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Finding the Right Manufactured Home Buying Information for You
Finding the Right
Manufactured Home Buying Information for You
Buying a manufactured home? What do you know about them?
How did you learn what you know? Chances are, you learned most of
what you know about mobile (or manufactured) homes from the
retailer. But sometimes we want to know more than a salesperson
has time to teach. And sometimes we want the reassurance that the
person teaching us isn't just trying to make a quick sale.
To tackle this problem, we actively seek information from sources we
can trust. Friends are a good source, but we are not all lucky
enough to have friends knowledgeable about buying a manufactured
home. Many families undergo professional homeownership counseling
prior to purchasing their first home. Purchasers of conventional
housing often turn to one of many books.
Unfortunately, far fewer books aim to assist the manufactured home
owner. The sales, financing, and construction processes common in
the manufactured home business can differ significantly from
traditional home building and most home buying guides don’t address the
special needs or questions of manufactured home buyers.
Books (as well as counseling programs) concentrating on the site built
market are still of value to first time manufactured home buyers.
Information on budgeting, shopping, financing, and insuring the home is
always invaluable. However, consumers considering manufactured
home need to be informed about the special characteristics of these
homes as well as the unique pitfalls of the dealership sales process.
This niche market has been not completely forgotten. In the last
few years several books, on the manufactured home buying process, many
self-published, have appeared. Consumers can benefit from this
new material.
In order to help consumers and homeownership counselors evaluate the
books available to them, we have collected, read, and reviewed several
books aimed at helping consumers purchase a manufactured home.
Our reviews are naturally subjective, but we hope our opinions can help
you select the best resources for you.
Summary Table:
Title
|
Author
|
Date
|
Credentials
|
List Price
|
Our Comments
|
Tips on Mobile Homes
|
Consumers
Union |
2003 |
Research based |
free
|
Our concise brochure that
will get you started. |
A Consumers Guide to Mobile Home
Ownership
|
Jim
Buchanan |
2000
|
Attorney |
$3.95 |
This 24 page paper
brochure covers the basics, but
you may be just as well off with one of the free resources available on
the web. |
Buying a Manufactured Home: How
to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck in
Today's Housing Market
|
Kevin Burnside |
2002 |
Dealer
|
$14.95
|
Covers most important topic but
avoids technical detail. Useful
checklists. |
How To Buy A Manufactured-Mobile
Home And Save Thousands Of Dollars
|
Randy Eaton |
2002 |
Dealer |
$29.95 |
Covers most topics.
Repeats some information from his other book. Poorly edited. |
Manufactured Home Comparison
Guide
|
Randy Eaton |
2002 |
Dealer
|
$29.95 |
Has information from manufacturers' web-sites
and other sources. Assesses the target market (low, mid, high) for each manufacturer. Repeats information from his other book. |
The Complete Buyer’s Guide to Manufactured Homes and
Land
|
John
Grissim |
2002 |
Consumer |
$23.95 |
Most in-depth, aimed at
readers who want to know it all. |
Developing with Manufactured
Homes
|
Steve
Hullibarger |
2001 |
Developer |
$35.00 |
Aimed at developers, this book
could be useful
to sophisticated consumers who want to put a home on their own land and
act as a general contractor for the process. |
"Manufactured Houses:
Finding and Buying Your Dream Home for Less"
|
Arthur Martin
Watkins |
1994
|
Engineer
|
$14.95
|
Focuses mostly
on modular, prefab and other types of factory built homes. One
short
chapter on HUD-code manufactured homes |
The NCLC Guide to Mobile
Homes
|
Bill J. White
|
2002 |
Retired
state inspector |
$12.00 |
Very strong on installation
tips and
identifying construction problems with home before and after
purchase.
Light on financing, park issues, and upgrade options. |
Manufactured Homes: The Buyers
Guide
|
Steven Taylor
|
2004
|
Sales-person
|
$14.95 |
Like other books by
current or former
dealers, this book has some good tips but some insider spin. |
The Books
A Consumers Guide to Mobile Home
Ownership
(2000, 24 pgs.)
Jim Buchanan
This short brochure contains many of the questions you should ask
yourself and your dealer before you purchase a mobile home. The
brochure is inexpensive ($3.95) but doesn’t contain much more
information than many of the free resources listed at the end of this
article. In short, its worth a read if its at your public
library, but if you want more comprehensive guidance you are better off
purchasing a more one of the more detailed works below.
Buying a Manufactured Home: How to Get
the Most Bang for Your Buck in Today's Housing Market
(2002, 168 pgs.)
Kevin Burnside
This book by an ex-dealer is a quick but useful read.
Written in straightforward, simple language, Burnside takes the reader
through the process and covers the major topics we feel are
important. The appendices and text contain several useful
checklists and reference charts. The strengths of this book are
its discussion of financing and upgrade options. The discussion
of rental parks and maintenance responsibilities after purchase are
brief and could be expanded upon.
