Mobile Homes Can Be a Good Investment

While mobile homes have always been cheap compared to similar sized "stick-built" homes, they come with a stigma of poverty, poor construction and sketchy neighborhoods. Today's mobile home is going in the face of this image with luxurious appointments, stylish exteriors and quiet, firmly middle and upper class neighborhoods. Many companies are now producing "eco-friendly" mobiles, with materials and appliances that conform to sustainable, energy-efficient practices. Many homes come with bonuses like patios, sheds, additions and amply-sized rooms that allow one to entertain easily.

Legislation has taken some time to catch up with mobile homes so that there are standards for their construction, but now there are laws in place that require manufacturers to make their homes as soundly as they would build a traditional home. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a Manufactured Housing Program that is dedicated to improving the quality of manufactured housing, including mobile homes.

Mobile homes that are built to housing standards, with multiple amenities are now proving to turn a profit. There are more and more people realizing a gain in equity with their mobiles. Mobile homes on owned land tend to go up in equity, especially with add-ons like sheds and other amenities that make the property more valuable as a whole. Property taxes for mobiles are lower because mobiles have a lower assessed value than stick-built.

Another way mobile homes save you money is their relatively low cost of maintenance. Replacing furnaces, roofs and the other bits and pieces essential to a comfortable home life costs much less for a mobile than a similarly sized stick-built home. Despite the lower cost, it is quite possible to have the same amount of comfort in a mobile home as a stick-built.

Owning a mobile in a park can have its advantages as well. One big advantage with mobile homes is the ability to have a home in a desirable area that is much lower in cost (including pad rental) than a stick-built home or a condo. If you are renting a pad, your costs can be even lower. Property taxes are paid by the owner of the land where your pad sits on, so they are much lower. Maintenance is often done or hired out by the owner and paid for by your pad rental fees. You can even use the park as a "stopping off place" for your mobile while you save up for the mortgage on a piece of land that you can remove the mobile to, to serve as either a permanent or temporary residence.

Mobile homes are not the shoddily built "tin cans" of yesteryear. They come in a surprising number of styles and can be built to satisfy the strictest quality guidelines. By shopping carefully and having a long-term plan, you can make your mobile home into a moneymaker instead of a money pit - and have a comfortable, attractive residence in the interim.

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