Totally non-diet question

bmeadows380

I recently was able to get a position within my company that would allow me to move back to my hometown, and was down at my parents' home this weekend, looking into my options for housing. My budget, however, is proving to be a severe hinderance in the process, especially as I'm single with only 1 income.

One option I have is to set either a modular or a double wide on a piece of property owned by my grandfather. But after talking to some dealers in the area, I've found its going to be hard to find a modular in my price range, and you definitely can't stick build a house for that these days, either. Double wides are a better fit for my budget, but I've heard terrible stories on double wides being inefficient for heating, not holding their value, and being difficult to sell later.

The dealers I talked to this weekend claimed the newer ones aren't made like the older ones and that some of these issues aren't the problems they were in the past, but since they are looking for a sale, I'm not sure how trustworthy they'd be. I was also wondering if one were to set a double wide on a permanent foundation, would it be treated differently?

The one dealer who seemed to be closest to being able to help me was Clayton Homes. Has anyone dealt with this company?

If anyone has any experience with this topic, I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd PM me! Thank you!

Badunkadunk_Buster

My husband and I recently bought a 34 acre Christmas tree farm with a 10 year old double wide on it. While I wasn't thrilled with living in a double wide, it is what it is. Here's the thing with mine. It's made with cheap material, I think they most are. You can tell by the cabinets and faucets, and interior doors, it's just not top quality stuff. Like anything else though, if you take care of it, it will last. Unfortunately the prior owners didn't do that for mine. It's 10 years old and we had to replace the carpet when we moved in (the owners neglect for that though), replaced the water heater, replaced the light fixtures and ceiling fans, the ac unit needed repair, the leaky toilets needed repair, the roof needed repair, we replaced all the cheap appliances, and the windows need to be replaced next. The exterior doors and trim are also needing to be replaced soon. Some of the things on this list are because the prior owners did not take care of basic things. Some things (like the windows and water heater) are because it's cheap material, and some things (like the appliances and lights) worked fine but I wanted better quality. No, it's not a good return on investment, but you can get a nice place to call home for quite a few years if you take care of it. I hope this helps.

theowlbox

I am not an expert on this topic. But it seems like there might be some opportunities here depending on what your long term goal is (and depending on if you must remain on someone else's land or if you want mobility). If you're looking for an investment, that is one set of questions. If you are looking for low cost housing, you might have different requirements. Some people buy tiny homes (big in my part of the world - Portland), some people get trailers and begin to build their houses around them, removing pieces as they extend, some people just have a modular home on a piece of land and just accept that it will be a 40 year home that will not be resold. So, depending on your goal, you have different options. I would look online on alternate housing forums, at sites where people look to live off the grid and on Reddit. This might be the largest chunk of money you will spend in your life (or largest so far) so it might take time. However, I bet a ton of other people are looking into differing housing options so you won't have to reinvent the wheel.. but you will have to make decisions and prioritize according to your life goals. Deciding can be stressy, so take care of yourself.

This could be really exciting for you! Best of luck with whatever you choose. No matter what you'll have a cool experience!

ronjsteele1

We live in a hybrid. The original 1400sq. ft home is a double wide manufactured home on a foundation. We added 1480sq ft stick built to it (this includes an upstairs bonus room). The manufactured home part of our house was built in 1996. I have been in newer ones (2005ish) and they were built so differently from ours! My kitchen cabinets are cheap as all get out and will some day be ripped out and replaced. The walls have wallpaper put directly onto the sheetrock so I can't remove it, I can only paint over it (so there is no texturing). But painting over it hasn't been hard or bad either. What I learned from looking at newer ones (we considered putting a new one on our place so we could take care of my mother-in-law) is this:

Most manufactured homes do not come with floor trim (baseboard trim)- pay for it. It's worth it! Or plan on putting it in yourself.

They only use flat paint entirely over textured walls now. When they set it up and are ready to paint it, pay someone to come in and do a GOOD paint job with either semi-gloss or eggshell on the walls (flat white ceilings they can do).

Upgrade to have real wood cabinets put in the kitchen and baths.

Upgrade the flooring (especially if you'll have linoleum).

ALWAYS have it put on a permanent foundation. If you do that, a bank will treat it as "real property" and so will a lot of insurance companies. This makes a loan and insurance cheaper.

Clayton Homes was one of the companies we considered because they seemed to have a decent reputation.

Manufactured homes will never appreciate the way a stick built house will, but it can make getting into a house a lot easier if you know what to spend your money on and what not to. Putting it on a permanent foundation will also help it to appreciate vs. depreciate if you don't put it on a permanent foundation. And honestly, the manufactured part of our house has excellent insulation, etc. In some respects, it seems better that way then the stick built part does and we did not cheap out on our addition. So.........

