Manufactured/trailer/mobile homes have come a long way over the years and are certainly worth looking into if you have a lot of Parks in your area to put one in...or alot of unrestricted lots that are reasonable too. I enjoyed my years of living in one when I was just starting out with my Family and my ex's job moved us every few years. The Company would pay to move our single wide mobile home too...so wherever we went we still felt we were home since our home had come with us. Later when my ex got the promotion he wanted and we settled down in one place, we bought a piece of property and moved our mobile home on that. Then we built our home on a slab and lived in our mobile home until it was ready to move in. We sold our mobile home to a nice young couple just starting out too and blessed them with a good deal on it...just like we had gotten when we bought it. If you do some research on mobile homes now you will find some of them are actually built better than many slab homes. They do have to be built to the code of where you will be living and States have different codes for this. Mobile homes are hooked up to city water and sewage or if in the country you might have a septic tank but your water and electricity will usually be just like with any slab home. In Florida you can find alot of retirement communities consisting of manufactured homes and many of them are quite nice.
I am in Canada and living in a mobile home community. It is an affordable lifestyle alternative to home ownership as a small lot rent rather than having a mortgage on a conventional home frees up cash. And if a person is in a position to have a good chunk of change left over after selling a home and buying the smaller mobile so much the better. We are connected to a sewer, have forced air heat and air, my kitchen and bathroom are totally updated. And I can relax on the patio after putting the dishes in the dishwasher. You can't do that in most apartments, your balcony usually overlooks a parking lot. I admit to thinking about the idea of a fifth wheel and touring around but once you reach a certain age then medical problems can and do surface. If that happens I would need a home to recouperate in.
We are thinking of buying a motor home. It's an older one, but not ancient, and I think we can get it at a good price. Our neighbor, who is an auctioneer, tells us that the owners need to sell because they're moving to a senior apartment building, and will have no space to store it.
When we moved out here from Idaho, we had the little dogs to bring along with us, and knew it might be difficult to find a place where we could have the dogs if we tried to stay in motels at night; we we sold everything that could be replaced, and bought an older motor home. It was one of the Dodge cabover types, and we stored all of the lightweight stuff up in the cabover and slept on the bed that was made from where the dining table was. I set up the dog crates on the other side, and the dogs loved it ! They could see out the window as we drove along, and we stopped for exercise/bathroom breaks for them, and then stayed at campgrounds along the way as we drove out. The motor home was about a 1975 vintage, but it had just over 50k miles on the motor, and we didn't have any problems at all driving all the way across the country from Idaho to Alabama, and we really enjoyed the whole trip. We and the dogs were all ready to unload when we finally got out here; but over-all, it was a good choice for us. I don't think that I would want to live in one permanently because it would be a lot of traveling ; but the idea is not without possibilities.
We are looking to get out of Millinocket. Not so much because there's anything so much the matter with Millinocket but we'd like to have a place nearer to our camp up north, but where we have utilities. We looked at a place a few months ago. I think I mentioned it somewhere in the forum, but it didn't work out. He wanted too much for it and we don't want to get into another mortgage at this point in our lives. We're now thinking of buying a plot of land somewhere where utilities will be available, and buying a small place from the Amish that we can make into a small home, maybe a bit larger than what most people consider a tiny house but much smaller than we have now. That's something we could afford without having to go into debt and, if necessary, we could buy it as we can afford it: the land first, then the building, etc.
This site looks helpful Ken http://purelivingforlife.com/ultimate-resource-guide-living-off-the-grid/
You've probably seen this already ; <iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Then there's the cost ; <iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
We have been blessed living in the gated apartment place for over 5 years. It is quite, clean, and well kept- unfortunately, it costs us dearly and not sure how much longer we can afford. At one time we lived -for 12 years- in a mobile home. Finally decided we had enough of that, lot rent kept going up and the neighborhood was going way down. We searched for years, about RV living, but finally had my hubby realize, we would not make it that way, as he saves too much crap. The complex we live in has a garage, and that is where he does all his wood working. Wherever we move, must have a garage.
When I had my propertyup in Idaho, I started with just empty land, and land that had been logged over; so there was a lot of bare ground, stumps, and what was left of the slash piles. I picked one of the bare spots, bought an old single-wide trailer and had that moved in. For the first winter, I had no electricity or water, and almost froze to death in the below-zero weather. By the next summer, I had power put in; but it was another year before i could afford to have water hooked up, and I hauled it home every day in barrels in the back of my pickup truck. In the winter, I hauled buckets of snow inside, filled up the bathtub with snow, and let it melt overnight; so I didn’t have to pack in water during the cold winter months. While I would still like to be living in a more private place and not in the middle of town, it would not be practical for us to even try and start over like this anymore. Having a trailer house on a lot that had outbuildings would be a good start in having a place that we both enjoy though.
I've owned several mobile homes as well as several stick-built conventional homes. We bought this mobile home in 2005 as our forever home and we love it! I'll tell you why. First of all, it's all on one level, the washer and dryer are in a small utility room on the same floor, there are no stairs to climb which is great for disabled people. We live in a senior mobile home park on the city limits so we are close to the hospital and medical care as well as shopping. Our park is well cared for. We pay a small monthly space rent and for that we get a small yard, landscaping maintenance of common greenspace and trees, winter snow clearing and sanding, they even do my driveway! The company also provides water and city sewer and outdoor lighting. Our home was 9 years old when we bought it and it is 14' X 70' with a 13' X 68' addition that provides a carport in front, a large covered deck in the center, and two rooms in the back, one a small mud room and a larger bedroom in back. Altogether there are 1300 Sq, Ft. enclosed, plenty for two old folks. For those concerned about the quality of construction, I think it is very good with a heavily insulated base on a steel box frame, 6" insulated walls, conventional pitch roof with asphalt shingles and a foot of insulation in the ceiling. The addition is contractor built, and entirely separate building alongside the mobile home with a connecting doorway sharing electrical and heating connection. It is also heavily insulated as is necessary in Canada. After we moved in, we added whole-home air conditioning because we are wimps and like our comfort. We really like the layout with a bedroom at each end, an ensuite bathroom and another bathroom at the other end. This layout eliminates hallways, always a huge waste of space. I've turned the addition bedroom into a multi-use room, It has a large futon that can be opened into a comfortable queen size bed or it can be my hobby room the rest of the time. I store three mobility scooters there, my exercise bike, and a large work table with a computer chair. Outside is a small shop that I use for my many small projects in summer.