Episode 1679
Renovating and repairing manufactured housing
We have had a few requests to cover manufacturerd housing and so we figured it would be a great time to cover it. Manufactured housing is a great option for fast afforable housing and it doesnt matter if you are looking at a brand new one that in my opinion is better built than the mass built homes built by the largest home builders, or you are taking an old one and are trying to get it back to its prime there are a lot of things to consider when you are talking manufactured housing. Lets dive in!
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Mentioned in this episode:
A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard
For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/
Baldwin Hardware
Transcript
[00:00:22] Eric Goranson: And so we've been talking about that today. We're just talking in the last segment here about the different generations and what some of the weak points are. And these dates are not hard, but you get an idea within a. Few years, this is what they are. So anything prior to 1990 and even 1995 can be that way.
[:[00:00:58] Eric Goranson: There is a lot to know [00:01:00] the, we've got you covered. This is around the house. Welcome to the round the house show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. Hey, if you want to be a part of around the house, or if you have a home improvement question, give me a call at 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44.
[:[00:01:43] Eric Goranson: At least in my coming up on geesh, getting closer to a decade here than not. Let's put it that way. And around the house has been around for a long time coming up on a, what? You're 38 this year. So it's incredible how long this show has been going on. And I don't know if we've ever actually touched on this one.
[:[00:02:19] Eric Goranson: So first off, what we have is we have the stuff that was built up to, uh, let's call it up to pre 1990, anything of that, whether it's single, double, triple, whatever many of those were built, but with walls inside that were two by three instead of two by four. They have paneling or they have some kind of a wallpaper sticking to paneling.
[:[00:03:09] Eric Goranson: Drywall would come in and even in the nineties, when it was drywall, it was already prefinished sheets, but at least it was drywall. So you start to see some of that stuff come in there and we get away from the paneling. And then we're starting to see exteriors built where this stuff is really put together better.
[:[00:03:52] Eric Goranson: Where is it located? Is it located in a park? Is it located on a piece of [00:04:00] property? Is it sitting on a foundation or not? And these are all different things. And they can also mean different values as well. Let's talk about that. Many of the parks out there as a new trend, we're starting to see because 15, 20 years ago, we started to see these parks get turned into housing developments.
[:[00:04:44] Eric Goranson: But the place was only worth 15 or 20. So it didn't make cost effective sense for them to go do that. Move it, set it up and they were out of house. Many times people would just leave them there and abandon them. And then they would come in with excavators and [00:05:00] haul them off, which wasn't great for affordable housing.
[:[00:05:24] Eric Goranson: I love that guy. He bought a beautiful place, Pacific Palisades, California. Jeez, those things start about 800, 000, I think in there now and go up to millions of dollars. And these are single double wide homes, all from the seventies, eighties, nineties, even two thousands. So they've been remodeled. They're nice, but they're still paying a rent space.
[:[00:06:24] Eric Goranson: You just it's using too much of that power, or it's just not cost effective for them to go around and update that. So that can be a big issue. A lot of these places were minimally wired, and it's very expensive, especially with all that underground stuff to go back and do it again. And yes, underground power can be expensive to maintain down the road because.
[:[00:07:03] Eric Goranson: These are, um, interesting situations, especially when we're starting to see what's happening now with building code and energy upgrades and that kind of stuff, so we'll have to keep an eye on that and see how that affects housing. But that's really what we're starting to come down to is we're starting to see That these areas are now becoming more protected, which is good And quite frankly, I want to see more of them being built and we're going to talk about that later on in the show Because that's a big deal.
[:[00:07:48] Eric Goranson: Maybe you're gonna do that Let's talk about that But let's dive a little bit more into those different generations that we were talking about in the beginning Because this is where it starts to make a big deal We'll get started on this and hit it after the break [00:08:00] here and make sure that we can uh, Answer these questions for you fully.
[:[00:08:30] Eric Goranson: The problem is that water has come down between the plastic or the metal and the outside. Many times it was the metal. And so that metal got behind it. And now that plywood or whatever else back there has gotten really rotten and really punky. So it's just a hot mess. And then that water gets down into the floor system and to really rebuild these and build them back correctly.
[:[00:09:10] Eric Goranson: You can't go out and buy that metal siding material anymore because it doesn't exist out there. It was made for that manufacturer at that point, but it's gone. You've got plumbing things that are way different. You've got a water heater that comes in from the outside, a normal new energy efficient one's going to have a hard time fitting into, and then you've got all the different plumbing issues as well.
