Trailer Park Living

“Well I have been looking at apartments to rent and being very discouraged by the high rents - I have basically decided that I would be better off to just buy a small trailer and lease a spot in a trailer park.

Some of the thought behind this is the possibility of taking the trailer with me when I finally retire (sometime in the next 5 years) and move to someplace like say Alabama near the Sipsey (grin).
The trailer park I am going to go into seems to be a very quiet place (no dogs, no parties, cop lives in the park, fewer than 20 trailers total) and very well kept. I suspect that total cost of trailer and installation will be less than $20K if I am figuring rightly - money I already have in the bank - no loans needed.

Anyways what do ya'll have to say about the idea - am I going to be disappointed with this also or is this a good idea?”

“Go fer it! Trailer living ain't never bothered me none.”

“I bought one fresh out of high school. Good decision. What makes the difference is the neighborhood. Yours sounds good. Would you want to live in a house, surrounded by crime? The only thing I didn't like about trailer living (up here in Maine) is that evry second or third winter the heat tape that keeps your water line from freezing burns out and there is no water for the morning shower. I'm guessing that is not a problem your ways......”

“I just worry about trailer parks being a magnet for tornadoes. Other than that sounds cool, good luck.”

“Im told trailers depreciate, houses usually appreciate, not always tho.”

“Being a navy kid I've lived in a few due to the migrant nature of military life.

A trailer can be a pretty nice home for a really low buy in compared to apartments and homes. But being happy with it is all about the neighborhood.”

“I used to work for one of the big (but now bankrupt) trailer mfg cos. The only downside is the depreciation you'll incur, but if you plan on taking it with you that's no biggy. You'll spend at least 5,000 to unhook and move it when you move later, and thats only if your not taking it far. Those things are expensive to move around.

Look around some - there's TONS and TONS of repos on the market. Some refurbished and others not. You might get a fairly nice repo unit for 50 cents on the dollar or so.”

“Most Trailer Parks suck.
Most people happy with a trailer buy some land and park it on a couple of acres to stay away from the rif raf.
It is a good cheap place to live.
A used trailer, much like a car, can be a good buy.
I thought hard about buying a used one after I got out of school. Even made an offer on a used one in a nice park in Knoxville. It was way cheaper than the apt I was renting.”

“Trailer parks are all about who else is living there.

I've lived in a couple of trailer parks. Once, in a duplex that was on the trailer park grounds, and another time in a trailer. The first time was definitely worse, let me tell you. Boy, the stories I could tell.

That particular park actually had good places and bad in it. One lane was mostly well-kept trailers with older people living in them, some looked very nice. The other lanes were, well, let's just say that our Friday night entertainment was often counting the number of cops it took to subdue the latest redneck on a rampage.”

“I heard they have some awesome trailers now days. I think they call them "marg"...something.

anyway, I would not want to live in a a trailer because I am very affraid of Tornadoes.


Yeah, and then it really depends on the trailer park. 'High'class trailer park? Or low class? BIG difference.”

“yeah, they make triple wides now. Oakwood used to - may still make one that had 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. It was huge, they put a steeper pitch on the roof now too and if you built a porch on the front, it would pass for stik bilt.

The new wave is modular, where the components, walls, windows, engineered trusses and such are factory built and it ships in on a tractor/trailer to the site and is assembled erector set style.

But for the price range HOI mentioned, you won't touch those guys, the triples start at around 60K, and up. Mods are a little more, but usually large, spacious and fairly nice. They'll finance just like a house too for the most part.”

“what about the parks in FL...man they are all that gets set up down there they got like four kinds of zoning in FL...Commercial, Industrial, Residential, Trailer park...”

“Hiya HOI! See you next month! Are you home enough to even notice? LOL! I thought you were on the trail almost every weekend:o) Wetnwhiney (daughter, who you've met)and her SO have been going through the same housing dilema. They are now in a mobile home in a nice park but... On another note, My sis and her hubby (when just starting out) bought an acre of land on the "outskirts" and bought a repo mobile home to put on it. As I recall they had about 30 grand in the whole deal. They pretty much tripled on the land price when they sold it and took the mobile with them when they sold the land. They then set up the mobile on their new property while they built a house. The long and short is, spend the money on the land and look at repo mobile homes.”

“parks in FL are disappearing! New law makes it easy for the owner to give everybody the heave ho and land values are skyrocketing so they all want to convert.”

“yeah, what Pamster said. The land is where the value would be.”

