Where is the justice in Pennsylvania?? Doublewide homes!! (York, Butler: for sale, real estate)

[mydogrooz=*]

My husband and I are in our very early 70s. Ten years ago we purchased a double wide home, put it on a cement block craw space foundation (6 blocks high)with a footer, added front and back porches with a tied in roof over each, have a 2 1/2 car garage that matches, all sitting on 2.59 acres. Five years age we purchased an adjoining 5 acres just to have the privacy and the property for our own use. So we now have 7.59 acres with the house and garage. Last year we put it up for sale with a realtor for $249,000 which was high but we wanted to leave room to come down and we were willing to do so. No buyers! So when our contract was up we put it up for sale ourselves and lowered the price and we got a buyer. Now we find that no one will finance this place because it is not on a full foundation(cellar). The buyer was qualified and things went well until the credit union found it was a double wide. The buyer has been to every bank in Butler looking for someone to finance this. They offered him a conventional loan @15% which you would have to be out of your mind to accept. The one bank made the statement that there is nothing stopping you from putting the axles under this and towing it away!! How stupid! There are no axles, no tongue and it sits on 6 steel beams across the cement block walls. Besides the porches are cemented into the ground. They are more than happy to lend you $250,000 or more to buy a motorhome. We take great care of this property, mow almost all of it and now we can't sell it. The dealer we bought it from never told us we would have these kinds of problems. We paid cash when we bought it. The real estate never said there would be a problem for a buyer to get financing. I cannot understand why they would not consider this a house. It is no different from a regular stick built house sitting on a slab. The way it looks we will be here forever!

[Pitt Chick]

Doublewides are nothing but a headache, that's for sure!

BTW, 249,000 is an awfully high price for a ten year old doublewide....

[kaydeb]

I'm so sorry for your troubles. I can give you some more information on the matter, as I own 2 modular homes.

One I bought for my mother, in a very nice development for seniors, just a few miles from our home in York County. I don't own the land, but pay lot rent. The modular home is now 15 years old. [I bought it 8 years ago.

The other modular home I bought is in another state. It's the cheapest way to go, considering how high apartments are, and what the price for purchasing a condo are, even a small condo.

But no matter what state you're living in, if a buyer wants a modular home, you have to go through a lender who deals with modular homes. Regular banks, credit unions, etc, will not give you a mortgage. If you're good for it, however, they will loan you the money, but at "personal loan" rates, which can be quite exorbitant.

The other issue is, even these modular home lenders will not mortgage a modular/mobile once it is 15 years old. Once a modular home is 15 years old, a buyer either has to pay cash from savings or tapping into retirement funds, or bite the bullet and take a personal loan.

If your home was in a development where there was a lot rent, you might be in a better position to sell it, as you still have 5 years to attract the buyer who qualifies for a mortgage to get a mortgage from a bank that gives mortgages for modulars.

After that, unfortunately, your potential "pool" of buyers, qualified buyers, will shrink considerably.

Being that your home is on 7-something acres, you should probably look at the value of land in your area, with whatever improvements you have on that land - but minus the value of the modular home. Maybe you could subdivide your property with the modular home on an acre, and sell the 2 pieces separately?

If that's not a viable choice, you'll need to market your property and modular home for the potential pool of buyers you might attract who have "ready" cash.

It sounds like your real estate agent wasn't too swift, also.

I hope I haven't made you more depressed over the whole situation. I agree with you, they're not able to be "driven" away. My house in another state is a triple-wide, and you would have to section it into pieces and take it apart to move it.

Best of luck to you. I'm sorry this has happened.
K

[Velvet Jones]

Originally Posted by Pitt Chick

Doublewides are nothing but a headache, that's for sure!

BTW, 249,000 is an awfully high price for a ten year old doublewide....

See, this type of attitude is the reason that people can't get financing for it. Modern manufactured homes are nothing like the trailers of 30 years ago. Inside you probably couldn't tell the difference between a stick built and a decent manufactured homes. There are a couple of them near where I live, they look like ordinary ranch houses. The fact that it is on a foundation usually eliminates any problems with lenders, as it is no longer considered a mobile. I would think the buyers and sellers might have some recourse with lender. It might have been a low level loan officer who nixed the deal. Push back with the lender and see if you can't make some head way.

[Pitt Chick]

No attitude at all... just stating a fact.
They ARE a headache (as the OP is experiencing), and that IS a high price for a 10 year old one.

kaydeb... that's a great post!

[greg42]

Actually, it could be simpler than a subdivision (which is a good suggestion seems like). 5 years ago you purchased the extra 5 acres. Unless you had it joined into one parcel, that is officially still separate from the 2.5 acre parcel with the house. Of course, the problem if you sell them separately is that if someone doesn't buy both you'd be stuck with empty land that perhaps no one else would particularly want on its own. I wonder if the 2.5 acre plus home at a lower value would be more palatable to a lender? You could still sell the 5 acres to the same people perhaps, with a separate loan or who knows what. Just thinking out loud here.

I understand the frustration. Perhaps some of the notes from kaydeb above will help. Good luck.

[mydogrooz=*]

Yes $249,000 was a high price BUT we came down to $210,000. It makes no difference that there are 7.59 acres with it plus the garage in a location that property is selling for any where from $15,000 to $20,000 an acre. They don't consider that it is complete not like you buy it from the dealer. We have put a lot of money into this place making it a HOME. I just feel like they are discriminating against us because they are lots of homes with no basements. They are built on a slab!! But they are easy to get a mortgage. Thanks for letting me vent!!

[South Range Family]

Just goes to show that no matter how much you polish a turd, it's still a turd.

[kaydeb]

Originally Posted by South Range Family

Just goes to show that no matter how much you polish a turd, it's still a turd.

and that's a crappy post. [pun intended!!! ]
k

[sr1234]

$210,000 for land with a double wide? Wow. I am surprised that bank offered 15%. The Pennsylvania DMV considers mobile homes to be vehicles.