[:[00:09:50] Eric Goranson: Don't go anywhere.[00:10:00]
[:[00:10:29] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the Around the House show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Hey, if you want to see some of my video content out there, head over to the website aroundthehouseonline. com. We are getting close to 300 videos on my Fox 12 plus here show though I have in the Portland metro area, which is around the house Northwest, which you can stream across the country, but every week we do six or seven segments and that is up on my website.
[:[00:11:12] Eric Goranson: And if you do it right, you can provide somebody with an amazing home. But many times these things can be big projects. And so we've been talking about that today. We're just talking in the last segment here about the different generations and what some of the weak points are. And these dates are not hard, but you get an idea within a few years.
[:[00:11:51] Eric Goranson: You saw really subgrade electrical systems in these things. So maybe they used aluminum wire. Maybe it was 100 circuit. [00:12:00] Maybe it just didn't have enough power to even wash. Be able to do a washer and dryer inside without adding it. So, these things can be pretty tough and a pretty hard investment. So, if you're actually looking out there to get into something.
[:[00:12:31] Eric Goranson: So unless you're getting a killer deal on it, which you could, I've seen some people buy these things for thousands of dollars. And now you're talking about being able to put something into it. But at the same point, you need to be able to do it right. And with many of these, there's going to be a pretty detailed inspection if you go to sell it, like any home.
[:[00:13:10] Eric Goranson: We're seeing regular shingles that are name brand. We're seeing a nice steel cased instead of a mobile home door that looks like it came out of an RV. And we're starting to see different levels of energy efficiency. We're starting to see normal wiring. We're starting to see typical plumbing, but here's where the problems come in on the plumbing.
[:[00:13:56] Eric Goranson: That's okay. You can go through and do that and it's not that [00:14:00] big a deal because a lot of this stuff is coming up to the floor. You're not have 2 stories. You've got access underneath and that is again 1 of those things that I want you to be careful of many times when they've put these in parks or things like that.
[:[00:14:30] Eric Goranson: Sometimes access can be tough and sometimes it's really hard to get underneath those things just to do general repairs. So some of those things like access. It could be like a tiny crawl space where you've got 10 or 12 inches under there to get underneath it. And that can be pretty tough. So, in that situation, I want you to really be careful of what you're working with.
[:[00:15:10] Eric Goranson: And so a lot of times they're putting that on upside down and then they flip the piece back over again. So when it goes in, a lot of this stuff is done the other way around. And that can be interesting. That can be very interesting. And now when we're getting into the 2010 to current stuff, now we're looking at stuff.
[:[00:15:46] Eric Goranson: And I want to talk about where the future is towards the end of this, but that's where we're starting to see a lot of these different things right there. As far as Doing it now, investment wise, where do I think your biggest, your [00:16:00] biggest opportunity for investing in something like this? If you're handy and labor is free, looking at those 1980s double wides are pretty good or finding a cream puff of a 1970s or 80 single wide that is on the market for pennies on the dollar.
[:[00:16:35] Eric Goranson: There's many contractors out there that if you go to hire to do this, they don't want to mess with it. And so that is one of the issues with the really older stuff that you see out there is that damage can be extensive and it could be almost not cost effective if you're paying someone to fix it. So this is where you need to come in and do it correctly.
[:[00:17:21] Eric Goranson: And then in two years, that place goes up for sale. There's going to be some people super unhappy and that thing might not have the value. All it takes is a news report, right? Hey, this place might go up for sale next year. And your profits are out the door and that might be something you don't have. Any control over and that can be really expensive if you can't control the outcome of what is going, because sometimes moving these is something that can be really expensive.
[:[00:18:06] Eric Goranson: Okay. And maybe the new buyer won't notice it, but let's be good humans and make sure these guys are set up to be in a very good position. So make sure you take your time, do these projects correctly, and really understand how these things are built. Because that's going to be a key to understand. Now when we come back, I'm going to talk to you about how they build these things.
[:[00:19:01] Eric Goranson: Hey, this is Ron Kiel, the metal cowboy from Kiel, the Ron Kiel band and Steeler. We are rocking around the house with Eric G.
[:[00:19:35] Eric Goranson: Maybe I'm out shooting TV. If you do call and you leave a message, make sure and leave me a time to best call you back. And I'll try my best to, uh, Get ahold of you there because we do have people that listen all over the country and worldwide. So I will do my best to try to call you back during that time and feel free to leave an email address as well.
