Debating on a newer Manufactured / "Mobile" Home ... A Doublewide

We're kinda getting down to it here. The real estate bubble is about to burst and I'll end up unable to sell the swamp shack if I don't move soon!

I know there's a stigma with mobile / manufactured homes but ...

The real estate market in upstate NY has been relatively stagnant the last decade or so. Unfortunately with work from home being very popular in the NYC/NJ area, a lot of people have decided to move to upstate / Central NY. Our real estate market is crazy.

Our budget is $180K. I'm sure we could go higher but I don't want to. We still have the swamp shack and I'm planning for worst case scenario where I end up having to sell it for $30k or something and end up holding onto the mortgate for 3 or 4 more years. Having double mortgages isn't ideal, but I'm tired of dealing with all of the problems that the swamp shack has.

I DO NOT WANT AN OLD HOUSE. My fiance really wants an old house. We found one in our price range that looked nice and I entertained the idea. The house was an excellent lesson in why I do not want to deal with a house built in the 1800s. It was a disaster. Even something built in the 40s/50s is too old, IMO. Just asking for constant problems with sagging, rot ... knob and tube wiring ... no thanks.

Unfortunately - for what we want we just aren't finding anything. I can't live in a development. They aren't conducive to my hobbies - a friend of mine lives in a development and his jeeps are always attracting codes officers. I don't want to deal with that. We will not have kids, so we can have live somewhere without a good school district. Rural works great. More room to park stuff, more room for our dog to run and less nosey neighbors.

However, we are finding homes are within our price range. Though severely inflated, they are available. 20 or so years ago, there was a bit of a boom and a lot of the more rural areas were divided up into 1-2 acre lots and there were mobile homes placed.We're finding there are some 1200-1500 sqft doublewides built between 2000 and 2005 on acre lots. With detached garages.

It seems that "post standard" homes don't seem to catch fire and burn up like the old ones. Some friends of mine just had one put on a plot of land they bought and it's extremely nice. 2x6 walls, drywall! , very nice flooring and appliances. The build quality is awesome. IT's sitting on a pad and has a block skirting around. Looks like a modular!

Anyone have any thoughts / comments on looking at one that's around 20 years old? As long as it has normal flooring material - plywood / osb, copper wiring, modern plumbing (no CPVC for me) and isn't too old I think I could deal with it. As long as it's on a concrete pad! No more dirt crawlspaces for me.
I wouldn’t do it. Asking for issues. I’d consider buying one new as a seasonal getaway place if it was set up properly on a concrete pad or, better, a full foundation that provides basement space. There is no downrange value to them due to depreciation. If you’re set on this, get a real knowledgeable person who can inspect the trailer before you spend money.
 
I wouldn’t do it. Asking for issues. I’d consider buying one new as a seasonal getaway place if it was set up properly on a concrete pad or, better, a full foundation that provides basement space. There is no downrange value to them due to depreciation. If you’re set on this, get a real knowledgeable person who can inspect the trailer before you spend money.

I was able to look at all of the areas of concern I'd have and it seems to be good shape. We will be doing an inspection, of course. But it's on a pad and the outside walls are sitting on the blocked skirting via what would be a sil plate in a normal house.

I've checked the tax records in the area for long term sales and the only ones I could find that didn't go up in value were destroyed, neglected or old. Granted, they didn't double in value like a site built home would.
 
Well we're just not having any luck.

Offer was accepted. Pretty reasonably priced. Paid for the mortgage and the appraisal and the engineer to review that it's attached properly.

Today we found out that there are irreconciable title issues. This is the 2nd house in a row we've lost out on due to title issues. So unfortunately we're out of over $1000 for this one and a significant credit hit.
 
That sucks. Maybe you dodged a bullet ?

Hopefully you find something that’s right for you and your wife.
 
Everything seems in such good shape. It's the second house now we've had to back out of because of issues with title.

HELOCs are evil. We were going to do one to do our bathroom but just decided to use cash on it. I'm thankful we did, because it seems that anything that puts a lien against your house makes it impossible to sell.

Unfortunately it's been made very clear to us by our relator that in our price range we will no find anything. Just too competitive.

I'm going to rent a storage unit in August. That will get me enough time to get my tools and stuff out of the garage. I just don't see it surviving another winter. In the spring I'll try to get the drainage installed here. I really don't want to deal with this place for another 4 years, but that's what it will take us to save up enough to comfortable get into a $250,000 to $275,000 house.

It's just terrible living in this quarter finished house.
 
We closed on it. Finally. The market here will not be slowing down anytime soon. We're still seeing an influx of population from other states and the NYC area. Interest rates are through the roof. For what we paid , we got quite a deal.

It's in great shape and will be the nicest place I've lived so far. 24x36 garage. 12x12 shed out back. 1200 square foot - bigger than what we have now. I spent the last few days putting up a fence for it. Found the leech field, unfortunately. So gotta do some repairs to that. While digging the fence posts , the entire place is on sand. Go down 2 feet and it's straight sand. That means no more flooding!

I did break off the outside water spigot. CPVC. A few other houses we looked at were plumbed with it too. I'll have to take care of it. It's insulated and actually stays cool in the summer. When we were inside during some colder days, it feels a lot warmer than the swamp shack. Great neighbors too!

Excited to move and get this awful disaster swamp shack sold.
 
We closed on it. Finally. The market here will not be slowing down anytime soon. We're still seeing an influx of population from other states and the NYC area. Interest rates are through the roof. For what we paid , we got quite a deal.

It's in great shape and will be the nicest place I've lived so far. 24x36 garage. 12x12 shed out back. 1200 square foot - bigger than what we have now. I spent the last few days putting up a fence for it. Found the leech field, unfortunately. So gotta do some repairs to that. While digging the fence posts , the entire place is on sand. Go down 2 feet and it's straight sand. That means no more flooding!

I did break off the outside water spigot. CPVC. A few other houses we looked at were plumbed with it too. I'll have to take care of it. It's insulated and actually stays cool in the summer. When we were inside during some colder days, it feels a lot warmer than the swamp shack. Great neighbors too!

Excited to move and get this awful disaster swamp shack sold.
Best of luck on the new home. Many good years of enjoyment
 
Enjoy, nice that you have a garage AND a shed
There's something strange with the garage ... it doesn't flood every time it sprinkles 😁
I have a lot of stuff I need to do but couldn't in my current garage. I had the Jeep sitting in there for a few months because I couldn't work on it. Pulled the transfer case out then the garage sat under water for 2 months.
 
New stick built houses use tons of OSB everywhere, and have so for at least a couple of decades. So they are just as bad.
OSB is fine and that's what this one has for flooring. OSB is actually stronger than traditional plywood.

But a lot of mobile homes had a weird particle board . That was no good.
 
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