Financial Options Available When Buying a Mobile Home

Financial Options Available When Buying a Mobile Home

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Getting approval to buy a home can be difficult to do, especially if you have limited funding available or if you have damaged your credit history in the past. Many people who are looking to start off their life on the right foot or who are looking to start over again, often find that mobile homes are a great option to consider. A mobile home provides you with a great place to live without the high price tag that comes with traditional stick-built houses.

Save Money Over Time

Since mobile homes aren’t overly expensive, many people choose to save up their money over time and pay for them outright. It often takes just a few years to be able to afford to buy a mobile home without any financing through a private lender at all. If you want to pay for a home outright, it’s a good idea to do some research before you even start saving. You need to know exactly how much the home will cost, including transportation costs and the cost to purchase or rent a piece of property to put the home on. This allows you to know how much you truly need to save in order to reach your goal.

Borrow Money from Friends and Family

If you have a poor credit rating or have no credit history at all, it can sometimes be difficult to get a loan to buy a house. This is where friends and family can sometimes come into play. Your friends and family may allow you to borrow money to buy a mobile home since they aren’t overly expensive to buy.

You need to be sure that you establish how much you are going to buy from them and how much your payments will be to them each month before agreeing to borrow the money. You need to be diligent in paying the money back as money can create chaos in a relationship if it is not paid back the way that it was promised to be. It’s a good idea to put everything in writing so that the person you are borrowing money from knows that you are serious about paying the money back to them.

Rent to Own the Mobile Home

Many people who own mobile homes don’t want to have to go through the hassle of selling the home and having someone move it. They will often choose to rent out their homes in the location where it stands instead of selling it. If you find a home that is available for rent that you really like, talk to the homeowner about possibly renting to own the home. You will pay a fee each month, and a portion of the fee that you pay will go toward the purchase of the home.

It’s important to make sure that a contract is created by a lawyer that ensures that it is clearly stated how much of the payment you make each month goes toward the cost of purchasing the house. The agreement also needs to state the final cost of purchasing the home and if the property that the home sits on is included in the purchase. If the home is located in a mobile home community, you can choose to continue living in the same place or have the home moved once you finish paying for it.

Owner-Finance the Home

If you want to purchase a home and don’t want to worry about the hassle of renting it, look for a mobile home that is available with an owner financing option. When someone owns a mobile home that they no longer want, they often allow people to pay for it over time.

The owner may allow you to move into the home before you finish paying for it, but many times they require a large sum of the home to be paid for before allowing you to move into it. This is because they are taking such a risk to offer to finance on their own. They will charge an interest rate for the financing and expect you to pay a minimum payment each month toward the home. It will work the same way that it would if you got a mortgage from a traditional lender, only your credit history more than likely won’t come into play.

Traditional Home Loan

Traditional lenders are banks or mortgage brokers who specialize in the financing of homes. They will offer you the ability to pay for the mobile home over time but may require you to put down a down payment for the home. Traditional lenders do take your credit history into account and will often need to know how much money you make each month, what your other outstanding debts are, and take a few weeks or even months to approve your loan. They will charge interest on the loan, but many lenders will allow you to pay off your debt quickly in order to avoid some of the interest charges that come with the loan. It is often much easier to get approval for a traditional loan when buying a mobile home because their asking price for the homes is a fraction of what a stick-built house will be.

You will need to prove to a traditional lender that the home is in good condition and is habitable. They may send an inspector to the home to look it over before approving your home loan. This is to ensure that they aren’t putting their money at risk by lending money towards a home that you won’t actually be able to live in once you get the loan.

Once you get financing for the home, you can go through with the purchase of the property. A mobile home can be a great starter home because it often doesn’t put people into as much of a financial bind as stick-built homes do. They are also very easy to upkeep, and because of the small size it often doesn’t take as much money to furnish them as traditional homes do.

