Article from KOLO News 8 – Manufactured Homes: An option for those priced out of the market

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Todd Andersen shows me a home he recently placed on the market.

The three-bedroom two bath is more than 1800-square feet. It has modern appliances in the kitchen and new granite counter tops.

Located in Reno, it’s priced at an unheard of $219,000 dollars.

“People walk into this home they fall in love with it,” says Andersen. “If you are inside this home, you don’t know it’s a manufactured home,” he says.

Andersen specializes in selling used manufactured homes in Northern Nevada. He often purchases them from a seller, modifies them with modern conveniences and design and re-sells them.

While he won’t take all the credit, he does say the stigma attached to manufactured homes has disappeared. That’s because the interiors and quality have changed and the price has potential homebuyers asking, “why not?”

“We have clients, first time homebuyers. newlywed buying their first home,” says Andersen. “Seniors downsizing where they are selling their stick built home paying cash for a manufactured home the rest goes into a nest egg,” he says.

Andersen says this home has a fenced in backyard, outside storage and carport.

The only downside to his homes, buyers do not own the land the home sits on. Instead, homeowners pay monthly rent to park owners. Other factors to consider: Park owners perform a background check on potential renters. And buyers who need financing must go through special loan processing.

Andersen says as the value of stick-built homes increases, so does the manufactured home. He says manufactured homes value have gone up 21% each year since 2018. Andersen says parks like this one have a community center and even a swimming pool.

“This park, they hold the value of the homes up, buying in this park, the resale value is definitely higher,” he says. Even though Andersen works in a parallel universe to the real estate market, some things remain the same.

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