Manufactured homes: Which is better? (Ellsworth, Oxford: appointed, home builders, neighborhood)

[Cuffler]

I've grown up always living in a stick built home here in CT. Now we're looking through Maine as our next stop and we're encountering a LOT of alternatives to stick built most being manufactured homes and/or doublewide trailers. Many of these types of homes look like they are well appointed and built to survive Maine's environment. What I'd like to know is the up sides and downsides to both.

We are not interested in building and estate, building a new home just to have to maintain it. We would just like to live quietly, alone in a rural area but not have a lot of maintenance to worry about (I've owned and maintained an 1888 Victorian for over 35 years. I don't want to repeat that!) This is where those big, pretty doublewides look attractive. Most have 3 bedrooms and two baths and even fireplaces. Some of them look better than the stick built homes in the area but I have no experience with them. Same goes to an assembled home which, for all practical purposes, is stick built but in a factory.

If you have experience with either I'd really relish your opinions. We've found some up in the Knox County area, some that even have a small view of the ocean and the price is right as it the location. Are they lower in maintenance? What would be the biggest downside other than depreciation? Finally, are they considered homes or vehicles? In Florida, I understand, they are considered vehicles and taxed as such. Imagine that.

TIA!

Rome

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Double wides are simply mobile homes fastened together. They are usually on slabs and are sometimes easily moved to other locations. Their steel frames sit on concrete blocks on labs. Interior walls usually have paneling that flexes as they go down the road..

Modular homes are stick built homes built in factories. They are placed on foundations and the trailer they arrived on goes back to the factory to transport the next home. Modulars are often two story homes, are built in factories and are never rained on during construction. Modular do not have steel frames underneath. Modulars nearly always have sheet rock walls.

Both are considered homes in Maine.

[Submariner]

I have been told that modular homes are a higher quality because they are built inside a temperature controlled warehouse.

Otherwise, I have no idea.

It would seem to me that if they are so much better, then they should commonly offer better things in these homes. Like lower [or zero] home heating costs. Consider net-zero home design. Some people complain about Maine winters being cold and the high cost of home heating. Yet at the same time, Maine is a great region for testing these homes that heat themselves. I like to follow these features of the home industry, but most net-zero homes I read about in Maine are owner-built DIY homes. I do not see why modular homes are not solar heated homes.

I am in the process of installing an Active solar thermal system in our home.

If you are going to be meeting with modular home builders ask them about it.

[rodentraiser]

Newer manufactured homes are built to some pretty stringent building codes now. Except for how they look, they are as durable as a regular house today. The older models I'd be a little more careful of. By older, I mean some back in the early 90s.

Manufactured homes come as single wides and double wides. Check your community restrictions. In some communities, you can't put a manufactured home on the site and in others, you can but it can't be a double wide.

The only con against them is how they look. But if you can live with that, there's no reason not to get one. Mine was a double wide with double paned windows, HardiePlank siding and a full foundation. It had three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a large eat in kitchen with a skylight and it cost me $22,000 15 years ago. I loved it.

Manufactured homes have a foundation made for them just like a regular house and while they're brought to the site like a trailer, the tongue is cut off and you won't see any wheels underneath them.

A regular single wide trailer will look like a trailer because unless it has skirting on it, you'll see the wheels and the tongue is still left on in case it needs to be moved again.

As far as I know, out here the best companies for manufactured homes are Palm Harbor and Fleetwood.

A modular house can look just like any regular house. In fact, unless you tell people you're living in a modular house, most people won't even know it. Again, if your area has some restrictions, check them out. We actually have communities out here that specify stick built only, and won't accept a modular house for who knows what reason, even though it the same thing, just built in a factory and not on site.

[Cuffler]

Thanks for the inputs. We're headed up there in September and we're going to make some stops at both Mobile and manufactured homes.

I'm a contractor and about 10 years ago, I was part of a team that installed a manufactured home on it's foundation. It was a four-module setup, a bit garrison. There were a TON of problems with it not the least of which was the fact that each segment weight over 70,000 pounds and we had to be underneath it to align it on the foundation. I never looked at them again but now that we're looking for a retirement home, we're considering everything. If we were to buy a lot that had an older mobile home on it, we might look into replacing it with a new one. We also might opt to install a manufactured home in the same situation. There are a lot of options here and a lot of it depends on the cost. We're going to have a good time exploring everything.

Rome

[dogsandart]

Very timely thread. We've learned about a home, described by the owner as an "Oxford Prefab" built in 2002. It looks just like any other dormered cape to me. So, it should be the same value as a stick built home? Or are they generally priced a little lower on resale? For what it's worth, it's in a great neighborhood.

[rodentraiser]

In our area, there's a ton of manufactured home. My feeling is that they don't appreciate as much as a regular house does, but if you're in a community of them, then selling them at the price you want and buying another isn't going to be a problem.

On the other hand, we have stick built houses here in the town that are probably 100 years old and look like it. If I had the choice and the money, I'd buy the lot, bulldoze the stick built house and put up something else. Right now, a nice, clean, modern manufactured house beats the daylight out of all the old stick built houses here in my city.

[slyfox2]

If you were a contractor, you might also consider a kit home.

My son(age 16), my wife(age 46 at the time), and me(age 48 at the time) built a 24 x 20 two floor home as a kit. Before that, we never built anything bigger than a dog house. I could have made it much bigger and added lots more to it. Before we decided to retire to Maine instead of PA, we had planned to double the size with an addition great room open concept. That changed and we sold it all to move to Maine.

The shell went up in two weeks of work 9-5 work and about 6 weekends. It came with all the pieces ready to go pre cut. It had a giant instruction book. Cost me $19,000, 20 years ago. A contractor friend at the time told me that he could not have built the shell for less than $40,000.

It was essentially Post and Beam and good for 135 mph stand up.

The company was located in 1 Main street, Warner, New Hampshire. The are called Shelter Kit(http://www.shelter-kit.com). There was a house south of Ellsworth that burned down about 5 years ago. The owners put up a house exactly like the one I bought.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1+...5!4d-71.816164

I highly recommend them since I bought and built from them. Contact me if you want more information.

[Submariner]

Our home was a kit that I assembled. 40' by 60' it cost me $16k.

[rodentraiser]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

If you were a contractor, you might also consider a kit home.

My son(age 16), my wife(age 46 at the time), and me(age 48 at the time) built a 24 x 20 two floor home as a kit. Before that, we never built anything bigger than a dog house. I could have made it much bigger and added lots more to it. Before we decided to retire to Maine instead of PA, we had planned to double the size with an addition great room open concept. That changed and we sold it all to move to Maine.

The shell went up in two weeks of work 9-5 work and about 6 weekends. It came with all the pieces ready to go pre cut. It had a giant instruction book. Cost me $19,000, 20 years ago. A contractor friend at the time told me that he could not have built the shell for less than $40,000.

It was essentially Post and Beam and good for 135 mph stand up.

The company was located in 1 Main street, Warner, New Hampshire. The are called Shelter Kit(Owner-Built House, Cabin and Barn Kits from Shelter-Kit®). There was a house south of Ellsworth that burned down about 5 years ago. The owners put up a house exactly like the one I bought.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1+...5!4d-71.816164

I highly recommend them since I bought and built from them. Contact me if you want more information.

The website says they partnered with Ross Chapin. He did these cottages here:

Pears and Cherries | Ross Chapin Architects