Tips for Choosing the Right Size Mobile Home for Your Family

Tips for Choosing the Right Size Mobile Home for Your Family

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When you decide that a mobile home is the right housing option for you, it can be hard to know what size mobile home to buy. There are so many options that are on the market that there are a few factors that you have to take into consideration. The most common options for mobile homes are single, double, and even triple wide homes. The following guide walks you through the things that you need to consider to ensure that you invest in the right size mobile home for you.

Consider Where the Home Will be Located

The first thing you need to do is determine where the home will be located. Once you buy a mobile home, you need to have a piece of property to put it on. If you plan to move into a mobile home community, there may be a limitation on how large of a mobile home you can have. Determining where you plan to put the home before buying it ensures that you do not invest in one that is larger than you are allowed to have.

Consider How Many Bedrooms You Need

Mobile homes are often starter homes for many couples. They are inexpensive and provide the ability to relocate if needed. When buying a mobile home, you need to consider how many bedrooms you need a house to have. If you have children, you want to be sure that there is enough space for them to be able to live comfortably within the home. If you don’t have kids yet, but plan to have them in the near future, be sure to choose a home that is large enough for your growing family when you are buying it. Adding onto a mobile home isn’t as easy to do as adding onto a stick-built home would be.

Consider the Number of Bathrooms You Want the Home to Have

The number of bathrooms the mobile home will have will be dependent on its size. Single-wide mobile homes traditionally only have a single full-sized bathroom. Double wide will often have a single full-sized bathroom and a half bath or two full-sized bathrooms. A triple-wide could have as many as three bathrooms or two full-sized bathrooms and a half bath. If you have a large family, having a single bathroom may create a lot of chaos within the family because everyone may need to get ready at one time, and there won’t be enough space for that to happen.

Consider the Laundry Space within the Mobile Home

Many single-wide homes on the market have a laundry space added to the bathroom of the home or in the kitchen. This can make doing the laundry difficult because those are spaces that are commonly occupied within a home. You need to consider if you want a separate space dedicated to your laundry. If you do, you may need to invest in a double or triple wide home so that you can have a dedicated laundry room to do your laundry.

Consider the Kitchen You Want to Have

The kitchen in mobile homes can sometimes be quite small. If you have a small family or don’t cook often, a smaller kitchen may work out fine for you. If you have a larger family or enjoy cooking, a small kitchen may make you feel cramped or limit your ability to cook the way that you want to cook. Double and triple-wide homes often have much larger kitchens than single-wide home options. This allows you to have larger and more appliances than you would have in a single-wide home. For example, single-wide homes often do not have a dishwasher, but larger home options do.

Consider the Storage You Need Available to You

When you own a home, there are always items that you need to be able to store away to use at a later time. Single-wide mobile homes often have very limited storage space in them. Larger homes have more closet space, and some even have pitched roofs that create attic space for you to be able to store items overhead when they aren’t being used. You need to consider how many items you really need to store before buying any mobile home.

Consider the Common Space Your Family Needs

You want your family to be able to spend time together regularly to ensure that your family bond is as strong as it can be. If you live in a smaller home, it can feel cramped at times because the common area in the home will be limited. If you have a large family, choosing a double or triple-wide home may be a good option for you because the common areas in the home are often much larger than that of a single-wide home. This provides you with the ability to add multiple seating options in the house and ensure that no one feels cramped when they come to visit.

Consider the Cost You Can Afford to Pay

One of the most important things you need to consider when choosing the right size mobile home for your family is the cost that you can afford to pay for the house. The cost of a double or triple-wide is much higher than the cost of a single-wide mobile home. It’s best to get preapproval for a home before you even start house hunting to ensure that you know what your budget is. This allows you to narrow down your options and determine if the size of your home is worth more to you than the updated features that a smaller home may offer for the same cost.

Before choosing any home, it’s a good idea to take a tour of the model homes that the dealer has to offer. You will be able to physically walk through the homes so that you can accurately gauge if a home is going to be the right size for you and if you like the layout of the home before you buy it. This ensures that you are going to be as happy as possible with the investment that you make.