Hello to all!  Thank you for continuing to support our site.  I know we’re not the best at updating.  It appears that living in a home and remodeling all the time leaves one with not a lot of time to sit down and type out one’s experiences.  Although, sometimes, I would really love just hanging out here at MyMobileHomeMakeover.com with the rest of you, rather than sheet rocking or laying floor!

I wanted to share some information we have obtained recently, and it’s information that has proved to be quite useful for us regarding our home-owner’s insurance on our 1995 double wide home.

As I was searching around the Web for some information about our mobile home, I happened upon a site that discussed the differences between a “mobile home” and a “manufactured home.”  I want you to all understand the importance of this distinction because I read this news provided at that site with great interest.  For many years (17 to be exact), we have only been able to insure our double wide home for the original price we paid for it…about $40,000.  Our home is paid off and we’ve done quite a bit of work to it worth tens of thousands of dollars.  Imagine how difficult it would be for us to obtain a new home these days with only a $40,000 insurance payout in the event our home was damaged or destroyed!

According to this site by The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, if your home was built before June 15, 1976, it is considered a “Mobile Home”.  If your home was purchased after that date, it is considered a “Manufactured Home”.  To be sure of this, I checked the title of our home and it does, indeed, say “Manufactured Home” on it rather than “Mobile Home”.  It was built in 1995.  Our HUD tag on our home has faded, so it is no longer red.  So if you look and see a tag with a HUD certification on it on your home, and the home was built after the date listed above, you are looking at a Manufactured Home. (No, this does not mean we are renaming our site to MyManufacturedHomeMakeover.com :-)

So, “what’s the big deal” you say?  Well, I’ll tell you.

As I mentioned before, for nearly two decades, we have only been able to insure our home with a policy that covers our original purchase price.  There is no way this would recoup our losses if something were to happen to our home.  As it turns out, in the last month, we have had some changes in the status of our home and property and have done some research on other insurance companies.  We started with the one we have our auto insurance through because we get a great group discount through Big D’s employer, and we would also get a discount for having both policies through the same company and payroll deduction for premiums.

But even without these advantages, the greatest part was that I explained to the policy salesperson that I recently learned of this distinction between a manufactured home and a mobile home.  I made it clear that our home isn’t considered a mobile home and therefore should not be limited to the loss payout of the original purchase price.

Well, lo and behold, after speaking to their underwriting department, they agreed with me and we were able to insure our property, our outbuilding, and our home…and the home at replacement at the amount we chose (which was determined by what we were willing to pay), and that was $140,000.

WOW!  We could actually replace our home for that amount!  You cannot imagine my excitement when we received this news.  it is more expensive for sure.  But not much.  It’s just over the $500 mark for the whole year.  We’ve paid nearly $300 a year for a $40,000 replacement payout for the last two decades.  So, $500 is a blessing for this kind of peace of mind!

So, dear readers, I implore you to use this argument and come back and let us know whether you’ve had success with your insurance company or if you’ve tried with a new company.  If you own a home that was built after June 15, 1976, it is considered a “manufactured home”.  These homes are subject to all of the regulations and certification processes that HUD mandates and, therefore, it should be considered this way when insuring it.

Oh, and as a footnote…our attorney recently told us that he deals with clients all the time who don’t have a title to their manufactured home.  DON’T THROW YOUR TITLE OUT!  It is so difficult to sell your home without it and if your state is anything like ours, your local DMV won’t have anything to do with replacing them.  You must appeal to the State to make that happen.  Make sure you obtain one when you purchase a manufactured home and keep it in a safe place.  This document was very helpful to us when we asked about this homeowner’s policy.  I was able to cite the label on the title that distinguished our home as a “manufactured home” rather than a “mobile home”.  They also asked if we had a HUD seal on the outside of the home, which we do.  So, run along…look for the HUD seal, and get on the horn with your insurance company!

I hope to be back soon with a post about another bathroom remodel…and yet another one as well.  And I look forward to sharing with you our experiences with contractors in double wide homes.

Good luck and enjoy the Fall!

The McGees