Experiences buying and renovating manufactured homes?
October 27, 2017 12:27 PM   Subscribe

Do you have experience buying and renovating a manufactured home? Looking for personal experiences with making the decision to buy, and the practical and financial realities of renovating a manufactured home as opposed to a traditional home.

Every time we drive by this sweet little river house on the way to our favorite swimming hole I sigh and say, "I wish we could buy that house someday". Now it's come up for sale (!!!) and is an actual possibility and I want to make sure I'm doing the research and going into further fact-finding with realistic expectations (and trying to tamp down the I WANT IT that is on a loop in my head).

The house is on acreage with river frontage, and is a double wide manufactured home built in the 80s. I clicked on the listing fully expecting to have to tear down the home but from photos it looks surprisingly good inside, like it's been taken care of and like there's good bones (?).

My main questions:

1) What do we need to consider about renovating a manufactured home vs. a traditional home? Are there certain things that we can't do, or would be more difficult to do, on a manufactured home? I know getting labor will be more difficult since it's in the boonies, but we want to DIY as much as we can. It looks livable now, but I know we'll need to do all new floors and I want to open up the ceiling.

2) Is there different ROI calculus on renovating a manufactured home vs. a traditional home? In many ways I want the land and river access most, but I also want to have a good framework of cost to benefit before we go look at it.

3) The house seems inexpensive to us but the tax assessment three years ago was 40K less than the current listing price. Is this a red flag? I don't know if there are comps in the area and I am unsure of how pricing for manufactured homes works, or if this one is a good value.

Bonus Question 4, since I've already kind of made my mind up about this, but: Are we crazy to consider buying a second home before a first? Articles like this suggest no; we currently rent very cheaply, desperately want a vacation home or land, and if the shit hit the fan could live in this house full time. Our finances could support buying this house and continuing to rent. Also this is literally my dream location, regardless of the house, and I am beside myself with the thought of owning land with river frontage (which is rare here).

Any and all advice from people with experience buying or renovating manufactured homes is welcome; we are at the very early stages of gathering info and I want to know what to look for when we view the property next week.
posted by stellaluna to Home & Garden (15 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Before I answer your questions, I'd suggest that you talk to: 1) a lender or broker to see if they would lend you the right amount to cover this purchase, how much that would cost you in monthly payments. Have next to you a list with your current income, debt obligations (including rent) and a rough idea of your credit score. And, 2) an insurer. I had a friend whose house purchase fell through because he couldn't get the lending right and it turned out that insurers were not so friendly to manufactured homes. I'm not sure the particulars of this and it will likely depend on your area and the insurer. So, do some groundwork there before you get too far ahead of yourself. You don't want a home that can't be insured.

1) A manufactured home will be a lot like any other home. However, some of that will depend on the manufacturer. They should be inspected thoroughly, just like any other home, but sometimes the quality of construction won't be the same - a quality foundation, good plumbing connections, adequate insulation, are all things to look for. Sometimes the original buyer "cheaped out" and other times it may be of good quality and placed well and properly on the site. Some of this depends on locality and oversight at the time of the build.

As for opening the ceiling, that depends on your aesthetic. Depending on how it was built and when, it will either be full of flimsy-looking manufactured trusses with ugly connections or it might be standard framing. Unlikely to be more aesthetically pleasing than 2x4 or 2x6 construction.

2) Not necessarily. If you add on, you want to be sure it looks right and depending on the style and quality of the manufactured home, that may be difficult or it might be fine. I've seen people move the existing manf. home to another part of the property and then build a nicer home in the sweet spot. It can be real handy to have guest quarters or rental space (if allowed by ordinance - see what zoning standards apply before buying).

3) It's not a red flag. County assessments typically lag the market. It may be difficult to get comps but you would have an appraisal done as part of the buying process.

