any trailer park residents?

[El Chivo]

Last time I went out to hike I noticed the nearby trailer park had a new sign, space available and trailers for sale.

Since then it has gotten me thinking about moving out there. I'd be living in the Angeles and could step out the door and be hunting. That's where I go when I get the chance, I'd already be there. I'd have a long drive to work but would save on rent.

I've always lived in apartments, never owned anything or lived in a trailer. Any experiences?

[Hobie]

I always had the feeling that there were lots of holes I didn't know about and that it wasn't all that resistant to wind. I don't see much difference from living cheek by jowl with others in an apartment or living cheek by jowl in a trailer.

[AJMD429]

A trailer out on a rural lot would be more fun than a trailer in a trailer-park, that's for sure...

Some folks around where we are (zoning won't allow trailers outside trailer parks) put old trailers they get cheap due to roof leaks, etc. inside pole barns (unseen by the inspectors) so they have comfy living quarters while they're waiting to build their 'real' house.

[Ysabel Kid]

My BIL lived in a trailer for several years, but on his own land. He spent those years building his own house from timber cleared on the same land. Only stuff he bought was the stuff he couldn't make. IIRC, his log home is about 2000 square feet, and he owed something like $25K on it when it was all said and done!

[Lobo]

Hi All,

I lived in trailers twice. The first time when I was in college and shortly after....five years all together. The trailer was twelve feet by sixty feet and big enough for two. It was situated in a park with about fifty others, so you had neighbors you needed to co-exist with, grass to mow, car to wash, flowers to tend.... all those things you would be doing if you owned a house in a city or town. The second trailer was on eighty acres of reclaimed strip-mines....just me, the cat and the dog. My trailer was ten feet by fifty feet, and sat across the access to the old mining site. Rent on the lot was cheap, but it was an old trailer and I learned all kinds of plumbing, and building skills. I lived there for eight years. Deer and turkey could be shot from the front step if I'd wanted to.

[bdhold]

used to have a girlfriend who lived on 40 acres or so with a trailer.
No complaints, except when the wind howled.

[Blaine]

Old double wide, 1600sf, Old fanny burp Park, not all jammed together. Quiet. Nice. Real cheap.

[mikld]

Wife and I have lived in a Mobile Home (not a trailer!) for the last 17 years, Defineately not a come-down from a house or apt. We lived in a Senior only park near Los Angeles for 16 years and loved it (except the Los Angeles part!). The park has 2 tennis courts, 2 hot tubs, a large heated pool, a dedicated card room (the old pharts liked to play bridge), a small exercise room, a billiards room w/2 tables, a 3/4 acre putting green, two full time maintenance men, and security. Mobile Home living has all the good of both houses and apartments an few of the bad (unless you want a 1/2 acre to mow every weekend). No ajoining walls as an apt. No lawn or outdoor tasks (we had beautiful white rocks! And wife had potted plants and roses for our MH). Our home was 1600 sq. ft., 2 bdrm, 2 bath, den, living room, etc, and once you were inside, you couldn't tell you were in a "trailer". Yep, we paid space rent but it was way worth it, and no property taxes 'cause we registered the MH with the DMV; $52 per year. Our present home in Oregon is a bit smaller @ 1450 sq. ft. in a senior park between the ocean and the green hills. 90% of the home fixtures and construction are the same as stick built homes. Definately no "Trailer Trash" around here.



If the home you're looking at is in the Angeles Nat'l forest, at some time or other it will prolly be burned out in one of the yearly massive brush fires. But do check it out, it may be worth owning a MH for your lifestyle...

Edit/added; In CA, Mobile Homes are required to have Earth Quake Bracing installed. Both of my homes have it , both CA and OR.

