What is the value of a 1986 mobile home?

It's very hard to put a realistic value on an older mobile home. I do understand that there are companies who have what they feel are a list of home values. The reality is very different and depends on a number of factors they don't even consider.

I spent over a year looking around my area ,through a total of 14 mobile parks to find what I wanted. I considered first the park itself, was it well kept and nice to be in? I almost straight away ruled out 2 that I felt were 'sleazy'.

Next I considered pad rental and what they offered for it. -In an area covering 15 x 30 miles I found rents from 400 to over 800 for the same space. Many were offering a 'clubhouse' or a swimming pool and charged 150 -200 per month for that. Some offered 'security service' where some 'wanna be cop' rolled through 2-3 times a night. - I finally settled on 4 parks that were well maintained and had rental fees around 500.

Now I watched home sales and went to see many homes. I found that many people grossly over-rated their homes value. Some had many unseen problems, needed new furnaces or roofs and other expensive items. I found that Plumbing problems were endemic in mobiles over 15 years old. Many made with Poly-B or cheap copper pipe. ( and consequently now had areas of rotten floor from pinhole leaks ) At this point I decided to look for ones that were price reduced because the problems were obvious and were ones that I could fix. -Within a month or two I found many cheap older homes with things wrong with them and finally settled on one that I bought for less than 20,000 and that I fixed properly for about a month of my labour and 8-9000 in materials. -My neighbours all paid over 50,000 for theirs in similar shape !

What I'm trying to say is - there is no way to set a value without extensive inspection AND knowledge of how much it will cost to fix. -Many people keep their homes looking fine, but hide many structural and Plumbing problems. Simply knowing the name and age is just not enough.