4) Not necessarily. When urban markets are too high, it's not unusual to find people investing their real estate dollars elsewhere either as a first or second home.
posted by amanda at 1:34 PM on October 27, 2017


Not directly related to a manufactured home, but does the river flood? Would you be able to insure a house in a flood zone? In my neck of the woods, homes susceptible to flooding require a 30% deposit to secure a loan. I would be more concerned about the maximum flood level of the river over the issue of a manufactured home.
posted by Thella at 1:43 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: The river is dammed and the house is about twenty feet uphill from the usual water line.
posted by stellaluna at 1:53 PM on October 27, 2017


Best answer: 80s and manufactured is pretty much exclusive with good bones, but it might be okay.
You can find out some basic things when you tour it:

* Just bang on the walls with your fist everywhere. Does it feel stiff and solid or hollow and flexible? Do the same test jumping on the floor everywhere with someone next to you.
* Judge the quality of the trim; is it present? is it wood? does it look not cheap?
* What materials are used in the flooring? I'm guessing carpeting and vinyl; did the vinyl hold up?
* Are there signs of damage in the crawlspace? Is it insulated properly?
* How's the roof? (Get a metal roof if you need to reroof) Leaks will probably ruin the place pretty quick.

The building code (at least at the time) allows an uncomfortable amount of flex in the floors and walls. If that's your house, it means they built the thing to the lowest possible standard. If that's the case (or you have other suspicions that's the case) I wouldn't do much to the house itself, but I would be willing to build an extension of higher quality.
posted by flimflam at 2:47 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also see what the insurance options will be. In my area, once a mobile home is older than 10 yrs, insurance options are fewer. And are you sure it's a mobile and not a modular home? A modular is very similar to standard construction.

I've lived in mobile homes all of my adult life because it's what I can afford. There are differences from traditional construction.

Walls are actually thinner.

I cannot see how you could open up the ceiling because even the truss system is different. You may get lucky, but do not consider that a must when deciding on the place.

Insulation is pretty crappy.

Often things that you'd think would be standard are not, such as plumbing connections and electrical boxes (remember the thinner walls?)

If it's a vacation home you will not be as annoyed by the particle board cabinets, but I would love something 'real' if possible because the finish comes off and the insides get ratty after a lot of use.

But any home built in the 80s will be needing a lot of maintenance/ updating by now if you live in the US. Budget HARD for fixing things.
posted by mightshould at 4:19 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Are we crazy to consider buying a second home before a first?

Not at all. I can't speak to the remodelling thing but I have friends who had a tiny but well-located rental in Manhattan. They could not afford to buy a place in the city but they were able to buy a really nice home in the country, and that worked really well for them. I hope you can get a good loan and insurance for this place, because it sounds great. Good luck!
posted by Bella Donna at 5:28 PM on October 27, 2017


Best answer: If the house is in poor shape and you love the spot, maybe consider putting in an offer based either (a) solely on the value of the land or (b) value of the land minus tear-down/removal costs of the house. Then save up for an equally cute little cabin...

If it’s a 1980s double-wide, the structure may practically not be worth much or may be more trouble than its worth, the owners may know this, and it may be a worthwhile exercise to calculate the value of the land, then add on the value of the house (if any) when determining what to offer.

I say this to reframe your thinking a bit, and because in my rural neck of the woods, properties like the one you are describing are often market as “X acres of developable riverfront with permitted and installed septic and electric- double wide trailer currently on the lot included.”
posted by slateyness at 5:52 PM on October 27, 2017


Is this a prefab house with a basement or a mobile home, as mightshould seems to be wargaming? no offense mightshould.

I own a small 80's prefab, the bones were good when we bought in 2013 and no major repairs yet, knock on wood. A contractor we spoke with told us that the prefab nature might make it easier to do some types, but not all types, of renovations.

If this is going to be a seasonal home for you, think carefully. Renting it to recoup some costs when you are not using it could be great or a huge pain in the ass or both.
posted by vrakatar at 6:42 PM on October 27, 2017


Best answer: We were you a couple of years ago and we now live in our 1980's manufactured home on our bit of land. Here are a few things we've found out over the last couple of years...

It was way difficult to get a mortgage for a manufactured home, and we're paying far more in interest than we wanted to.

Previous posters are right -- getting insurance wasn't easy, but it's doable.

