Buying a Mobile Home
Posted:30 June, 2009 by Trailer Park Superstar
My husband and I started looking for a home to purchase in early February but didn’t seriously start the “looking” until we had officially sold our home in Arkansas which was in May.
We looked at over a dozen homes in the London Area and we couldn’t find even one that both of us liked. If one of us liked a home the other one had something about the home that we didn’t like, we were just about to give up completely when my husband called me from work one day. He had seen a home for sale by owner that he thought we should take a look at.
One of the things that we couldn’t agree upon was that my husband wanted something way out in the country where we didn’t have anyone else around us and I wanted something closer to town. The other area that we couldn’t agree upon was the size of the home, he wanted a “small” home and I wanted one with some room, especially since we had two teenage boys living in the same house for at least another two years.
We drove out to the house that he had seen late that night when he got home from work. The first thing I noticed was it was out in the country but not too far, it was only about four miles from town but would still be considered to be in the country. When we drove up to the home, I honestly didn’t think too much about it. It wasn’t fancy or anything but did have some land with it and a nice large swimming pool in the back yard. We walked around the home and in all honesty I couldn’t tell if it was a mobile home or what I call a modular home, which is a different kind of home no matter what people will try to tell you.
My husband called the number on the sign outside and arranged for us to take a look at the inside of the home.
The next night we drove back out to the house and the owner let us in. It was like walking into a different world. You open the front door and walk into a completely spotless, like new home. You couldn’t tell that this home wasn’t brand spanking new. Beautiful carpeting and flooring throughout the home, and although it had a few nicks in the wall here and there, nothing extensive. Two full bathrooms, four bedrooms with a family room, living room, dining room, and large kitchen. Also a utility room off of the kitchen. it was absolutely beautiful.
We walked out to our car and started home, he looked at me and said that if I liked it, he thought he saw no need to look any further for a home. Even though the home was a lot more than what either of us had imagined, for the price, you couldn’t pass it up.
The next week we went to the bank and started the process, and my goodness what a process it turned out to be.
With a regular stick built home, you are required to have it appraised, this was no surprise at all, but with a mobile home, you are also required to have a foundation inspection, which is a very costly inspection done by the county engineers office.
If you are thinking about purchasing a mobile home instead of a stick built home, be prepared for the cost to be around $800.00 more because of this necessary inspection.
With all of the paper signing and back and forth with the appraiser and the engineer, it has taken us a good six weeks to finally get to the point that we are ready to close on the home and move in.
Most people think that they have a few “extra” bucks in their pockets and go out thinking that it is going to be easy to get themselves a home, well, be prepared. There is a lot of cost and “red tape” you have to cut through in order to get to the actual purchase of the home and no matter how bad the lender wants your business, they do not make things easy on you right up to the point that you sign the papers for the final purchase.
The main difference in the purchase of a mobile home compared to the stick built home is going to be the need for a foundation inspection, which is the city engineer going out to the home and testing the foundation that it is setting on to be sure that it is stable. This is definitely something that you would want done just for your own peace of mind but it is very costly and seemed to be the most time consuming thing that we had to have done in the purchase of the home.
I would recommend that you have more than just a few dollars in your pocket if you are thinking about the purchase of a mobile home, we ended up with a lot of expense that we weren’t planning on. For us the expense was worth it because we couldn’t of asked for a better deal on the home and the property and we couldn’t find anything that both of us liked right up to the point of us finding this home. How much you want something definitely determines how much you are willing to pay out to get it, but be prepared for the cost because it is a high number and something that most people aren’t expecting to have to come up with.
Overall, any home purchase can be stressful but it is always helpful to be prepared for what you are going into before you are already in the middle of it.
