What to Do? What to Do?

Josh and I talked on Friday and decided we would just stay here in the community we're in and upgrade to a larger home if we can get this one sold. So, I emailed M and told him we had made a decision about staying. Josh and I were looking online for modular homes made by the same company that made the one we are currently living in. We found a 2280 sq foot, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom that we love! It has a family room, living room, kitchen, sun room, laundry room and a retreat room. We also have the option to put in a fireplace in the living room and/or the family room. All the bedrooms have walk in closets. In the email I sent to M, I told him we found a house that we love but we don't know anything about how to get it here or where to locate the home.

About a half hour after I emailed him, the landlord (D) from the house we were going to rent, called us. She proceeded to tell us that she has a realtor friend that's been in the business for 20+ years. She's dealt with this realtor pretty much since she started out. Anyway, D was talking to the realtor about us the other day. She explained, without using our names, our situation to her about wanting to get out from our modular and that we were told Josh could get charges brought against him for walking away from it. Well, this realtor said that she's dealt with many, many people that have had modular homes repossessed. Due to the fact that modular homes are on wheels, they aren't considered a real house (mortage) on credit reports. Basically, walking away from a modular is about the same as walking away and filing bankruptcy on a car. Said realtor also told D that she was hoping we wouldn't talk to a sales person from the current place we are in because they would probably just try to talk us into buying a bigger modular. She said that's a bad thing to do, because modular homes are really hard to get out of (which we know). Now, you may say that's exactly what M did, but he didn't really. He gave us the option of upgrading to a bigger modular. What he doesn't want, is for us to have bankruptcy on our credit. So, they are supposed to help us sell this place first and foremost. What we do after we sell this place, is for us to decide, obviously.

After hearing that news from D, who felt like she had to call and tell us because she likes us so much (As I said in a previous post, I really like her!), we had to start re-thinking again. Go figure, we'd get that phone call a half hour after I emailed M. D also told us that said realtor told her that she has a person(s) interested in buying a modular to put on land. I jumped on that and emailed the realtor to let her know about our home in case these people were interested in ours. That would be awesome to have someone buy it and haul it out of here to put on land, but I've yet to hear anything from her or M.

We are still undecided at this point what we want to do. If we could sell this place, then we might be able to buy a "stick built" home on our own property. The pros to that would be that we'd have our own land to do whatever we choose to do on it. We could have outdoor fire pits, swing sets for the kids, and wouldn't be told when and how to take care of our yard. Everything about it would be OURS. Now, the cons to owning a home on our own property, are we'd have to pay our own property taxes and the expense of repairing/replacing things.

If we decided to go with a new modular, we'd have to put it here in the community where we are now. The pros to this are, we'd get a brand new home with all new appliances. That would mean little to no repairs or replacements for a long time. The home & everything in it would be under warranty for an X amount of time, and I doubt that would be the case with a pre-owned "stick built" home. Another pro is that modular homes aren't nearly as expensive as "stick built" houses are. I know I couldn't get a brand new 4 bedroom, 3 bath house that has everything in it like the new modular I listed above, for anywhere close to the same price. We'd probably pay double or more depending on the location of it. Having a new home in here would mean no property taxes or paying for separate garbage service because that's all included in our lot rent. We could get a garage added to the modular for a tad more in the price but it, too, would be brand new.
Now for the cons of getting a new modular here. They are hard to resell. We didn't realize this when we moved in here 5+ years ago, but we do now. Also, they are very nit picky here because they want the community to look nice and not so much like a typical trailer park. Things like, we can't have our outdoor garbage cans sitting in front of our homes, shovels can't be visible in the winter, etc because they make the homes "look trashy." We have to have ONLY treated wood swing sets and that's ONLY if our lots can fit them on it w/ out looking crowded. This wouldn't be such a problem if they had a good area where kids could play here. They have a little 20 sq foot area at the front by the pool, that has a tiny little play set on it. It basically has a telescope, a wheel and a slide on it. Garrett's bored after about a minute. They had a spring caterpillar that little, little kids could ride on, but that's broke & hasn't been replaced. Community rules say the kids can't skateboard here in the community, so really, there's not much for kids to do here. They can ride bikes, that's about it. There are no trees here either, so that means no shade for the houses. If there is no central air, these houses heat up Quick! No shade, means, not wanting to spend much time outdoors in the summer because it can get way too hot. We aren't allowed to have outdoor fire pits nor are we allowed to use firecrackers here because the houses are so close together but I love, love to sit outside by a fire! So relaxing & fun!

Josh has always dreamed of having a big yard with lots of trees, so you'd think that would make our decision easier for buying a "stick built" home, but it doesn't. We aren't sure if we want the expenses of repairs, replacements and taxes right now. We aren't sure if we want to buy into another modular either and be stuck with that for many, many years. Ideally, we wouldn't want this place to sell before we find another place either. So, we need to start making decisions pretty quick. But I'm back to where I started this post at:

What to Do? What to Do?