8
Wednesday, August 24, 1977
University Daily Kansan
Mobile homes offer many benefits
By CHRISTOPHER COX
Staff Writer
Saving money on apartment rent, having more privacy and being able to move an entire block of the house is a few of the reasons for the growing number of students who have moved away from apartment living and taken up residence in one of the seven Lawrence area
Martin Hubbard, Waterville senior, said, to him, the most appealing thing about his career is the love he has for people.
"The expense is probably only half what the average student has to pay because the trailer belongs to me and was paid for before I even came to college," he said.
BUHARDEN, WHO LIVES AT Mobile Village II. Second and Arkansas streets, said he paid $62 a month, which included the cost of the mobile home space, gas, water, trash hauling and lawn care. After adding his phone and electric bills, it costs Hubbard about $60 a month to live in a mobile home, be said.
Hubbard said his mobile cost him $1,200 when he bought it used in 1973. When he finished school, he plans to sell the house, he gets money for more it would buy if he bought it for it.
Another advocate of mobile home economy is Randy Superman, a resident at the Gaslight Village Mobile Homes, 3020 Iowa St.
SUPERNAM SAID HE PREFERRED mobile home living to apartment living even though he pays $105, as much as the rent on one bedroom apartments. But, he said, he's getting more for the money. That $120 is the monthly installment on a double-wide mobile home and $65 is the lot rent, which includes a fenced yard and a carport.
"If you're renting you’re always losing the money, and you’re just paying it somebody and it's got them."
"I felt when I bought my mobile home it was a bad investment, but a good business, a good bonus job."
BUT OWNING A MOBILE home places responsibility on the owner, Supernaw said. If something breaks it's up to the owner to fix it, or if someone finds something breaking in an apartment.
Supernaw has replaced a water heater and furnace fan in the six years he's lived in a mobile home, he said. Hubbard said he had replaced some copper tubing and a sink. Both said that they could handle most of the repairs they might encounter.
The expense of mobile home living could be drastically reduced if someone else lived there.
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four years, all the way through college in the same place and get a return on what you've spent," he said.
Spaces Home homes can be purchased in different sizes, with any amount of features and at many prices, Supernaw said. For example, his double-wide home is twice the width of a standard 12-foot wide mobile home and has three bedrooms, wall-to-wall carpet and a washer and dryer. He said he bought it for $10,000.
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Another advantage mobile home living has over apartment living, Supernaw said, is that it is quieter and more private.
"YOU COULD HEAR THE GUY above you, you could hear the guy beside you and you hear people walking out in front," he said of apartment living. "Here about worse it gets is the car going out in front with a house will have that situation."
situation.
Hubbard agreed that privacy was an advantage, but said the only time he noticed outside noise was when he was in his kitchen. Most of the time, he said, he wasn't aware of noise.
I wake up now:
"After you've lived here three months
you're accustomed to everything you hear,"
he said.
Supernaw said he thought that students who lived in mobile home parks cared more about privacy than students who lived in apartment houses.
"SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO go to apartments because there's a lot of activity there and they're going to meet a lot of people," he said. "I don't think a mobile home park is like this." The real life is likely to be by themselves more. The social thing isn't as important to them."
Mobile home parks also have a "built-in" advantage over apartment houses that is especially useful to Kansans—tornado shelters. The parks that Hubbard and Supernaw live in both have shelters within vards of their mobile homes.
neither worries much about storms, partly because tie-downs anchor the
Side by side
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"IM NOT ANY MORE WORRIED living in a mobile home than I would be in a house," Supernaw said. "Houses are definitely made better, they have to be . . . But as far as personal safety goes, they've got a storm shelter right down the street. . . you don't have that in a house. All you've got is a basement."
"I'm sure that any wind that blows this down is going to blow a house down, too."
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Mobile homes also have the advantage of being, well, mobile. Depending on where one moves and who does the moving will make a difference in the expense. For example, he takes him from dollar a month to $120, to move his trailer from Waterville to Lawrence.
THE MAIN DISADVANTAGE of mobile homes is that they're made of metal and metal retains heat in summer and cold in the winter.
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the winter. He bidder said he kept his air conditioner on almost constantly during the summer and the heater all the time in winter. He said the skirting on his trailer probably cut his heating bill in half because it blocked out the cold wind.
Mobile home owners also have some costs that apartment renters don't, "Hubbard said. One is that license tags must be purchased." The cost, however, is an affordable $2.
TE-DOWNS ARE ANOTHER cost the mobile home owner must face when he first moves his home onto a lot, Hubbard said, because Kansas state law requires that all mobile homes be securely anchored. Depending on the amount the owner wants to spend, Hubbard said tie-downs could be purchased from $25 to $300.
purchases from 0 to $10,000. But it's apparent that the advantages of mobile living exceed the disadvantages, at least for some students.
"I like them better than apartments," Supernaw said. "I would probably rather have a house, but it's only because a house is eventually a better investment anyway.
"But for temporary living, which is what I mobile homes mostly are, I don't think you can beat it. I think it's ideal for students or young manned people and pretty thin budget. It's having a home of your own, such is important people, and it's cheaper."
is cheaper.
"I'd recommend it wholeheartedly."
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