What would you do?
#208703 - 08/26/05 06:35 AM
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torbetta
Reged: 01/24/03
Posts: 1451
Loc: New York
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We are going to be putting our house up for sale, today actually! We are going to try to sell if by owner. I'm very excited about it and I am very proud of how much I have been able to get done the last 3 weeks. The garbage men love us lol. I have just a few things left to do today.
Here is the dilemma. I mentioned before that we live in a manufactured home in a park. It's actually a very nice park and they are having an open house this weekend. They advertised that they have 20 homes for sale and doublewides starting price is $15,000 less than what we need to pay off our mortgage. Most, if not all, are foreclosed homes and a lot of them are newer than ours. I have seen people go into these homes and take out carpets and clean them. One of the homes was our old neighbors home and their house was actually in great shape. Anyways, we were going to try to take advantage of the open house by opening our house. The problem is we won't be home tomorrow but my mil has offered to come out for a few hours to allow people to come in.
The biggest problem with tomorrow is what we have to do. My brother and his wife are renewing their vows tomorrow. It's exciting because just last Nov. my brother moved out and they were planning on getting divorced. The church were they are having the ceremony at is an hour and half drive away. We have to leave at about 9:15 tomorrow. They are having a dish to pass picnic lunch after the ceremony. (Anyone have any ideas of what to bring?) We have to make sure the house is spotless, pack up the girls and something to bring on top of whatever I'm going to want to eat since I doubt there will be anything for me to eat. My IBS has been pretty bad lately since my hormones are back to normal. Man I miss being pregnant.
I'm rambling now but I'm just wondering, with all the stress tomorrow, would you even bother doing an open house? I would have to be concerned about having the house clean before we leave. We are thinking we might just put the for sale sign up and then just open it on Sunday. What would you do?
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My 2 cents
#208731 - 08/26/05 07:46 AM
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BL
Reged: 06/01/03
Posts: 3522
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I'd be leery about letting strangers come through your house when you are not home. My good friend is a realtor and she tells me all kinds of stories about people coming through open houses in order to "case" the place. They open a window, and come back later to break in. Or sometimes they will search your bathroom for prescription medicine bottles they can take. It is unbelievable what people will do these days!
I have an idea. What if you made up a flyer with all of the info on your house----and put it in one of those plastic holders in your front yard? Put the for sale sign up with it. If anyone's really interested in seeing your house, they will come back the next day (or week) to take a look. Just be sure to include your phone number.
This way you won't have to stress out about having the house spotless before you leave, and you can relax and hopefully have some interested buyers when you return.
We're putting our house on the market in the next week or two, so I understand what you're going through. I've cleaned out closets and taken so many things to the Goodwill donation drop-off site, that I'm sure the guy thinks we have nothing left in our house.
I just know if I were in a neighborhood looking and someone had a sign up and I was interested, I'd wait and call them later to take a look---before I made a decision on another one.
Good luck!!!! Hope this helps!
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i'd probably ask my MIL to help me out and show the house.
someone might bite, and be very interested.
if you dont' decide to do that, i'd definitly put out flyers like BL said, and info on the house so that prospective buyers don't miss out entirely.
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I was just going to suggest making sure a contact number was very visible but flyers sound good. They wouldn't have to be flashy.
Sounds way too stressful to do the full-on open house thing when you're not there. At least if there's a for sale sign up and contact details or flyers all the people there for the open house will see that! 
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Heidi-
We actually had this situation a few years ago. My hubby was in dental school and we bought a manufactured home in a park shortly after we married because we hated apartment living. Ours is very nice and when we decided to put it up for sale there were so many of those homes that were selling for way less. In fact 20,000 less than what we were asking. After about a year on the market we looked into moving our home to property. After much stress and agony we found a builder to move it and a bank to finance it. We now live in the same house but on 1 1.5 acres of land instead of wall to wall people. I would encourage you to have the open house tomorrow and get as much exposure as possible. The market for resale on these types of homes is not great.  We are happy with what we did. We added a garage, front porch and put brick on the front part of the house. It took away some of that manufactured look.
Good luck with everything and let me know what happens!
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Angela!
#209007 - 08/26/05 07:47 PM
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Augie
Reged: 10/27/04
Posts: 5807
Loc: Illinois
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I didn't realize you lived in a manufactured home! I've been seriously thinking about this as I am so, so disgusted with apartment living. But all the realtors talk me out of it because of the depreciation factor and the fact that they don't sell very well if you want to sell it.
It's good to hear that I am not as crazy as they all tell me I am!
Tell me, do you now own the land the house is on? So, you don't need to pay rent for the land like in a park? How did you find a place to put your house? I thought you only had the option of living in a traditional park all crammed together. That is so cool you have that much land!
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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If there will be a realtor with them, I would think you would be pretty safe leaving it open for them.
I have looked at mobile homes and condos with a realtor and not once was the owner at home.
Or if your MIL is willing to stay a few hours, that's better than no exposure at all.
And don't stress about cleaning it either. Even if things are messy or a little dirty, you still have a better chance of selling it than if you didn't show it at all.
And, congrats on buying a new home!
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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Thank you all for your advice. We decided not to have it open today. We have the sign up and 3 homes are open right near our so hopefully someone saw it. We are selling it ourselves because we almost positive we won't be able to get enough for the fees and have enough to pay what we owe on the house. Hopefully we will have it open tomorrow.