[:[00:20:17] Eric Goranson: So what is you have steel basically in a manufacturing facility. And they cut and build what would be the transport side of this thing, which is what's going to haul it down the road. So, it'll have the tongue, the hitch, it's going to have the axles, which will be many times removable, and all of that stuff that goes in.
[:[00:20:57] Eric Goranson: Let me slow that down a little bit so you can [00:21:00] explain, so I can explain it to you. So, they'll build the frame up, sometimes they'll sheet it with the OSB or plywood or whatever they're using. Then they'll flip it upside down and they'll plummet and insulated upside down and put the, put the rodent vapor barrier type fabric down, staple it down, get it all into place and then flip it back over and then they start building from there on up.
[:[00:21:45] Eric Goranson: It is super efficient. If you see a 1400 square foot home these days, you'll see three or four dumpsters come out of there of the extra debris. As far as the cut ends of wood, the drywall scraps, the roofing scraps, all the [00:22:00] packaging, all that stuff. That's not how these things are made today. Get a manufacturing facility.
[:[00:22:25] Eric Goranson: When I walked through it, they get all the materials already basically pre cut. So they're not throwing waste away. Why buy something you don't need? So that's how they've got their costs dialed in. Now their drywall comes in full with sheets, which are custom made for this. And then they're using adhesive when they're putting it in.
[:[00:23:10] Eric Goranson: And that's a common problem in today's drywall, because if you walk into your home centers, lumber yards, and you look at drywall out there, there's this new light drywall. And if you talk to my firefighter friends, they talk about how that new light drywall, if you're installing, it should have twice as many screws to hold it up because there's a lot of air in that.
[:[00:23:52] Eric Goranson: If you do a combination of both, great, but that is a better grab on that. And so now all of a sudden you just have drywall [00:24:00] sheet seams to tape and mud. That ends up being a pretty good thing, and they will finish that and then go over and lay the ceiling on him. And that's what's cool. So they'll lay that ceiling in and off they go.
[:[00:24:35] Eric Goranson: When it's being framed up, that lumber has been sitting outside for 30 days. Sometimes, depending on what the weather is, the plywood is looking black and moldy. The studs are looking discolored and moldy. They're soaked full of moisture. And now you got guys going on, putting house wrap on and nobody's drawing these houses out correctly, which can be a huge health issue for people because now you're starting out with a brand new home.
[:[00:25:18] Eric Goranson: You don't have all that mud covered lumber that no one's cleaned off. So this is where those things really turn out pretty well. And so that's the cool part. So you start to see that and then the rest of this is like building a regular home, siding, roofing, all those things go on, but the cool thing is you don't have to worry about it being dried in so they can do it a little more things that make a little more sense so they can get all the siding and everything on and then go put a roof on it because they're not in a situation that requires for that to happen.
[:[00:26:08] Eric Goranson: And then we come back here in a few minutes. Actually, we'll go out to break here in a moment. But the 1 thing that I want to talk about here is how I see this going forward. Because 1 of the things that I'm seeing out there is modular homes and manufactured housing isn't being used correctly. And our politicians and all of the people out there that are trying to come up with affordable housing solutions.
[:[00:26:49] Eric Goranson: And the last thing I want is my government to be doing it for me. I think there's a lot of good answers out there for people, but we just got to let people go out and solve these problems [00:27:00] instead of it being a government solution. And when we come back, I'm going to talk about that because I think there's some great ideas out there that can be super affordable, fast.
[:[00:27:26] Eric Goranson: I'm living paycheck to paycheck. And now I got to be able to do something here so I can afford to get in a home that I love. And I think that is one of the cool things that I see coming up in the future. With this huge trend that is just getting ready to explode right now. And I think this is going to be an answer for a lot of people out there.
[:[00:28:00] Eric Goranson: They're going to be paying to well. Themselves and putting that money away. So they have something there. So when we come back, we're going to dive into that. And I think some great solutions of building, especially lower income developments, where I think we can really create some cool places out there and fast.
[:[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: guys, welcome back to the around the house show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining me today. We've been talking about remodeling, flipping, or investing in manufactured housing. And one thing before we get into the wave, the future is I wanted to talk to you about making sure that you understand how the loans and all of that stuff works.
