EPISODE 1: Mobile Home Myths – Depreciation Part 1

Hey look it’s the Doublewide Dudes.

Mousetrap: Alright, alright, welcome to the podcast. My name is Mauricio Chacra aka Mousetraps and I’m sitting here with A.P

A.P: And we’re the double wide dudes

Mousetrap: That’s right, how you doing man?

A.P: Man, I’m having an awesome day, that intro Mauri it just puts a smile on my face every time I hear it.

Mousetrap: Yeah it’s a good song, it gets me hyped up. How was your day today man?

A.P: Today was great. We got to start the day off this morning calling a family that entrusted us to help them make a housing change, and really become a friend through this process. I got to give Leroy a call and let him know I need him to show up at my office next week, to close on his home so we can get to building on on his brand new acre of land.

Mousetrap: Alright!

A.P: Yeah, I love making those calls.

Mousetraps: Yeah, those are always good. I had it pretty good day myself, I had the opportunity to speak to a few new families looking to get into a new home and doing what I do best. You know I love having the opportunity to set these people up for success

A.P: That’s right, changing lives.

Mousetrap: Yeah, that’s one of the reasons why we decided to do this podcast. One of the founding principles of our company Braustin Homes is really to educate future homeowners on the home buying process. That way them and their families can make the best educated decision when it came to finally purchasing their home.

The first segment that we’re going to get into is mobile home myths and the first short series we’re going to do is on depreciation. We’ll do about five short episodes on this topic, keep them short and sweet for you guys that way you can enjoy them at your own pace. Let’s Dive right into it why don’t we. So the first question Alberto I guess would be, do mobile homes depreciate?

A.P: You know that’s a question we get quite a bit Mousetrap, you know in the eight years I’ve been doing this, definitely something I’ve been asked, heck probably a hundred times. Like you said we started this company with a focus on educating home buyers and making sure they’re making the best possible decision they can, and we just want to be completely up front and tackle some of these myths, good, bad or indifferent, that people have about our industry. So one of the biggest ones is that mobile homes depreciate in value. We’ve heard that they’re just like a car, the second you buy them, they’re going to go down in half. and the fact of the matter is Mousetrap, that’s just not true. Just like anything having to do with real estate whether the home is going to go up or down in value really depends on a whole number of factors. A matter of fact Datacomp Appraisal Systems did a study not too long ago, where they studied one hundred and eighty five manufactured homes over a period of time what they found was ninety seven went up in value, eighty eight went down and it just depended on a whole number of variables with the market playing the biggest factor there. Nowadays to say a hundred percent that mobile homes are going to depreciate just isn’t true.

Mousetrap: Okay that’s really interesting statistics Alberto. I mean I was just like everybody else, really thinking that mobile homes do depreciate as soon as you buy them so..

A.P: Yeah you know I did too before I got in the industry, but that’s why we want to do these podcast, like you said Mauricio to educate people and help people make a good educated buying decision.

Mousetrap: Okay well, when it comes to depreciation going up and down in value, what would you say would be the biggest determining factor in that point

A.P: That’s a great question Mousetrap, and what Datacomp found, the single biggest contributing factor to whether their home was going to go up or down in value after their purchase was that initial buying price. You know like you mentioned one of the founding principles of our company Braustin Homes, we encourage people to shop and we encourage people to do their research and price compare as much as the possibly can. I mean, it’s a house not a T-shirt. And our customers will hear us say that time and time again. It just comes down to simple math if you overpay at the beginning, well then of course your home is not going to be worth as much when you go to resell it ten, fifteen years down the road. Now if you get a good fair price then you have a very strong chance of having an appreciating asset something that’s going to go up in value and give you a return on that initial investment.

Mousetrap: Okay, so it sounds like the initial buying price is going to be a really big factor to determining whether you home is going to be worth anything in the future.

A.P: Exactly, yeah.

Mousetrap: Well thanks for listening guys, that does it for the first episode. Tune into the next one where we’re going to give you insider information on how to get the absolute best price on your manufactured home.

A.P: That’s right ya’ll take care

Mousetrap: Thanks again and we’ll see you on the next one.