As a Leland rental property investor, you are likely always searching for a great offer on a property. You may wonder whether manufactured homes are a wise investment. It might initially appear to be the best choice for your next rental property. In many different regions of the nation, manufactured homes are quite common. Before deciding if a manufactured home is the best option for your next investment property, you must weigh a number of pros and cons.
The fact that manufactured homes are frequently more affordable than other single-family home types is one of the main benefits of buying one. Their cost per square foot can be significantly lower than that of other properties, even those of similar age and size, because of how manufactured homes are constructed and installed. Additionally, a new manufactured home will probably be far less expensive than new construction, which may be out of your budget range as an investor. They are also easier to construct, frequently taking half as long as conventional homes. That implies that for roughly the same price as a fixer-upper that would take months to prepare for your first renter, you could buy and instantly rent a brand-new property.
Investing in manufactured homes also provides quality and an eco-friendly design. Today’s manufactured homes are usually of comparable quality to traditionally built homes, if not superior to them. The stringent factory standards for prefabricated houses increase the likelihood that the home you purchase will be structurally solid, tastefully built, and energy efficient. Most have enhanced insulation beneath the foundation and within the walls. Additionally, they provide energy-efficient windows, on-demand water heaters, and fixtures and appliances that conserve energy. These eco-friendly attributes can all lower utility and upkeep costs.
But investing in manufactured homes has some disadvantages as well. Finding a suitable location to build a manufactured home is one of the most difficult challenges in purchasing one to use as a rental. The price of the land must also be taken into account even though the home’s price may be relatively low. Cost, zoning, and land availability may provide insurmountable obstacles, particularly in urban or suburban settings.
Finding and purchasing a pre-existing manufactured home may be a solution to this problem, but it raises a second major disadvantage of prefabricated homes: depreciation. The question of whether manufactured homes appreciate sufficiently to make them worthwhile investments for rental properties is one that is up for debate. The future value of manufactured homes may be severely constrained in some places by an ongoing stigma.
And lastly, financing a manufactured home might be more challenging than for other kinds of real estate. Numerous mortgage lenders do not consider manufactured homes to be “real property.” The perception of a manufactured home’s ephemeral nature may lead some lenders to deny you a loan sufficient to cover both the land and the home. Although this objection might eventually be overcome, it adds new challenges for rental property investors. Are manufactured homes, then, a wise investment? The most appropriate answer is that they potentially could be, subject to factors like quality, location, and financing availability.
Do you need a new investment property? Our Leland property managers help connect rental property investors with off-market deals you can’t find elsewhere. Contact us online to learn more!