[Hankster]

Bought this 14X70 "Manufactured" home back in 91... it was an 81 model. Owners bought a house and wanted to sell. I negotiated a "Down payment& pay off the note" deal with them. Cost me like 17,XXX total. Pulled it from the "park" it was in to our own ground after 3 years, added on to the front, 14' wide, full length. Gained a BIG living room with woodstove/heat.. 1 BR..and a Tack room and storage room enterable on the outside... out BACK I added on 12' deep by 24' long addition... Kitchen pantry with freezer in it, a storage room, and rear entry/gun room with my reload stuff etc.. Not bad for 17,XXX plus the materials bought as I went to do the rest.... Home and land free and clear at 37 years old! Keep the place fixed and maintained.... it'll last till i'm gone! Interior remodeled as well.... smallest br is now home office, old LR, took wall out, now have BIG Kitchen/DR use your imagination, fixit skills, and you can have a lot of housing on the CHEAP!! And the "pole barn/roof over someone else mentioned is a REAL good idea!! Keeps you WAY cooler in the summer! The "Mobile home" got a bad rap for storm damage, because the cheapskate idiots building "trailer parks" put them on FLAT LAND (usually bulldozed) with NO TREES for wind protection etc.... I'm in the WOODS.... we've had 70+mph winds here.... forest breaks it up, and other than HEARING it, you'd never know other wise..... nope, it doesn't shake/move.. especially with all the "add on" structure!!

link to a picture of our "hut".... few years back, late fall/early winter
http://www.motrailblazing.com/images/Ho ... es_001.jpg

[Nath]

Jayne and I lived in a small one when we got married, the small size was not a problem then Nowadays we would want a bigger one.

We would live in one tomorrow if we had the cash, we love them

Nath.

[Charles]

If my choices were either an apartment or a trailer in a park, I would take the trailer.

[jnyork]

It will depend on the trailer and the park. Some folks live in very nice RV resorts, 55+ developments with mobile homes, etc, these can be very nice indeed and definitly preferable to apartment living. Yet, if you live there, some folks will refer to the place as a "trailer camp" and to you as "trailer trash". Still, there ARE such places as "trailer camps" populated by "trailer trash", no doubt about it.

Your best bet is to do some looking around and talking to people on the ground, check out several parks to get a good idea of what's going on in the industry in your locale.

I would live in a tent under the overpass before I would live in an apartment.

[jlchucker]

Anybody ever watch that TV series entitled "Trailer Park Boys"?

[Rusty]

The wife and I started married life in a trailer we bought second hand from our BIL. It was a dandy. It had plywood floors copper wires and soft copper plumbing with compression fittings. we sold that and bought a double wife which we lived in for 20 + years. It was nowhere near the quality. One thing you'll need to find if you buy one is a parts supplier since very little of the plumbing, electrical or mechanical things in a trailer, coach, mobile home, or whatever you want to call it can be replaced with off the shelf items from the big box home stores.
We've built a large house now that the wife did the plans for but truth be known we could live just as well in an airstream with a 5,000 sq. ft. barn. IMHO. Of course the opinions of the husband in this house do not represent those of the management.

[L_Kilkenny]

Like many here I started off life in a couple trailers. Back then old trailers were cheap and lot rent was cheap. Like $1200 for the trailer and $80/month lot rent. It was cheap living and great for a kid and his lady just starting out. Now any decent mobile home garthering spot is a "Mobile Home Community" instead of a "Trailer Park" and many of the older trailers have been booted out. Lot rent upwards of $300 a month and lots of rules. If you do find a "trailer park" you have to really be suspect of the quality of folks there.

Around here today you have 2 choices:
Nice park, Nice home, substantial money and lots of rules.
Crappy Park, Home is what you make of it, questionable neighbors.

I wouldn't want to reside at either of the above locations. "IF" you can find a decent park with decent rates and decent people I can't say I'd be opposed to trailer living again vs. apartment living. But then again I'd take a house, even a cheap house, over trailer or apartment living.

LK

[Old Time Hunter]

we sold that and bought a double wife which we lived in for 20 + years.

Of course the opinions of the husband in this house do not represent those of the management.

How does that work for you? Must have been a Freudian slip....