Plumbers, electricians, and so on are difficult to get when you have a manufactured home, especially an older one... and especially if you don't live near a big city. It took us three days to find a plumber when our pipes got clogged. I actually waited two days for a plumber to come out, he took one look at the house, said, "Oh, this is a manufactured home. I don't do those." Then he got in his truck, and drove away. I was like, Really? But now I've learned to ask if someone works on manufactured homes before making an appointment with them.

We also learned that it's next to impossible to truly remodel a manufactured home as old as this one, depending on how well it's been kept up. We asked several contractors about remodeling and most of them said we'd be throwing good money after bad. The electrician I talked to (who came highly recommended) flat out said, "Don't rewire this house. It's a waste of money." The wiring here isn't bad, but it's old. We can't plug too many things in or we'll trip the circuit. That kind of thing.

We were going to originally shore up this house and live in as long as possible then perhaps tear it down and build a new one in ten or so years. But while it looked in good shape, and the inspector didn't find anything wrong with it, this place is starting to show its age... so we're now saving up to tear this place down in a couple of years and build a stick house in its place.

Having said all of that. I love the land we're on, and we're still pretty happy with our decision to move here. Nothing is perfect, and we didn't expect this place to be. Whatever you decide, good luck!
posted by patheral at 10:11 PM on October 27, 2017


Best answer: Hi, I'm a renovation professional.

I've done a small amount of work on both trailers and modular homes- the type that ship in two halves- in the Southeast.

The differences I saw between them and standard buildings:

-water infiltration risk was higher due to lack of/insufficient roof overhangs, and crappy window detailing

-electrical was very difficult to repair or modify because it used nonstandard switch/outlet boxes- thinner than normal and thus unable to accept any extra connections- and, if I remember right, the fixtures (ie outlets or switches themselves) sort of "spiked' inline into short runs of Romex cable rather than having real connections using wire pigtails and wire nuts. This made it difficult to replace parts that went bad and much more difficult to move outlets or switches to better locations. We discovered this when we did a mini kitchen remodel to attempt to improve access to the ridiculously tiny kitchen in the modular home.

-everything is both structural and nonstructural at the same time. interior wall framing was sometimes 1x material, as in 1x4's instead of 2x4's (though I've certainly seen lots of mobile home ads that advertised "2x6 framing!") and held together by being attached semi-structurally to paper-thin wall paneling. worse, everything was stapled together with construction staples rather than nails or screws, and all put together in a manner that made sense on the assembly line but made it much more difficult to remove or modify wall coverings, parts of built-in shelving, broken or water-damaged cabinets, water damaged flooring, etc.
-flooring and everything else that wasn't paneling-thin was made of super shitty particleboard which didn't handle water damage well
-there wasn't really drywall. Everything was thin veneer paneling. Drywall reduces sound transmission a little, not to mention the spread of fire
-the places that were put together out of two transportable halves had very weird inconvenient layout because there was a huge structural wall down the middle. Where we were in Southeastern summers this meant very poor air flow through the structure
-very poor insulation because in some cases the walls were very thin

I could go on and on, and I'm sure there are better modular homes, but this is the type of situation you might find yourself in. I started out thinking that modular homes were affordable good solutions for budget homeownership, but at the end of a few of these repair projects I had completely 180'd in my opinion and come to the opinion that they were the equivalent of shacks with a thin veneer of fashion (every one of these places came with a massive fiberglass jacuzzi tub) covering up that fact. Basically they are not good bones for future upkeep- and they are often a recipe for self-destruction- so what might be a great inexpensive new home purchase becomes valueless after it begins to deteriorate.
posted by girl Mark at 10:23 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also, if you're going to DIY the process, you'll have a harder time learning what to do from Internet videos and advice forums. I had oodles of construction experience and was still surprised by things we found when first encountering the oddities, such as the weird wiring and how it was routed in the structure.

