This style of home, minus the landscaping, can be bought for 36 monthly payments of $3083, including complete setup on site and ready to move in. (I would pay cash, but you get the idea.) That price includes delivery to Colorado, where some of the darned nicest little forest and mountain estates are coming on market. More about the construction of this home follows.With focus on my highly touted early retirement, everything has necessarily been on equity concerns, not what will actually be bought. Sure, I look at real estate prices and keep an eye on mobile homes—but none of that represents any commitment. It has always been a pastime of mine to monitor prices. When I travel to a new town, one of the first things I do is read the local classifieds. It beats the horoscopes.
Today I learned (TIL) that manufactured homes are not built to local standards, but to a stricter national code. What caught my eye was a list of specifications that, had I not looked twice, could have belonged to a mansion on Star Island. Priced at a completely affordable $48,000, the Rosenberg has a vaulted ceiling. My house in Coquitlam cost ten times that.
Some will point out the land is missing, but I’ve got a funny feeling there will be land up the ying-yang on the market before long. The last generation of buyers, those under 35 right now, got stung big time in the housing collapse, losing an average of 51% of their net worth. Worse, my generation (their parents) sold them out. Most are underwater and rightfully blame the system. We even changed the bankruptcy and privacy laws so they can’t walk away from it all. We went so far as to educate them funny so that we’ll all be in our micro-chipped and serial numbered graves long before they grow the brains to stage a revolution.
Anyhow, back to the factory-builts. They come with appliances. True, I’m starting over from scratch, but the worst of what I saw works for me. There is also the independence factor: as long as the price doesn’t tie up all your cash, if things go wrong, see last paragraph and walk away. Let the bastards keep it. (I’m only looking, folks, looking for prices, that is. I am far more likely to overpay for something second-hand in good condition and fix it up. Maybe something with an ensuite where I could install handicap doors and fix the roof when it leaked.)
You know, there’s one good explanation why I’ve had so much in life with so little cash. The single reason is that I never lacked good future planning. Did you know I got this concept indirectly from Adolf Hitler? Even when Germany was losing the war, I read how he had plans for world conquest, moon rockets, and sub bases in Antarctica. At that time my world consisted of beatings, threats, and disappointments. By age seven, I began planning a better life quite secretly in my mind. If I had the right woman today, I could live in the swamp and be happy.
Tonight was one of the worst bingos ever. That’s money-wise worst, not the show. My bingo music, show, and custom commentary was delivered with aplomb. It’s the way I do business. Peanut, one of the foremost players, is not expected to last out the month. He took ill two weeks ago, a liver ailment is what I heard. That removes our solid core of Saturday visitors and most enthusiastic supporters.
