Home is where the heart is, right? For many, it’s the place where you feel warmth and protection from the natural world. Home is where you sleep; where you can go take a soothing bath or a refreshing shower; where you can sit down and watch TV after a long day at work.
Home is wherever and whatever you make it out to be. This means that people living in trailer homes or mobile units are just as valid as homeowners compared to any other traditional buyer. These units move on wheels, can be used as RVs, or even be tiny homes.
There are even nomads who also like using portable spaces to make a life and pour their soul into it.
If you live in an alternative or creative living arrangement, there are more than a few things to consider. You need to make your house feel financially and physically viable as a cornerstone of your family and their personality.
Home insurance for converted spaces is one of the most vital components of a protected house on wheels. It works nearly the same as homeowners insurance for your typical house, but we will review some of the key differences.
We’ll also cover how you can make your home feel different from a bland, average space that your friends may be used to. We will make sure that we cover the best tips for mixing unique furnishing with familiar tastes to craft the perfect home on wheels for you, no matter where life goes.
Battling the Elements of the Outdoors
Depending on the size of your mobile home, you have to consider the weather in the area you are living in more often than when you own a grounded home. A harsh rain that a normal house will brush off like mosquitos will see your mobile unit holding on for dear life.
Flooding, stripped siding from an enormous gust of wind, and other natural events will take their toll on smaller homes on wheels. You will also have a harder time moving your house to a new location if you can’t drive it in the winter. This limits your flexibility in location, one of the perks often associated with these homes.
It may seem counterintuitive because of the mobile aspect of your home, but setting up shop in a state that has warm weather and tame elements will help you overcome many of the obstacles talked about above.
It’s not easy to move your home during the colder months, so live in a place that doesn’t really have prevalent winters and avoid the stress of repairs due to bad weather.
Many people who live in converted spaces love to move out into the woods or another remote setting. This gets them away from it all, secure from the stresses of life. An overlooked risk to this venture is the number of bugs, pests, rodents, and other annoying animals that will invade your home.
Suburban settings also include their fair share of natural intrusions, but when you are in the middle of the wilderness, the probability of a beaver munching on your wooden house like it’s a dam goes up.
Buy bug spray, hire an exterminator, and do your homework on the outer elements of your mobile home before deciding you want to move somewhere like this. You can always pick up and leave, but we know that it’s not always convenient to do this.
Insurance costs are also a concern for people living in mobile homes. People worry that their house is more at risk of damage than a typical home. As already mentioned, weather can adversely affect your RV or other space if you live in an area with these conditions.
The good news is that you can typically find insurance rates that match your regular homeowners insurance as long as you talk to your agent about what type of home on wheels you are buying or renting.
A pro to buying insurance for a mobile home is that flooding and other water damage are usually covered in the policy without even including it for an extra fee because the companies know about this risk unique to mobile home living.
You might still have to take out additional insurance policies for items like jewelry, computers, guns, and other equipment that are not part of the house. This is not unusual for any type of home buyer, though.
Furnishing Your Home on Wheels
Mobile homes are not always going to allow for the same type of intensive and thorough furnishings that stable homes do. The size of your kitchen may reduce the capacity for a large stainless steel fridge or an eight-burner stove that cooks with any type of pot or pan.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t make your place homey and unique to your own tastes, though. Get creative to fit what satisfies you and your family in your mobile home. A curtain set that complements those carpets is an accessible way for folks to incorporate personality into any type of house.
If you have a green thumb, you can put a variety of plants and flowers in different rooms and even outside of the house. Living in a wooded area will allow for more opportunities to work with vegetation and greenery out in your backyard. The kids will also get to brag to their friends about their place looking like something out of a fantasy novel.
Mobile homes and other homes on wheels are very popular with people who care about the environment. Eco-friendly solutions for this type of living can include hooking a rain barrel to the gutters of your home or investing in some solar panels that provide power and efficiency to your lighting and electricity use.
Rain barrels are literally what they sound like. It is a barrel that attaches to your house’s gutters and collects rainwater. You can then use it to feed your plants, wash your car, and spray off your windows.
Solar panels are one of the most popular solutions to the current climate crisis. We use so much electricity that we are ruining our planet trying to source it. Using the sun’s energy, these panels are placed at the top of the house and absorb the energy, converting it to electricity.
There are some negative stereotypes about the prices of solar panels, but they are more than worth the initial expense. When you own a mobile home, it is more important than ever before to have an efficient solar solution to your energy problems.
Traveling around and living nomadically lends itself to the philosophy of caring for the world because you want to experience nature. It makes sense to take care of the planet that you are interacting with and getting the most out of.
Consider if a Mobile Home is Best for You
Buying a mobile home is going to be tougher for people who have large families or other friends or roommates who live with them. They are smaller than your average home, and little ones are going to get frustrated with the lack of space to play and have fun with their siblings and classmates.
Location can be a touch-and-go experience for them as well. Living far out of the suburban neighborhoods of their friends will present fewer opportunities to do the normal kid stuff that their age groups do together. At the same time, they will have endless joy exploring the natural environment that surrounds them, as long as you keep an eye on their choices.
Talk to your child about the decision you are going to make, and involve them in your home buying choices. Don’t ignore them like they don’t matter, as this will only cause more problems once you move in.
Are mobile homes realistic for you?
It is a very personal choice to buy a mobile home instead of a traditional one. They require a little more thought for things like exterior dangers from nature. They are also a little tight on space. Having kids or large families will not go well with the freedom and solitude that they are known for.
Talk to your friends and mobile home sellers about the best free-wheeling residences that might be in line with what you desire. Think about the part of your life you are in at the moment. Decide whether this would be better left off for when you have less responsibility or simply your calling to live nomadically and travel the world looking for adventure.
The one thing that is for sure is that mobile home living is a very modern and complete experience that has to be lived within to understand its purpose truly. Don’t look down upon people who decide to live in this alternative housing. Instead, understand that there are many major differences between living in mobile homes and traditional ones.
Try not to get overwhelmed with all of the differences in lifestyles. Go with your instincts and ask the ones who will be living with you to give their true feelings about this type of house.
If relationships are based on love, understanding, and communication, you will find that a home is much more than the house itself and focuses on the people living together under the roof.
