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Hello. My family and I are moving to Wake Forest from Southern California. We would prefer to buy something very inexpensive than rent. We also would like to live on at least one acre. I have found several listings of doublewide manufactured homes on an acre or more for an affordable price where we would pay less on a mortgage than rent. We have never lived in a trailer before. I did read recently on a relocation blog that many people look down on those who live in trailers and that those occupants are the poorest of the poor. What is the cultural perception of those who live in trailers in Wake Forest?
I don't mind at all what people think of where we live. I am just curious now since I recently read these comments. ----Our main need is affordable housing to use the majority of our $$$ in re-establishing our business and then buy a stick built house later or build our own. We also want land for the kids to play.
Please let me know what you all think. The trailer I like is in not in a subdivision or park, just in an area where there are both trailers and homes on big lots, most an acre or more.
go for a home instead if you are going to invest in a home.
You can earn equity in the long term of your morgage
the double wide will loose value once purchased just like a car ,
A home will gain in value and also possibly resalable in the future in case you move again.
The trailer will be harder to sell and you probably will only get half of what you paid.
Also banks are leary on giving morgages on double wides or single wides since technically the home can leave the property.
They also pretty much have something almost worthless in case you go in forclosure
When I was 4, my parents bought a large piece of rural land in northern Wake County, and put a trailer on it "temporarily." In fact, my parents were major procrastinators in house building, and I lived in the trailer until I was 14. We were never hit by a tornado or a hurricane. In fact, the trailer still exists some 38 years later. It is true that we didn't have friends over much and it was probably something of a social handicap, but ultimately we lived so far from our suburban schools that it was unlikely that we would have friends drive that far anyway. We visited our friends at their house. We played outside a lot and had a huge garden. Now we all have college degrees and families and live in the suburbs and miss those halcyon days. We also, as a family, own a valuable piece of property in northern Wake County. For us, the tradeoff was worth it.
So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for native North Carolinians who live in rural areas, a trailer is not a big deal and may be a realistic option. A trailer park is the poorest of the poor; a trailer on a piece of land is not the same thing. I'd agree that you are going to struggle to recover the value of the trailer; you have to think of it as more or less disposable housing. However, if your focus is land it is not bad thing.
My guess is, however, that the majority of properties you are seeing in the Wake Forest area that permit doublewides are in fact in Franklin County. You may want to check into the school system there and make sure it works for you. Also, find a real estate agent who lists that kind of property (but perhaps not the one that most interests you) and get a realistic picture of the resale value.
Manufacture homes are a great investment! Hold the phone... What? Yes I said it. If you buy the home at a good price and you take care of it and pay on the mortgage aggressively you will be dedt free in a very short period of time comparatively speaking. The smart guy that insist on the idea that a stick built home is always better probably financed his home for 30 years, pays way too much in interest, taxes and insurance and recently may have had 30 percent of his equity evaporate. If you buy a 2000 square foot Manufactured home on an acre of land for say 80k and finance it for say 7 years at 6% interest compare that to a compaarable size stick built home for say 200k and a 30 year mortgage. It is almost a no brainer. After 7 years in the manufactured home you will have 100% equity and no mortgage payment and a low tax and insurance bill. With the house you may have equity, you will pay far more in taxes and insurance and still have a high monthly payment. My parents paid their home off in 4 years and have been debt free since the mid eighties, they have invested what would have been their mortgage payment in other rental properties and now they are comfortably retired with a significant monthly rental income and no high mortgage payment. Sure the house may carry more prestige but is not necessarily the better financial move as some would have you think. As for the safety, a manufactured home is designed engineered and installed to withstand winds of 110mph sustained. They transport them down the highways at greater than 70 MPH and I cannot remember the last time I saw a cheaply built house that could do either of those things. The stigma comes largely from ignorance and biases that are unfounded. Financing is pretty easy because FHA offers fixed rate mortgages for people with credit scores as low as a 580 and against my advise will finance them for 30 years. I think a 30 year mortgage is fine for the home but maybe is not the best move for the consumer. Again if you are thinking of a short cut to financial health and you can afford a short term mortgage the Manufactured home will be hard to beat.
What price range are these manufactured homes? The reason I'm asking is b/c you maybe in the same price range as a modular. A modular is built much better that a manufactured home. It appreciates in value, not decline in value. I know there are some lots with well and septic on at least an acre in Wake and Granville county for around $25K-$30K. You can then put a modular on it for around $60-$65 sq ft. If you need the name of the builder, just PM me. So, you can purchase a 1200 sq ft modular for $78K or less, add the land and the total is $108K or less. You have a brand new home and land. I've owned a trailer in the past and took a big loss on it. Purchased it for $25K new, sold it a year later for $15K. The fact is the value of manufactured homes depreciate and you lose your investment!
THat is why you buy used to start with, finance the home with a short term, let the person who bought new for retail pricing take the hit. The modular home is just a glorified trailer and on the lower end actually cost more than stick built. 80k for seven years at 6% is less than 1200 per month. The doublewide is the way to go. Modular homes take too long to get, you pay too much and give up the advantage of low cost housing. There are plenty of nice stick built homes in the country for under a hundred but they are small. Manufactured homes do not loose value unless you buy new and pay too much to start with. Sorry to bust your bubble but a 5 year old doublewide on an acre is available for 70 to 80k and in five years it will still be worth that. If you can pay it off you are 70 to 80 thousand dollars richer than if you do almost anything else and you have no more house payment. Sorry for your loss on the singlewide. Any move that would be for less than a year is a looser. an $800 rental for a 12 month period cost you $9600 so the cost is the same.
My friend a few years ago had a modular doublewide built on an acre in Timerlake. She was only 21 at the time so was happy to be a home owner while going to school. It was nice and a nice wooded lot. Two years later she decided to sell it to move in with her bf who just had a house built in Mebane. She ended up selling her modular for what she owed. It was a hassle and in the end she just wish she had bought a townhome since it would have at least appreciated, or at least not depreciate. Also, I don't remember what it was, but I remember her saying it was hard to sell b/c of something to do with the insurance on modulars/trailors in NC? Maybe someone can chime in on that.
Maybe this will clarify the two. Once a modular is put up, you can't tell the difference between it and a stick built home. The codes for a modular are the same as a stick built home. On the other hand, a manufactured home doesn't have the same standards. The walls are very thin and things break in it easily. They depreciate b/c the quality just isn't there. It is considered the same as a vehicle with a title, not a deed. Are Manufactured Homes the Same as Modular Homes?
Manufactured homes are not necissarily cheaply made. Most of them compare favorably in quality to track homes built by builders like centex, fortis, KB Home etc. The components are the same for the most part. Sometimes the doors and windows are cheaper but the basic construction is almost identical. The framing is 2x4 construction, the wall board is typically sheetrock, the insulation is fiberglass just like in conventionally built homes, roofing and siding are all identical to the builders I have mentioned. I do not have a horse in this race but again consider the amount invested, the short term financing I recommend and then tell me how you could go wrong. A 30 year loan on any home will not let you move within the first couple of years if you put less than 20% down because of real estate commissions, closing fees, taxes and expenses. Every property is different, examine the specific home,look at recent sales of other similar homes near by to make sure the pricing is fair, use an inspector, negotiate the lowest possible price and the shortest loan terms you can afford and presto you have a great deal regardless of construction type. One thing to make sure of is the foundation should be fha and va certified and the rest is easy
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