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There’s an incongruity stirring in most of the U.S. and Canada. Hundreds of millions think of mobile and manufactured homes as housing built for the poor or lower middle class. Really?
Tell that to the celebrities, millionaires, and billionaires who own and love their manufactured and mobile homes.
Don’t get me wrong. Yes, many lower income people own a manufactured home, and that is a fact that ought to be celebrated. Home ownership is routinely superior to renting. You shouldn’t buy a manufactured home – or anything else – because a celebrity tells you too. But when the rich and famous own one, and they aren’t plugging a brand or product, that should make Americans sit up and take notice.
Besides the rich and famous, many in the middle class own a manufactured home too.
Minnie Driver recently made headlines on People magazine and beyond for her custom manufactured home. But here on MHLivingNews, we’ve spotlighted her ownership of a factory-built home before. She said about her home “It’s my favorite place to be.”
The billionaire couple – Dan and Margaret Munzer Loeb – are among the ‘known’ super-wealthy that own a manufactured home and – surprise! – it’s a single sectional. Per the New York Post, they are not alone there.
There are also others we know that have a modular home that are wealthy.
The King and his bride – Elvis and Priscilla Presley – celebrated part of their honeymoon in one of several true mobile homes that he owned.
In the U.S. a true ‘mobile home’ was built before June 15, 1976. Since that date, if the home had a red HUD label attached at on the exterior at the time the home was completed and certified – and that label looked like the photo shown – it’s a HUD Code manufactured home. Some states have modular homes that get a blue label.
Don’t expect it to be this year or next. But do expect that in the years ahead that manufactured homes will likely in time be celebrated and will become ‘all the rage.’ Why do we think so? Because certain billionaires are going to make sure of it.
Do you own or live a mobile or manufactured home? Hold your head high. Because the rich and famous do too. Text and stills from the People article are in the their party video, below
Those who could buy a conventional house built on site but buy a manufactured home instead are among the “Rich and Frugal” that award-winning journalist Jan Hollingsworth wrote about, at the article linked here or from the photo below.
Home ownership is desired by millions who don’t realize what the National Association of Realtors ™ (NAR) research in 2018 made clear. Many of the things people believe about manufactured home living are demonstrably not true. Some claims might have been true decades ago about mobile homes, but today’s manufactured housing is a different story. That’s part of the reason that the terminology matters.
Own a home? Or do you dream of home ownership? Want to upside, downsize, start out, or need to start over? Do you and yours want to live better for less? Then you could be welcome to this large club.
There are those among the 22 million who’ve opted to live in the mobile or manufactured home lifestyle that had those same goals.
I’ve personally met and interviewed wealthy people who own or live in a mobile or manufactured home. Some live in what’s often misnamed a ‘mobile home park,’ as well as those who live in a nice manufactured home community.
Like many of you, I started out my post-college life in an apartment complex. I owned conventional housing in fine neighborhoods, before owning and living in a series of different types of manufactured homes. My wife and I have personally spent years of our adult lives in sharp manufactured homes.
Rephrased, I’ve experienced a wide range of housing. So I can say from first hand experience that you “Cook, clean, live and love the same in a manufactured home as in any other kind of home.” © The difference is that “You can live better in a manufactured home because you’re cost of living is less.” ©
For those who don’t know the work of performer Minnie Driver as well as they’d like to, this CBS Sunday morning interview will help.
Easy and Common Sense Tips for Savvy Manufactured Home Shopping
For those considering the mobile or manufactured home lifestyle, we advise writers and callers the same thing. Do your homework. Don’t buy a new factory-built home from any company that appears to routinely do customers wrong. That’s easy enough to discover with some online research. Then, make sure that whatever you agree with a seller is reduced to writing. Honest sellers have no problem putting their commitments down on paper, and everyone signs.
If you are buying an existing home from a private seller, it can pay to get a third-party written inspection. Numbers of even pre-HUD Code mobile homes – those built before June 15, 1976 – have had significant updates.
There’s plenty of research that has been performed by third parties on modern manufactured homes that is reported here on Manufactured Home Living News. That’s a good reason for peace-of-mind. But as or more important, a new HUD Code manufactured home provides consumer safeguards that you don’t find with far more expensive conventional housing. So, saving money doesn’t mean you are taking a chance.
Real Interviews, Real People
Our video interviews are with real people. They are not scripted. Those interviews may have one or more of our website’s sponsors in the background – but that is true for all news media. We don’t pay for comments from those we interview. Whatever someone has said is what the quoted person we interviewed wanted to say. That’s transparency you can count on.
So, we’ve interviewed and reported on the rich and famous, as well as everyday people of all backgrounds.
Every interview we’ve produced is worthwhile for precisely those reasons. They are authentic, genuine, unscripted, and we paid not a nickel to those interviewed.
The participants of our focus group videos – which primarily included people that previously owned a conventional ‘site built’ house before the owner bought a manufactured home – got a meal and $20 for gas. That was because we met miles from where they lived and took hours of their time while our team set up and then we did the focus group video. That’s less than many who do a focus group get paid.
These are fact that let me say the following with a straight face. There is no place online that is more transparent, or a more authentic source for genuine insights on manufactured home living than his MHLivingNews site.
On MHLivingNews, we’ve spotlighted sad stories, and happy ones. We get to the bottom of troubling issues that some others want to sweep under the rug. Some of our reports are designed to help those studying our industry to better understand the ups and downs that have occurred in the manufactured home industry.
Celebrities and the wealthy that own a manufactured home could do something very important for every American. They should step up and celebrate all Americans, regardless of the kind of housing that they choose – conventional, modular, mobile, prefab, or manufactured homes. In effect, when Minnie Driver did the article with People magazine that some of the photos on this page are taken from, she surely did exactly that – lifted up all manufactured home residents.
Kid Rock did too when he cut a video with his manufactured home, as he stood next to his Rolls Royce. The same video Kid Rock produced – found at the link here – shows the performer inside his private jet.
So every time the rich and famous spotlight their personal mobile or manufactured home, they are lifting up the other 22 million Americans who live in one too.
The rest of America just needs to open their minds and see this affordable housing reality. People of all backgrounds and all economic levels love their manufactured and mobile homes, as Foremost and numerous other third party surveys reveal. The rest are details and commentary. Why not discover those details for yourself or a loved one that is dreaming of their part of the American dream?
The National Association of Realtors ™ (NAR) noted in 2018 that many renters could qualify to own a manufactured home. The Urban Institute and NAR both reported in 2018 that manufactured homes can and do appreciate. The NAR researcher told MHLivingNews that a manufactured home’s value is influenced by the same factors as conventional housing.
If you are renting, upsizing, downsizing or thinking about a housing change, consider the manufactured home alternative. Read some more articles here. View some videos here. Then, go shopping. Odds are good that you’ll be glad that you did. “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Lifestyle news, commentary, and analysis.)
(See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them. Third-party images and content are provided under fair use guidelines.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.com.
Tony is the multiple award-winning managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which an be accessed by clicking on them.
Movie Mogul Rupert Wyatt and Screenwriter Erica Beeney’s Magnificent Manufactured Home
The “Need For Quality Affordable Housing Has Never Been Greater,” Says LT
FEAR, a Solution to the Affordable Housing Crisis, and the Manufactured Home Dilemma
