Chapter 3 of 20
New versus pre-owned manufactured homes
What you are actually buying with a new home, and what a used one asks you to accept in exchange.
1 min read
A new manufactured home comes with a warranty, current insulation and energy standards, a floor plan you can often modify before it is built, and, critically, a known history. Nobody has neglected it, moved it badly, or hidden a roof leak behind new panelling.
It also comes with a delivered-and-installed cost that is substantially higher than its advertised price, and with the sharpest part of the depreciation curve still ahead of it if the home will sit on leased land.
A pre-owned home in a community is the most affordable route into homeownership available in most markets. Someone else has absorbed the initial depreciation, the home is already sited and connected, and what you see is what you get. The risk is that what you see is not all there is: setup defects, moisture damage under the skirting, and a failing roof are all common and all expensive.
The decision often comes down to which risk you are better equipped to carry. A new home transfers risk to the manufacturer and the dealer, at a price. A pre-owned home leaves the risk with you, and pays you for taking it. If you are buying pre-owned, the money you save relative to new should be partly reserved for what the inspection finds.
Key points
- New: warranty, current standards, known history, higher installed cost.
- Pre-owned: someone else took the depreciation, but you inherit the unknowns.
- On a new home, the advertised price is not the installed price, see Chapter 18.
- Budget part of your pre-owned savings for what an inspection turns up.
Watch out
A dealer's advertised price for a new home routinely excludes transport, foundation, setup, anchoring, skirting, steps, and utility connection. That gap is large. Get every line itemized before comparing it to a pre-owned home's asking price.