House buying advice needed (possible modular home)

[Deleted]

We are house hunting for a vacation house near big bear (mountain/lake/ski area about 2.5 hours SE of Los Angeles). The process has been really, really challenging because its hard to get up there to see houses when they come on the market,, and most good deals to under contract quickly.

So. We are considering buying this house: www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/460-Conklin-Rd_Big-Bear_CA_92315_M10797-55877

It is a great deal and an AWESOME location - walking distance to the lake and the village (downtown area). It is also $100K under budget, and the lot is zoned for three houses, so we could consider keeping the existing home then building a cabin for DH and myself. The problem is I am 99.9% certain it is a manufactured house. The listing says it is not. My uncle, a former roofer, went to look at it yesterday and said it DEFINITELY is a prefab house. My agent has basically said the same but the seller's agent is insisting is a traditional build. The house has already fallen out of escrow once, which (I am speculating) might mean that when the inspector looked at it he also thought it was modular.

There is already another offer on the house, and if we want to buy it we have to move fast (we will need to drive to big bear tonight, and we are already out of town so it would be a major PITA).

So, a few questions from anyone who has experience with either prefab houses or building houses:

1. Is there any way a house can look prefab but not be?

2. What is the rough cost of building a ski chalet type of home? I know this varies by locations but I am just trying to ballpark whether it will be a $100K or $500k.

3. Is having a house built while living 2.5 hours away going to be a nightmare?

4. What are the actual downsides of a prefab house? Is it just that they are less durable? If the house looks good now would you consider using it as is until the house deteriorates?

If we don't buy the house above, these are the other homes we are considering:

bbv.mlxchange.com/DotNet/Pub/EmailView.aspx?r=320955962&s=BBV&t=BBV


The first one, Mc Whinney, is the current front runner based on proximity to the lake, price, and general woodsiness.

[Overthemoon]

I know when my mom was buying her house she ran into the same issue and it was because it was a prefab home on a permanent slab...the seller insisted it wasn't prefab because it was ona. Permanent foundation but the mortgage company considered it a modular home, so she had a few problems finding a mortgage company willing to finance it. But that was just her experience, yours might be different.

[Deleted]

Sept 29, 2013 8:39:06 GMT -5 Overthemoon said:

I know when my mom was buying her house she ran into the same issue and it was because it was a prefab home on a permanent slab...the seller insisted it wasn't prefab because it was ona. Permanent foundation but the mortgage company considered it a modular home, so she had a few problems finding a mortgage company willing to finance it. But that was just her experience, yours might be different.

Thank you so much!!! I bet that's what's going on. I (heart) ML sometimes. I spent 3 hours on the phone with my agent and my uncle yesterday. I should have just come here immediately.

[amberlyrose]

My uncle is a realtor and had a chalet type vacation home up there. I can ask if it was built by him and his boyfriend or if they bought it, costs, etc. if you'd like.

[Deleted]

Rockspray--is the one I like best--just has a cozy cabin feel, Ridgecrest--is pretty good, but there are no interior shots which is super concerning, Minton has a nice interior--the exterior photo is unimpressive, Cascade is pretty awesome and is probably the best for resale--depending on the location and the plot of land of course.  I'd pass on the rest.

[Deleted]

Sept 29, 2013 8:52:06 GMT -5 amberlyrose said:

My uncle is a realtor and had a chalet type vacation home up there. I can ask if it was built by him and his boyfriend or if they bought it, costs, etc. if you'd like.

Yes, if you could ask if they had a chalet built, the cost, and what the permitting process was like that would be great. I am also considering getting a new realtor (we have had problems with our present agent's assistant) so I may ask for his contact information at some point. Thank you!

[ginger]

OH! Could you pull the mortgage info for the address? I know some information is available online.

[annie8671]

Per the tax bill it says SFR. You can always call a title company and request a property profile.

[snakeoiltanker]

Modular homes are popular here. When we were home hunting we found many that were trying to pass themselves off as stick built. Either they had a permanent foundation and were set on the ground, or they had been added on to with traditional building materials.
You can usually tell by the absence of an attic and the materials used. As pp mentioned they are hard to get financing for. But using one as your temporary vacation unit until you build your own cabin sounds like an excellent idea. You could always rent out the modular when you are not there. We rent a cabin whenever we go to Big Bear. We pay in the $300 a night range and never even stay that close to the village.

[midnightmare81]

Interesting you are asking this. We were just toying with the idea of buying a bigger piece of property now and putting a smaller modular home on it while we save money to build what we want. Renting is costing us almost the same as it would be to buy the house we want, but we don't qualify for that amount as a mortgage because H's income doesn't count. We thought we might just get the modular now (we would qualify on just my income for just the land and smaller modular/MFG home), build the house we want later on a different part of the property and rent the modular after that.

But honestly we have NO idea what kind of issues we may run into (aside from the mortgage) with a modular/MFG home that would be different from a SF. H was a contractor so he could fix most stuff, but we have no idea what might be different, so I will be following!

[Deleted]

So the agent says it has an attic. I told him I would look at it if it's still there next weekend. I don't want a modular home. Even as a vacation house. I associate them with McNasty.

[amberlyrose]

Sept 29, 2013 9:22:32 GMT -5 elle said:

Sept 29, 2013 8:52:06 GMT -5 amberlyrose said:

My uncle is a realtor and had a chalet type vacation home up there. I can ask if it was built by him and his boyfriend or if they bought it, costs, etc. if you'd like.

Yes, if you could ask if they had a chalet built, the cost, and what the permitting process was like that would be great. I am also considering getting a new realtor (we have had problems with our present agent's assistant) so I may ask for his contact information at some point. Thank you!

No problem. I'll send him a message on FB.