Posted: 6/17/2011 7:38:17 PM EDT
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Background Info: Right now, I live in the city. the city has a population of about 65K-70K. Crime has risen in the last ten years and I want a little bit of the country life. I hate the city for numerous reasons, lack of peace, lack of quietness. Terrible in a bugout situation.
My financial situation dictates that I cannot afford a house, even with the market in the dumps. I work as a fire fighter and make a decent living but saving up the kind of money required to buy a home is just out of my reach right now. However, I do make enough money to purchase modular home. 1) What are some pitfalls of modular homes? 2) What kind of hidden costs are there? 3) How do you guys get internet in an area where it isn't readily available? 4) What is a good distance to live away from where you work? |
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Quoted:
Background Info: Right now, I live in the city. the city has a population of about 65K-70K. Crime has risen in the last ten years and I want a little bit of the country life. I hate the city for numerous reasons, lack of peace, lack of quietness. Terrible in a bugout situation. My financial situation dictates that I cannot afford a house, even with the market in the dumps. I work as a fire fighter and make a decent living but saving up the kind of money required to buy a home is just out of my reach right now. However, I do make enough money to purchase modular home. 1) What are some pitfalls of modular homes? 2) What kind of hidden costs are there? 3) How do you guys get internet in an area where it isn't readily available? 4) What is a good distance to live away from where you work? I live in one, we are trying to sell it. 1) The moving process puts a lot of strain on the house, we have cracks under windows and up and down walls. 2) basement/crawl/slab. septic tank, pond so your house is higher than said tank, sill plate, driveway, any extras. 3) I don't know we have comcast 
4) I work 24s (EMS) and I live an hour and a half from my station. two shifts a week. Even with $4 gas you couldn't pay me to live in Detroit. Hope this helps. Maybe you can find a nice foreclosed home or a short sale on the cheap? |
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1. Modulars never seen to gain value. I'm looking for a house and modular homes are dime a dozen. They are 10 years old if that and priced well below a stick-framed built house. They have cheap plumbing, wiring, and paneling on the walls. They look like mobile homes. If you do consider one, atleast spend the money on one with a basement or concrete block foundation. If it's not it is considered a mobile home and has extra tax. You'll see "converted to real-estate" in for sale adds. That is what it means. Stay away from crawlspaces, atleast get a full basement.
2. Don't know about costs, but the materials they are made from seem cheaper, cheaper shingles etc. Paneling inside, not drywall. Like I said they don't seem to gain value or even hold it. If you're looking for a good house to be in 10 years or less go for it. They do offer more bathrooms and decent sized rooms for the price.They are also decently insulated most being 2x6 construction. 3. internet does suck in some locations, but if you are 5 miles away from a decent town or city there's usually cable out there. DSL is also an option. I'm in the same boat. I want to live out in the country but need decent internet. I rarely watch tv or any other crap, but do a lot of stuff online. 4. depends on the roads. I drive 16-18 miles to work but only takes me 25 minutes. There's a big 4 lane highway I go on that I can do 65 mph 85% of the way. My location I have hills and I'm in the snowbelt. I don't like some houses on smaller roads and big hills because I think to myself, "Do I want to drive from here to work in the Winter?" |
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1. I'll never buy another modular home, the one I'm in is built for cold climates and the insulation is still lacking. I get waterspots on the ceiling where the seam is. Walls are cheap and makes it a PIA to hang anything on them.
2. The price they quote you is probably just for the house on a bare bones foundation. A solid brick foundation or basement will run you extra. 3. If you can't get high speed you could always go with dial up or the satelite internet. 4. That's a choice you'll have to make, I personally wouldn't want to drive more than 20 miles one way to get to work, unless the price of gas comes down. |
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Hughes or Wildblue are not broadband and to be 100% honest they ain't even internet
The truth with EITHER of those providers is FAR worse than you can imagine Just last week I called Hughes on behest of a client of mine - after running the speed test (btw on THEIR site) I was told everything was fine Customer has stated that since that phone call it has been working better - to the point that it's now as fast as it ever was I was a Hughes customer - I went back to Dial Up Dial Up is faster (latency determines speed to a large degree and that's something no LEO(low earth orbit) will ever be able to offer) |
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My buddy lives in a modular home and you would never know it. He has one from this company.
