Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire School me on mobile homes

Maybe find a used modular home and move it? If they loose value like many have stated, then see if you can find one already depreciated. Just a thought.

That's impressive sir. Good job. 'Wish I could say the same.

There's some going cheap in OK after that tornado I imagine.

Here, go ahead and insult.

gophergunner,

best of luck to you if you take the new job and move away from the city.

Don't let the negative comments here sway your decision making too much. Do a little research in your area and find out about "manufactured" homes in that area. Their not anything like the old metal "mobile homes" of the past, if your State is anything like the rest of today's world. Maybe check with some folks that own them in the area you're considering.

The folks that say you'll be cold in winter and hot in the summer must not know about modern manufactured housing. As an example, this morning the house was down to around 64 degrees after having put the last log on the fire yesterday morning at 0800. Temps around 65 yesterday for a high and down in the 20's last night. Been that way for 3 weeks now, sometimes as low as 11F. Kindling and maybe 4 good size chunks of wood and the house is good for the day. I make up the fire at night and the wife lights it off at 0530-0600 or so.

Summers here get up in the 90's regular and at times push/reach 100F. I put in one little window A/C unit in the master bedroom, turn it on when the bdrm gets up around 72-74. Open the windows when it cools down at night, run a couple of fans, and bingo, house is cooled back down to low 60's. Close up windows for the day. Of course, we spent a bit to put a nice cover on the deck on the west side of the house, to keep the setting sun off it and the west wall of the house which helped bunches.

Newer mfg homes, as others have noted, in cold climates generally come with 2x6 construction in the exterior walls and good insulation. Our is well insulated in the roof and the crawl space. As for pipes freezing, we might not get as cold as you will near Brainerd, but here's an example of what we saw the first winter we were here. Yes, -24.9F, in California even.



Ours sits on a perimeter foundation and is "converted to real property", so we don't pay the DMV for a license plate tag every year, just pay property tax like a regular building. Double glazed windows. Siding on ours is HardieBoard cement lap siding, which makes sense around here, surrounded by wildlands as we are. Our house has solid wood cabinet doors on all the cabinets in the house, metal clad exterior doors, electric furnace and water heater, outlets are as RockChuck described, right in the middle of the walls. I've been underneath and can second the motion to make the foundation high enough to make it easy to move around under. I can kneel mostly and am glad I didn't have to belly crawl. I'd have made it 3"-4" taller if I had been the original owner. Maybe even another full step on the entries even.

Having lived in all sorts of housing over the years, from actual camp trailers with additions built on the front of them, to 600 sq ft cabins, honest to goodness metal mobile homes, and more than my share of stick built houses I can tell you I'm as happy as Mt Boomer is with his situation. This place is WAY better than the stick built 70's house we lived in when my wife worked in the Sacramento area. That place had single pane windows that rattled when trucks hit a pothole 6 houses up the street where the main road crossed our street. No insulation, fiberboard cabinets, and generally shidty construction all the way around. The tract developer made his money on that community for sure. Our place is as well built as many site built homes, and better than a lot I've seen.

In our State at least, we had to go with a company that specialized in mortgages for mfg housing and we had NO problem getting insured either. After all , it's real property now.

If you want to spend your money on land, rather than getting a smaller property in order to buy a stick built home, don't be afraid of a newly manufactured "trailer" home. Not sure how old you are, but my wife and I are in our 60's and this likely will be the last place we live. I fully expect it to outlast us................at least by a year or two! We'd rather have our money to live on instead of getting it tied up in a house. If we had kids, I'd likely say "GFY, if the house is still standing when we go, then you can worry about it being a mfg home" .

Again, good luck with it all.

