What Should I Do With a Junk Mobile Home?

[Pat Germain]

Folks here seem to know everything, so I thought I would ask this somewhat strange question. What should I do with a junk mobile home?

My mother-in-law currently lives in a very old, dilapidated mobile home and will soon relocate. Without going into details, you'll have to trust me that once MIL moves out, this mobile home will be considered "uninhabitable".

The mobile home is currently in a very small trailer park in Oklahoma. I'm assuming she just can't leave it there. My brother recently spent over a thousand dollars having his mobile home moved (trailers are popular in OK). I sure hope I'm not going to have to pay someone a thousand dollars to move a junk mobile home to a junk yard. :eek:

I did some Googling and found a few mobile home disposal services, but nothing in Oklahoma, which is strange considering that state is the trailer capitol of the world.

[Joe Pelonio]

My sister and her husband had a new place built and lived in an old double wide until it was done It cost them $2,000 to have it removed.

My suggestion is bring in a truck, and take it apart then haul the pieces to the dump.

[Pat Germain]

Thanks, Joe. I doubt I could use my brother's 1/2 ton to haul away fifty foot steel I-beams. ;) Although my brother also drives an 18-wheeler, I think we'd need a crane to lift the frame onto a flatbed.

Jeez, I'd hate to pay thousands of dollars to dispose of a worthless mobile home.

[Stephen Beckham]

Pat,

My brother and sister-in-law had a similar issue with theirs. They bought it second or third hand to use while they built their house - 8 years later their house was finished (another story, but they finished it with zero debt owed against it - we're a patient family).

They put it up for sale at cost of movement. Basically - if you move it, it's yours. They had three offers in a couple days... One was a fella who wanted a hunting camp setup another was a family doing the same thing and the third was a needy family that had volunteer help to move it.

Hope you have as much luck!

[Pat Germain]

^^ Thanks, Stephen. I'm not sure a band of Huns would want this trailer, but I guess it might be worth a try. Come to think of it, it does have a very large central heat and A/C system. My FIL installed it himself. He was an HVAC guy before he died last Spring. Perhaps someone would want the trailer for the central heat and air system.

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks, Joe. I doubt I could use my brother's 1/2 ton to haul away fifty foot steel I-beams. ;) Although my brother also drives an 18-wheeler, I think we'd need a crane to lift the frame onto a flatbed.

Jeez, I'd hate to pay thousands of dollars to dispose of a worthless mobile home.
If you can tear the rest of the trailer apart and only need to cut up the frame, see if you can find a friend who has an acetylene cutting rig (any fair size gas welding rig will have a cutting torch) and just cut the frame up into small pieces. You can then take it to the scrap yard and sell it instead of paying to dispose of it.

Mike

[Mark Rios]

I'm not sure if this is feasible or not for your situation but I needed to get rid of a duplex on a piece of property and I told my local fore department that they could use it for training. They practiced in it and on it for a few months and finally burned it down. :D

It was great!

[Wes Bischel]

Shop addition! Wood storage!, A warm place to spend the night when you've overspent the tool budget!
Oh, and depending on the era of the trailer, there may be collectors looking for your particular model - who knows.

Good luck,

Wes

[Doug Shepard]

Trebuchet - otherwise known as the EZ-TrailerTrasher:D
http://www.fitz-claridge.com/Trebuchet/piano.html

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

[Bob Childress]

Pat,

First, don't assume anything. Find out what the terms of the lease are. Chances are the trailer can sit there if someone pays the monthly fee.

Then, try to sell it in situ if you are allowed. You would be surprised at what people will buy if it is inhabitable at all. One man's dilapidated is another man's fixer-upper.

Again, checking the terms of the lease, it may be possible to abandon it to the land owner.

I suggest sifting through options that do not force you to move it at all.