Foremost Modular homes in my opinion are build stronger than your typical stick built. |
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My buddy lives in a modular home and you would never know it. He has one from this company. Foremost Modular homes in my opinion are build stronger than your typical stick built. What's very nice about a Modular, is that they are built in a warehouse that is dry and kept away from the elements. I live in a regular 1977 Trailer for the time being. It's cheap and the park it's in is very decent and strict on following their rules. It's gotten me out of my debts and saving money for a house. Lot Rent is around $420 per month. Regular mobiles are a bitch to maintain especially with the old aluminum roof style. Walk on it during the winter and you're guaranteed to have leaks. They've gotten better with using regular materials homes are built from. Sheetrock is still thin but, The roof is like a regular house. |
| We have a modular house that we bought new 5 years ago. It does have the "converted to real estate" on the title. It is very well built with 2x6 exterior wall and 2x4 interior walls. It is all drywall on the inside as well. Even though we did not have it installed when purchased, it was prewired thru the panel for a heat pump. One of the things I really liked was the construction in a warehouse. I would not buy a stick built home around here inn rainy Washington. I have seen too many crews laying down tar paper and then roofing after a solid week of rain on the bare wafer board roof. Can you say rot or mold? |
| insurance is much higher here on a mobile home or modular than it is on a stickbuilt...just something else for you to consider. i have to agree witht he poster above that if you can afford a modular you should be able to afford a rep in the suburbs or country areas. |
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My wife and I are considering getting a home from Hive Modular. I've been to see a couple of their houses and they are built just as well or better than any place that is stick framed in place. They may have something that will work in your budget. http://www.hivemodular.com/index2.html |
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We bought an All American home about 10 yrs ago and it's been a great home! My sister bought a new stick built in West Des Moines about the same time and I would put my house against hers anytime. I would recommend them to anyone. To answer your questions: 1) You are limited on floor plans. You can do changes to the floor plan as long as it doesn't interfere with the main support of the house. Also, some modular homes are expensive as stick built. 2) We were not surprised by any hidden cost, everything was up front, on the house. Now living in the country, you have to remember on installing a septic system. Electrical could get expensive on running a line to the house, depending how far away you live from a electrical line, also you may have to install LP if you want gas. 3) You can use a dish for internet (Dish Network has something on this order or HughesNet) There may be other ones out there. 4) Depends on how much you want to pay for gas, taxes and such. Our county gets a lot of people from Des Moines since our taxes are lower but you have to pay for the gas to get to work. Since you are a firefighter, are you limited on how far away you can live from work. Good luck on what you do! Stay low and stay safe! |
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We bought an All American home about 10 yrs ago and it's been a great home! My sister bought a new stick built in West Des Moines about the same time and I would put my house against hers anytime. I would recommend them to anyone. To answer your questions: 1) You are limited on floor plans. You can do changes to the floor plan as long as it doesn't interfere with the main support of the house. Also, some modular homes are expensive as stick built. 2) We were not surprised by any hidden cost, everything was up front, on the house. Now living in the country, you have to remember on installing a septic system. Electrical could get expensive on running a line to the house, depending how far away you live from a electrical line, also you may have to install LP if you want gas. 3) You can use a dish for internet (Dish Network has something on this order or HughesNet) There may be other ones out there. 4) Depends on how much you want to pay for gas, taxes and such. Our county gets a lot of people from Des Moines since our taxes are lower but you have to pay for the gas to get to work. Since you are a firefighter, are you limited on how far away you can live from work. Good luck on what you do! Stay low and stay safe! My city doesn't limit the distance that we can live from work at this time. They are looking at changing that for all future hires though. |
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Quoted:
Background Info: Right now, I live in the city. the city has a population of about 65K-70K. Crime has risen in the last ten years and I want a little bit of the country life. I hate the city for numerous reasons, lack of peace, lack of quietness. Terrible in a bugout situation. My financial situation dictates that I cannot afford a house, even with the market in the dumps. I work as a fire fighter and make a decent living but saving up the kind of money required to buy a home is just out of my reach right now. However, I do make enough money to purchase modular home. 1) What are some pitfalls of modular homes? 2) What kind of hidden costs are there? 3) How do you guys get internet in an area where it isn't readily available? 4) What is a good distance to live away from where you work? When I first started my current job nearly three years ago, my wife and I moved to this area and rented a modular home in the country. We bought a house after a year. The house wasn't a modular, but we'd both be okay with living in a modular again. To answer your questions: 1) Moving the homes from place to place can cause stress and damage. They tend to depreciate in value rather than appreciate. There are probably other pitfalls that I'd know about if we'd owned the home rather than rented it. 2) I didn't own the place, so I can't really answer that one. 3) We had Dish Network and got internet through them. They installed a second dish at our house and the internet beamed right in. It wasn't as blazing fast as the hot-shit package you can get from Comcast, but it worked just fine for surfing ARFcom, reading news, etc. Downloading music was slower than it is now with Comcast, but it wasn't watching-paint-dry slow. And if we'd lived a little further up the road, we could have had Comcast anyway. Their coverage zone ended right up the street from us. 
4) That depends on you. How far are you willing to drive? How much are you willing to pay each month for gas? How much wear and tear are you willing to put on your vehicle with a commute? Our drives to work aren't much different now than when we rented the modular. |