A Mobile Home May
Not Be A Good Deal

Question: Is a pre-manufactured home worth the money? Or would it be wise to build my own? I need my monthly payments to be around $450 to $500.

Dan: If you mean a mobile home (one that is built complete in a factory and transported to a pad in a mobile-home park), then it's probably not worth the money. Although it has improved with the recent upswing in the overall real-estate market, the resale value of mobile homes in most areas over the past decade has been dismal. You usually can save a ton of money by buying one of these second-hand on its site in the park.

On the other hand, if you mean a home manufactured at a plant (often piecemeal) and then transported to a building site and erected onto a permanent foundation, then by all means consider it. If there are no restrictions on this type of construction placed by a homeowner's association or a planning board, it is one of the least expensive ways to put up a high-quality home. Just be sure that you spend some extra effort making the exterior look unique, instead of that well-known boxy appearance that some manufactured homes offer.

Mr. Irwin has more than 25 years' experience as a Los Angeles-area real-estate broker. He is the author of more than two dozen books about real estate and is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable writers in the real-estate field. Mr. Irwin's most recent book is "Tips & Traps When Buying a Condo, Co-op or Townhouse," (McGraw-Hill, 1999).

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Dan, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

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