Wife and I moved out of town almost 2 years ago to downsize (kids moved out) and to escape the trash hole the neighborhood turned into after the 2008 crash. We found a nice newer mfg. home on 2 acres with a 40x40 pole building out in the middle of nowhere yet just 8 mi. from our small town. Got a killer deal on it, mainly because it is a mfg home, which is seen as a double wide trailer by banks, insurance, and other institutions; even though it sits on a poured concrete foundation with a 5' high crawl space. Honestly the building , location and 2 acres sold me, along with the price. How many of you live in a mfg. home and what are your thoughts ? It works for me and I couldn't be happier, but people still just see it as a "trailer" that wont last. Just courious of your thoughts. -Thanks

My folks bought a brand new MFG home and it is still in great shape, and its over 23 years old. In a lot of ways they have fewer problems than I do with my stick built 2000's home.

Moved mine onto the place in 93-- put new roofing on last year. Overall have been pretty happy with it. I don't think that they are quite as well built as some stick built homes and the floor plans are limited by dimensions but it works for me

We have lived in ours since 1999. If you think of it like I did, a "regular " home is built on site and never moves. A manufactured home is built then hauled down the highway at 60 mph. Then set on site. Pretty sturdy. I have mine on a poured basement. No problems in 20 years.

moved one onto my place in 1999 after old house burned. It got a direct skim by a tornado in 2010,curled shingles. Insurance covered that. Mine also on a 4 ft crawl block foundation....I heard same selling point......hauled down road at 60 mph,,im in a very very common tornado area,many hundred yr old barns levelled and houses. Mines still here. 2x6 walls. Still like a stick built

I kicked around the idea of getting one but decided to build instead
Money way about the same anyway. I would have probley bought a manufactured home nut they didn't want to deal with me on the cost of moving it.

Just like any contractor for a stick-built home, there are good manufactured homes and there are poor ones. In my warped opinion, however, a home isn't worth building unless it'll last 100+ years, and there are very few manufactured homes built to do that. In this day and age of 'everything throwaway', there are very few stick-built homes that are designed and built that way either.

Jack

My main complaints about manufactured homes is that you can't see how they are built. The other thing is that the floor plans are immensely limited by the need to transport them. Also, they normally have a very shallow pitched roof which may make them unsuitable in certain areas and..........they can be aesthetically very unpleasing

My wife and I have one.
Amazing how those guys were able to back up a hill and plant the thing on a concrete block foundation between 2 trees.
We didn't want to wait for a year or more to have a stick home built and a wall tent would have been better than our old house.
We love it.
I pre-ran the electric (in conduit underground) from the lift pole meter base / cut-off box to the foundation along with the deep well water line. They set thing thing down, installed the strapping and I had it all connected and running in 3 days...and we moved in.
Probably about 3 weeks from the time we purchased until we were sitting around the kitchen table in our new home. That was in 1997.
Had to replace some toilet parts... flapper, fill valve and one wax ring but that's it. Put on a new shingles in 2017.

I lived in one for about 10 years before having brick home built. I have one now as a river camp and it's in great condition. The key to keeping them is keeping a close eye on the roof and the seams where doors and windows are. You'll have people who knock them and say they'd never buy or live in a trailer/mfg home. Living in the south I heard all the trailer trash comments and such but it is what it is. If it's what you and your wife choose to do then that's all that matters.

Mfg homes are also built to different standards and codes. I'd go with thick plywood floors and a good roof. Best of luck to you.

Yep, keep an eye on things and fix stuff when it begins to go instead of letting it fall apart. An expensive stick built will fall apart if it isn't maintained. There's a great song about women who live in trailer parks. I'll try to find it.

We purchased our manufactured home in 1993 and had it installed on a full basement. Only problem I had with it was the roof, couldn't keep shingles on one side. Fixed that in 2016 by having a metal roof put on. Over all have no complaints.

I had a nice one years ago in N Idaho.

Lots of good points mentioned here , plusses and minuses.

Mine was on concrete foundation, and tied it came under "real property" , which upped the description and the value of the property .

I did like the turn key affordable circumstance it provided me at the time.

There are indeed types that are built cheaply, and look terrible, and others that are fairly nice with good sturdy build. Mine was the latter. I did know the materials that went into it, and I chose the layout , then did custom work later ...an expansive deck along the back, a porch walkway with a ramp for wheelchair ease too , in front. I kept it in very nice condition.

As mentioned , though, I never liked the roof at all....the pitch was a joke for northern areas with lots of snow, and I never liked the short eaves extending past the outer walls . I realized those had to be that way , for transport , and I have seen people replace the roofing entirely with steep pitched metal and long eaves .

Howevah..... It did serve me well and I lived in comfort there. Had a good wood stove and it was very well insulated.

Of course a custom lovely built home , cozy and a work of art, is the goal , love and appreciation.

Cheapest build home and you have to deal with labor and industry not country here
I have two park models here and they are harder to remodel because of the way they are constructed

Cheapest build home and you have to deal with labor and industry not country here
I have two park models here and they are harder to remodel because of the way they are constructed

Say that again?

I know a lady that lives in a 1963 trailer and you would nevah know it's that old. She takes care of it.

nevah?

My thoughts are like most, up keep of any home is #1 in making it last. The previous owners did a really good job and all the "cheap" carpet, linoleum , toilets, etc. had been replaced.

