Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Trailer Park as Community

[Marganne Meyer (marganne]

At 4:56 PM -0800 2/17/10, Rob Sandelin wrote:
> If I buy a trailer for $15,000 in a park
> I would think I would want to be assured that I could later resell my
> investment if I decided that this community living idea didn't fit. Banks
> require the ability to resell before they will loan.

This is true, Rob. That's why if I went this direction, I'd probably 
pay cash up front and perhaps get a good discount for doing it this 
way. The other thing is I wouldn't think of my mobile home as an 
investment that will appreciate unless I do some major remodeling. 
Personally, I don't care if my home doesn't appreciate if it is 
comfortable and within a good community willing to reach out to each 
other. Just think how quickly $15,000 can be use up in rent.

I can just hear people reading that and discounting it as me being 
crazy. It's just not done that way! It's just trailer trash.

I say it depends on your perspective. How important is money in your 
life? I'd rather live well within a supportive community (if that can 
be found) than be in debt with a mortgage I might not be able to 
stick with. It's just another way of looking at your life and how you 
want to approach it. Neither side is right or wrong.

I bet a cohousing project would rather be across the street from a 
well-kept mobile home park with friendly people than individual homes 
where no one knows their neighbors. Add a few vacant homes in 
foreclosure. Then watch what happens to the nice homes across the 
street that compare to what is built in the cohousing project. Values 
will drop just as fast as having a junky trailer park across the 
street.

> Doing it without banks
> is fine, but you still need to find cash buyers willing to risk substantial
> money, and while 15-25K seems inexpensive compared to the price of built out
> cohousing, for those in the lower income brackets it can be a large and
> difficult sum and may represent an entire life's savings to invest in an odd
> and risky venture.

Paying cash for a mobile home in an existing park removes most of the 
problems that can make a project spiral up in costs. Most 
importantly, ANYONE can be in a lower income bracket at any point in 
their lives. I grew up in middle class housing. I was almost to the 
point where I could afford to purchase a home when I suddenly became 
ill, the company I worked for was sold off and most employees were 
let go, and I couldn't bounce back from my chronic disability.

It was a BIG SHOCK! Still, I'm glad I didn't get one of those 
mortgages that were so popular, but are causing people to walk away 
from a home they can't pay for. Since I'm not earning anywhere near 
the amount of money I once could make, I'm very careful NOT to become 
'cash-poor'. Am I middle class or am I a poor person in respect to 
living next door to me?

BTW, if there are any people new to this list who are interested in 
talking to other people who want to live within their means, even if 
that's a fixed income from the government, check out the Small House 
Society and Low-cost Community Housing. Links below:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smallhousesocietyonline/
http://www.resourcesforlife.com/small-house-society
http://groups.google.com/group/low-cost-community-housing