Why buy a mobile home in a park?

Why buy a mobile home?

Yeah, that’s a question people ask me  with a head tilt and a furrowed brow.  People can’t seem to understand the appeal.  I’ll try and sum up.

First of all – we don’t see the appeal of owning a stick home.  In this market, for the last 10 years in San Diego, the prices of homes have done a roller coaster.  We were part of that horrific crash – we bought a condo for $350,000 and within 3 years it was worth MAYBE $90,000.  Jeff got a job offer on the east coast, and we short-saled that albatross and left.  I don’t think the investment in a brick and sticks home will ever pay off, not really.  Small post-war homes here are going for $400,000.  It's horrific, these prices.  When you add in all the upkeep and repairs, plus all the STUFF  you need and want to decorate and fill all that space - it’s just a horrible anchor (in our view).  We aren’t ‘fix it’ people.  I can use a drill, and a hammer.  We are ‘call the guy’ people.  Not cost effective one bit.

We are accidental minimalists.  We didn’t hop on that bandwagon recently, we just have ALWAYS been about not having stuff.  As we get older (I’m 54, Abner Kravitz, my wonderful husband, is 56) we just see no point in having things.  I don’t even decorate for Christmas anymore!  Not because I don’t like Christmas, but because I don’t want to spend the money on crap we would only SEE for maybe 20 days out of the year.  We have one set of dishes.  One set of pots and pans.  No gadgets other than a coffee maker.  I have culled and tossed out and donated and sold stacks of books.  Tons of just junk that was sitting in the closets.  All of our kids are grown, and other than a few items of our youngest’s, we have none of their shrapnel to deal with.  We are living in a 2-br 2-ba apartment in San Diego, and there are cupboards and drawers in the kitchen we don’t even open.  So needing ROOM and storage isn’t an issue for us.  We could actually get down to a 1-br place with no troubles, but I want a second bathroom so 2-br it is.

We don’t entertain, both of us are what you could call ‘Social Introverts’ – we like going to happy hour, then we go home and hang out.  We like going to hang out and play bocce ball with the kids, and then we go home.  We go traveling a lot, just got back from Ireland!  Those are the kinds of things we like to spend our money on.  I don’t have a lot of clothes – in fact, I sort of live in capris and t-shirts, Abner has his work stuff and on weekends it’s shorts and Hawaiian shirts. 

We live a very casual life, is what I’m saying.

Buying a mobile home costs around $70,000.  It’s like buying a CAR.  They are incredibly inexpensive for what you get.  3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen.  Washer/dryer in your home.  Plus a little yard.  Any cheaper and we could potentially pay CASH.

NO – you don’t get the land.  It’s much like buying a condo.  NO, it probably wont go up in equity, at least probably not.  Some have, but I wouldn’t bank on that.  Yes, you have to pay ‘space rent’ – what that really is is an association fee.  That keeps the park nice – that pays for landscapers and pool cleaners and all that jazz. 

Property tax is way less.  You do have to have insurance, but we don’t live in tornado alley or flood country (just earthquakes!  No big deal!  Gah) so it shouldn’t be as much as some.  Mobile homes transfer title like a car.  NOT with a deed of trust, like a brick and stick home.  That’s a little mind blowing, eh? – so you have to register it?  Every year I think, like a car?  More questions.

 WITH the cost of repaying a loan, and for the sake of shits and giggles I figure $100,000 – plus the ‘space rent’, our monthly fee would be about $1800.

Right now we are paying $2200/mo for a damned apartment with disgusting carpet and no yard.

And just like that, you can see my point. 

We also need a place to live till we die.  We are getting OLD, or at least looking at old down the barrel of a gun.  We can’t be moving in another 10 years with bad knees (already got ‘em) and bad backs and whatever other physical ailments we both may have.  A mobile home is all one story – short flight of steps to get in, then flat.  We can never be evicted.  The park cannot be sold (without a lot of rigmarole on the part of the land owners that would make it totally worth it for the home owners).  We’ll be able to be planted, cheap.

This is one I'm looking at.  I think it's cute.  YMMV

  

I have that appointment with a realtor today.  When I tell you I have 5 pages of questions, I aint just whistilin’ Dixie.  This is a completely new subject/language for me.  I am BUILT of questions at this point.  I feel sorry for this woman.

There aren’t any books about how to do this.  Websites tell you how to buy a manufactured home with land.  OR, how to buy the entire PARK.  But not how to buy a mobile home in a park, not with the land.  So I am flying blind here.  It’s a bit nerve wracking I’ll tell you.

I think this calls for dressing up.  Maybe I’ll even comb my hair?  Definitely a denim skirt rather than my usual capris.  Should I bring her coffee?  A vodka & tonic?  CHOCOLATE? 

More here when I know more.

[Oh man, I was looking for a shot of the interior of a MH, and I found this.  Lookit all this CRAP these people have.  it makes my skin crawl to think of living with that much stuff.  The interiors usually look just a bit better...]

Interior of a 1998 mobile home - blergh.  STUFF *shudder*