How to find a GOOD DEAL on a Manufactured Home.

I worked for a manufactured home dealer in Oregon for about 4 years. One of my jobs was to find people that were interested in selling their manufacture homes. My other job was to find people that were interested in purchasing manufactured homes. As a manufactured home dealer we were only licensed to buy, list and sell manufactured homes only. Because we were not licensed to sell land 90% of the manufactured homes that i listed and sold were in manufactured home communities.

When working with a potential buyer I would always try to get at the very specifics of what they were looking for. The first thing that I would ask is where do you want to live? How big of a home are you looking for, 2 or 4 bedrooms act. Would you like to live in a family park or 55+ park for people that are 55yrs of age and older. Is it important to you to have a clubhouse and pool or does it even matter. Once I figured out what they were looking for I would find out how much they had to spend on a manufacture home based on their down payment, credit and income. Now would be a good time for you to put a list together about what it is that you are looking for. Price, Size, act.

TIME TO GO SHOPPING.

Now that I know what I am looking for the 1st thing that I am going to do, is see what listings my company has available that would fit their needs. If we did not have any thing available I would start to call other Manufactured Home Brokers and see if they had anything that fit my clients needs. If you have a computer just type into a search engine the name of the town or city that you live in and add the word mobile home dealer or manufactured home broker. Example: Manufactured Home Brokers Portland Oregon, Manufactured Home Dealers Vancouver Washington, or replace the word Manufactured Home with Mobile Home. Once your search produces a list just start calling these dealers and ask them if they have what you are looking for. Don’t forget to go to ( http://rmls.com/RC2/UI/Home.asp ) and do a quick search as well.


Next I would start shopping on line. I would start at Craig’s list.
( www.craigslist.com ) Click on the city that is near where you live, click on Housing, click on Real Estate For Sale, put Mobile Home or Manufactured Home in the Search For Box and then put the Maximum that you are willing to pay for a home in the Price Box and hit SEARCH. This is a very good site because it is FREE for anyone to place a listing.

Now it is time to go to the local penny newspapers like the Nickel Ads
( http://www.nickelads.com ) Click on Real Estate: Sale, scroll down to Sub Categories and high light Manu., Mobile Homes and hit SEARCH. This is a good site because it is not that expensive for the average JO to list his mobile home for sale.

Now it is time do a search for you Local Community Newspapers. In your search engine type in News Papers and the name of YOUR TOWN and hit search. Example: if I typed in Newspapers Camas Washington into a search engine I will get Camas Washougal Post Record. Once you find the news papers that are in your area just click on the link to the Newspaper, click on Real Estate For Sale, go to the sub categories and click on mobile home or manufactured home listings and you will see what mobile homes are for sale in that publication. If you live close to a major metropolitan area don’t forget to look at the classified section of the major newspapers like the Oregonian in Portland and the Seattle Times in Seattle. These big news papers over lap a lot of smaller towns and communities.

If you still have not found a manufactured home that meets your need it is time to get into your car and start driving to the Manufactured Home Communities. You can get a list of all of the manufactured home communities in Oregon by clicking on (http://o.hcs.state.or.us/MDPCRParks/ParkDirQuery.jsp ) then start you search. For a list of Parks in Washington State click here: (http://www.mobilehome.net/communities/wa/index.htm ). I am not sure how good the Washington State list is. The yellow pages are also a good place to find listing of the mobile home parks in your city.

Now that you have found a list of the manufactured home parks in your area you might want to start off by calling the Park Manages and ask them if they know of any one in their community that would like to sell their manufactured home. Park Managers can be one of your very best resources. Next I would get into my car and start driving around in the manufactured home communities that are in your area. Make a list of all of the For Sale Homes in the Park that you would like to get some info on. If the park manager is available stop and say hi and let them know what you are looking for. They usually know of people that would like to sell but have not bothered to put up a sigh. Make sure to write the name of the park down when you drive in and put your For Sale list under the Parks name otherwise you will loose all track of where you saw that home. When I went through parks I would carry my digital camera and take a picture of the sign that has the parks name on it and a picture of the homes that I was interested in.

Next weeks article will be " What to do after you have found a Manufactured home that you are interested in".

Please let me know if this was help full information and feel free to leave questions or comments.

Ron Hopkins