The only other thing I can think of is that nothing is "standard" in a manufactured home. So if you need to repair/replace something you often have to modify what's there to make something from like Lowes or Home Depot work. But it can be done. It just takes some ingenuity and work. I am in the process of upgrading/updating the manufactured part of our house to match the newer section (wall trim, paint, doors, cabinets, counters, etc) and while it's been a long process, it's not been hard and in the end looks really good. So a lot has to do with what type of product you start out with.

One thing we did find is when we looked into all of the upgrades we'd want to do on a manufactured home for my MIL that it was almost the cost of a building a house. One thing you might want to look into is a stick built by someone like Adair Homes. Because you do some of the work (paint, etc), and they build so many of them they can build a stick built pretty close to the cost of an upgraded manufactured home. I know several people who have gone that route and have been really happy with them as well. Doing that type of build can save about $40K in total cost to build.

Feel free to ask whatever questions you have. We did pretty extensive research before we settled on what we were going to do.

Hope this helps!

Theo166

I expect there are a wide range of options in terms of quality. However, a new one from a reputable mfg will be built to code and should have adequate insulation etc.

If you have a firm commit on the land from family, consider renting for 6-12 months before you make the investment. You can increase your savings and be more certain you plan to stay for many more years.

bmeadows380

thank you all very, very much for your thoughts and experiences!

My grandfather has said he would just give me the piece of property in question because it's been in the family for generations, he wants to keep it in the family, and none of his other grandchildren want it. I'll still try to get him to take something for it, at least. But it should be in my name free and clear by the end of summer.

Right now it has a 40+ year old single wide trailer that has additions added on sitting it. My great-grandmother lived in the trailer when I was a teenager, and when she passed, the property reverted to my grandfather who rented the trailer out for the last 18 years. It's not in great shape, but I think we can make it livable.

I've decided to live in the trailer for now until I get a personal loan that I had taken out the last time I moved paid off (the company won't pay relocation, so I've had to do it both times on my own dime). When I sell my current house, and since I'll own the property out right with no loan against it, I'll have my regular payment plus what I'm currently paying on my current mortgage available to make almost double payments on the other loan. I think I can have it paid off in 3 years, at which time I'll have much, much more room in my budget to upgrade to a newer home.

The trailer has a roof built over it - added in the 90's - and it's still in good shape, so I won't have to worry about leaks; heating will probably be expensive as it's all electric.

I'm not thrilled about living in a 70's vintage trailer (lol) but I keep reminding myself that it's prudent and sensible. After all - why settle now for a very basic, budget double wide home when if I can be patient and wait for 3 years, I'll be able to get something more in line with what I want; who knows? I may even be able to get hte little log cabin I've dreamed of!

so Thank you all very much!

Theo166

Sounds like a good approach since the existing home is livable.
After you've been there awhile you can decide whether to remodel or replace

ronjsteele1

You need to do some research on gift taxes and being given land. If it's willed to you then you won't necessarily have to pay taxes on it when he passes. If he deeds it to you now you may have to pay serious gift taxes. Do check into that before you do any paperwork with the deed.

Your plan sounds reasonable. Always best to live somewhere awhile before buying.

bmeadows380

Thank you for the warning! I had not known that such a thing as gift taxes exists.

Looking it up, it seems that in West Virginia, the person making the gift may be liable for the tax, but not the person receiving it, and it kicks in at $11,000. I see that there may be a federal one, too.

I've got an uncle who is a lawyer that deals with real estate; I'll be sure to ask him!

kimbermak

You could have him do what my mom did - sold it to me for $1 - no taxes. In PA, you can do that between immediate family.

Theo166

kimbermak wrote: »

You could have him do what my mom did - sold it to me for $1 - no taxes. In PA, you can do that between immediate family.

You can also have it gifted over several years which can avoid taxes. I think ~10k / yr is possible.

ronjsteele1

Theo166 wrote: »

kimbermak wrote: »

You could have him do what my mom did - sold it to me for $1 - no taxes. In PA, you can do that between immediate family.

You can also have it gifted over several years which can avoid taxes. I think ~10k / yr is possible.

Yes. Cash can be gifted up to $14,000 per person (this year the limit went up from 10K) but that wouldn't work with land because you can't partially gift land. But the selling for $1 might work! But definitely check!

askmeagain311

We have a Clayton doublewide that we bought last summer. Our heating bill was super low all winter. Our property is really wooded, though, with trees right next to the home. So that does help with the insulation.