How To Purchase A Manufactured Home Without
Getting Ripped Off
Making a purchase that requires a large monetary committment requires some thought and
research. I hope that this article will help you in doing this research. My wife and I were
mobile home park managers for a number of years and have seen people getting massively
ripped off.
Some of the problems encountered were unscrupulous mobile home salespersons that reminded
one of the loud, obnoxious, car salesmen encountered on TV commercials; you know the type.
These people will do anything to make a sale, including exaggerating the qualities of their
products to out and out lying about them.
Some of the things a person can do to prevent their being ripped off is:
1. Go to your local library and look up the loan value of your potential purchase in a
NADA guide and compare it to others of similar features. Remember to compare apples to
apples.
2. Do comparison shopping at other dealers as to features, size, structure.
3. Visit some local mobile home parks and talk to some of the residents and the managers
about local dealers and about some of the homes, especially brand names.
Check with your local banks and/or credit unions and see who in your area will do the financing
on new manufactured homes. The rates that are charged vary a lot between the different
lenders. There are financial institutions that specialize in manufactured home financing.
Check your yellow pages and you should come up with a number of them. If you live in a
rural area then you could check for a lender on the internet. Be sure to check with more than
one lender for the rates; I recommend at least three. This way you will get a better idea of
what kind of financing is available and the cost.
As to signing any contracts make sure that the terms and anything that was promised to you
in the way of setup, delivery, appliances, etc. is spelled out in the contract. Your attorney
then can check it over to be sure everthing is ok so that you don't get ripped off.
The U.S. Government printing office in Pueblo, Colorado has some excellent booklets about
the purchase and financing of manufactured homes. These booklets are inexpensive or even
free. You can do a search on the internet for this office and the information that they have.
I hope this information will have proved itself beneficial to your purchase and best of luck on
your search.