I would rather live in the back of my pick up truck than live in an apartment. But, I have a very close friend of mine that bought a double wide to live in while he built his palatial mega house on the same property (they were a few acres apart though) as he had the funds (he is anti-American in that he does not believe in deficit spending) to pay as you go. Took him eleven years and went thru a wife or two. To make a long story short, he sold the mansion after he subdivided the property (he kept 35 acres and rezoned the house with 5 acres) and got almost a million for it. That was about six years ago and he has not had to work since, enjoys hunting, fishing, and laughing at the working stiffs that could not retire at 50.

[shooter]

My parents have an offer on a double wide on 5 acres right now. It's not on wheels or blocks, though. It's on a slab that was poured for it. It's pretty nice, and almost as big as the house they are renting now. I would definitely go for it if you had your own land to put it on. As far as the "trailer park" scenario, I don't know, I guess it depended on the trailer park. I've seen some that I wouldn't even like to drive by, much less live in. I've also seen some that were very nice looking. As long as you don't have to worry about tornadoes, and the mobile home is sufficiently sealed and insulated I don't see a problem with it. Ultimately you will have to decide if you'd like it better than where you're at now.

[Sixgun]

I never have but I currently do know a co-worker who does. I must admit that today's trailer parks have cleaned up their act some. Rules and ordinances that are enforced make life somewhat tolerable for this way of living.

But.....he pays $480 a month in lot rent. That sucks. If one had their own land to put it on, it might be a bit better but around here, its not allowed.---------Sixgun

[Beaker]

Just dont shoot through the walls with your leverguns.

[stretch]

My late MIL lived in a park for almost a decade. She owned the home, and paid something
like $150 -$200 a month in lot rent. The park owner was terrific, and treated her just
like family. Some of the neighbors were kinda trashy, but the landlord lived on site, so
there were no really bad folks. It actually worked out really well for her.

Lots of folks up here put a mobile home on a small plot of land to get started. It works.
The trick is to get a decent quality home, and expect to work on funky plumbing. The
mobile home stuff is a bit different.

My cousin has lived in a mobile home most of her adult life. Raised two kids, plus a couple
of neighbor kids in it. Then they put it on a full basement to gain some room. Not the
Taj Mahal, but a lot of people would envy them their 10 acres and NO MORTGAGE!!!

-Stretch

[jnyork]

A paid-for hut is vastly superior to a morgaged mansion.

[Wes]

We live in a double wide (modular). Went to build down here on the ranch and had troubles with flood insurance. Can't really understand the thinking there, it's not like we're gonna jack this thing up and move in time when the river jumps the banks.
I had one guy (old H.S. friend) come and visit and talked about the nice, big house in town that they'd just built. Kind of in a bragging way. And mentioned they could never live in such a small place as this, etc. I thought it ironic that he was bad mouthing my house while asking permission to hunt on my land (to which I said no).
I will gladly live in what I'm living in on my 600 acres of riverbottom, with the good fishing out my front door, deer and moose in the yard, and the shooting range 50 yards from my house.
Like some one once said, location is everything.

[Lawyer Daggit]

Wes- you sure have made a life style decision- sounds idealic.

A lot of people here speak condescendingly of manufactured housing- seems to me there is little difference between them and many homes made of timber and cladding- except one is made indoors and the other on site.

We had a mobile home as a holiday home when I was a kid in Britain (the Warren, Abersoch, North Wales) and it was very well built and some of the happiest days of my life were spent there.

[madman4570]

Wes------------
You are a smart man!
What are the 3 things they teach you in the real estate market that sell homes????

Location/Location/Location

As times get tougher, and most people need to become very self sufficent.
Who will be doing the laughing?----------------You,my friend---Good for you!

Besides-----actually those ranch style Modulars are just fine and dandy.
And those that think not,dont need showing up at your place!
I would live in a camper to have 600 acres!

[O.S.O.K.]

I would strongly suggest purchasing an acre of your own land and building a small house on it. You can continue to rent while you build.

You are in Arizona. Adobe type construction is ideal in that climate. Easier and more durable is the compressed brick structure. You can rent the hydrolic press used to compress the bricks - using local soil and a little water.

