Are trailer homes bad real estate?
The thing I worry about with trailer homes, is that they devalue over time a lot faster than traditional houses. I own a couple trailer homes and would like to fix them up and sell them, but I wonder how much I could get for them if repaired to near new. Do trailer homes sell well? If so, would a refurbished trailer home sell for a good amount?
7 answers
They depreciate in value once you purchase them. That of course is not saying you can't fix it up and sell it for a profit, it's just going to be tougher when you want to put something like a trailer home on the market. If it looks good, is fixed up good and is priced right, you could make a fair amount.
If you do not update your trailer home often, it will depreciate in value quite fast. This is why it's recommended that you build upon your trailer to increase its value. If you want to sell an older trailer home, it needs to look good, have newer appliances and all that. Trailers can sell for a good amount if taken care of.
Mobile homes placed in mobile home parks typically decrease in value over time. On the other hand, land normally appreciates over time. So, if you own land and build a traditional home or, in some cases, even place a mobile home on it, the value will normally appreciate. On the other hand, since mobile homes in mobile home parks usually depreciate in value, you might not be able to sell your mobile for as much as you bought it.
It’s real simple. When you’re buying a mobile home, they go down in value. From a financial standpoint, mathematically, you’re buying a car that you sleep in—a very large car that you sleep in. When you buy a home, they go up in value. I’m not against manufactured housing, which means a whole lot of different things when you say that phrase. But if it’s the type of housing that’s done in some way that the consumer buying it really doesn’t detect that they took the wheels off of it, then it usually will go up in value. If it looks like a trailer, smells like a trailer, it’s going to go down in value. That’s why I’m against it. Before, when you were paying out X number of dollars in rent, that’s all you were losing. Now you’re paying out X number of dollars in rent and you’re losing money every day on the ownership of the thing, so you’ve done double dumb now. That’s why I tell people not to buy trailers.
There are several advantages to buying “mobile home” instead of a traditional stick built house, but there are also disadvantages. Before you decide to buy a mobile home, weigh the pros and cons to make certain your decision is consistent with both your financial and housing goals.
I don’t think I can tell you from here whether an investment in a manufactured home would be a good or bad investment. The reality is that you have to live somewhere and your home is first and foremost a place to live. That place to live should be in a good location for you and where you can thrive in a community.
One advantage trailer homes offer is that they are often a lower-cost option to buying a stick built home. In this regard, trailer homes can make homeownership easier to achieve. And since trailer homes usually cost less per square foot than a stick built home, you can get more space for your money.
There are some stick built home builders that have standard floor plans and options that allows them to build homes for prices similar to trailer homes. If you prefer a stick built home, you might look into whether such a builder is in your area so that you can compare the quality of construction with a newer mobile home.