[:[00:29:46] Eric Goranson: So that way you know what you're looking for, because sometimes they'll go, oh, that's too old, we're not going to loan on that. Okay, got it. So find out what those limitations are and see what you're working with. So you know what you're doing. So that's a big key [00:30:00] right there is just to understand what the limitations are and what you need to do to get that dialed in.
[:[00:30:34] Eric Goranson: But what they're doing is they are building it. So it is front garage ready. So what they can do is they'll go in. And a developer will come in and buy land for, let's say 50 homes, right? They go in, they put the streets in, they get the utilities in, they get the garage slab poured, the foundation poured for them to put the house or lift the house on.
[:[00:31:16] Eric Goranson: They'll build the garage on the front of it. And this looks like every other suburbia manufactured neighborhood that you can't tell was prebuilt and moved on site. And that is a really big thing. 'cause it has a normal garage that's attached to the house, the siding matches, the roofing matches because it's all the same stuff.
[:[00:31:57] Eric Goranson: You can have different plans and you could put [00:32:00] those into a community. And it saved a ton of time and a ton of money because guess what? You can't build that house of that quality for less on a job site. Not happening. Those guys have got it that much dialed in. So it's a really good way to go. So I think that is going to be our wave of the future.
[:[00:32:36] Eric Goranson: And basically they build them poor foundation. They lift it up over the top of the crane, drop it right back in and it is filled up and it is ready to go. People are moved in a number of weeks and you've got something completely dialed in. Which is really cool. And that's an affordable way to do it. And again, generally, much less money than coming in and having somebody build it on site when you compare apples to [00:33:00] apples of a similar construction.
[:[00:33:20] Eric Goranson: It's safer for the workers. There's nobody up on the roof roofing. When it's 105 degrees or 22 degrees, you've got a crew coming in that can turn key this and get it all dialed in. They're building these homes. So they're meant to last you a lifetime. They have regular pex pipe in there. They've got everything normal that you would see in a house.
[:[00:34:02] Eric Goranson: So everybody on that team, since they're cranking them out, they know the best ways of doing these and it ends up being a better manufactured home. Which I like, I would have no problem buying a piece of land, getting one of those, putting it out on there and enjoy my cabin in the woods. That is nothing wrong with that right there.
[:[00:34:38] Eric Goranson: And to be honest, I am not the biggest fan of those. And here's why they're very hard to work with. And second of all, I want to know what's been in that shipping container. Did that shipping container haul dangerous chemicals back and forth? What is it? What environment has that thing been in? Now, I would want to probably a new one.
[:[00:35:17] Eric Goranson: I'm not sure if that's actually going to save you money in the long run, but I think they're cool kitschy projects. Don't get me wrong, but I don't think that's really going to be our answer. I think it's innovative, but I don't think it's any kind of a longterm fix that we're seeing for any of our housing issues out there.
[:[00:35:52] Eric Goranson: But nonetheless, I think it's good for some people and they want to build their own custom project. And I have seen some absolute [00:36:00] gorgeous ones. But really, I don't think that's a long term solution for that. So really that just lays on this affordable housing and what we can do with that. And that is going to be in my mind, manufactured housing.
[:[00:36:45] Eric Goranson: I have seen walls so warped In a bathroom, this was in Florida that if you hung the mirror on the wall, the mirror was crooked because the wall was that crooked because there was an arch in that wall. There was just a [00:37:00] big bow. So these are all things that you can get away. Just get away from in this type of situation.
[:[00:37:23] Eric Goranson: And now we're starting to see these companies out there that are doing not even where they're calling them out. Basically on flat beds. And there is no steel frame underneath it. They're basically a modular home that doesn't have its own frame and wheels. But again, now it's going to be even harder to move that thing around.
[:[00:38:03] Eric Goranson: I've seen on Facebook marketplace some of these places out there are selling these things for five six seven ten fifteen thousand bucks and then you've got a Few hundred bucks or even a thousand bucks a month in some cases for expensive place But depending on where that park is, that can be a good way to go.
[:[00:38:38] Eric Goranson: 8 3 3 2 3 9 41 44. That is 8 3 3 2 3 9 4 1 4 4. And I'd love to give you a hand with your next project that you've got going. If you're stuck, feel free to give a call and I'll answer it. Some people call up and go, Hey, I don't want to be on the radio. I just want to have an answer. And that's what we do.[00:39:00]
[:[00:39:22] Eric Goranson: I'll see you next weekend on Around the House, and if you're on the podcast, I'll see you in the midweek special on Wednesday. Thanks for tuning in around the house. We'll see you soon.
