Why do people dislike mobile homes?

I guess it's the bad rap that goes along w/mobiles.

Depreciation, too. Unsafe also.

Driving across the country you'll see bad trailer parks full of debris, trash, junk cars. This doesn't help the rep.

We have friends who couldn't decide what to build on their acreage so bought a new double wide. That was 7 years ago & its falling apart. Plastic doesn't hold up well.

Patty

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Exactly that. I used to live in one. They fall apart easily, mine was not well insulated. Mostly made of cardboard from what I could tell. Plus being raised in a very tornado prone area makes me scared to death of being in one.

Suprised no one has brought this up;
Not a rap against anything, ment to be enjoyed;
http://www.missouritrailertrash.com/index.html

In my area, there are many trashy people who live in mobile homes. I think that increases the negative stereotype of living in one. We live in a nice double-wide in a very nice rural subdivision right now and are moving out to the homestead in the country and will live in an older single-wide. Since we are intelligent, hard working, clean and educated, people we have spoken with have just assumed that we will be living in the mobile while we are "building" a "real house". They are quite shocked to learn that we intend to be quite happy with our little 800 square foot mobile!

Imagine what they would think if they knew we'll be using a sawdust toilet and taking showers outside NAKED! oh horrors.

Mobile homes are ever bit as good as stick built homes in my book. Of course, being stuck in one during a tornado is not a happy thought. But as evidence in Florida recently, sometimes even a $300,000 house cannot save you.

Donsgal

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I think one of the main reasons people don't like them is snobbery. From many of the comments in this thread you can see it. Things like how mobile homes attract a "certain element", and even ATTRACT tornados? I'd like to see a scientific explanation of that one.
I work with a bozo from Chicago, and he said that one of the things he vowed when he moved down here to Arkansas was that he would NEVER live in a mobile home(I guess he's saying he'd never sink that low ). Maybe some day his house will burn down or he'll end up on the street some other way. If one of his options turns out to be a mobile home, it's nice to know he'd prefer to be homeless than to live in a mobile home. A person SHOULD have standards.
Of course, I have noticed that trash is trash, no matter where it lives, whether it lives in a big white house in Washington, DC, or in a mobile home in a trailer park. I work with plenty of trash, but they don't see it that way. They're too busy looking down their noses at everybody else.

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Having lived in 4 mobile homes before my "ascention" to a huge house in Crown Heights in Oklahoma City, let me tell you my experience. I never had a mortgage on my "trailer trash" homes. I thought that's what we're up to. Zero debt. I had a small mortgage on the big house but the house had needs. So did my Job. I'll take our paid for little previous goat barn against the needs of that banker job and it's assumptions any day. You too, can be weaned from the teat of your "peers". Live simply. Live well.

Oh, by the way, I never lost money on the trailers I bought, lived in, and sold. IN tornado alley in Oklahoma. In this day and age, if you're not insured, and you can be, and you don't pay attention to weather forcasting "Here's your sign"!

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Do the higher classes generally take showers while clothed? I always found that interfered with lathering up! Yep, I also am one of those degenerates that gets nekked to shower. Maybe there should be a poll to find out who bathes clothed and who showers/bathes in their birthday suit?

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I live in a mobile home and am very pleased with it. It's well made, pretty well insulated and has enough storage room for DH and I. If we were to move to a house it would be no larger than this mobile home. I think 1000 square feet of space is plenty for two people.

The stigma that people attach to people who live in mobile homes as trailer trash just shows the mentality of some people. If a person is going to live like trash they'll do so whether they live in a mobile home or in a stick built house.

People dislike mobile homes because they are generally cheap and low grade construction that falls apart.

People like mobile homes because they are generally cheap and mean you have a home.

There are a lot of mobile homes around here.
There are a lot of really ugly, deteriorating mobile homes around here.
But they are homes and better than nothing on a -20°F night.
Frankly, a good mobile home is probably tighter than my old farm house. :}

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In my opinion, that statement just feeds into the mentality about mobile homes. Some mobile homes are cheap and have poor trashy people who live in them. Some homes are expensive and have rich trashy people who live in them.

I wouldn't want to live in a trailer park any more than I'd like to live in a ghetto apartment.

I have seen mobile homes that looked pretty darn nice. No clue as to the quality of construction. But if I were to live in one, you can be certain I'd want it on a nice hunk of land and not in a trailer park. Does this really need explaining? They are not places most people choose to go if they can afford not to. I am sure some people end up with awesome neighbors, and that's a relief, because honestly, I'd think it would be a big gamble. The risk of getting bad neighbors, and several of them, goes up with the amount of people crowded into a small area. No offense meant to people here who live in them, but even those in decent trailer parks are mentioning the lack of privacy issue.

And if the mobile homes are on a private piece of land? All the better, though there is still the bad reputation. Not so of well kept mobile homes - but there is a much greater likelihood of finding mobile homes with a mound of trash that the owners refuse to clean up or pay to remove, compared to owners of regular houses. It may be that the trash issue would be more prevalent in the inner city if there weren't city codes, codes that might not exist out in the sticks.

