Look at prices of similar new trailers at suppliers and catalogs. If the used trailer is in good condition, figure 50% of new price. Start bargaining less than this figure keeping in mind your top price. (If it is a nice trailer and you really want it, you have to go a bit higher.) If some repair is needed, reduce the price accordingly. Jack up each axle end and spin the wheels. Listen for bearing noise. It'll be a grinding like, grumbling noise. Good bearings are quiet. A common problem with trailer wheel bearings is water invasion, especially for boat trailers where the wheels get immersed during launch and take out time. A poor bearing will likely fail on a long trip at highway speeds. Before you finalize the deal, check out the lighting. Does the tail lights and signal lights work? Does the correct set of lamps flash when a turn signal is turned on? (I am assumomg that your tow vehicle is equipped with the proper setup to handle trailer lamps. If not, get it equipped before picking up the trailer.) Match capacities. The capacity of the vehicle hitch should equal or exceed the trailer and the tow vehicle must be rated to handle the trailer load. Same goes for braking. Match the hitch ball size to the railer's tounge. The trailer must have safety chains. Criss cross the safety chains and pass under the trailer tonge, e.g., the left chain goes under the tongue and hooks up to the riight side of the tow bar and the right chain goes under the tongue and fastens to the left side of the hitch. The object is in case the tongue comes off the hitch, the chains will cradle the tongue keeping it from digging into the street or soil - think stuffing the tounge into a pothole. Properly installed chains will keep the trailer fastened to the tow vehicle, yet not bind in a sharp turn, and will and prevent a run-away trailer. A loose trailer on a highway is a lethal object. and you are responsible for it.

well, the rubber hangers were pretty tough on my Honda. I just pushed up on the muffler/pipe and was able to unhook them. Rehanging the exhaust wasn't too bad either. Btw, see my thread on my experience. I hope things go far better for you. -jasper Here is a link that might be useful: trailer hitch install nightmare

Sanjuangirl - yes the bathroom tile is all Artistic Tile. I'm so pleased with how it came out. The kitchen and master bath are both long, narrow'ish rooms so I was a bit concerned with how they would work, but I'm really happy with the functionality of both. Laura, the hood is a Wolf we got on floor model sale. kksmama - our aisle widths are way below what is considered acceptable here on GW and they are more than adequate. We just had a party with 27 people all of whom hung out in the kitchen - people were sitting on the window seat bench and it didn't feel cramped at all. I was able to navigate around to clear and refill things no problem. It may help that our sink, dishwasher and fridge are all beyond the island so none of those are restricted at all. I'll go measure for you in a bit but we have a play date in a few minutes and our living room is horrifying! ; )

OK, getting back to the OP's question. Mamabear, I hate to say it, but Jim Mat is right about the cost of set up/installation. It's not a simple matter of unhitching a camper from a pickup and parking it there. The permits all have to be in place in order to transport the home, or both halves if it's a DW, down the road, whether it be one mile or 1,000. They may need permits for every county they drive through because it's wide loads (often requiring an escort car to drive with them displaying wide load signs), and the weight of the load does inevitable damage to the roads. When they arrive at your site, the real work begins. They've got to set your home correctly on its foundation, whether it be piers, a slab, or whatever. These days, that involves a crane. It's super critical that the house is level when all is said and done, so your house doesn't develop problems later from being out of level. If your house is a double wide (DW), there is the not small matter of "marrying," or putting together, the two halves so your roof doesn't leak. Then they've got to correctly hook you up to electricity, well or city water, septic or sewer. All of these jobs require skilled workers who know how to do this stuff. Expensive equipment + skilled labor + three-four weeks + all the permits = $30,000 or so. It's actually not an unrealistic number. And yes, if you buy a new home in the park, you would be expected to carry that cost just as you would if you were buying somewhere else and moving it there. And think about it this way: if you were having a new site-built home built for you, you would be incurring similar costs, i.e. pulling permits, transporting materials to the site, installing and hooking up electrical wiring, plumbing, etc. They just don't present it the same way. They wouldn't say, "We'll build your home for $100,000," then tell you, "It will cost an additional $25,000 to put plumbing and electricity in your house and hook it up to city services." They'll just say, "The house will cost $125,000." So if you think of it that way, it doesn't seem so outrageous. Where I will respectfully beg to differ with Jim is on the commonness of not being able to transfer your title and keep the home on its site in the MHP. First, as you said, if you get a house under ten years old, you don't need to worry. Second, the last thing MHP owners want is the hassle of trying to get someone to move a home off the lot, combined with the loss of rent until someone comes along and puts a newer home there. Take my MHP, for example. We are a small park, just 38 homes, way out in the country. The homes range from really old (1970's) single wides to a few DWs less than ten years old. Most of the residents are elderly folks who have lived here for decades. It would be an impossible nightmare to get people to haul out these old homes. People simply wouldn't do it because it would cost them more to move it than they could sell the house for. They'd simply abandon the house and let the MHP owner incur the cost of hauling it off. My house is 37 years old and a definite fixer-upper. I bought it without any problem and it's still right here in the same space. The owner never missed a rent payment. I have lived in more than one MHP, and I have known people over the years who live in MHPs. While I'm sure that the story Jim read about is true, that is the rare exception, not the norm. Third, do the math. Fewer than 15% of MHs are ever moved, once they've been set up on their original sites. Of course, as Christopher_H, cathyyg, and I have all cautioned, read your lease and know what you are agreeing to before you sign it. In my park, the rule is that if I sell my home, the new owner must pass a credit check, a criminal background check, and have enough income to pay the rent. They also have to come up with a deposit, etc., just as if they were renting anything else. Each park has its own rules, and each state has its own laws that govern those rules. This is why I keep harping on about know the laws in your state that apply to people who own their MH but rent the land it sits on. My state, Washington, has an entire set of laws for this situation, which differ from the regular tenant-landlord act in significant ways. The same goes for the park rules wherever you decide to live. cathyyg has told us of a MHP where all residents are required to have a garage, and another MHP not far away, with the same owner (!), where residents are forbidden to have a garage! It's like HOAs for site built homes; they each differ. And, no offense taken on you wanting a newer, turn-key home. :-) Most people do. I'm the rare bird that buys a junker to fully rehab it. Most people don't want to spend years living in a construction zone while remodeling. But...you said 10-20 years old. If you want turn-key, that number should be under ten years, unless you happen upon some miracle and find someone who's replaced everything in the entire house and wants to sell it for a loss, haha! I agree with your strategy of researching and visiting places and gathering as much info as possible in advance. A knowledgeable buyer is a smart buyer. :-) Keep us posted!