DH and I have been looking at them and they absolutely beautiful inside for the cheap prices they go for. Around here in a good area around the mid $100K-$200K. DH's uncle is telling him that they never go up in value, only the land does. Is this true? He says we'd waste our money if we bought one because we'd lose out when we sold. Does anyone know a lot about these or know of a website that explains them. They seem to be the new craze coming up and I really think theyre cute!

By Annie2871 on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:30 pm:

Do you mean like a mobile home? We bought one when we first got married. They are nice on the inside, I don't know if I would pay $100K for one though. Your uncle is right, they do depreciate, just like a car does. When we sold ours, we got lucky. Back then, we bought a single wide for $18,900 and sold it almost 2 years later for $18,000. However, we got really lucky. The market was perfect for selling those things back then.

We have often thought about buying some land and a mobile home and when we get the land paid off, sale the mobile home and build a house on our land.

By Bobbie on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:38 pm:

Are you talking about the big houses? If so those are not the same as a mobile home. And no they do not go down in value like a mobile home. A manufactured home is a pre made house that is brought to the site and set up. They use to call them prefab homes now they call them manufactured home. They do not loose value and are built no differently than any other home except they are built away from the site and brought in and put together. They have some really nice ones out there. And in this area they are becoming more and more common.

By Jjandmom on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:39 pm:

I live in a mobile home and love it , it was used when me and the hubby got married over 8 years ago we bought it and it had ground we did not build a home we did alot of remodeling in it and almost done I love it better that we did all the work together. We saved alot on the heating cost, it went to 1/2 the cost it was when we 1st got it.

By Bobbie on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:42 pm:

And they look just like a traditional ranch once they are put on their fondations.

By Bobbie on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 10:43 pm:

thats foundation.

By Mommyathome on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 11:01 pm:

DH and I have looked at these before as well. But, we never bought one. They are very nice! Lots of people around here have them and once they are set up and landscaped they are pretty. In our area, we could get into a 3 bdrm 2 ba manufactured home (double wide) for about $70K including property. But, we live in a rural area. I'm sure CA is much more expensive, as you said!
I know of several different "brands" of manufactured homes...I think they all have websites that are the same name (or something similar!)
When we were looking we were told that "Champion Homes" is one of the better quality homes, as well as "Fleetwood".
Some places even offer free videos of how the homes are made.
I think the value thing is correct. They don't go up much. Since the homes are so inexpensive to begin with, it's just as cheap to buy your own new one and set it up the way you want to rather than buying an already lived in one.

By Lelekie on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 11:02 pm:

I live in one and I like it, I don't beieve that they (company) uses the best products for inside, carpet, doors, etc but i still like mine. I think they use the cheaper stuff. It is very sound proof, it keeps the heat in well. But from what i mentioned i like mine. Would i buy another one? Probably but i would be more picky with stuff and made sure that the carpet and doors etc, was better quality then what i received. Mine is about 1500 sq feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, kitchen, living room, utilty room. And we paid about $50.000 maybe less maybe more. Thats in Michigan. We have lived here for almost 8 years and haven't had any problems with anything. Our house value went up but thats only because we added a garage. I think at least in Michigan we see more of these homes going up then we do stick built.

By Kaye on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 11:05 pm:

My answer is No, I would never buy one. If you ar talking mobile home. My no is for several reasons, one being the depricitation factor, but also I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for. Yes they are cheaper, because they aren't made as well. The materials used are lighter weight, more particle board, can you read big fire hazzard. Maybe I ama snob, but no i would not buy one.

By Bobbie on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 11:05 pm:

I think the quality goes with the price. You pay more you get better carpet etc. I forgot to mention that I live in a one too.

By Mrse on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 12:45 am:

i am pretty sure you are not talking mobile home, some people we know had a manufactured home, and it was so nice.. It was done all with wood inside, and they had it on farm land, they put it on a thier foundation and had a full basement under it, it looked like any other house out thier, I liked it and would not have a problem buying one, or a mobile home for that matter, but only a double wide, but that is just me. But... my dream is a log cabin, they pre-make thoses too, and bring them to the site, I just love the country look.

By Boxzgrl on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 09:37 am:

Bobbie, you know exactly what im talking about. Its not a mobile home. And onces its set up on the land they look a bit like a mobile home because they are longer than houses but overall I would say it looks like a house. The dew that weve visited did have thinner carpet that was going to be put in but since it hadnt been yet we would of have the choice to change it. And the wood in the house didnt look cheap at all. Oh, and the bathtub. Talk about nice and roomy! I have been looking at them because our realtor said that a lot of these are being build, way more than stick build houses are and with the prices that houses are selling for now (Average about $500,000 in a decent area) that more people are going to be looking into manufactured homes. Thats mainly why I was looking. Thanks for all the comments.Oh and the ones I was looking at came with land too.

By Colette on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 09:44 am:

I know they come in all shapes and sizes. There is one down the street that is a cape rather than a ranch, and you would NEVER know it was a prefab, they had a complete foundation poured and landscaped w/stone walls all around it. The only reason I know it's a prefab is that I drove by when they were bringing it in.

