Question about Manufactured Homes

[Dreaming of Disney]

DH and I have been looking at Manufactured homes. We have found a company that we think has a good warranty and good quality and I thought I'd get any feedback anyone might have.

The company is called Palm Harbor Homes. Has anyone ever dealt with them, and if so, what kind of experience did you have? Also, any comments good or bad about manufactured homes in general would be appreciated. Thanks!

BTW, we are thinking about putting a larger manufactured home on a decent size lot. We are not looking in trailer parks. We would probably be putting it on a block foundation and adding a two car garage or putting it on a basement and skipping the garage for now. There really aren't a lot of housing options where we live and we want to have a decent yard.

 

[tstobb]

Look at it this way - most frame or block homes would not be able to withstand being 1st loaded and then unloaded to a truck for transport, not to mention the transport itself without being shaken to pieces so the majority of manufactured homes are very solidly constructed.
A good idea is to ask to see one of the homes that they've already built, the older, the better. Look carefully at the areas where sections have been joined (in the attic & basement if possible) to make sure that they are continuing the construction methods used when the assembly was done & didn't just drop the pieces into place & bind it all together with a strap (yes, I've seen this done!) wrapped around under the siding.

 

[Beauty]

In all honesty buying a manufactured home was the biggest mistake of our lives. We bought a Triple Wide from a reputable company here in Mississippi. They reassured us about the construction and the way the home was made. Now of course DH is not a construction person and we had also found a very nice sized lot (not in a trailer park) in the country that we were in love with. Not to mention the home was huge from our perspective and was in our price range. So we purchased it. We lived there for 2 years and let me tell you everything fell apart. The ceiling cracked, the lining around the ceiling feel, the air conditioner unit went out, it was a mess! Every time we would call for repairs (after all everything was under warranty) it would take them weeks to come out and then it was half fixed and we would all again. The first large storm we went throug (and it was a bad one) blew more than half the shingles off the roof, again MONTHS before it was fixed and it was never fixed properly. So after 2 years we sold it (at a big loss). The only place we were able to recoup some of our loss was with selling the land. We moved into a brick home and I have never been happier. I am assured that my home is an investment and I'm not terrified of anything falling in.

This is only my personal experience, but it was literally the biggest mistake of our lives! We had people tell us that trailers were NOT built that well but we didn't believe them. Our trailer was gorgeous, and we never thought we would be able to afford a home that pretty with that many square feet. Trust me if I had to do it over again I would have settled for a home with 1/2 the square footage where at least we could have had a CHANCE to get back what we put into it.

If you have any specific questions feel free to pm me. Its your choice and there are tons of people who live in manufactured homes but the resale value is awful.

 

[Dreaming of Disney]

Wow! Two completely different points of view. This is what I was hoping for so DH and I can make the right decision. My sister had a double wide for a while and didn't have any problems with it when she resold. I don't think they made a lot of money off of it, but they didn't lose either. The way I looked at it was, for the amount of house they had they couldn't have paid rent that cheap, and they also got some tax benefits out of it while they had it.

As far as the warranty, Beauty, your nightmare is what scares me the most. We have checked several dealers in our area and Palm Harbor Homes has the best warranty as far as we can tell. They also claim to make "the cadillac of manufactured homes". I don't know if they really do, so that is why I posted here to see if anyone has ever dealt with this particular company.

 

[lisajl]

My inlaws sold their beautiful home by a lake to get a manufactured home.

They had an addition put on it. ( a screened in porch type room)

When they first got it, it was great. It is really showing it's age now. And the stuff they use on the walls is terrible. I think it is called wallboard. It just does not hold up, and there are only two people in the house.

I must say, the first five years were good. Now, it is going downhill rapidly. They planned on moving it out of the mobile home park, but it is too late now. The whole thing would fall apart.

Good luck with your decision. I agree with tstobb, look at the older models if you can to see how they withstand the ages of time!

Lisajl

 

[jamsmom]

I have an aunt and uncle who have always lived in a manufactured home with really good experiences.

However, I had a friend a while back with a terrible experience.

 

[Beauty]

Hi again,

The warranty was excellent actually the problem was actually getting the company to come out and fix the problems. They would half fix it which would turn into the same thing happening again......nothing in our home was ever truly fixed the way it should have been.