I don't think less of anyone who lives in a mobile home. But there is an element of truth in the bad reputation, and it's too bad that it's that concentration of bad apples that ruin it for everyone else. Whenever I've gone travelling and noticed mobile homes, I gotta say that as many as half of them were eyesores. Even old, beat up homes can look quaint and cheery surrounded by flower gardens instead of auto parts and junk yard treasures. If they want to live like slobs they are entitled to do so, they certainly don't need anyone's approval if codes permit it, which is good considering that "snobs" like me don't approve of such a lack of pride.

I've heard of this but never researched it. My understanding was that a mobile home doesn't attract a tornado but a tightly packed park of mobiles may attract them. It had to do with all the tightly packed flat reflective roofs heating the air above them making it more likely to "draw" a tornado in their direction.

This could of course be totally wrong. A tightly packed mobile park can be utterly destroyed in a tornado and that makes good TV so thats why we see it in the news everytime it happens. A tornado ripping up a field just isn't that exciting.

<edit> A little googling says that I'm wrong it's just a case of trailers are more easily damaged making for good tv. Parks don't actually attract tornado's </edit>

Alrighty, I read through most of this thread with interest. I guess my experience is a bit different than many. Where I live is a very rural county with low employment. There really aren't any trees, it's semi desert. Most new homes are manufactured homes.

We bought a place in town, nicely located for us, very cheaply 15 years ago. It had a double wide on it that needed some work, but how often do you buy a place for $25,000? It was cheaper than our car! The trailer wasn't in great shape, we didn't have a lot to fix it up with, but it was neat and clean and convenient.

When we were able to (seven years ago), we replaced it with a new triple wide manufactured home. It is large, we were able to have the design changed to suit us. It is gorgeous inside. The exterior walls are 2" by 6" construction, etc. You don't look at it and say "trailer" at all.

The good things about it - customized design, quit a bit less expensive for the square footage (about 2700), it was put in in a month or so after ordering it. It is financed on a conventional bank loan at very good rates and it is appreciating in value. It is a home.

The bad things - it isn't fully "square", some of the walls are off of true. That is just going to happen, I think, because it had to be moved in three pieces and assembled on site. Things like the kitchen cabinets are oak, but cheap oak with a poor finish. The vinyl flooring is cheap and needs replacing in the kitchen. I like the Berber carpet a lot, but its raveling at the seams, leaving us with ugly holes in it. The finish details are not the cheapest, but certainly not the highest quality.

Those things said, this house is very comfortable and spacious on the inside. It is solid and built like a "stick" house for basic construction. It is very energy efficient and not the least drafty. It was put down on concrete runners with super heavy duty tie downs. I am not worried about storms in it. I'd say it's as stable as a stick built house.

In this county there are cheap "trailers" (old worn out single and double wides) and also a lot of housing that happens to be mobile homes, which are quite accepted as normal housing. I heard a statistic that 97% of the new houses in our county are manufactured homes. We are a long way from anyone that builds houses here, that makes a difference too. Everything would have to be shipped in to our small remote town, might as well ship the premade house in!

Overall, while we plan to do some remodeling in the kitchen (upgrades because we had a leak into the floor in the laundry room and need to redo the floors), we are very happy with the house itself. The details can be replaced with upgrades. We could not have afforded a stick built house that meets our needs so well as this home.

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In our area, there are at least 3 times as many lots selling reposessed mobile homes than there are lots selling new mobile homes (manufactured homes to be pc). That should tell you something.

That said, I definitely do not hate them and think they offer a great alternative to site-built housing for lots of folks.

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This pertains to Missisippi but is interesting: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070214/...a_state_farm_3

Hands-down reason, from someone who had two go in right next to my farm: They lowered my farm's appraised value by $20,000 the day they were planted. Hey, those folks are friends and neighbors. They used to live in a spot 5 acres away from me. But I sure hated to see them move those there. When I heard they would prep the ground for mobile homes, I immediately offered them double the market value of the raw land to buy it. They said no, and I took the $20,000 hit to values.

Now the double-whammy. That was a hit to my SALE value, so I still pay taxes on the same assessment.

Fact is, stick-built homes appreciate in value, but a mobile home is like a car...it depreciates over time. They are not a good investment, either, for that reason. You are better off buying stick-built. And keeping away from proximity to trailers.

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Sweetpea Farms
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I bought a brand spankin new house trailer 4 years ago. Put it on a 70 acre farm until we could build a house. The fumes in the home were so bad that we could not live into it. Oh, we had it tested and it tested out fine according to the State code. But I got sick, mother got sick and so did my husband. We tried removing the carpet thinking it was that. Didn't work. It was the whole trailer. Walls, glue etc. I would never try to live in one again. Go look on the internet about mobile homes. Educate yourself before putting your health into danger.

I have a doublewide, not my preference but couldn't buy a regular house. I absolutely refused to rent as that is totally wasting money and will give nothing back in the end.

As far as quality of people living in parks I know that can very greatly from place to place but the one I live in is in the twin cities metro area in Minnesota and believe me even if a persons mobile is paid for the amount lot rent is still requires a person to be working class. Not parttime either.

I don't know of anybody the says as they are growing up,
" I can't wait to grow up and get me one of those mobil homes"!
Am I wrong?