Advantages of Buying a Manufactured Home
Affordability
One of the biggest advantages of manufactured home ownership is affordability. Mobile homes are in general less expensive than traditional permanent homes built from the ground up due to their lower price per square foot.
Low Maintenance Costs
Generally, manufactured home will require less maintenance than traditional homes. Maintenance such as plumbing/sewer fixes, gas line repairs, or landscaping is close to non-existent. These are recurring savings in costs that can add up over the course of multiple years. The only maintenance will be the fixes required in a mobile home from time to time.
Environmentally Friendly
An ever-increasing number of manufactured home are now being constructed with environmentally friendly materials. They are being designed and built with a low carbon footprint, and many predominantly run on solar power. Most are now Energy Star certified and come installed with energy-saving appliances, lighting, and plumbing fixtures. This can also provide you with tax benefits or allow you to apply for grants in BC if you are upgrading your manufactured home.
Besides the Energy Star certification, most mobile homes are naturally better at retaining heat and keeping cool. Why? Just another benefit of the assembly-line process. When a manufacturer builds hundreds of the same exact floorplan, they benefit from the experience they gain in the process and are able to have a tighter, more controlled execution on building each one.
Mobility
It’s right in the name, one of the best features of a mobile home is that it’s MOBILE! If at any point you’d like to move to a new location, you can simply organize for a contractor to take the home off of its temporary foundation, and move it down the highway to your homes new home. This gives you the flexibility to live in a specific area during a certain phase of life and then move to a new one as needs change, all without having to sell off the home and purchase a new one.
Flexibility
With mobility comes the added flexibility of having a mobile home. Manufactured home can be upgraded and customized as needs change compared to traditional homes. It can be moved around on a piece of land if space needs to be used differently. It’s also a flexible lifestyle option where one can choose to have a cheaper but livable home while they wait to afford a more traditional home.
Quick Construction and Assembly
manufactured homes are also typically manufactured in 60-100 days and the installation of a manufactured home once on-site is fairly quick. Both of this means from the date of purchase, the window is quite short to the move-in date allowing one to enjoy their home far sooner versus a traditional home buying purchase timeline.
Better Acoustics
As most manufactured homes are now built as modules that are then assembled together, this leads to less noise transference from one module to another. The insulation between the modules and individual rooms also limits sound transference compared to a traditional home where rooms are generally interconnected and separated with drywall. You can even take it a step further and completely soundproof your manufactured home.
Access to High-End Locations
Another advantage of manufactured homes is a lower barrier to entry when it comes to living in higher-end locations. Areas with high land prices can mean an offset of this high land price by having a cheaper mobile home vs. a traditional home being bought/built there.
Lower Taxes
Another advantage of manufactured homes is lower taxes if it was placed on land that you already own. As a mobile home isn’t considered ‘real property’ your property tax will be lower compared to if you had a traditional home built on that land. Moreover, if you’ve taken out a personal loan to afford a manufactured home, the payments can be used as deductibles against your income.
Vetted Quality
As manufactured homes are built in controlled environments and undergo much more rigorous quality control, you can expect it to have fewer issues when you move in vs. a traditional home. All manufactured homes produced in Canada are required to carry a Canadian Standards Association Certification. A traditional home may have issues due to poor construction, weather damage, etc. that were a result of it being built over an extended period of time outside. These are issues that won’t exist when buying a mobile home.
Disadvantages of Buying a Manufactured Home
Depreciation
The biggest disadvantage of a manufactured home is unlike traditional homes which will appreciate in value due to the appreciation of the land underneath it, a manufactured home will depreciate in value.
In instances where the land is also purchased, the combined value can be seen to increase due to the appreciation in land value, but the manufactured home itself will depreciate in value significantly just like a car that’s left the dealership.
The exception to this are modular homes. Because a modular home is built to your local building code, it is indistinguishable in the eyes of an appraiser and the law. Your modular home will appraise just like any similar homes in the neighborhood, but will cost 30% less.
Harder to Resell
Reselling can also be hard for manufactured homes if they are set up in mobile parks or the buyer will need to move the manufactured home from where it’s currently located. Both incur extra costs in the thousands and can deter people from purchasing a used mobile home vs. buying a new one.
Financing
Manufactured homes are considered personal property as opposed to ‘real property’ – one that’s tied to an asset such as land. As a result, financing for manufactured homes can be a lot more difficult compared to traditional homes. Lenders usually expect more than a 25% down payment when purchasing. We work with excellent mortgage brokers who know how to make sure you are getting the best rate for you situation when purchasing a unique home such as a manufactured home or float home.
Design
As manufactured homes are mass-produced there are limited choices in design and layouts. Compared to a traditional home that may have various ways of adding your personal touch through remodeling or painting, manufactured home will be a lot harder to customize to give it that unique feel as well. But this has significant trade-offs in the cost department.
Though there may be internal variations in the floor plan a buyer can choose from, the exteriors are generally kept rectangular for mobility reasons. One can usually find single-wide mobile homes to be 90 ft. long and 18 ft. wide, while double-wide homes are 90ft. long and 25 ft. wide. These dimensions are fixed making exterior customization difficult.
Park Policy
Many manufactured homes are usually situated in manufactured home parks. This means there are external procedures and rules that must be followed. Rent also needs to be paid to the landlord to have your manufactured home there which can be an added recurring home cost.
This can take away from the freedom a traditional home provides where one owns the land and sets, for the most part, their own rules in how they choose to live there.
The Stigma of Owning a Manufactured Home
There is still a stigma of owning manufactured homes vs. traditional ones. Certain communities limit the number of manufactured home communities that can be present, or have outright banned their use. However, this is changing with many revised zoning laws happening recently as manufactured homes are now being viewed as a favorable solution to the growing housing affordability crisis affecting certain regions.
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It is so important to us that you feel empowered and educated throughout the buying and selling process – if you have questions, give us a call, text, or email with any questions you have! We can answer all of your questions, and give you specific tips related to manufactured homes and more. We’re here to help.