You can make a nice house with this process and for very little money! Seriously, I would do this way before living in a trailer park.

Believe it or not, once you get this done, the inside temperature will stay around 80 degrees with no A/C. That's very tolerable. Add a small A/C unit to cool the enitire house - they are very very efficient structures.

Now how cool would that be?

Futhter, you would be spending less money than you currently do now and at some point, it's all paid off and you're just on the hook for the %&#% property tax and utilities.

If you find a place that has water near enough for your own well and you invest in wind generators and solar cells, you could all but eliminate your utilities as well - only need phone/internet at that point...

http://buildings.suite101.com/article.c ... rth_bricks

My "dream" is to make a place for my wife and me and get to the point that I can make do with income from an internet business like offering specialty cast bullets or something like that.

Once my youngest son in out of HS and the house, I plan on buying some property near College Station Texas and start construction on a compressed brick house. If you take your time and plan well, you can have a very nice home when you are done. I might have the foundation engineered and poured but you don't have to - you can start with a compressed brick foundation and then build on that and construct a decking floor inside of this. That's actually a very good design as it allows for you to run your electrical and plumbing through the floor before puting the subfloor down.

I get rather excited when I think about this. I am tired of the travel that I must do with my current job and would really like to be able to experience a "routine" schedule. Something that I've not had in over 25 years.

[El Chivo]

Lots of good advice, thanks. Actually I'm in Los Angeles, and my main concern is getting to work. If I lived 25 miles away, there might be times I couldn't get through. Where I live now I can bike to work if I have car trouble or there's some other emergency.

Anway, buying an acre of land might be prohibitive around here, that sounds like something to do when I retire and my income is not dependent on my location. I used to see ads for land in Kentucky (I'm from Cincinnati originally) and there were always nice sized parcels selling cheap, I think around $1,000 an acre. I think it would be great to live cheap out in the sticks somewhere and just go into town once a week for groceries. Getting to work everyday is the hard part.

[dr walker]

El Chivo, I have a relative who is selling her mobile home. I believe she owns the lot it sits on as well. It is in a small trailer park in Long Beach. PM me if you would like any contact info.

[madman4570]

Want to live in a very nice small town(hunting/fishing all around)---have a aunt that lives there.
A lot of Jobs (you are in the county but is also aprox. within 20 miles of Elmira/Binghamton/Ithaca/Watkins Glenn/(yep, the Race Track) here is one with taxes of about $800@year

Also--though you do have to get fingerprinted and spend $100 and wait about 3 months pistol permits are usually given!

Actually, the small town right next to this place(Candor,Ny have produced some of the biggest whitetails around.(like 180pts+)This is also where the famous Turkey Trot Acres is Located.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhom ... 1117517096

[O.S.O.K.]

Yeah, I agree - I don't know what you do for a living but chances are there are jobs elsewhere in areas that would allow you to have your cake and eat it too.

Cali realestate is rediculously overpriced.

Texas is nice... and we're actually doing OK in terms of jobs. Especially when compared to the rest of the country - like California.

[Rexster]

I could certainly live in a trailer, temporarily, anyway, if I had another place, such as rented storage, to keep some of my things. This second location would be more for security than anything else; not wanting all my eggs in one basket. After all, I do live on the Gulf Coast, as in Gulf of Mexico, where seabreeze thunderstorms spawn tornados in Spring, and then Summer and Fall bring hurricanes.

On land I owed, I could certainly live in a quite tiny trailer, something like an Airstream, made more for mobility than luxury, if I had a good barn, and possibly a bunker-like structure for storms. I may, in fact, do this very thing after I retire, though I will try to be a bit further inland than my present job allows.

[t.r.]

When we moved out to northern California in 1984, cost of housing was out of reach. New homes sold for $100K. But we bought an older double-wide for $22K and called it home for 7 years. We lived on a little cul de sac with no traffic or problems. Very quiet neighborhood: no gangs or bad folks at all. Floor plan was exceptionally well planned.

TR