Geno

If I was going to live in a mobile home, I'd look around and buy used. I'd also spend the money to have it set on a concrete block foundation and anchored to it. Then I'd have the whole thing covered with one of these carport rigs. People talk mobile homes down. But if you buy them right and set them up right they can be decent dwellings.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/arrow-carport-20-x-20-charcoal-cphc202007

I had a couple of young friends a few years ago who were scraping by living cramped up in a cheap apartment. They found a very decent mobile home for rent on a half acre lot in a fairly private area. They were happy as could be about going from an apartment to a mobile home with a yard.

What Geno said. We bought a new 15,000-square-foot modular home two years ago and couldn't be happier. 2x6 construction, hardy plank siding, Anderson doors and windows, our choice of carpet and cabinets, whirlpool kitchen appliances, etc. Hauled in in two sections and set up on concrete slab. Solid as hell
Would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Insurance is no different than the stick-built homes down the road.

Do yourself a big favor and go visit a manufactured home dealer. You will be amazed at what they are.

I've lived in a few.

We tore down the 75 year old farmhouse (more like a two storey shack that had a porch added to it) and put a single wide on piles. Dad added a sizeable family room on the rear door side. Insulated skirting was used under the trailer. Water froze until Dad figured out how to insulate pipes and to be safe added heat tape which was plugged in for cold weather. It was the best made brand we could find. Dutchman out of Manitoba.

When we left the farm, we took the trailer with us as we were moving to a town where you could buy your trailer lots. While we were waiting for the lot to be prepared, Mom and Dad decided to buy an ATCO doublewide and have it placed on a basement.

Both brands were well built, but were still trailers.

While working for government agencies, I lived in several government trailers of various types. If well maintained, they were serviceable, without service, they deteriorate quickly and become wrecks.

Another thing to consider is how fast they burn. Very fast.

I would look at modular or stickbuilt. Sell your current house and buy one of those.

That's a heck of a big home, modular or mansion. You have room for a golf course and swimming pool all under 1 roof.

Either way, make certain that you place it on the second best view on the property...and save the best for the trophy home you buy or build later! All the best and go for it. Wife and I just bought some property close by, six acres. I am going to locate a used DW home in good condition. There are plenty of those around. Septics and utilities and good to go. We live at the lake in a real nice place(to us). So we can either rent the lake house vrbo style or lease the new property to create cash flow...fast. Good luck and enjoy.

please tell me you fat fingered that number, if not, how the hell did they move it down the highway in two pieces.

What kind of work and side businesses do y'all do?

A BIG truck

A VERY BIG Truck!

Something like they used to move the Space Shuttle across the country maybe?

Geno

Hey, there are triple wides for the uber types!

And I bet it's paid for.

I would live in a trailer in a heartbeat. My wife on the other hand...

I'll assure you it's been paid for three times since moving here. LOL I owe like a mofo working on four! Seriously, it's been owned by three retired couples, never trashed.... I am freaking pleased to have lived through it all and have a chance to have a home! Bigly.

Good times guys. Best I can recall, on a bare land here a mobile would not currently be the way to go.... But, no harm no foul if'n that's what will work for the OP. I hope he makes it happen. Cheers. Oh, when I drive by a singlewide, I just smile with my nose in the air.... LOL

Ok , ok, I fat-fingered an extra 0.

It's 1,500 SF, two bedroom, two bath and no swimming pool.

Owned one, lived in a lot more than that. Hell, was born in one. Brought my firstborn home to one.

I'd rather have a single wide with a view of the mountains and fresh air than live in town. Different folks have different priorities.

The square headed screws are a pain.

Licensed real estate agent

Licensed pest control operator termite, moisture/mold control

Roofing, general contracting

Property management, rentals

Winston Wolf type cleanup for nasty evictions, show up with goon squad gut all the tenant's effects.

Not even counting tree work or selling cordwood, used to cut wood at midnight with truck headlights 👍💪
Jobs and work came easy, never had to look for it or advertise. Somebody always wanting something. Especially if you interact with thousands of people. Most of my spinoff work came from my first two listed. I worked for county govt, city govt, wife worked for state govt. Lots of networking.
Anything for a buck