You might have a harder time evaluating what you're looking at than if you're working with a more standard type of construction. As someone said up-thread, you'll have a harder time getting professionals to come in and look at the place, which is sometimes a process by which homeowners gain advice and learn things about their projects, etc.
posted by girl Mark at 10:34 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]


We just tore down a 1970s travel trailer and are putting a "lakeside cottage" in its place:

I second everything girl Mark said. Think "how can I make this as lightweight and cheap as possible, but create a pleasing house-owner aesthetic for the first-time buyer?"
Thin paneling over 1x2 framework with an aluminum outer cover. Weird electric and plumbing runs with little or no insulation. Leaks from the ceiling, the windows, the doors, and from the openings located in the kitchen, bathroom, hot water tank, air conditioner, and furnace. Sagging floors. If you are really unlucky, evidence of electrical shorts in the ceiling or walls.
Has the structure been empty for a while? Check for insect and rodent damage. Mice and squirrels can do a number on the electric wires -- see above.

And then there are the "unconventional" shortcuts -- like putting the electric, sewer and water lines in the same trench. It's out in the country, no pesky rules to follow, no inspections... things can go sideways. Do not expect these things to be grandfathered in for a new owner, particularly if you have work done in that area of the structure.

Check with the county courthouse and find out who has jurisdiction for remodels and new construction. Even if you are not required to do it, check out some books from the library about bringing HVAC, electric and plumbing up to code. It's not brain surgery, and sometimes homeowners are allowed to do their own work, but it's a good idea to know what your contractor is supposed to do before the job is covered over with dirt or sheetrock.

Frankly, I would limp along with the existing trailer until I got a good deal on a new or nearly-new park model, or build a traditional home. I highly recommend building a concrete slab with a cover if you get another trailer -- it makes a big difference in hot summers and in wet weather. Water damage is a major factor in the deterioration of a manufactured home.

But definitely, other than making it clean and inhabitable, don't throw money away on an old trailer. Don't add an extra room. Just replacing the hot water heater or furnace or air conditioner will set you back, compared to getting a structure with more energy-efficient appliances. (Of course, the seller will stress this.)
Take your time and shop around.

Land ownership is a plus. God isn't make more land.
Have you met the neighbors? Knock on some doors, introduce yourself. Find out about the history of the place.

Are the owners in residence, or do they visit only a few weekends during the summer? Any problems with the property? Thella mentioned above about flooding -- oh, boy! Get several answers from neighbors about this.
Any ideas why the owner is selling out?

Have long-time neighbors notice the area becoming more rundown? Is there a mix of traditional houses and manufactured houses in the area? Are they well-maintained?
What about the school district / internet service / problems with power outages during bad weather? Is there a fire department / ambulance service nearby?
Are there any plans in the works to develop the area?
Do you get the impression that neighbors look out for each other?

Good luck with your plans!
posted by TrishaU at 3:56 AM on October 28, 2017 [2 favorites]


I bought a small piece of land here in western NC that has a smallish mobile home (c.2008) on it (prev. owner died). I found out that in NC mobiles can only be insured with a state agency (through a regular insurance agency, but some don't cover it). I had to find out who was the agency that would handle mobile home ins. (Farm Bureau) with the state. So some hassle there. It's cheap, though. Forget getting a standard mortgage—banks don't think of mobiles as real structures so they're not interested in doing a mortgage. Banks think of mobiles as personal property (like a car). Also, the state doesn't allow mobiles over a certain age to be moved—I had found an art deco style 1970s trailer I wanted but it was too old to move.

I had to find a plumber who would work on mobiles; lots don't. I had a handyman who had lots of mobile experience, who could do basic repairs, including basic elec. work and plumbing and windows/doors etc. For anything that required a pro, he would find a licensed person, which wasn't easy.

For myself, I bought a big shed (14x20 rent to own) with lofts and did the insulation and flooring myself (w/handyman), and had an electrician do that work. Full-slab is best. Cost about $15k or so. You could put something like that, a solid-wood structure, in place of the trailer. Otherwise, live in the mobile as is until you're ready to replace it.
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:38 AM on October 28, 2017


3) It's not a red flag. County assessments typically lag the market.

That depends on where you are, I guess. The house we just sold over the summer was assessed by the county far above the actual market value, and it was a very hot seller's market. Talking with a good local realtor can give you a better idea of where the market actually is.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:48 AM on October 29, 2017


Response by poster: I especially like the idea to figure out what the land value is and work from there; it is a manufactured home like this so we'll see what shape it's in and go from there. Thank you all for your feedback and idea!
posted by stellaluna at 1:49 PM on October 30, 2017


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