[Scott Loven]

Sell/give it to the trailer park, let them rent it out. Put a sales sign in the window. Give it to someone who works with the homeless, its probably better then living in a car!
Scott

[Matt Meiser]

Whatever you do, make sure you get documentation of the transfer of ownership. You don't want them coming back 3 years down the road saying that its abandoned and yours to deal with. You may also need to think about what you feel morally obligated to do vs. what you are legally obligated to do. You might be legally able to abandon it for the the landowner to deal with, but you'll have to decide for yourself if that is the right thing to do.

[Pat Germain]

Thanks for all the help, everyone. What makes this situation more difficult is my MIL is in Oklahoma and I'm in Colorado. She doesn't have anyone in OK to help her which is why she's going to move to Kansas with my SIL. I'll be in OK next week. I'll try to see what my options are.

I'm going to ask the trailer park owner if he might want the trailer. What makes the trailer really awful is the animals who have lived in it for many years and what they left behind. I'm pretty sure even the floorboards are "contaminated".

[Steve Clardy]

Put a sign up.

Free trailer. You Move it.

[Aaron Koehl]

Folks here seem to know everything, so I thought I would ask this somewhat strange question. What should I do with a junk mobile home?

My mother-in-law currently lives in a very old, dilapidated mobile home and will soon relocate. Without going into details, you'll have to trust me that once MIL moves out, this mobile home will be considered "uninhabitable".

The mobile home is currently in a very small trailer park in Oklahoma. I'm assuming she just can't leave it there. My brother recently spent over a thousand dollars having his mobile home moved (trailers are popular in OK). I sure hope I'm not going to have to pay someone a thousand dollars to move a junk mobile home to a junk yard. :eek:

I did some Googling and found a few mobile home disposal services, but nothing in Oklahoma, which is strange considering that state is the trailer capitol of the world.
Have you seen the "Things to do with a Sawzall" thread?

:D

[Mark Rios]

Have you seen the "Things to do with a Sawzall" thread?

:D

:D :D :D :D :D

[Ed Falis]

Have you seen the "Things to do with a Sawzall" thread?

:D

I was gonna' say it, but felt it was too unkind.

[Pat Germain]

If I lived in the area and had the time, the Sawzall solution would be worth considering! One beefy tool, a few hundred blades and a few six packs. Sounds like fun!

[Ed Falis]

Maybe a few cases.

[Von Bickley]

I have some friends that actually buried one on their property.

[Alan Greene]

We were looking at buying a plot of land in a subdivision just south of Flagstaff in AZ. We were going to put a new, more efficient double wide or modular home on it. The salesperson said that he could have the trailer that was there moved for free as long as we donated the trailer to the local Indian Community. My understanding was that they had volunteers who would bring it back up to standards after its relocation. You may want to check with local mobile home dealers to see if they have something similar set up.

[Al Wasser]

I gather you just want to be rid of it. Post it on Craigs list for free to be removed by some date. Who knows maybe a farmer can use it for storage. There is also Free Cycle. Worth a shot

[Roger Bell]

I got a 24 x 58 or so 1970's mobile home when I bought my property ten years ago. It took me six weeks to clean it up working five hours per night before my wife would live in it. I was literally shovelling trash out of it. Spent the first few nights shooting rats. Really. I spent a few hundred repairing the roof and a few hundred for all new carpet and at least $100 in lysol........... and we lived in it for a year while building our present house. The wiring was flakey and we had a minor fire or two....but it was good enough to get us by and allowed us to live on site during the construction.

I found a realty outfit that specialized in selling these things. We ended up selling it for about $1500 or so and the realtor outfit arranged to have it taken apart, buttoned up and moved off the property. The buyers paid about $10 thou for it and it was moved to their small acreage further out in the sticks that we are. I think the movers charged $3-4 thou to move it.

They were really excited to get a home for that price. They were in their middle 60's and didnt need something that would last 100 years. I had the impression that they were fairly poor and just scraping by with their social security and their modest savings. Had I met them apart from the realtor, I would have gladly given it to them. Like you, I just wanted it out of my sight. It was rather gratifying to me to help them realize their retirement dream.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Buy an insurance policy on it and leave the door open when you walk away.