selling a mobile home

18 years ago

we purchased our land and home 5 years ago with no plans of ever moving. I live on 7.5 beautiful tree covered acres in the mountains. Land developers have recently discovered the beauty of our area and are buying up acreage everywhere I look. In the last two years 4 subdivisions have been started in this area. A man recently bought the old farm house and 10 acres above us and is turning it into a subdivision as well. he has expressed an interest in my 7 acres and mobile home as well.

I'm not sure if I asked for a fair price though. I know by looking at examples of local real estate that my property is now worth 60 K. My home is 80 by 28 and on concrete runners. The inside has been completely plastered and painted. We put ceiling fans in every room. A 6 foot 90 foot long chunk had to be taken out of the mountainside to put our home in and we built a beautiful stone retaining wall in that and landscaped the base with a dry stream bed and rock garden to manage runoff water coming down the mountain. We have a gravel circular driveway. The work done to the land to get the home in cost us 20k and there is about 10 thousand dollars worth of stone on the wall out front. We got it for free but if purchased it would have cost that much or more. we did have to load it into the back of a truck and haul it here and most of the stones way a couple hundred pounds each. I didn't add any money for sweat equity or for the increased value the recent paving of the road out front would give the property either. I told the land developer I wanted 150 thousand. I think this home would actually appraise for closer to 170 thousand. I thought this was a reasonable price and would allow us to get into a site built home we found in town that we liked. Thats 60k for the land, 60k is what we paid for the house 5 years ago without adding value to it for the ceiling fans, plastering, or other interior improvements, 20k for the improvement done to the property 5 years ago to get the mobile home here, and 10k for the stone and gravel in the front wall and landscaping.

I can't help second guessing myself though. I keeping thinking "Its just a trailer", how could it possibly be worth that much. Am I kidding myself to think I can get that much.

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Comments (3)

irishdancersgram
18 years ago
I did write a response and it disappeared....I had written that the developer is probably buying the property to sell it off in single units...And if they are buying and building stick homes all around you, they will pay the price...
Not too far from me, an old school building and lot were sold for $100,000...The developer said he was just buying it, had no idea what he'd do with it, right! Not too long after, he was advertising, lots starting at $60,000 per lot and he stands to make close to a million, just on this property....
So never 2nd guess when it comes to land...What is a shame, they will probably buy it and remove the "trailor" and sell it in lots...It is terrible after you've done all that work...Good luck...
coolvt
18 years ago
Trying to figure what your property is worth base on what you paid for each part isn't really the right way to figure it. It could be worth 10 times what you put into it or it could be worth half. If you think it's worth close to 200 thousand it sounds like you might invest a few hundred dollars and get the property appraised. You may find it's worth 3 or 4 hundred thousand. At least you would have an expert giving his opinion.
I know of a fellow who bought a junk mobile home in the Florida Keys. He paid $25,000 and his wife went nuts. She told him the place wasn't worth $1,000. This was just a 'get away' place for him to go fishing. About 5 yrs. later it sold for $270,000 (was near water) and his wife never apologized. Of course, he never let her forget how smart he was:-)
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laurastheme
17 years ago
I second the idea of an appraiser. I was in the real estate business for about 20 years, so I know that comparables of recent sales are important and you need to compare apples to apples. It's hard to determine a value if you don't have that information. Listed properties don't count, because they don't reflect the actual sale price. Also, I've learned from experience that it's hard to put a value on your own property. Sellers quite often think they're properties are worth less than they really are, or that they're worth more because of the emotional attachment. That includes me. We listed our home a year ago when I was no longer in the business. I thought it was worth far more than it was. It took the real estate agents several months to make us realize that we needed to lower the price, and it sold when we heeded their advice.