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"Wes Johnson combines personal experience with extensive research in a powerful 'must read' for anyone considering buying a manufactured home or currently living in one. The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook really is a wealth of information." -- Peter Tabak, Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings Considering how interest rates are going to affect your bottom line? Financing is often the most important factor when you buy a new home, and financing for manufactured homes often differs radically from that offered for site built homes. The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook covers finance options and predatory lending more thoroughly than any other guide. Here's a handy little tool that can help you, too:
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There are perhaps few earthly possessions seen in the same light as manufactured homes. There is a level of misunderstanding and stigma regarding them which the manufactured housing industry in no small way has brought upon itself. I had a very close friend who for years literally refused to come to my home. The reason? Because of financial considerations, I lived in a single-wide mobile home in the country at the time. Although it was fairly modern and roomy given that I lived there alone, it made my friend experience abysmal discomfort because it reminded her of growing up in a "trailer." The very act of walking in one was traumatic for her – it brought back memories of how other people made her feel because she had once lived in one. Does that seem ridiculous? Look at the portrayals of "trailer park trash" in society and on television. It’s one of the last stereotypes that people feel free to fling about in our politically correct society. In part, this image has resulted from the years of substandard housing that many manufacturers produced. I’ve seen and heard about just about every complaint around: people literally falling through cheap floors, windows and doors that will never completely shut, constant water leaks (and the resulting damage), homes burning down to ashes in five minutes because of inferior wiring, homes being ripped apart during storms . . . Fortunately, quality has improved prodigiously because of newer HUD standards for manufactured housing. Now, flooring often features a twenty-five year warranty and is not as prone to water damage as it once was. Some studies have also shown that modern manufactured houses are less likely to catch on fire than their site-built counterparts. During the recent hurricane in Florida (Charlie), manufactured homes built after 1994 showed remarkable wind resistance while older ones were often torn to shreds. There are still many quality issues that potential buyers need to be aware of, however, and this book will help you find those problems and have them fixed properly so that your family’s health and pocketbook remain intact. Most consumers still report at least one major problem with their manufactured homes, and often there are defects that the consumer doesn’t know about because they don’t know what to look for – or because the damage is hidden inside their walls, their ceiling cavity, or underneath their home. With this book as a guide, consumers can avoid trouble before it occurs, or remedy it to their satisfaction after the fact. The manufactured housing industry also inadvertently feeds a negative stereotype of itself because of the tactics its salespeople employ. Take every trick a used car salesperson ever had and then multiply exponentially – that should give you an approximate understanding of what goes on at the dealer lots which are strewn across the country by the thousands. Dealerships foster a culture in which whatever makes the sale is encouraged, and outright lying is the norm. The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook gives you a good idea of the tactics the potential home buyer may face, and it gives the consumer counter-responses to keep them from being at a disadvantage. The reader learns how to fight fire with fire, getting the home they really want without paying thousands of extra dollars for inflated options or bogus fees. The current reality is that buyers turn to manufactured housing for economic reasons, but they often get "soaked," paying far too much for the home and the set-up. Then they are sometimes swindled again, being verbally assured of one thing when the fine print of a lengthy contract states otherwise. Many trusting customers end up paying just as much as site-built owners do. The moral is that a bargain isn’t always a bargain. Manufactured home consumers have also traditionally been charged far too much for insurance and loan interest. The insurance problem remains difficult to totally overcome, but in the area of financing, options are often now available that allow careful shoppers to secure truly competitive loan rates. This important subject is covered in detail, because the average manufactured home buyer can save literally tens of thousands of dollars by choosing and managing their loan wisely. Methods for shaving years off your mortgage will be discussed, along with the loans to avoid. "Dealership financing" has resulted in record levels of repossessed homes, and you don’t want to be another statistic in this category. This book also focuses heavily on energy efficiency. "Mobile homes" used to be notorious for wasting heating and cooling energy, but now there are a lot of energy efficient options to select from in many cases. This goes hand in hand with saving the consumer money, but it’s also important for the country as a whole in these economic and resource depleted times. As The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook notes, our nation could save 134 billion dollars in the next 15 years alone if all residential windows were replaced with Energy Star models! Energy efficiency may cost a little more initially, but in the long run it’s a win-win proposition for everyone. Options in general are often overlooked in regard to manufactured homes. Many people don’t realize that to a large degree you can custom order your home with the construction features you want. For as little as a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, you can make your manufactured home a much more gratifying place to live – a place that truly fits your lifestyle. There is yet one more important emphasis this book offers that has typically been missing in treatment of the subject by other authors – the set-up of manufactured homes. Even if a new manufactured home arrives in excellent shape, mistakes in the foundation and set-up can literally spell premature doom for it (settling, water damage, and more can literally destroy your home – and in most cases they won’t be covered under warranty). Dealers, as a rule, brag about their set-up people being the "best in the business." The truth is, there is a wide spectrum of set-up workers, from the very good to the very, very bad. The only way to guarantee a good set-up is for the consumer to know what to look for and verify it’s done right themselves. As you can see from the preceding discussion, times have changed greatly for the manufactured housing industry in recent years. For the most part, the changes should be welcomed by the families who live in them or those who are shopping for a home. Manufactured housing, even in the worst of times, thrived because it was a needed economical alternative for many people. Now, as the quality and list of available options have grown, these homes are increasingly being considered and purchased by many families who could easily finance site-built homes as well. If you can get a comparable home for some fraction of the cost, why not? There are still many potential pitfalls for manufactured home buyers, but you can get a good deal on a great home if you are careful and take charge of the process. Here are the most effective strategies I’ve found and the crucial knowledge about the industry you need to take control. Hopefully, The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook will also serve as a modest impetus to help bring about change in this industry. The final chapter is addressed to legislators as well as consumers, because this is a business sector that needs to be overhauled in many respects. As the book points out, those government agencies that are supposed to be protecting manufactured homeowners are failing miserably. There are millions of residents who live in these homes, and millions more will. At the current overall rate of growth, in the near future over 25% of voters will live in manufactured housing. More consumers need to use their voice and their vote to change the system. The book’s conclusion describes several changes which would be a tremendous boon to manufactured home buyers, and a giant step toward erasing the negative stereotype associated with these homes and the industry at large. In effect, The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook is a tale about two aspects of the same story: an industry which has struggled mightily with quality and respectability, yet which still holds out the promise of providing "Dream Homes" to housing consumers. To those who would charge that this book is too negative, I respond that it is the product of a great deal of research and having lived through the process of buying and setting up a manufactured home myself. It serves the purpose of allowing home buyers to actually realize their dreams without the accompanying nightmares which have followed the sales of many manufactured homes.
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