Mobile Homes Are Nothing Like Your Grandparents' Trailer

There was a time when people considered mobile homes to be a cheaply built alternative to a traditional, site-built home. Jeremy Wilkenson and his wife were two people who once felt this way. "My grandparents bought a trailer back in the sixties, and they parked it by a lake instead of building a cottage," recalled Jeremy. His memories were of a crowded box with a leaky roof, a tiny bathroom, rattling windows and cheap kitchen cupboards. When the Wilkensons wanted to buy a cottage of their own, they too faced a dilemma, but new mobile homes today are vastly superior to what was available back then and meet or exceed the quality of buildings that are constructed on site.

When the Wilkensons began looking at lakefront vacation properties they were shocked by how much these cottages and homes had increased in cost. One that had sold for a reasonable $50,000 in the 1990s was listing for half a million dollars. The dream of a cottage seemed out of reach for the couple until they heard about factory direct mobile homes through themobilehomestore.com.

While Jeremy's opinion of mobile homes was still clouded by childhood memories, he was an immediate convert after touring the manufacturing facilities where the factory direct mobile homes were being assembled. Besides the fact that new mobile homes are built to tough FEMA regulations that cover all aspects of construction from wiring and heating to weather resistance, the construction process takes place in environmentally controlled facilities, protected from the effects of weather. After watching the expert crews at work, they then toured the village of new mobile home models set up for visitors.

In the end, the Wilkensons got their dream cottage and they saved enough money compared to the other options they'd considered to avoid taking out a second mortgage. They even had enough money left over for a bass boat. They bought a lakefront property that hadn't been developed for a fraction of the price of a lakefront home. Out of the many mobile homes they'd looked at, they chose a Mojave with three bedrooms, Whirlpool appliances and two bathrooms. It was delivered and installed over a weekend. While they call it their cottage, in fact this is a fully functional home and the Wilkensons now plan to sell their house in the city and move to the lake on a full time basis.

About the Author: Joan Waters has written about the housing industry for forty years and chronicled trends like increasing home sizes through the 1970s and 1980s, the spiraling real estate market in the 1990s, the collapse of 2009 and the increasing popularity of new mobile homes in the past decade. As Joan has discovered, home buyers are not only wary of paying more than they need to for new houses, but they're savvy enough to recognize the value proposition of manufactured homes. As a result, factory direct mobile homes are among the most popular choices for new homeowners.