Hometown GMAC Realtor Pat Griffin raised eyebrows among fellow real estate agents last week when she told a Valley Marketing Association breakfast group about a listing she had in Pleasanton:
A single family home with two bedrooms, two baths, nice family room and a front porch that faces onto a tree-lined street–all for $110,000.
Realtors knew that prices have been stabilizing, and even dropping a bit in Pleasanton. But $110,000?
As it turned out, Griffin’s listing is for a mobile home in the Hacienda Mobile Home Park, a senior housing development on Vineyard Avenue. She’s also had the listing since late last year, not a good time of the year for seniors who generally want to keep their more spacious conventional homes until after the holidays. It’s after the holidays and winter rains that seniors who are downsizing into a mobile home start looking for them, which explains why eight units are now listed for sale compared to only two when Griffin listed her mobile home.
There are four mobile home parks in Pleasanton, with two more typical of trailer parks that are located on Rose Avenue and Old Stanley Boulevard.
Both Hacienda at 3231 Vineyard Ave. and its next- door neighbor, Vineyard Mobile Villa at 3263 Vineyard, only allow seniors to buy in their parks. At Hacienda, at least one of the buyers must be at least 55 years old with the co-buyer no less than 40 years old. At Vineyard Villa, both must be 55. No children are allowed in either park except as short-term overnight guests.
Not all prices are as seemingly inexpensive as Griffin’s listing, although Realtor Eva Deagen has one down the street, an older 1976 model with 880 square feet for $88,000. Deagen said the mobile home, which also features two bedrooms and two baths, may be better suited to a single occupant.
“It’s really a great place for someone who doesn’t want to go into a small apartment,” she said. “It’s independent living at its best, with your own place, a kitchen and living area, a front porch and many activities available at the nearby clubhouse. You can cook and entertain and not have to go to a central dining room for your meals, as many have to do in the large senior citizen complexes.”
But other units are more costly.
Mark James, a Realtor with Alain Pinel, put a mobile home on the market last week for $109,500 and had a cash offer within three days. This home, also in the Hacienda Park, has 1,350 square feet of living space, a large lot, a master bath with separate shower stall and tub, inside laundry machines and a large living room and dining area.
James, who said he sells higher-priced single family homes, agreed to handle this lower-commission sale for a friend of the owner, who has moved to Heritage House in Livermore.
Prices are also accelerating as the mobile homes get larger. Even the descriptions have changed to “modular” homes, which are manufactured in two units that motorists often see driving in tandem on freeways. Two of these sections are being bolted together this week in Vineyard Villa.
Although there’s no price tag on this new unit, Deagen said similar modular homes have as much as 1,600 square feet of living space and sell for $199,000 to as much as $275,000.
“They’re really like small homes with upscale kitchens, dual pane windows, house-like siding and insulation and usually larger lots,” she said. “They have all the amenities of a regular house, plus a great activity center nearby.”
Although there have been some horror stories from other cities where mobile home park owners have sold out to residential or retail center developers, forcing their tenants to leave in quick notice, that isn’t likely to happen in Pleasanton.
City Atty. Michael Roush said zoning laws specify these parks as medium residential, and he believes it is unlikely the city Planning Commission or City Council would ever allow the mobile home parks to be sold or developed for something else.
Pleasanton also has a rent stabilization agreement with the mobile park owners that govern the amount owners can charge and how fast they can raise the rents on those already there.
Both Vineyard Village and Hacienda charge monthly rents of $825 to mobile homeowners on their properties, a fee that includes water, sewer and garbage services, but not electricity, gas or cable television.
“It’s a tough amount for many of these people to pay, which rely mainly on their Social Security checks for monthly income,” Deagen said.
James was blunter, calling the rent “a rip-off.”
Although new buyers pay $825, those who have lived in either park are charged a graduated fee based on the rents they paid when they moved in. “One thing to remember about these units,” said Griffin. “Don’t call them trailers. They don’t have wheels and it’s not easy to pack one up and move it to another site.”
Why spend the time to handle mobile home sales, where the commissions are far less than what Realtors can realize from the $700,000-plus priced homes in the rest of Pleasanton?
“I always tell my associates that you make points in heaven for selling units in our mobile parks where you are helping both those who need to sell as well as those who are buying,” Griffin said.
