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Manufactured homes are more difficult to work on and parts can be harder to find.
How much maintenance depends a lot upon how the manufactured home has been cared for all of it's life. Abuse and neglect are harder on a manufactured than on a stick built.
I own three that are from the 60's with flat metal roof and look like a big travel trailer. Two have never had any issues with the roof. The other one had an issue when a pine tree blew down and punched a hole in the roof. Other than that, no issues.
My son owns two with shingle roofs and both have had multiple leaks and the roof is sagging on one of them
I own one with originally a shingle roof and that leaked and was replaced by a rubber roof and that leaked. After I bought it, I paid for an expensive torch-down roof and that has been sound (although rather ugly).
The plumbing is done differently than on a site built home and it can be hard to reach and the flooring is out down first and the walls built over that, which is odd to work on.
If you buy a mobile home with polybutylene plumbing, expect frequent leaks and leaks often mean you must replace the subfloor, because mobile home have a subfloor made of pressed sawdust that disintegrates when it gets wet.
Older mobile homes can be an excellent bargain. Mine were all the price of the land they were sitting on.
Are you able to give me a more bottom-line cost comparison/estimation b/w MHs and single family homes? I generally wouldn't be doing the work myself. Thanks.
We had one made to our specs 6 years ago. There are two types- manufactured and Modular. We have a manufactured. It cost us $110,000. It has 2X6 walls and all the updates. Large windows, regular size doors etc. Knock on wood, we've never had a problem yet. We did put new toilets in at the very beginning because I like the tall ones but that is the only reason. We own the 3+ acres it sits on so that's not a problem. We had this one built because we had rented our house out in Urbana, Md for a time until the housing market came back and we could put it on the market. We wanted a stick built but this is the only thing we could afford and pay cash for at the time. I'm in love with it now. I guess since I had it specifically build for our life style is why.
Are you able to give me a more bottom-line cost comparison/estimation b/w MHs and single family homes? I generally wouldn't be doing the work myself. Thanks.
No, I can't. Mine are rentals and a lot of the repairs are tenant caused. I do not have any frame built houses that are similar in construction.
I do almost all of my own repairs so you can't match my costs. My frame built houses are better than tract house quality and rarely require any repairs that are not tenant damage. The frame built houses are easier to work on. They also cost vastly more than the mobile homes to purchase.
I don't think that the figure you want really exists. Properties and repair costs are too individual to give you an across the board percentage.
Okay, how about a ratio of cost estimate comparison when the value of the land, ownership of the land, and dimensions of the homes are otherwise equal?
The single wide trailer houses, with flat roofs, and built to move whenever you want to.
The double and triple wide, that are built in sections, and really designed for movement one time when they are delivered, and the wheels removed. Then there are cheaply built ones, and some built to stick built home standards, but often better built than a lot of tract homes. The good ones, are placed on permanent foundations, and in essence are real homes.
As to the cost of keeping them going, it is going to depend on what type of mobile home (the old definition), and the quality.
Roofs on a good one, are going to be the same type roofs used on stick built homes. Shingles, or some other type roofing.
About 20 years ago, my daughter bought a double wide mobile home on it's own foundation on it's own lot of all homes being manufactured hoes. A VA repo, bought for $27,000. It needed 2 things that the VA gave her credit on purchase for doing within 60 days of her buying it. One was the roof needed replaced, and 2 of her brothers did it for her for about 1/3rd of what was allowed for the new roof. The other thing was a rear deck. Deck surface was plywood, and collapsed in the middle. Allowed $1,500 to fix or replace the deck. I got looking and found the problem was the support beams had been nailed together, and only supported around the outer edges. Used a car jack to raise it to where it should have been, and put posts under the beams to make it a sturdy built deck. Cost $20 for materials, and an hours work. She then put a new coat of paint on it. Inspector came out so see if the improvements had been made, and was impressed with her new deck, and roof. She had to put up 10% as a down payment. They ended up giving her down payment back for taking care of the problems, and the rebate came out about $5,000 more than the down payment and closing costs.
Kept it for 5 years and left the area for a new job. I sold it for her, for $85,000. Not a bad return on your investment in my opinion.
A quality manufactured home, is just a cheap version of normal home, requiring about the same to maintain. A cheap built home, is like a cheap built stick built home, they cost more to maintain.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I lived in a manufactured home in late 80's. The only maintenance I can remember was Kool Sealing the roof every 2 years b/c we had a flat roof. I believe we also had to check our tornado straps and possibly replace them.
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