“It's a great place with a community center, pool, spa, river near by, hiking trails literally behind my back fence. Best place in Fresno to live, only draw back is that I'm not building equity paying space rent. Rent here is $330.00 per month. However, this is the only way to live when your only income is from student loans and grants. Gas and Power bill is about $30.00 per month on average. Go for it! I love it here...”

“It's a great place with a community center, pool, spa, river near by, hiking trails literally behind my back fence. Best place in Fresno to live, only draw back is that I'm not building equity paying space rent. Rent here is $330.00 per month. However, this is the only way to live when your only income is from student loans and grants. Gas and Power bill is about $30.00 per month on average. Go for it! I love it here...”

“
Trailer park heaven
It's a real good deal-o

- FZ (1975)
”

“It's a great place with a community center, pool, spa, river near by, hiking trails literally behind my back fence. Best place in Fresno to live, only draw back is that I'm not building equity paying space rent. Rent here is $330.00 per month. However, this is the only way to live when your only income is from student loans and grants. Gas and Power bill is about $30.00 per month on average. Go for it! I love it here...”

“and that is how we trailer trash press submit...damn dial up”

“So, thinair... TPT is now known for double posts?”

“or triple posts :)”

“I wouldn't mind buying some land in a pretty spot and putting a modular home (fancy trailer) on it when my working days are over, but that's not going to be a while for me.”

“Most modulars are different from trailers. Trailers (incl double wides) are on a steel frame & can be moved. These are cheaply built & depreciate) Modulars are stick built in a factory (all designs, single & 2 story)& set on a foundation or slab. These can't be moved & are usually placed on your own land. These appreciate in value.”

“Buying a trailer is like pouring water out of a boot.”

“The land comments are right on the money. The land/housing markets are continuing to skyrocket. Take your moolah and buy some land for your trailer - assuming local zoning laws will allow you to buy enough land for a trailer. Around here you gotta have a ton of land before you can put one trailer on it. Sure keeps most trailers out of the area!

Get that land, you'll laugh all the way to the bank when you sell.”

“thanks for the info cats”

“this reminds me of that show
TRAILER PARK BOYS”

“Buying a trailer is like pouring water out of a boot

Whut the hail is that supposed to mean? You stupid liberaels.”

“Is Ice Tea trolling again?”

“Hell, get a camper, that way you can be totally mobile when you retire.”

“You might want to reconsider putting one in North Ala. It is definitely "tornado alley". They stand no chance up against a tornado. Do some homework on this, please.”

“that's not a bad point...Oakwood got sued a few years back by a group in Alabama when their trailers got rolled around town in a tornado -- they said our tie downs were faulty. Oakwood settled of course.”

“MALIBU, Calif. — The crazy California real estate market has come to this: a million-dollar trailer.

A two-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home perched on a lot in Malibu is selling for $1.4 million. This isn't a greedy seller asking a ridiculous amount no one will pay. Two others sold in the area recently for $1.3 million and $1.1 million. Another, at $1.8 million, is in escrow. Nearby, another lists for $2.7 million.

“Those are the hottest (prices) I've ever heard,” says Bruce Savage, spokesman for the Manufactured Housing Institute. He says prices in another hot spot, Key West, Fla., top $500,000. As if the price isn't tough enough to swallow, trailer buyers:

•Don't own the land. As with most mobile homes sold in Malibu, the land is owned by the proprietor of the trailer park, in this case, Point Dume Club.

•Still pay rent. Not owning the land means paying what's called “space rent” that is as high as or higher than many mortgages in other parts of the USA. On the $1.4 million trailer, space rent is $2,700 a month.

•Can't get mortgages. Since the buyers don't own the land, most of the mobile homes are paid for in cash or with a personal property loan that usually amounts to $100,000 or less, says Clay Dickens, mortgage loan agent at Community West Bank.

Why would anyone pay seven figures for a trailer? It gets you more than the typical mobile home. The $1.4 million trailer is in a gated, guarded community with a shared tennis court and panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. It also is on a larger-than-usual “triple-wide” lot. Buyers are willing to pay such prices just to get into Malibu, where the average list price is $4.4 million, says Coldwell Banker broker Rick Wallace.

But, it's still a trailer with a modest kitchen and faux wood floors. Many still have trailer hitches attached.

continued...”

“So, what's the diff? They have a Maserati up on blocks in the driveway?”

“Bubble + Pin = Pop”

“sadly, its probably not a bubble - at least not like we typically think about.”

“Well there might be a mobile home bubble but otherwise Roam is right. Real Estate in CA is insanve but founded on simple supply and demand and you can't build a house in a week, it will slow and stabilize but there probably won't be any pin popping in this market.”