General Mobile Home Questions

Hi, so my mom is wanting to either rent a place or buy a mobile home.

What are the benefits and cods of each, what do you recommend?

What has the best resale value and why?

What has the lowest repair costs? Why?

Is one built better than the other, why?

She is thinking of living in the northern San Diego area, but doesn’t have any idea as to where, around Oceanside Vista San Marcos , as south as Encinitas.

What are some ideas?

What’s the difference between a mobile home and a manufactured home?

Rent or buy, got it.

Too many factors for a simple answer. Nothing unique here. It depends on the particular facts and circumstances.

Huh? Owning versus renting? You mean, which is economically better, disregarding other factors like cash flow, stability, flexibility, etc?

“It depends on the particular facts and circumstances”

Here you seem to be comparing “stick built” with “factory-built.”

“It depends on the particular facts and circumstances.”

I’d say this is such a personal decision as to be meaningless to ask for advice from an internet forum with no special link to southern California.

Finally, one I can answer. In my experience, government codes define a mobile home as a structure, blah blah blah, built before HUD code took effect in 1976. Cities can and often do ban these due to there being no way to ascertain the quality (safety) of the structure.

A “manufactured home” is the equivalent blah blah blah thing but built after 1976 and conforming to federal HUD building codes, and therefore local governments may not regulate them in the same way (because federal codes trump local codes, basically).

And you didn’t ask this, but “modular” housing and “tiny homes” are also similar things, but they are regulated by local and state codes (each perhaps with unique quirks that must be satisfied).