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Most manufactured homes are built on a steel frame, and that frame generally will be very stable. But double and triple wides are multiple frames joined together, and one frame may be on a support that is not equal in support/height to the others.

The steel frame being the floor.... which is why I wrote that all the jacks should be evenly supporting the frame (even on a single wide uneven jacks can stress the floor system) and the joining bolts not slipped/pulled. Essentially, we are saying the same thing.


Stick framed houses settle too. But the cracks can be symptoms of the foundation/et. al. not being sound.


"CAN BE" is the operative term. But NOT without further indications of moderate to serious foundation cracks, typically in corners, or in the ends or middle in excess of 1/8" to 1/4" or more, especially with V shaped widening of the crack or with horizontal/vertical displacement, and typically staircase cracks in brick exterior, or tearing aspect/looks/appearance of interior drywall cracking. Lacking those further indications, it's typically normal minor settlement of any house more than 1yr old and can be safely considered cosmetic. Please let's use good/complete info and not be overly dramatic/scary.

I've been flipping/rehabbing housing since 1975, am a professionally trained retired Home Inspector, sat twice on the Home Inspector Advisory Committee, consulted with literally hundreds of engineers, architects, and other inspectors and have professionally inspected well over 3000 homes, mobiles, cabins, commercial buildings, etc. Trust me on this.
 
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As for location, drive the area at 9:00 p.m. a few times to see what goes on at night. Also check the police department's online crime map for the type and frequency of calls.
 
1. No foundation typically under a trailer home... instead, you will see skirting. IMO a stable house needs good feet under it. Therefore, a modern foundation is mandatory.

There are variations on this that can confuse people. Our home is set on 4 slabs 70 feet long, spanning 30 feet wide. Our is a staggered foundation one side is higher than the other because I hit a huge rock shelf. The home was brought in and placed on the slabs, and fitted together. This left me with setting more block for the skirting on the front side.

The set up crew sets it on concrete blocks and secures it down with metal straps, concrete bolts, and then torqued down with turn buckles. This thing is going nowhere. Then I had a concrete pump come up and my old azz crawled under there and filled the blocks. Might have been overkill, but I did it.

The skirting in this case is a concrete block up to about 8 inches below the outside frame of the home. The unit does not sit on these and they are not a foundation. We had a masonry contractor build the block skirting and then we use concrete block glue and glued down a 2 x 6 on top of the block. We then used hardi plank siding 10 inch, secured it to the wood and the top to the bottom of the house siding / frame. Painted it and it looks like it was there all the time.

The county codes are pretty good for securing them down, and I have no problem with the way it is. Some pour a full slab, that can get expensive fast. When you talk about setting the home on a foundation, you will encounter the problem of having at least 3 different contractors involved, and trying to time that is damn near impossible.

Over here in Central Oregon, manufactured homes, even 30 years old if maintained well are bringing the same price as a stick frame. Stick frame takes close to a year for 2,000 sf, customs up in the 3500 sf range are a year plus. Your sf cost on a nice manufactured home with everything done is about $ 135, depending on your land cost. That is about what ours came out to, and our site prep was a bit more complex, and I spent a fair amount on excavator rentals. New construction stick you just best figure minimum of $ 180 and closer to $ 200.
 
especially if the home is not on a concrete pad.

That is a complete deal killer if the home is not secured to a concrete slab or stringers, and the construction of those has to be to code, compaction tested, properly formed for depth. Mine is 6 inch slabs on top of 18 to 24 inches of state spec 3/4 minus compacted in 6 inch lifts, by my choosing, code was 9 inches.

Pretty much anything set in the last 30 years should be set on stringers. If it is just blocks on earth, run away.
 
There are variations on this that can confuse people. Our home is set on 4 slabs 70 feet long, spanning 30 feet wide. Our is a staggered foundation one side is higher than the other because I hit a huge rock shelf. The home was brought in and placed on the slabs, and fitted together. This left me with setting more block for the skirting on the front side.

The set up crew sets it on concrete blocks and secures it down with metal straps, concrete bolts, and then torqued down with turn buckles. This thing is going nowhere. Then I had a concrete pump come up and my old azz crawled under there and filled the blocks. Might have been overkill, but I did it.

The skirting in this case is a concrete block up to about 8 inches below the outside frame of the home. The unit does not sit on these and they are not a foundation. We had a masonry contractor build the block skirting and then we use concrete block glue and glued down a 2 x 6 on top of the block. We then used hardi plank siding 10 inch, secured it to the wood and the top to the bottom of the house siding / frame. Painted it and it looks like it was there all the time.

The county codes are pretty good for securing them down, and I have no problem with the way it is. Some pour a full slab, that can get expensive fast. When you talk about setting the home on a foundation, you will encounter the problem of having at least 3 different contractors involved, and trying to time that is damn near impossible.

