Mobile Homes

Mobile homes today are a far cry from what they were just a few years ago when they developed the (well deserved) reputation for being cheap, tinny boxes. The three inch, minimally insulated walls, the shoddy materials and even shoddier workmanship, the aluminum electrical wiring - all those are things of the past. Go to any dealer nowadays and you will find a lot full of solid, well built and tastefully appointed examples of “Manufactured Housing”. Placed on solid foundations at ground level, these new double and triple wide homes are a viable alternative to site-built homes in many areas.

Shopping for used mobile homes, however, you face the entire range of what’s out there. You can find homes that you can buy, have delivered, set-up and move into for under $1,000. Usually though, most of us will buy a larger, nicer, newer home for a lot more money. The under $1,000 home generally winds up being fiction, in the long run. They’re out there and you can find them, but you almost always get what you pay for. For that kind of money you will usually buy a smaller, older home from an individual (not a dealer) - one that will probably not meet code in most areas and will almost always need a lot of work.

In the Kingman/Golden Valley area, most mobile homes must be HUD approved - generally manufactured after late 1978 - before you can get a building permit that will allow you to move it on to a property and get it ready for habitation. In other parts of Mohave County that is not the case and you can use older mobile homes.

There are at least five mobile home dealers in Kingman, a couple in Golden Valley and several more in Bullhead City, so you can get a pretty good idea of what’s available in this area in a pretty short time. Also, there are several independent contractors who move and/or set-up mobile homes. One of the interesting things we found out is that you frequently don’t buy the axles and wheels when you purchase a used mobile home - they are furnished by the mover and he takes them with him when he leaves.

We also discovered that it's much easier to get financing on a double wide than it is on a single wide. If you plan on paying cash, that isn't a problem but if you plan to sell in the future (and who knows?) it may become important. I guess the thinking of the lenders is that you might borrow some axles somewhere, hook your (mortgaged) single wide on to your Model A and drag it back to Oklahoma, or somewhere they couldn't find it. But if you bought a double wide you'd have to do it twice, and maybe you'd be too lazy to do that. Or something.