How do mobile homes get relocated?

[Steven J.]

Those of you with experience moving mobile homes I'd really love to hear from. 

I'll have a possible opportunity to pick up a few homes in a park that is closing down but will obviously have to be moved. What are some of the questions and information I should get when I'm calling up moving companies and interviewing them? I know some parks discourage homes older than 19XX, are there similar rules and regs for moving them alltogether? I suppose this is probably a county by county thing in many cases as well - who would I call about that?

[Sam Parkins]

@Steven J. We started moving homes in addition to buying and selling in 2013 (tried to vertically integrate though doing more moving now than buying/selling). 

I've moved pieces of junk (80's models) from VA to Boston (no kidding) and had i-beams "kink" and roll on me while on the interstate. (we had to hire a welder in rural PA near the NY border - about 350 miles from home as the rear of the home was about 2 inches from the ground because of i-beam integrity loss!) It is ABSOLUTELY on a case by case basis and you can see a LOT of what you'll be dealing with by looking under the homes yourself. Look for damage to the i-beam, running gear (axles), etc. Crawl under (easier after it's torn down) and eyeball down the whole i-beam to see any imperfections in the beam (make sure it's straight and doesn't "snake" or have bends). I look at all these things before quoting but also tell my customers that in rare scenarios there MAY be weakness or damage that I don't find until I starting putting a jack on the home and tearing it down. I've had i-beams bend over a jack before. I've had homes fall off of jacks as the beam bent. I've had tongues bend and homes fall. It's about 1/2 and 1/2 as to what I could tell the customer ahead of time and what I needed to relay in terms of additional cost (welding on additional supports) after I tore it down (before we moved it). This is probably a longer separate discussion but MOST of it is looking for damage in the beams and also seeing what your beams look like. If they're rusted or water is sitting or traveling under the home (and the age and thickness) chances are it may incur damage or be weak.

To be somewhat brief, I'll summarize a lot of what I've read here as there's a lot on the right track but not all is spot on. Please be aware: I run a buy/sell company in VA as well as a moving company in VA. I am speaking to the best of my ability to VA law. I am not an attorney or CPA or doctor or anything like that. I am a contractor and licensed manufactured home dealer.

• 1976 is the date most localities will stop allowing a home to be "permitted". An inspector once told me that if you kick back hard enough they'll allow something older but you won't make friends and I wouldn't plan to do it more than once. 
• In all my "education" I have never heard of something being "too old" to move. If it's got wheels a mover can pull it.
• Ask your mover for a quote for EVERYTHING. A big thing in the business is quoting "block, anchor, and level". Then you get your home to your location and they leave and you have to put on your skirting, decks, and do your hook-up's. It gets you where you want to be in price but it doesn't help you get an idea for your total budget. 
• Ask who's paying for block. Ask who's cleaning the old site/lot. Ask if they are bringing your decks. Ask if they are bringing your block. Ask if they're bringing your hardboards/shims. Ask if they're doing footers. (That's a big one that no one ever budgets for - a mover WILL NOT quote that in a "move/set" which is the same basically as "block, anchor, level" so make sure you know to get footer prices.) Ask if they are leveling the home site and or creating the required fall away from the home in the ground. Ask if they're installing vapor barrier under the home (in VA it's become code) Clarify who's responsible for what damage during transport. Ask if they'll strap down appliances. There might be a deposit for wheels/axles if they aren't on the home. If they're on the home make sure they don't go missing after delivery. Make sure you have a tongue on each and get a price for the mover to weld a new tongue on if not. Point is, there is a TON of stuff to clear. I can send you a copy of the "conditions" of my contract and you'll basically get a run down of all this. I'm telling you all this because I'm on BOTH sides of this. As an investor I got the short end until I started moving them. Now I've "learned" [been screwed] as a mover and my conditions have gone from 4 items to the current 16. Basically as I get screwed I add that to my contract so you'll see all the things that have arisen in moves. Ask about the pay schedule (half up front and half upon completion). I've had people try to withhold a reserve until the final inspection and I don't allow that. As a contractor I'm required to get it to code so see if that's the case with your mover.