Yep
Yep

Electric is harder because of the outlet style used
Some have aluminum wire
Rodents ca n be a issue
Older plastic or galvanized plumbing
No or minimum roof overhang stuck in wet conditions

Nevah evah

Picky Picky Picky Actually my Son bought one for a rental and the gas is piped to the cookstove without even a shutoff valve. I thought that was odd.

Some are not made as well as others, but that can be the case on new homes as well... using particle board on the corners instead of plywood.
A friend just had his roof replaced and there was some bad damage. The contractor didn't even put down any tar paper - just nailed the shingles right to the decking... SHEESH! You gotta watch everything these days.
About the "cheap carpet"... ours was down for 15 years and still in good shape - that said the wife wanted new carpet so that's what went in... LOL!
We had the manufacturer put in pvc plumbing and stayed away from the pex stuff. Keep the crawl space dry and vent each bathroom with a ceiling fan.
Moisture is your enemy...
It's not the greatest thing in the world, but it belongs to us free and clear! I couldn't believe how much cheaper the property taxes were compared to stick built.

Taxes is an issue. Eventually nobody will be able to afford to own anything.
You don't like pex? My Sons had a new pex fitting bust in a new kitchen...…….not the hose, but the brass fitting.

Don't really care for those fittings. They do make things easier to work on, but can't handle a lot of pressure.
Got them in our camper but they've been ok so far.


I guess we really don't "own" it - I have to pay the county $$ to live in it - even after I bought it!! LOL!

Our's has all standard 12/2 copper electric and standard outlets, pex plumbing ( no issues ), and 12" overhangs with gutters. Rodents can be an issue in any house. My only real complaint is the lack of an attic, has vaulted ceilings with a 16" to 24" insulated space between roof and ceiling.

Take care of the roof.

A good carpenter can pick any manufactured home apart in seconds!!
Cheap trim, flooring, shingles, siding,windows n doors.
It all looks good to most people but I ain't seen one yet that has true quality.

them 2x6 walls are 2x3"s glued together.

Well lots of things can be aesthetically very unpleasing. Including me when I get up in the morning and for the following 19 hours after that.

I hear ya' but to a builder symmetry and proportions are important. Like the "Golden Ratio".

What a wonderful and honest post.

We ain't nothin' if we ain't honest !!

If taken care of it will probably outlast you. If you don't like where it sits you can always move it!!

There's a reason the TV reporters head for the trailer park whenever there's a tornado. First, they find a guy in a white wife beater tee shirt... "I was standin over dere, and here she come...like a daggum freight train.."

LOL The insurance lady came out when we bought the place to do an assesment and said what they look for is that the home is attached to a solid foundation that runs the perimeter of the home. She said if the home just sat on blocks and/or still had axels, tires, or tounge it was considered "a trailer" and they wouldn't insure it. She also checked the metal tag rivited to the outside on the siding saying the home had passed all HUD inspection codes. The last thing she checked was the large spec sheet glued to the back of a cabinet , that had wind ratings, snow load, insulation value, etc. for our region . She said ours was rated the next level above what was required for our region. Something like 150 mph winds, insulated for a -20* climate, and 30" of snow load. I will say this home is much easier to maintain than the 125+ year old house we came from.

Why do you think I don't participate in Jurassic's "Selfie Sunday" posts. I'd give scare half to death most of you on here.

If it is sitting on blocks no one around here will make a loan on it until you put in a block foundation which will cost 5 or 6 thousand to do later so if you get one do the foundation. When you pay it off be sure you get the title from the company and they almost never just send it, and most people never seem to have it. If not you have to file for a lost title which takes time. A double wide has a vin number just like a car and is titled that way. Once you pay it off you can have it attached to the land and it is real property and does not have a vin any more and that should help with insurance and future sales. You probably will have to have a lawyer do that but is not generally expensive and they will file that at the courthouse.

I worked in mfg plant for many years until the corporation went bankrupt. Our plant was most profitable of them, it was other plants that had trouble. Which were not all mfg plants. They had many floor plans, some were built in 5-7 sections. 2 story's with room additions. The roofs were hinged an set up on site. They had some pretty steep pitch roofs. Huge expensive well built homes. Built to be standing in high tornado winds where house beside it would be severly damaged, built apt houses in sections as well as motels,out in n. Dakota for workers to stay , barracks, down el paso TX, traditional housing an big government funded projects. I believe alot government funded projects, no longer were funded, alot work in projects as everthing was heavy duty built. Double 3/4 floor decking. 2 by 12 floor joists. Double 5/8 drywall, sound walls, conduit in all wiring , alot strict bldg codes, for plumbing an everthing, there lot different mfg homes, some are like dbl wide trailers, we never got into them, but there gone out bussiness. Unfortunately

If it’s comfortable and put you in the area you want to be in, why not live in one? Will it ever have the resale value of a stick built? No. Will some people always look sideways at anyone who lives in one? Yes. Doesn’t matter what other people think. Matters what you think, if it’s your house. The guy in the trailer, the guy in the stick built, and the guy in the mansion will all be next door neighbors in the graveyard anyway.

My daughter and SIL just had one brought onto our farm. It is an Oakwood Home.
Here in NC they have stiffer regs than stick built
It is very nice I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.