Lyn Collier asked:




There was a time when experts said that a mobile home was a bad investment. In years past, a home built on a foundation was considered to be the best place to put your money. Foundation homes, for many years, grew in value (appreciated) over time. Mobile homes go down in value (depreciate) over time. That was then. This is now. Things have changed.

Our economy is in a downward turn and is not expected to recover for awhile. Anyone who bought a house three to five years ago and tries to sell that house now will probably have to take less than they paid for it. In the past, those people could have expected to make a healthy profit. Now, they do well just to break even on the sale.

Mobile homes are gaining in popularity because for some people, it is the better alternative to renting. There are two ways to own a mobile home.

#1 Buy land and put a mobile home on it. As my dad used to say about land, “It’s a great investment. After all, they aren’t making any more of it.” That is true. Land is a non-renewable resource. That simply means, that there is a fixed amount of land, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. There is only so much land to go around, right? Because of the fact that land is a non-renewable resource, it will most likely appreciate in value over time. The house that is built on that land may not appreciate. So, the safest way to invest in real estate and do it with the least amount of investment is to buy land and then put a mobile home on it. Lenders will loan money to purchase the land and the mobile home just like they lend to people who are buying a home on a foundation. You can get one loan to pay for both land and mobile home, or you can get two separate loans. One to pay for the land and another to pay for the mobile home.

#2 Buy just the mobile home . If you can’t afford land, you can still do better than renting by purchasing a mobile home and putting it in a mobile home community or park. If you buy the mobile home, you have to have a place to put it, right? When you live in a mobile home community, you pay rent on the lot. Lot rental is usually pretty cheap. Even added to the payment on the mobile home, it is still usually way cheaper than renting a house or apartment. And, if you live there long enough, the mobile home will eventually be all yours.

You may be wondering, “What if I don’t live in it long enough to pay it off?” You can sell the mobile home even if you haven’t paid it off yet, and can sometimes make money on the sale depending on how long you have owned it. I would suggest trying to rent it out, though. That way, someone else is paying your mobile home payment for you, and you are reaping the benefits of paying down the loan.

Judy

Liz C asked:


I will be purchasing a 4 unit building using residential financing so I’ll need to occupy one of the units in order to qualify for this type of loan. I would like to purchase a single home in the next year and wanted to know how that would affect my loan of the 4 unit since I will have to move out of there.

MITCHELL

shawn w asked:


to me that is really dumb. Why would you pay all interst for your house. I woulnd’t even do a thiryt year mortgage. First fifteen years is all most.ly intrest. I can’t figure it out. Are these same people naive and listen to real estate agents or mortgage brokers. there like any other salesman. Out to make the sale and that’s it.
I understand you can use the money for another investment. However your not likely to get an investment return higher than your interest rate. Without risk anyway. I also know that people can take the arm and try to sell higher than they bought it for. However, how much can a home go up? Homes more than doubled since 2001. My opion is there are alot of naive (dumb) people out there. They listen to the agent that says it will keep on going up and just take any amount of mortgage. I see these insane prices for homes. But average salary’s haven’t gone up much. Also how can you buy ridicuoulsy priced house hoping to get a promotion in the future to pay for it. It sounds insane to me. Or maybe i’m the one crazy

ELTON