Angela- You sound like us. I was pregnant with Maddie at the time and the thought of having a newborn in an apartment was not appealing. We actually looked into moving it because we didn't think it would sell. We've decided to give it about 6 months and then we will start the moving process. We couldn't move it before then anyways, I don't think. It was our compromise. Dh wanted to move it but I wanted to try to sell it. It's not wasting too much time. If it is moved we will be adding a garage and 2 bedrooms and we have to put it on a basement. Besides, I had to declutter before selling so we are already set in that area  .
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about buying a manufactured home...how do you find a place to move it to besides a traditional park? If I purchased one from a seller, how do I go about finding a site to put it on that I would own? I don't want to go into a crowded park and pay outrageous lot fees each month.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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Here in Iowa (at least it was this way when my parents looked into it), you have to buy a minimum of five acres if you want to move a manufactured house (i.e. a mobile home) onto it. You can't just buy a 1/4 acre lot in town and plunk it down.
The problem with buying land is that oftentimes there is no service -- i.e. (out in the country) you'd have to run electrical service, get a well & septic system, get a propane tank and run gas lines. This is all very expensive. Getting electrical service alone is 8-10k.
I'm interested in hearing what Angela did, as I don't even think that you're allowed to move a manufactured house onto a lot that small here in Iowa. Unless we are not talking about just mobile homes but also the "kit" houses?
As someone mentioned, yes, the depreciation on the manufactured housing is amazing. I would never buy one new, I would always buy used -- that's how you get the most for your money, by letting someone else get killed by the depreciation! Along the same lines it is also against my principles to buy a new car. The depreciation w/ new cars is insane. You lose thousands of dollars simply by driving the !@#$ing thing home from the dealership and parking it in your driveway.
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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Beth-
Yes we own the 1.5 acres of land that our house is on. We had to do a lot of searching to find land around here to buy. Plus there were some restrictions on the land we looked at being that they wouldn't allow a manufactured home on it. But the other big expense is the fact we had to have a septic tank put in and pay for water hookup. There were quite a few hidden expenses. But we are happy that we have land now. We live across the street from a school and all the homes on this road have about 1.5 acres in between them. We are in a rural area but only 10 minutes from the cities. If you were seriously thinking about this you would want to look into a dealer who sells the homes to have them ready to put on land instead of in a park. We already had our home there so we didn't have that option. It was alot of hassle and I would never do it again. I would also really discourage you from buying one and living in a park. The realtors are right the resell is not good at all. You would be stuck either in the place or losing alot of money if you decided to sell. Good luck!
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Jen-
We did have some restrictions in the lands that we looked at. Alot wouldn't allow us to put a manufactured home on it. The land we did find made us raise the roof pitch of our home but we were already going to do that. We also added a cement porch with railings to the front, a 2 car attached garage and bricked the front half of the house. You can't even tell it is the same house. But like I told Beth I would never do it again. It was a hassle!!
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buy the manufactured home and the land? Would you still do that, just not put it in a park first? I'm not sure how much land costs or the septic tank cost, etc...or even how to find land to put it on!  How expensive is the land and other costs? Sorry so many questions, but I am totally serious about this. Are you sorry you did this Angela?
Who do you call to find land to put a home on? And who do you call to get the septic tank and water hook up set up?
I just hate living in apartments and I think the peace of having my own place would help me. Too bad the manufactured homes depreciate. Do you worry about what you are going to do once your home gets older? Would you need to buy another one? Or do they last longer than I realize?
Thanks for all the feedback. You can email me (in profile) if you don't want to post on the boards all the specifics.
Thanks again, Angela.
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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What would you have done differently?
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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We found out around here it depends on the town. We can move it and stay in the same school district but we have to put it on a basement and re-do the roof. We can move it the next town over and do nothing to the house but then the girls have to go to a new school and my middle dd won't be in the same class as her cousin. If you want to check to see what the requirements are I would call the local building inspector. Also, we found even when they tell you no, there are ways around it. We were told we couldn't put our house on land in this district but now we found out we can.
My in-laws have been living in the same house for over 30 years and it is still in good shape. They definatly won't get nearly as much as they paid considering the interest they paid but since it's paid they will get some.
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Beth I would not do this again just because of the fact we want to build a house next time. As far as the cost that will depend on the builder and the land costs out where you are at. I didn't know who to contact so I just started calling builders from the phone book and asked them if they would do it. Then I did the same thing with the banks. It takes alot time to do and it really was difficult. We are glad that we didn't lose the money on it in the park and our house actually has appreciated quite a bit but like I said it is a lot of work. If you lived here I could give you name and numbers but you will have to call and ask since we don't live close by. Good luck!
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I'm confused
#209577 - 08/29/05 03:50 PM
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Augie
Reged: 10/27/04
Posts: 5807
Loc: Illinois
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I thought I could buy the manufactured home from a dealer, already built.  Then I would need to find land to put it on. I'm not sure who to call about finding land for the home...and then who to call about setting up the septic and water, electric, etc...
Can't the homes come built already and then the dealer just moves the home to the land you buy?
I don't know who to call about finding land for the home and getting things like water and electricity.
When I asked if you would do it again, I was meaning would you do it again without going to the park first...just going straight to buying a home and putting it on the land.
Sorry if I'm not making sense. I know what I am trying to say but it's late in the day for me and I'm not expressing myself very well.
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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