How To Buy A Manufactured-Mobile Home
And Save Thousands Of Dollars
(2002, 50 pgs.)
Randy Eaton
This book is widely advertised on the internet in banner ads and
cross-selling arrangements with industry websites. From this
reader’s point of view, Mr. Eaton could have shifted some of the money
he’s spent on advertising to hire a good editor. The book
contains good ideas, but occasionally the awkward grammar and
typographical errors distract from the ideas. The book's strength
lies in its instruction about how to evaluate the available options on
different homes and its discussion of negotiating with dealers.
Unfortunately, it gives short shrift to the buyer's maintenance
responsibilities and provides little detail on warranty service after
purchase. This book is ok, but at its price, there are better choices.
Manufactured Home Comparison Guide
(2002, 52 pgs.)
Randy Eaton
This book purports to “give a snapshot of the most popular
manufacturers and how they compare to each other.” In reality, it
is mostly a compilation of materials from manufacturer’s web sites and
recycled material from the author's other book (above). To his
credit, Eaton has done some legwork beyond surfing the web and ranks
each builder by overall construction quality: "poor," "average," or
"quality." His text indicates he has interviewed representatives from
many of the companies he reviews. This book could help you narrow
down your search for a manufacturer, but certainly is no replacement
for your own footwork and comparison of the characteristics of actual
models sold under each brand name.
The Complete Buyer’s Guide to
Manufactured Homes and Land
(2003, 235 pgs.)
John Grissim
Aimed at the reader who likes to know it all, this comprehensive book
takes the reader through the purchasing process and gives insight on
how the manufactured housing industry operates. Well written with
good detail, Grissim’s text has more meat than the other offerings and
makes for a better read. All major topics are covered, including
capsule reviews of manufacturers. The discussion of construction
options is sparse in comparison to the rest of the chapters, but still
touches on the major issues. Likewise, the discussion on
resolving warranty issues after the purchase is brief compared to the
lengthy chapters on navigating dealerships before the purchase.
Developing with Manufactured Homes
(2001, 172 pgs.)
Steve Hullibarger
Hullibarger’s book wasn’t written with the retail consumer in mind,
rather it is aimed at developers considering putting together turnkey
manufactured homes for sale to consumers. However, the
information on the industry in general, preparing lots for home
placement, construction quality, and advanced construction options
could be useful to the sophisticated consumer looking to act as their
own "developer" by buying a manufactured home and putting it on their
own land.
"Manufactured Houses: Finding
and Buying Your Dream Home for Less"
(1994, 189 pgs.)
Arthur Martin Watkins
The curse of unclear terminology probably affects many purchasers of
this book. In its run to escape its travel trailer past, the
mobile home industry chose the moniker “Manufactured Housing” as its
preferred replacement for the term “mobile home.” Unfortunately,
this term had often been used by it's other factory-built cousins, such
as the modular, panelized, pre-cut, and dome housing industries.
A.M. Watkin’s book takes this broader view of the term and spends most
of its time discussing the other types of homes built in
factories. One chapter does address the manufactured homes built
to the federal building code administered by HUD (a.k.a "HUD-code", or
mobile homes), which is the primary product discussed by the other
books reviewed here. However, this chapter is not detailed, and
consumers looking for information on HUD-code manufactured homes are
best off looking elsewhere.
The NCLC Guide to Mobile Homes
(2002, 132 pgs.)
Bill J. White
The National Consumer Law Center is a well known consumer advocacy
group that works on legal issues facing low-income consumers.
They have been grappling with the problems consumers face in purchasing
a mobile home for many years. In this book, Bill White, a retired
manufactured home inspector from the state of Arkansas, shares the
knowledge he’s gained inspecting thousands of manufactured home
purchases gone awry. The book skips quickly over some major concerns
such as finding financing, deciding where to put your home, and
deciding among upgrade options, so probably shouldn’t be anyone’s only
source for information on the purchase process. However, Mr.
White’s detailed discussion of the quality of construction and
installation of the home are by far the best. He also discusses
dealing with common retailer sales pitches and identifying common
warranty problems.
Manufactured Homes: The Buyers Guide
(2004, 144 pgs.)
Steven Taylor
This book touches on many areas of interest to readers, but some of the
answers are clearly colored by Mr. Taylor’s personal experience as a
sales person. Generally the chapter on financing and the
appendixes providing construction quality checklists are useful, but
the book has limited discussion of warranty service and doesn’t touch
on long term issues like maintenance and repair. Our advice is
start somewhere else.
Free Resources
Not everyone is at the stage where they are ready to invest in a book
and bury themselves in the technical details of a purchase.
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, several brochure length
resources are freely available for download. You don’t have to
pay money for all good advice. Here’s a list of those we’ve
identified, along with a short comment.
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