Over here in Central Oregon, manufactured homes, even 30 years old if maintained well are bringing the same price as a stick frame. Stick frame takes close to a year for 2,000 sf, customs up in the 3500 sf range are a year plus. Your sf cost on a nice manufactured home with everything done is about $ 135, depending on your land cost. That is about what ours came out to, and our site prep was a bit more complex, and I spent a fair amount on excavator rentals. New construction stick you just best figure minimum of $ 180 and closer to $ 200.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. But perhaps that is a lot of detailed info for a newbie such as OP? But for the sake of discussion:

My personal preference is for a manufactured home on a perimeter foundation, with no prejudice against stepped foundations, but I have owned a few mobile homes that were set up the way you describe. Nothing wrong with it as long as it passes the county, and is not in an area of the state prone to frost heave w.o proper insulation and thermal break from the exterior*, and the bank approves (banks do require a "permanent" foundation of some type), and it is tied down and the jacks/piers/blocks are evenly supporting the frame.

*Jurisdictions in areas that have frost heave will typically require a perimeter foundation with footings placed below the frost line, for obvious reasons. In some cases, the city/ounty engineer will approve slabs that have taken steps to mitigate possible frost heave. However, banks can be notoriously stubborn.

I have also had jacks that loosened for whatever reason over time (as has my current double wide Palm Harbor manufactured home on a concrete perimeter foundation with 4' wide concrete runners and a center runner), so they should be examined periodically. (See pic, note that there is no perimeter foundation in the pic but it is a good example of concrete support runners on which jacks or piers are placed.)

Loser-+newman+001.jpg

BTW I sold my 1975 double wide mobile on 1/4 acre in Romaine Village in Bend for $160,000 in 2006... it is probably worth twice that now, and it is not even a manufactured home (A comparably sized 10yr old stick build I sold for $260,000 in the same time frame). People are nuckin futz. But yes, manufactured homes seem to be holding and even increasing in value.
 
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Check for leaks & soft floors. A "small leak" can lead to real trouble if not repaired.
Check the roof, make sure there's no damage that can lead to a leak.
Ask if the trailer currently has propane, if not, bring your own & a wrench to hook it up.
Check that the furnace works. Trailers can be cold in winter, and space heaters do not work as well as the furnace does. Furnaces often fail on either cheap parts or the control board.
Hook water up to it and look for leaks near the water heater and bathrooms. If the trailer had water in the lines and it froze, it could damage the fittings leading to leaks. leaks are bad. Fixing these leaks is easy, but annoying.
Check the hotwater tank works

Furnaces are usually easy to fix. Hot water tanks are easy to repace.
 
Some mobile home parks have grumpy, exploitive managers.
They can allow residents to keep decaying homes and then require new owners to upgrade everything after moving in.
Watch out for leaks, defective electrics, concrete blocks under home that are standing on end.
Also rodents
 
2020 Palm Harbor Bellingham model. 2100 sf. Double wide unit. $ 143,000
Block skirting - $ 6500. Foundation stringers site work and concrete $ 12,000. ATT Septic system - $ 23,000 - Gutters - $ 1,440. All county permits were $ 7,000. Electrical and water varies, ours was expensive coming up the hill 450 feet. We did a lot of the work ourselves, building the decks and all and most of the excavation work.

The home is tight, well insulated and energy efficient. We had the standard electric furnace in it, and will put a heat pump in it soon. Probably another $ 4,000 but the wife wants her AC in the summer.

We owned the property already. Palm Harbor is a pretty well built home, but the dealer is a real piece of crap. Homes Direct out of Redmond. They required us to pay half at the time of order and half when the home was completed at the factory. The home got here, had a damaged cabinet and a couple of other minor issues. Took them 3 weeks to get it set up for us to get utilities.

They were supposed to have cleaners clean it, they came and sweep the floor. The carpet layers took 4 days to lay the carpet. Trim workers did a bubblegum*y job. Crown moulding unfinished. We would call and they would take days to get back to us, cancel appointments, not show up Tired of dealing with these azz clowns, so I am taking it up with their corporate office and offer them a chance to compensate us for having the stuff fixed as I do not want their scum bag tweaker "contractors" in my house. If they give me one bit of sh*t I will file a CCB complaint.

I should have balked and raised more of a fuss about full payment, since we did not hold anything back by their contracts, and I see why they do that so they can screw you on the quality control issues. I would have held $ 5,000 back on final payment at least to make sure they actually fixed the things. Maybe other dealers are different, but these seem like they are one step above gypsy flakes really.

Ordered on the 17th of August, arrived on site on October 31, we moved in December 20.

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Is that an actual cell tower in your backyard? Guess you don't have too many problems with dropped calls. :D
 
Is that an actual cell tower in your backyard? Guess you don't have too many problems with dropped calls. :D

Yes, they are about 300 feet back from our property. The cell tower is a roosting spot of turkey vultures in season, there can be up to 16 of them there any given night in the summer. The water tower has the antenna for my ISP provider, great bandwidth and no dropped calls on our phones.

Not the most scenic, but the view from up here is great.
 

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