Mobile homes have been on the rise in the real estate market every year over the last decade. This is all while capturing the imaginations of millennials struggling with student loans, along with mobile home owners looking to downsize.
Some of the reasons for this are because mobile homes are reputable for being low maintenance, affordable, and customizable.
If you want to escape the extra costs of site-built homes, this is the perfect option for you.
Even though mobile home living has become a common trend, you should follow certain tips before investing in one. For instance, maintenance considerations, getting a mortgage, and the choice of land options all differ from the traditional site-built homes.
Here, we explore some mobile and manufactured home tips that you should understand before investing in the best maintenance-friendly mobile home for your family.
Mobile Home Tips
Let’s go through the tips for mobile home living.
Land for Mobile Home Living
Manufactured home developers understand that mobile homeowners want to settle in a beautiful and comfortable space. A comfortable space means that the mobile homes must provide luxurious upgrades and fixtures, with features such as well-painted walls, hardwood floors, skirting ventilation, proper roof, and granite counters.
Before you buy a manufactured home, you should already have the land and foundation to put your mobile and manufactured home property. However, if you rent a manufactured home, you won’t have to pay for the land.
You can either have your mobile home on your own private land or in a manufactured home community, where you pay a monthly lot rent.
Settling in a manufactured home park offers your family a vibrant community that has exciting amenities. This way your mobile home living experience will be outstanding.
Renting land will enable you to incur the low initial down payment required to secure financing. However, it will be difficult to access a traditional mortgage.
If you decide to buy land on which a mobile home will be placed, you will incur more costs upfront. You will also have to carry out more research into zoning laws and local deed restrictions.
With that said, owning land enables you to access traditional mortgages at a lower interest rate. You will be protected from the depreciation of mobile homes if you own the land where your manufactured home property is placed.
When the value of that land appreciates, you can gain meaningful equity.
Considerations While Buying a New Manufactured Home
Buying a new home can be a walk in the park, if you follow the right tips.
The advantage of buying or renting a new manufactured home is that you won’t have regular maintenance and repairs, and you’ll have many customization options. This offers you a chance to have an exciting mobile home living experience.
Some of the options include:
- Select the exact layout and size that you’re looking for: When you buy a new home, you can select the size of your manufactured home property. The mobile home’s size ranges between 900 square foot to 2,500 square foot. You’ll also be presented with a unique opportunity to select the perfect floor plan for your family. In most cases, the price is determined per square foot.
- Select all the features you require: When you buy a manufactured home you’ll access some of the best features, including windows, walk-in closets, fireplaces, custom cabinets, countertops, a well-painted wall, and a quality roof.
- Customize the exterior: Apart from customizing the interior of your house, you can also customize the exterior by choosing vinyl siding materials and colors, decks, skirting ventilation, awnings, steps, and more.
Buying Used Mobile Homes
The main advantage of going for a used mobile home is that it has a reduced price. For instance, the price of used double-wide mobile homes, per square foot, is lower than that of new double-wide units.
Even with the lower price, you should ensure that your home is in good condition, if you want to have a good mobile home living experience.
Always check the following tips:
- Ensure the insulation beneath the belly wrap contains no moisture
- Check your doors and windows for cracks, insulation, and gaps
- Test the flooring strength and ensure that there is no warping
- Ensure that you have 2×6“ lumber and 16“ spaced studs in walls
- Check that there is no settling
- Ensure that your anchoring system is intact and sturdy
Research the Available Mobile Home Living Options
Nowadays it’s easy to get all of the information you would like to know about a mobile home. Since information is readily available, always dig to learn more about the mobile home, along with the company or agency that wants to sell you the home.
Every mobile home is developed under the same HUD Code. The best mobile home has exciting countertops, well-designed floor plans, well-ventilated windows, and spacious parking.
You might also interact with exterior additions such as skirting, a quality roof, porches, and decks. These things won’t be included in your base cost.
Shop Around for a Mobile Home
The internet offers many buyers more power to negotiate for the best deals. Use this power to your advantage when acquiring a mobile home.
Before you buy a mobile home, shop around online or visit several locations. You can even compare the price of mobile homes. Remember, this is your mobile home, not anyone else’s.
Negotiate the Total Price
A mobile home company isn’t a bank. Only licensed loan officers offer a true monthly payment. If you want the best deal, you should negotiate the actual price for your mobile home, not the monthly payment.
This means the price of everything in the mobile home community, not just the mobile home price. If you own land, there are additional expenses such as septic, electric hookups, and water.
You can even have the bottom line of every cost, including maintenance, upgrades, delivery, and land improvements.
The aim here is to get the best deal for your mobile home living experience.
Always be Ready and Willing to Walk Away
Walking away from a bad mobile home deal is among the greatest tools you’ll ever yield. There is a high chance that even if you fall in love with a mobile home, there are hundreds of dealers selling that kind of home, or at least very close to it.
Dealers fear potential customers walking away from a deal. If you leave, their worst fear is that you’ll never come back.
If you are offered a deal that you don’t like, just walk away. They might offer you a better mobile home deal, or you’ll get a better deal somewhere else.
Approach a Bank
In most cases, banks assist people in purchasing a mobile home. You won’t be charged anything for approaching a bank and applying for a loan.
Approaching a bank will enable you to access loan facilities that you can use to finance your home.
Even though a mobile home is affordable compared to a site-built home, it’s still difficult to finance this home from your savings. You might also need more money in case of maintenance issues.
Ask Questions
There is nothing like asking a “stupid” question when you want to buy a mobile home. If people had all the right answers, there would be no dealers in the real estate industry.
Never feel ashamed to ask as many questions as possible or get clarification from someone helping you purchase your mobile home of choice.
If you get answers that you don’t understand, don’t be afraid to ask for further clarification.
A reputable and reliable mobile home dealer will be more than willing to answer all of your questions in a way that you understand.
Make a Call
You can find the service level you’ll get from your potential mobile home by finding out how helpful your dealer is over a call.
Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, making a phone call is preferred by many to visiting the office in person.
Some of the best dealers won’t hesitate to share their mobile home prices over the phone.
With that said, many dealers don’t like providing pricing information over the phone because they know you’ll carry out a comparison with other dealers.
However, you should also do some personal research online concerning a dealer and the services they offer. Selecting the best dealer typically translates to a good mobile home living experience.
Conclusion
Buying quality manufactured homes with exciting curb appeal, a quality roof, durable skirting, and well-designed walls isn’t easy if you don’t have the right tips.
However, the above tips will offer you a chance to buy or rent manufactured homes of choice for your family.
The best manufactured homes are those that have the best features, such as energy-efficiency, skirting ventilation, and well-designed walls, all at an affordable price.
We hope that you find the home of your dreams and have a wonderful mobile home living experience.
