I have been pondering mobile homes on and off for quite some time and I have a question in relation to that: Why?
I mean, you’ve seen a mobile home recently, right? Sixteen, eighteen, even 32 feet wide and somewhere between about 56 feet and 180 yards long. Occasionally, you’ll see a brand new one going down the road in as many as three parts. You can tell it’s new ’cause it’s still wrapped in plastic with that little UPC sticker in the corner. You know, the black and white bar code they ran across the register when the person bought it. These homes can be quite large and not at all what you would call, in any practical terminology, mobile.
Mobile homes did, however, have very honest, humble beginnings. That was back in the early to middle part of the 1900’s when they were unwhincingly known as “trailer houses.” For many families whose livelihood was mobile, like construction workers, harvesting crews, traveling show people,, bank robbers, etc., the trailer was often the only home they knew for quite some time. Whole families lived in these few rooms on wheels. They could work the job and then back the old Dodge up to the house and take off for the next job site only to return in several hours because little Billy wasn’t sleeping in his bed in the trailer but was over at Jeffies’ playing. But then, nothing is perfect.
American tradition, however, led to a continuous increase in the size of the trailer house. In short order you could no longer pull the trailer with the old Dodge. You needed a new Heavy Duty GMC pick-up and a trailer towing package. Then a one ton truck. Soon it was no longer much more convenient to have a trailer house than it was to own, say, the Baja Peninsula. Somewhere in here the idea of the trailer house diverged into two distinct lines: the Mobile Home and the Camper.
Take the camper. Along an evolutionary scale, todays’ camper compares to the original trailer house in the same way a new automobile follows after the first Model T Ford. The idea is the same: basic shelter which is easily transportable from place to place. Naturally, the new camper comes in more sizes with more options and more available luxuries, from a pop–up camper which is essentially a tent that has the additional ability to roll into the lake after you set it up, to a large, split level 5th wheel trailer, which, no matter how you count them, ALWAYS has at least 2 extra wheels (that would be SIX). The advancements in campers have some so far as to have actually moved 180 degrees, from the trailer house to the trailer car. In this case, a large engine moves the camper and the camper pulls a small sport utility vehicle. Or maybe as the units got larger they went from spare tires to spare vehicles.
On the other hand, the original trailer house leads to the modern mobile home in the same way the first stone wheel eventually sired, say, the TV Dinner. Not only is the size different, the whole idea is different. Yes, you can still move your mobile home yourself, provided you are presently an independent hauler with your own Kenworth tractor and a commercial drivers’ license. In any other case it will cost you only slightly less than moving a standard construction 30 x 50 ranch style home with a double garage (basements do cost extra). As a matter of fact, many contractors build conventional homes with the intention of selling them and having them moved to your lot (basements cost extra). The only real difference is the standard home is built on blocks and moved to a foundation, whereas the mobile home is built on a steel frame with wheels, moved to your location and placed in your yard on blocks – kinda’ like that old Buick by your Uncle Frank’s shed.
To be fair, many of today’s mobile homes are quality built, fuel efficient, ergonomically designed homes that are comfortable and pleasurable to live in. These also can be placed on a basement (which costs extra) to make a complete home. Despite this fact, most mobile homes are not placed on the home owner’s lot, but are set in a mobile home court, estate, villa or manor. These are typically large parcels of land – usually recent soybean fields – which are devoid of some of the amenities of your standard home site. Things such as curbs, trees, level ground, character, etc. They do, however, have one redeeming quality for the mobile home owner: they are zoned for mobile homes.
So here’s what you do. You find a nice, large, beautiful double wide mobile home, for which you pay, say, $90,000 (on a 30 year mortgage at 9% interest).. Because of zoning ordinances, you’re not permitted to place it up the hill next to Dr. Hectors’ house so you rent a lot in a mobile home court. Now, since you’re thinking you’re not going to move the darn thing anyway, you build a nice double wide garage with a loft next to your mobile home on a piece of land which does not belong to you. For this you have paid an additional $40,000 not counting the monthly payment you need to make on the lot rent.
Let’s say in three years something comes up and you decide to move. Since it costs so much to relocate the mobile home, not to mention the garage and that concrete floor and driveway, you resolve to sell your home where it is – on someone else’s land. This will likely net you a loss of about 60% from your original investment, not counting any appreciation you may have gained on an actual home, which is probably none because any increase in your real property value would likely be recognized and offset by the realtor fees, legal costs, state and federal taxes, storm door surcharge fees and penalties for the use of chartreuse shag carpet.
So, as you see, the only actual mobile thing about a mobile home seems to be the value, which moves on pretty quickly after you buy the thing.