Introduction to Mobile Home
Let's start at the beginning. For the past three decades or so, one third of all single family homes have been built in factories and brought to the site for installation and/or assembly. Included in these figures are MODULAR HOMES and PANELIZED HOMES. These are usually trucked in and placed on previously prepared foundations where the components are bolted together. These shouldn't be confused with Mobile Homes.
Instead of being trucked in and set onto the ground, Mobile Homes come in on their own wheels and axles. Depending upon State law, local custom and aesthetic appeal, wheels, axles, and draw-bars may be removed completely or concealed behind landscaping and shrubbery. Standard Mobile Home units can range in size from small trailerable RVs which might be 7' wide and 35' long to 3000+ square feet 80' X 42' mansions with additional covered screen porches, patios, double garages, etc. that increase useable living and storage space:
When new, all of the above types of manufactured homes can be financed with FHA, VA, conventional and manufacturers loans with loan periods extending as long as 30 years. The type of financing depends upon the age, size, and whether or not units are permanently affixed to an approved site, and are owner-occupied, or not. In addition, all of the creative financing that has been applied to any other kind of property can be used to buy and sell Mobile Homes, communities, and individual Mobile Home lots, but because of their special characteristics, even fancier financing schemes are also available. We’ll cover some of these later on in this book. For now, let's talk about deluxe Mobile Homes for a moment.
Do yourself a favor. Take a day off to visit a Mobile Home show or a large dealer's lot. Maybe a nearby factory. You'll be amazed. Palm Harbor Homes in Plant City, Florida between Tampa and Orlando has an exhibit that's open to the public located right along the highway. You can walk from unit to unit and see for yourself the state of the art.
You'll immediately be surprised by the feeling of spaciousness in today's deluxe Mobile Home’s 600 square foot living/dining room combinations; family rooms; cathedral ceilings; accommodating kitchens; professionally decorated interiors in muted pastels; and rounded corners in which fully glassed in breakfast rooms can be found. You'll immediately see the value in comparison to conventional housing.
First of all, Mobile Homes are space-efficient. They've got more storage than a conventional house. Quite often, they're actually bigger. A 70 X 28 foot unit contains 1960 square feet. But that's not all. Today, Mobile Homes can be TRIPLE WIDE. They're now being produced in 'L' and 'T' configurations and can be as big as 3000 square feet.
Generally, you can buy a top of the line home for about $40 per square foot including appliances and carpeting -and possibly window coverings. That compares to as much as $75+ per square foot in conventional housing. That's why people CHOOSE to live in them. Value. Increased disposable income.
Suppose you were comfortably retired on $50,000 per year (which is far above the average retiree income in the United States today). You live in a $200,000 house, which costs about $3,000 per year for taxes, insurance and maintenance over time. It's free and clear. If you sold it tax free as your qualifying primary residence then used $75,000 to by a late model used coach and lot in a condo park, you'd get about as much actual living space with a small plot of land and be able to invest the. $125,000 balance.
Condo fees would be about $125 per month – or about half the costs for owning and maintaining your house. And that would probably include lawn maintenance, a satellite dish or cable TV, garbage pick-up and security patrols. If you invested the $125,000 you saved in first mortgages that paid 8%, you'd wind up with about $10,000 per year in extra income with little sacrifice of lifestyle. An extra $200 or so per week in extra retired income would surely add to your enjoyment of retired life. That's why you might prefer to do this.
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