonville area, but what about building a basement and putting a temporary roof over it... live in the basement. My sis said her basement for her house only cost 10,000. Sure did give htem a lot of extra living space.

Later, you could build over your basement.

-- Anonymous, July 07, 2001