Braustin Mobile Homes
For many people buying a home on a secluded, quiet piece of land with an amazing view is the ultimate goal. No neighbors, traffic, or noise. The tough part about making this dream happen is knowing which route to go to purchase the land and home together. This can be a very intimidating task.
Often, our team is asked how to go about this process so we put together a list of the options you will have as well as some tips to make the process go as smooth as possible.
1.) Buy land from a manufactured retailer
It is very common for retailers to have land they have purchased and will resell to customers. This process can get you land much faster without having to do all the additional shopping around. The down side to using this option is that the retailer has bought the land at the same price you could have bought it for but they now have thrown on their marked up cost to make a profit. If you have the time and patience to search for land then this would not be the route to go.
2.) Owner financed land
If you do not have the credit available to purchase land from the bank a great option would be to find a piece of property where the owner will finance the cost of the land with a low down payment. Depending on the seller you may pay a little more in interest but, in the future when you qualify you can get a loan from the bank for the land at lower rate. Owner financing the land will help you to own the land immediately.
To get the seller to hold the land while you go through the approval process for the home you can leave a down payment, or earnest money (Always, make sure you get everything in writing). You do not want to finalize the purchase of the land until you have closed on your loan with the bank for your home.
One down side to going this route would be that you would not be able to finance all the land and utility work (base pad, water, electric, sewage, etc.) into the loan so this would most likely have to be paid from you out of pocket. A way to avoid this would be to find a piece of land where a home has been on before and that already has everything set up and ready to have a home delivered.
3.) Let a realtor help you find land
The ideal option when finding land would be to use a realtor that is familiar with the area you want to live. This route would prevent you from paying a higher interest rate for owner financing and keeps the cost low instead of paying for the retailer's mark ups.
To go this direction you would need a pre approval from the bank where you are getting the mobile home from. Let your sales rep for the mobile home know you want to have the land included with the loan of the home. You would need to tell them the area you want to live as well as the desired land size. With this information they will estimate how much the total project will be and get you preapproved from the bank.
Once you have the approval, a realtor can do all the hard work for you and narrow down a few options to look at. Usually the manufactured home retailer will have relationships with realtors they trust. If you decide to use your own realtor do not do an application with them, as most the banks do not work with manufactured home loans, and very few realtors are familiar with the manufactured home loan process. Let your mobile home retailer be the expert when working with the banks
Another positive when going the direction of having the land and home on the loan is that you can include most site and utility work needed. No need to pay a huge contractor bill upfront.
I speak from experience since it was not that long ago that my wife and I went through the process of buying a new mobile home. Even though I have lived in a mobile home more than half of my life, the process of building our own was an eye opener.
For us, the shopping experience was probably our biggest point of frustration. My wife and I went to so many different shops and they were all the same. Do you have land? How much of a down payment do you have? Lets run your credit! The bank has an application fee/deposit to get numbers from them.
I couldn't understand the interrogation. I mean this is my home we were talking about. I know it's just a box to them but I planned on starting my marriage in this home and using this as an investment later down the line.
Things changed when we found the right man who sold me our home. I felt that he really listened and understood the pit falls of how others try to do business. We felt comfortable and never rushed or pressured to make a rash decision. That made our decision of who to work with real easy.
The next frustration was dealing with getting conditions cleared. The bank asked for reasonable things like my ID, social security card and stuff. Then they needed to talk to my employer. At the time, I worked for the state so that took longer than I wanted to for them reach my supervisor, but it finally got taken care of.
Closing was easy just a lot of signing. I can't remember how many times I signed my name or initials. They explained everything and answered every question my wife and I had. Believe me there were a lot.
Then we just had to wait to get the home delivered. We went with a lot model due to time. We paid a little more but it wasn't much to get our home faster. We still felt that we got the best deal even after shopping the same home with other dealers.
Once the home got there I needed to get it connected and this is where my frustration peaked. Getting the water and septic was no issue. We did it ourselves with help from family and it was really just plug and play. The electric on the other hand was a different story. I had to wait on both my electrician and the electric company to do their parts. And one could not move forward till the other did their job. I thought it would take a couple days to get taken care but ended up being a couple weeks.
At the end of the day we finally got everything taken care of and the AC was set up. We had a fully functioning home and we loved it.
The frustration came mainly from my own impatience and with things that were out of mine or the mobile home company's control. Just like in life you are sometimes at the mercy of someone else time.
I love my mobile home and now know what to expect when I do it all over again when our family grows and we need more space. Frustration is all perspective, but if you can remember: Can I control it? Can I affect the outcome? If the answer is no then the answer is just time and hoping you picked the right company to take care of you/and your family through one of the most important financial decision of your life.
