A double wide manufactured home
If you are renting and want the benefits of affordable home ownership, consider a double-wide manufactured home. This article tells you what you need to consider before you buy.
Instructions
Make an initial order
1. A double-wide home can be placed on private property, in a subdivision of manufactured homes where each lot is individually owned, or in a manufactured home park. Zoning regulations might limit where you can site your home.
A home on private property, either on a single lot or in a subdivision of similar homes, has a number of advantages. The house payments will be more stable over time. If the land is yours, you cannot be evicted. As a home owner, you will have more say with neighborhood covenants than you will as a tenant in a park.
Park owners may chose to sell the property and evict all the tenants with little notice. After investing in your home for years, you might have to come up with the $5,000 to $10,000 required to move your home, if you can find land. Many parks will not accept homes more than five to seven years old.
Homes in parks tend to depreciate in value over time and park owners may threaten tenants with eviction for excessive weeds, or setting off fireworks at New Year's or being a day late on the space rent.
The advantage of a park or a subdivision for manufactured homes is that all the utilities are already on the lot. The cost of developing raw land for siting a home will include connecting electricity, gas, water and sewer to the land, in addition to setting the foundation and paying for the installation.
2. When you have chosen the site for your home, you will know the minimum and maximum size your home can be. Zoning regulations dictate the size of setbacks from the property line. Parks also have regulations as to how close a home can be to the street.
When you have the lot picked out, get a clear description of the dimensions of the lot and the setback requirements. Most homes have to be 3 feet from a shed or nonattached garage and 10 feet from adjacent buildings, or the property line. In certain circumstances, it's possible to get a waiver, but that usually takes time and possibly an attorney to help you through the process.
Let's say, for sake of illustration, that your lot is 50 feet wide by 100 feet long.
A standard double-wide manufactured home is 28 feet wide. If your lot requires 10-foot setbacks on each side, your home would fit with 2 feet extra. That means a garage or shed would have to fit at the front of the home or the back of the home, especially if it is the standard 22 by 22 foot double garage.
If you also require 10-foot setbacks on the long ends of the property and you have a 22-foot garage, you could have a home that's 60 feet long.
3. Now that you have a site and a size in mind, start browsing websites and going to dealers to look at models. Like cars, manufactured homes come in a variety of prices from basic to luxury. The least costly is to buy a lot model that has had traffic through it. You get the fewest choices, but you'll get a price break on the added features. If you like a particular model that is not on the lot, a sales person might arrange for you to look at one that is at another location. This will be your home for years to come, so find something that will work for you.
4. Check out various manufacturers through your state Manufactured Home Builders licensing board to see which has the fewest complaints or issues. Check which homes have held up best in a variety of tough-weather situations.
5. Now that you've chosen a model, and assuming it's not the lot model, then you can start making choices. Here are some of the basics:
Wallboard with strips joining the 4-foot sections or tape and texture?
Paper-covered particle board cabinets or wood cabinet doors?
Formica countertop or entirely ceramic tile, or a tile back splash?
Wood floor or wall-to-wall carpet?
Linoleum or tiled floor in kitchen and utility room?
Basic or upgrade appliances?
Plain windows or windows with grids?
Added laundry sink in the utility room?
Regular master bathroom or luxury glamor tub?
Energy star insulation or standard insulation?
Will one room be a den without a closet or another bedroom with a closet?
Do you want special ceiling features, electric fans, clerestory windows?
Type of light fixtures
Type of plumbing fixtures
6. Now that you've made all the choices of what you want in your house, there's more to consider.
Usually the manufacturer will have four or five choices of coordinated colors and patterns for curtains, carpet, wallpaper, and tile or Formica. The carpet will come in two or three grades and a variety of matching colors to the rest of the color choices.
You can also choose two or three exterior colors, a main color and two trim colors.
There might also be choices as to exterior materials and trim.
7. Some manufactures now have two-story double-wide homes available. They provide more square feet on a narrow lot.
8. After making all these choices, your salesperson will give you a detailed sheet of what you've ordered. Take it home. Think about it. If your wish list exceeds your banker's ability to lend, determine what you want to cut and what you absolutely must have.
Think about long range. Paper covered cupboards are inexpensive, but scratch easily and may look not as nice in a few years, while wooden cupboard doors can be refinished and still look great. Spending more for an energy star appliance may also result in lower energy costs down the road. This is especially true if you are planning a heat pump. A $5000 heat pump may save up to 40% off your electric bill.
A beige carpet may look beautiful when new, but if you have teenagers and/or pets it can get fairly dingy in a few years, even when you encourage people to take off their shoes. If you or someone in your family is prone to allergies you may chose to have all linoleum or wood flooring.
Review and revise
9. After living with your plan and cost sheet for a couple weeks to a month, return to your sales person and revise the plans to fit your budget. Make the changes you think would make your home more livable. See whether the salesperson can print out a picture of your home in the colors you choose. Go back and visit the lot models often to get a sense of what life could be like with that floor plan.
When planning your budget, make sure you add in the space rent if you live in a park and add in that it will probably increase 5 percent to 10 percent per year. You also need to figure in the cost of homeowner insurance and personal property or real estate taxes. Not including these in your budget can lead to purchasing a home you can initially afford, but could ultimately become too costly to keep.
10. You've got your lot. You've got a referral to someone to do the setup. And now you wait. The waiting can be hard. It can be six weeks to three months before your home is made. Meanwhile think about the setup.
11. Do you want concrete pads on which to set your home and have it tied down?
What type of skirting will you use?
What about rain gutters?
Will your driveway be gravel, concrete, blacktop?
Will you have a garage or a carport with or without a storage shed?
Tags: your home, manufactured homes, your budget, 10-foot setbacks, double-wide manufactured, double-wide manufactured home, feet from
