The process of buying a manufactured home can be exciting and stressful, as you make sure you make the best decisions to save you money and get a quality home. Here are some tips to help you save money on the financing and to inspect your home for the best type of wall and floor construction.
Secure the Financing
The first step to buying a manufactured home is to get approved or pre-qualified for the financing. This will tell you how much you can afford when searching for your future manufactured home, which will affect your monthly payment. Whether you are working with a manufactured home dealer or buying a previously owned home from its current owner, you should always seek to get financing directly from a lender. This will help you get a lower interest rate, as you will be getting the funds directly from the bank.
Then, you should also consider the location of where you will place your manufactured home. Buying your own land and including the land in the loan can help you qualify for a lower interest rate on the financing. Or, if you already own a plot of land, you can use the land as equity when applying for your financing to help you qualify for a lower and better interest rate, which helps to lower your payment.
Buying and owning the land where your manufactured home sits can help you save money over the long run on your manufactured home ownership costs. By owning the land versus renting it, you don't have to worry about your lot rental fee increasing in the future. If you are renting a lot in a park or planned manufactured home subdivision, you also have to consider if the land were ever to be sold to a new owner and costs increasing, or the land being used for other purposes and you have to relocate the home.
Check Walls and Floors
After you have secured financing to begin the search for a home, you can begin looking at potential homes. There are several details you should inspect in a potential purchase to ensure your home is going to be of a good quality and last you many years.
One of the most important parts of your home's structure includes its walls and floor materials. If you are buying a newly built manufactured home, make sure you include specific upgrades in its construction on the walls and flooring. If you are buying a previously owned manufactured home, be sure to check the type of sub floor it has been installed with.
Sub floor made from plywood versus particle board will provide better stability inside your home and limit the flooring's flexibility while you walk across it. Then, if your sub floor becomes moisture damaged and it is made of plywood instead of particle board it will withstand softening of its structure. Particle board is likely to warp, expand, and become permanently damaged, requiring replacement, whereas plywood is more resistant.
To check for a type of flooring, carefully lift up a section of the carpeting or flooring during an inspection to view what type of material is used as its sub floor. Plywood will have the grain of natural wood on its surface and particle board will have the look of compressed wood pulp.
Next, it is important to inspect the quality of the home's walls and floor joists installed in the home. Wall joists should be made of two-by-six wood and installed 16 inches apart. Sometimes builders have installed wall and floor joists with spacing set wider, which does not provide the support to your home to increase its stability.
Be sure to request these specifications for your manufactured home if you are having it built, and if you are shopping for a previously owned home, be sure to check the walls and floors. Buy a stud finder at a local home improvement store to easily check for the location of wall studs while you tour each home.
Use these tips to help you select and buy a manufactured home.
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