First things first: If you inherited a mobile home but you weren’t living with the owner before they passed, you don’t have an automatic right to move in.
To get that right, you have to transfer the occupation agreement from the name of the deceased to yours. This is just one part of the complications that come with inherited property. Not to mention the emotional stress you’re probably going through.
As if that isn’t enough, you could be experiencing challenges with tax affairs and land management — if you didn’t already have those skills. Or maybe you’re currently not in the best financial position to take on the responsibility of maintaining the mobile home.
But those challenges don’t have to be yours for too long. In this article, we’ll show you the options you have and help you make the best decision for you and your inherited mobile home.
Inheritance Rules Regarding Mobile Homes
Dealing with an inherited mobile home is not always as simple as selling it. Here are some rules to keep in mind:
- If the will of the deceased names a beneficiary, that makes things much easier. In many states, this is the primary way to transfer mobile home ownership after death. However, if there is any conflict over the ownership, it could delay the transfer process or lead to additional costs.
- If the beneficiary wasn’t living with the deceased, he or she does not have an automatic green light to move in, whether they were left the property in a will or not.
- If the deceased had no will, the home’s ownership automatically passes to the next-of-kin. This can be the spouse, children, or siblings.
These rules can set the pace for a bunch of pesky inconveniences we’ve seen with inherited mobile homes.
Common Issues With an Inherited Mobile Home
Some issues are:
- The burden of ownership: For someone who has established a life somewhere else, an inherited mobile home doesn’t have much use at all as they likely have their own place to live in and manage. In fact, as the inherited property will need maintenance and probably rent, it’s more of a burden than a gift.
- Constraints of inheritance laws: Not everyone knows the laws concerning mobile or manufactured homes well enough to know what can be done with their inheritance.
- High cost of relocation: Relocating a mobile home is expensive. If the inherited mobile home is in an unfavorable location, moving it will cost a lot of money (anywhere between $3000 and $14,000).
- Renegotiating the lease: If the mobile home was in a park or community and you want to leave it there, then you will have to renegotiate the lease contract terms with the landlord.
- Need for renovation: The mobile home might not be fit for living in anymore. If you decide to use it despite that, you will have to renovate it first. This can cost you an additional $4000.
- More beneficiaries, more problems: There may be disagreements over the mobile home in the case of multiple beneficiaries interested in the home.
If you have to let go of the home for any of these reasons, selling it is an option. However, donating it can bring you more benefits than selling.
Not only does donating remove the hassle of finding a buyer and negotiating fair prices, but it can also bring you tax gains almost equal to the market price of the mobile home.
Let’s go deeper into this.
2 Best Things to Consider When Dealing With Inherited Mobile Homes
When you have to get rid of an inherited mobile home, you have two main options. You can either sell it or donate it.
We won’t recommend selling the mobile home as you stand to sell at a loss, especially if it requires some renovation work. Besides that, it is tough (maybe impossible) to sell at its true market price.
Every buyer likes to buy cheap, and they’ll do their best to bring down the price of the mobile home — especially since selling inherited property is usually treated like a distress sale.
The choice to sell also involves some incredible investment of time and resources. It can take months to find a serious buyer during which the home’s maintenance has to be done and rent paid (or it deteriorates and keeps losing value).
On the other hand, choosing to donate the mobile home neatly side-steps all that. You don’t even have to look far to find someone who really needs a home to live in and won’t just sell once you walk out the door. You can contact a charity organization like us, Banyan Mobile Home Removal, for that.
We’re an accredited 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that’ll make sure the home gets to those in need, and we’ll take care of the mobile home removal and transportation.
So, if you’re ready to let your mobile home go, give it a second thought. You earn more by donating than selling and give someone shelter.
Some other options you can consider are:
Moving into the property
This might require you to abandon your current life and make major changes to your daily routine.
Renting the home out to another person:
This will mean fixing up a dozen and one little things to make the home attractive for renting out. Finding someone trustworthy to rent it to is another headache. If the home’s still in a park, the lease contract might not even allow it.
Turning the property into a vacation rental
This faces the same problems as the point above, except worse. Since it’s rented even more temporarily, a couple of months at best, the renter might see no reason to restrain from leaving things in worse shape than they met them.
Conclusion
As we’ve mentioned, the problems you might face with an inherited mobile home include:
- The high cost of moving the home
- Lack of use for the mobile home
- Need to renegotiate the terms of lease if you choose to leave the home at the park
- The home being unlivable
- Disagreements between multiple interested beneficiaries
- Being unable to afford the extra cost of rent
In such a case, donation should be the solution you most favor. You get to enjoy benefits like a tax write-off equal to the value of the home, and even the feeling of satisfaction of doing a good deed.
If you choose to donate, you’ll find that Banyan is one of the best options around. Whether the home is located in a park or on rough terrain, we’ll get it out and away at zero cost. Call us today.