[trenea7]

I grew up living in a trailer off and on so I thought nothing of buying one when I got married. The newer ones were really nice looking and I could afford a much nicer trailer than what I would get for the same money in a house. We bought a new double-wide in 1998 for 72000. We ended up having to move it across the state a couple of years later because we couldn't sell it anywhere in our area, even when we agreed to pay the moving costs. The depreciation wouldn't cover our loan! So we moved it, put it over a full basement--we planned to gradually finish the basement which would give us 3400 sf. of living space. It cost us about $10,000 to move. I got divorced about 2 years later and had to leave the house to my husband as I wanted to move out of state and we would have lost at least $15000 if we sold it--even though it was now secured to a basement. Our mobile was a Champion brand. It looked great but we discovered later that it was really made with a lot of shortcuts. They give you a year warranty to find any problems and boy did we have a list. Getting them to come fix them took forever and we had to have them come back several times. The problems weren't huge, but when you buy a brand new home you expect things to look just right. We never did get everything fixed and were very dissatisfied with the customer service. The sales lot we bought it from could have been a used car lot for the amount of sleazy tactics and false promises we were given. So, IMHO, I wouldn't do it. I'd go with a pre-fab house or find a cheap used one if you have to (though the insulation in the older ones is poor and will add to your living expenses.) My parents had a pre-fab house built and they got a lot of house for the money. They've been very pleased with it and they've lived there about 4 years now. Hope this helps!

trenea7