Manufactured Homes on Vacant Land in Northern California ?

Question

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to invest in a piece of land out in Northern California and setting a manufactured home on it.

Does anyone have any experience they might want to share. Any tips, tricks, and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

P.s

I know how to return a favor, so if you ever need anything on this side of the country please let me know :)

Account Closed · Answer

Hello Jesús,

I have alot of experience with dealing with this issue. Everything depends upon the rules of your planning jurisdiction. many counties and cities are opposed to manufactured homes. Have you considered a modular instead? Manufactured homes lose value fast, are much much harder to finance, appraise very poorly. If you go modular You can order them without roof/truss and install a steeper more attractive roof so since a modular on foundation is considered same as sight built legally and your house will not look like a modular home with a steeper roof and overhangs. The price will be very close to manufactured but you will not lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars of future equity. Then your permitting and financing will be normal and allowed in all jurisdictions.

Morgana Wyze · Answer

I have made a lot of money doing just that in Northern CA.  You have snow there in most places so your best choice is to buy a used  doublewide MFH in Reno. Put it on a hill with a permanent foundation and a full or partial basement with an outside entrance. Strip the home and put in hardwood floors, new kitchen, bathrooms and new double pane windows. Paint every wall off white and have new white trim installed. Replace all hardware with oval or black knobs. Windows and hardware are important. Re roof. For less than a new mobile home you will have a nice home that can be mortgaged.

Jesús Zazueta · Answer

Account Closed - Thank you, all the information you provided is actually very helpful! I will definitely look into a modular instead of a manufactured one.

Would you suggest I stay away from lots that do not yet have utilities installed? How much are people paying, on average, to get these installed?

Account Closed · Answer

I would still urge you to go modular instead of manufactured. I have a great case study in my area in Northern California wine country, there was a manufactured home that was very very nice they built great decks and made a grand entrance it was on 1.5 acres in wine country. All of the homes in that neighborhood with that much land sell for 1.5-3million however this Sat on the market and went in and out of contract for a year… then eventually it sold for 800k… I did comps because I was curious and this was half the value of all relevant comps of site built homes on the same street … 1.3million was the lowest comp and 3.4 million was the comp for a remodeled modern farmhouse that was marketed well. But this house with all the potential to sell at least at 1.3 million could not get over 800k because people where thinking of this as a tear down and just getting a lot in a 3 million dollar neighborhood due to it being designated with the stigma of manufactured. Had they bought modular in foundation they could have realized 500k more in value as the neighborhood appreciates, that was an expensive mistake on their part and they could not have saved more than 50k at that time 20 years ago.

Account Closed · Answer

@Jesús Zazueta

Utilities are the biggest issue if you are outside of city services. Many prices of land that are cheap (especially in California) are cheap because they won’t pass a perc test for septic system, or they have endangered species restrictions and require expensive mitigation fees, you want to check for protected trees and plants, wetland restrictions, and you will want to do a geotechnical report to be sure you can get a foundation on there. So any property you want to buy you should try to negotiate a 3-6 month contingency period. Because you will need to do a lot of due diligence to ensure that you can build there. Also as a tip if you get all of this checked quick you can get your modular plan picked out and go through planning to see if there is going to be resistance to your build and even get permits to almost to be ready to break ground before releasing contingency and having to start paying interest payments on your construction loans. If you are financing this deal with hard money this can save you a lot of money! Even if you don’t finish permitting I like to know exactly what I am going to build and have it fully priced out and preapproved for the financing of the final product before I buy the lot.

Briana Landecker · Answer

@Jo-Ann Lapin

Just following this thread. You seem like you have a wealth of knowledge. New investor here with a few strategies in mind similar to the OP. I'm located in CA and looking for some property in multiple CA markets to do just this. Would you be open to discussing more?

Thank you!

Jesús Zazueta · Answer

I don't think I would've thought of that, THANK YOU!

Rachel H. · Answer

@Jesús Zazueta Just be sure to put trip insurance on the home for the day of the move. Anything can happen while the home is in transit to the new location. Hope that helps!

Jesús Zazueta · Answer

Thanks for all the info! I'll be looking into Homes Direct in Merced and the Clayton HDX2874 (modular MH Advantage). And if you don't mind, I'll reach out directly when we're ready to make the move or get more info.

Jesús Zazueta · Answer

A lot of great information, very helpful!

I've emailed the City of Stockton regarding this idea, I'm not sure they would even allow it.  I'm also assuming that installing utilities wouldn't be an issue at this location since it's within city limits. One of the only reasons why I'm considering Stockton is because I already have a guy there with a 5,000 corner lot, but I'll be looking at other locations as well; I'll run the numbers once I hear back from the city to make sure it makes sense for us to do.

Are you familiar with Stockton's planning/permitting department regarding this topic?

Manufactured Homes on Vacant Land in Northern California ?

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