Do you know anyone personally who lives in one of these homes? I would talk to someone if anyway possible that has lived in one for a few years....that way you could get an opinion from someone who has been there.

Your thoughts are exactly the same as mine and my DH....the cost, the footage, and how nice it was on the inside, plus the land (Which we bought separatly....I know you can finance with the home in some instances, I would not recommend this. If we had financed our land with our home we would have been paying $8,000 dollars for 30 years!!)

Also go to google.com and do a search on the company...sometimes you can find experiences online.

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

We have a manufactured home across the hiway from us. It was up and finished when we broke ground on our brick home. He came over and told us how great his was.

By the middle of our building process, he was coming over to ask all of the people working on our house how much it would be to fix this or that.... if they had any ideas on how to cover that crack.... what would cause this..... It was quite amusing for us as well as our contractors! I think in the end he paid more for his much smaller manufactured home than we paid for our brick home. And he still does not have everything fixed!!!

I would NEVER buy a manufactured home... I would rather pay rent. But that is just one more opinion!!

Good luck whatever you decide!!

 

[sha_lyn]

The best advice I have is to see if you can order one built to hurrican standards. We owned a Champion for many yrs that DH bought used before we met.The origional owner bought it in Charlston SC so it met hurrican standards. It was rock solid. DH's brohter trashed it about 11 yrs ago, so we stripped it down and redone the inside. son one could believe how well built it was.

Palm Harbor seems to have one of the best reputations. The other man. we considered is excaping my mind right now. Before we bought our home, we were seriously thinking of buying a double wide and putting in on 5 acres. However when we found this house on almost 3 acres that was in our price range we jumped on it.

 

[Kirby]

We call them "tornado magnets".

 

[DVC-Don]

My BiL has a manufactured ranch. Looks great on the outside. Inside is not wearing well at all. Bouncy floors, walls coming apart at the seams.

 

[Pugdog007]

I have to agree with the majority here. You may be able to "break even" but why would you want to do that? You want an investment that will earn equity over a period of time. Any tax break you would gain from a manufactured home purchase will be minimal. You are really better off renting, and saving enough to purchase a home.

Best of luck on your decision

 

[Tiggeroo]

Clarify what you mean by a pre-manufactured home. A good friend of mine does pre-fabs for a living. My husband installed the hvac systems, and I did the new construction cleaning. They are nothing like a mobile type home. They would not be referred to as a triple or double wide either. You select your home, rancher, cape, bi-level, etc. They come in on trailers and sub-contractors do all of the work. Deal with an established builder who does a large amount of pre-fabs. He will take you to existing homes, even ones that have been around for years. My friend has lived in his for approx. 8 yrs. This is probably the oldest one I have been in, and it is wearing well. The least expensive models are what I would consider starter homes. They definitely leave something to be desired. More because of the quality of some of the basic items. I don't care for the standard cabinets, appliances, sinks or tubs.
My friend was a flexible builder. He would allow people to purchase some of their own things if they chose. Also, the paint on the wallboard is poor, unless you pay for an upgrade. The way builders make money on the basic (inexpensive models) is to work quickly. The paint is generally sprayed on and builder grade paint. You can either just take the cheapest paint available, and use the savings to hire painters yourself, see if the builder will allow you to hire your own painters from the beginning and deduct the cost, pay for upgraded painting, or live with the paint for a year or so and paint one room at a time yourself after you move in.
Upgrades I would seriously consider: appliances, sink (the cheap ones feel yucky and have water marks) cabinets, counters, paint and flooring.
If you compare stick built construction you are still doing well the pre-fab, even with upgrades. But make sure you check out your builder. Because he is still a builder even with a pre-fab. He must be able to manage large sums of money and many sub-contractors. You also need to know that if you have any problems he will be right on top of things correcting them. Make certain tht you do not go to settlement until everything is just as you want it. Once he receives his final draw, there is little incentive for him to come back out.

 

[Dreaming of Disney]

Thanks for all of the replies. DH and I still haven't decided. I did Google and didn't find too much except Palm Harbor Homes received a customer satisfaction in home building a couple of years ago. It amazes me that about 30% of all new home purchases now are manufactured homes.

I think we're going to try to find a home built by this company that is a few years old so we can see how it is holding up, but I'm not sure how.