@Bill Gulley is correct in that some localities will require a home to be a DW and to be within a certain age and will require a permanent foundation. The foundation (in VA) does not have to be engineered but you'll need to add anywhere from $5000 to $8000 to do it. CA probably has less rural areas than a place like VA where I am hence the difficulty (cost) in doing a move. Here MH are prevalent and most rural zonings/localities allow a SW and permits are around $250 or so.

Please be careful if you are attempting to tear it down on your own. Please only do this if you have some experience with similar type work. You CAN get a jack at Lowe's (cheap one's) for $50 (get a 12 or 20 ton) but there is a process to doing it. Honestly I don't charge much for the tear down portion ($250 to $500) so it may be worth the peace of mind to have the mover do it. IF YOU DO IT ON YOUR OWN PLEASE USE SAFETY STACKS AND GET YOUR WHEELS/AXLES ON AS SOON AS YOU CAN. If you get your wheels/axles on they'll "catch" the home if it falls, thus not crushing you. Take your stacks down intermittandly meaning leave piers (stacks) up in front of and behind the running gear to allow those to "catch" a falling home. I am a licensed mover and I've had probably 3 or 4 homes fall due to error and each time nothing has been damaged and no one hurt because of safety measures. TAKE IT SLOW AND USE COMMON SENSE - AND THE HOME WILL ALWAYS (REPEAT ALWAYS) FALL WITH GRAVITY. If it is not level it will go to the low point (forward, backward, or worst yet side to side) unless something prevents it from doing so. The tongue on the toter keeps it from going forward/backward, but your jacks/jacking have to be done in a manner to keep it from going side to side depending on the lay of the land. Jack the home up higher on the low side of the land to keep it from going that way when you jack the other side. And try to keep at least one side of wheels contacted to the ground at all times if you can. 

Summary of costs (these are on the high end - "going rates" in my area. We negotiate each item and can certainly bring it down) Try to get it in order for a SW.

• Tear down: $500
• Permits (vary): $250
• Footers: $750
• Concrete in footer holes (some localities require - CHECK ON THIS): $500 (varies by size/amount
• Move: $1500
• Set (block/anchor/level - anchor/strap/shims/hardboards included): $1500
• Block cost: $250 (in addition to bringing your old blocks)
• Transport decks (will NOT take big decks): Negotiable - around $500/deck
• Build decks/landing for inspection: $500 per landing (minimum landing and usually 2 needed)
• Hook-up (water/sewer/electric): Can vary widely, but assuming "standard" hookup it is $250 labor for each plus material. Budget about $750 labor and $500-ish for material. A mover needs to be licensed to do these hook-ups. 
• Skirting will vary, but expect at least $750 to $1000 for material and $250 to $500 for labor. MOST of the time skirting is hard to re-use from one location to another. It is cut to size when installed so the best chance to be able to re-use all of it is to set your home in the new location "lower" to the ground than the previous. If you asked me to re-use each piece I'm probably going to charge you enough in labor to make it worth while to get at least new skirting panels and try to reuse the skirting kit. My extra time sorting out all the panels by height to figure out what to use where is not worth it (for me). 

What I'm getting at is that you can easily spend over $6000 in a move paying someone to do it ALL for you. It's not cheap. A DW is similar but could be about double the cost of the total above. Around $8000 to $12,000 depending. The last move I paid for before moving them myself cost me slightly over $6000. I paid the mover to do it all as I wanted a realistic cost to know what I was working with as I started to price things out myself for my moving business.

I think I've covered most things for you. Again, I'm more than happy to send over my contract so you can see what you'll be working with and have the resources available to get things right. And I also tell folks it's basically the same cost to move a home 10 feet as it is 10 miles. It's the same amount of labor just less travel/gas. I don't really start increasing my move/set costs until I get to a 50-100 mile destination or more. I don't quote by the mile (some do) but rather by the job. If you tell me to move one 300 miles I'm going to add gas/labor time and possibly a hotel and per diem cost. Still it's not thousands more for the extra distance so if you get a long distance pull make sure to quote a short distance move with the same mover to see how much they're increasing your quote. I'm going to quote it by telling you it's $3500 to move/set within 50 to 100 miles and to go 300 I have to add $750 and explain it's due to the above additional costs. 

Hope all this helps! (wow - sorry for the novel length response!)