[jodi]

From a real estate agent's point of view...single wide trailers are very, very hard to resell. I had one listed for 6 months and we did get several people interested, but we could not find one single bank that would finance a used trailer. And since no one had the cash ($40k), they never sold it. Double wides resell only slightly better, although I think you would have a better chance if you put it on a basement instead of a slab (it makes a difference to banks on whether they will finance it, at least around here). Now modular homes are another story. They are holding their value quite well around here - and even increasing. I have sold my last two modular homes for close to the asking price. In one case, the sellers broke even after living in it for 7 years - the other owner made money. If these were trailers, there is no way they would have gotten their money back - or anything even close.
I think the idea to check out used trailers is great. I sold one once for about $7000, and it was really in pretty good shape (a single wide). If you can buy one for $10k and resell for $5k in five years, then you have only taken a $5k loss - compared to probably $10-20k if you buy new. If you have some nearby trailer parks, you might want to check with the owner. Sometimes they will offer to buy trailers from tenants who owe back lot rent, and then try to rent them back out - but maybe they have ones to sell too. Good luck.