A teacher I work with bought one, and she has had nothing but problems, the roof leaked, which lead to a HUGE mold problem, and there were a lot of other things wrong with it, they ended up sueing the builder but in the mean time they had to live in a hotel room w/3 teenagers.

here is a link to some pics of prefab log homes

http://www.ezlogkits.com/home_photo_galleries.htm

By Yjja123 on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 12:21 pm:

I live in Florida---hurricane season alone would prevent me from buying either a mobile home or a prefab home. They just do not hold up the same.
I do have a friend in NY who has a prefab home and seems pleased with it. I think your property value goes up more than your house does so not sure if you would lose out on buying one or not.
If that is all you can afford and you like it I say go for it. At least it is yours and you are not renting.
Good luck!

By Bobbie on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 10:04 pm:

Colette, the thing with the leak is that I have seen this happen in a built on site home. Meaning that is is all in the hands of the construction workers has nothing to do with it being a prefab. I have a friend that paid a mess load of money to have a house built. With in the first few months the roof leaked. They found out that some of the vents had not been connected to the heating ducts. The main support wall in the house wasn't properly beamed and the wall started to bow. And the worst of all the electrical was not wired properly. The fuse box was a fire waiting to happen. So no matter what buyer be ware..

By Momoffour on Monday, January 19, 2004 - 10:16 pm:

my sister and her husband bought one a few years ago. it is really nice and I have to agree with your Uncle. They do go down in Value. My sister paid over $70,000.00 for it and its been over 3 years ago and its not worth that anymore. There land and the improvements they did to the land along with a storm celler. Its not worth what they orginaly paid for. but they are nice. but where we live a mobil home is not wise. We have tornatos. and they are very unsafe

By Marg on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 06:40 am:

Melissa,

I believe you are talking about prebuilt homes that are almost completed and brought to the land where the foundation is set (depending upon package). We have two in our area Keystone Homes and Foremost Homes. Prices are from $80,000 up. However, you have to provide the land, and they can or you can do the foundation according to their specs.

These are beautiful homes. The have showcase homes that you can look through. Around here they are worth their money.

However, our current area and time people are building "stick built" homes to your specifications. We have a lot of people from the "city" meaning Washington D.C. or Baltimore. These people are building $300,00 to $1,000,000 houses. However, when they try to sell these homes, they never get what they put into them. It's kind of funny a mile up the road you will see a really tiny little home built in the 30's and down the road is a $1,000,000 home. It's really strange. But then again it's not my money.

The manufactured homes are built on company site, brought to foundation my trucks and loaded by cranes. Kind of neat to watch.

By Feona on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 07:14 am:

They sounds great. How long to get everything built with the walls and everything?

By Familyman on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 08:24 am:

There's definately a difference between companies and construction techinques so reasearch carefully. At the 'lowere' end you have mobile homes. Again, some are better than others but most depreciate. At the 'upper' end you have homes that are stick built in modules and then the modules are moved on site. These homes actually have advantages over a typical stick built home. They are more square since the walls are typically built in jigs. Depending on the builder they can actually be stronger as well due to the increased use of structural adhesives along with nails. They do this for speed and strength and it actually produces a superior wall. You also have the advantage of the workers. They tend do do the same operation over and over agian which gives them a very high level of skill at it. They're also working in a very large climate controlled building, this means that it never rains on the house before it's close in, and they're always comfortable which makes for fewer mistakes.
I think you'll see more and more pre-built houses as the preconceptions about them fade away. They're actually much more efficient to build under some circumstances and you can get more house for the money. As always, research is paramount, tour the factory, talk to the management and the workers. This is likely to be the biggest purchase of your life so do it carefully.

By Marg on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 09:03 am:

http://modular-homes.netfirms.com/12.html

Believe foremost is in here, only services pa, md and wv

I'll look up Keystone

By Marg on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 09:05 am:

http://www.homesbykeystone.com/

This is a better website, shows actual pictures of their homes.

In early years, these were known as "cheap" homes. But they have gotten so nice and a lot of them are in are area. The quality is very good and I don't hear many complaints. They really do try to please the customer.

By Tonya on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 10:24 am:

This is exactly what we are planningon doing in 3-4 yrs here. We are buying a manufactured home and putting it on land. They are so much nicer than trying to build a house from scrathc. You can do this allot easier and they do not decrease in value. Once they are placed as permenant structures on land they are considered home and will go up in value just like any other home would.

We will be digging a basement and adding an attached 2.5 car garage to ours when we do this. They are fo sure worth it cause everything is new and 99% of them all come with the new appliances. You also pick your own color schemes and carpet types.

Good luck what you are doing is something that around here we are seeing more and more of.

By Renee on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 01:45 pm:

We looked at manufactured or modular housing before we built our home. There are some basics that we would have had upgraded like windows and kitchen cupboards. In the ones we looked at, the appliances were in addition to the purchase price of the home. The home included only the foundation dug, basement and the home. No appliances. Any wallpaper or colored painted walls was additional also.

But when it came down to what we wanted, it was less expensive to build then to buy one of those.

By Feona on Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - 07:04 am:

I don't think they do these in Long Island, New York. They sound so easy.