Modular Homes

[Westbound11]

Hey thanks for the info everyone. The houses are set on a permanent foundation so they are taxed normally as far as I know. As for the concern about the financing, the company who builds the houses also finances them so I know if I choose to go this way I will be able to take care of that. Anyways, I did go out to see some houses this last weekend and stopped by to see one of these. I was impressed. I couldnt tell a difference between them and any other site built house I saw while there (though I am by no means an expert). I am now leaning a bit more in this direction. Thanks again for the info.

[Baja Boomer]

Originally Posted by KC Raver

WARNING! A Realtor's Perspective!

Modular homes probably don't deserve the reputation they get, but as it stands now they aren't very good investments. They do not appreciate like "stick built" homes and can be very difficult to sell. Are there any appraisers out there? I have had several buyers turn their noses up at a modular home, even when they are quite nice.

As a place to live and maybe break even in the end, they may be a good idea.

My sister owned a modular home in Stanton, CA, (next door to Anaheim), in a rather rural kind of subdivision. You could not tell from either outside or inside that it wasn't site built, and in fact I didn't quite believe her until she dug out the paperwork to show me. All the homes on that particular street are modular. She got it originally for about $40,000 (I think) more than a dozen years ago, refinanced it a few years ago for $80,000 (I forget just when). Folks on that street were always getting offers on their homes through the years, and my sister finally sold hers about 2 years ago for $400,000.

In the meantime she had made several upgrades, both to the house and the yard, as did her neighbors. Sure, the housing bubble is what caused that spectacular increase, and she sold near the top of the market, but nevertheless...

Perhaps appreciation can depend on location and the particular modular home. But I repeat, if not told beforehand you would never know it wasn't site built. It looked like any of the other tract homes in the general neighborhood, and appreciated in value in tandem with them.

In Florida, modular home developments stood up under the recent hurricanes better than many site built homes did. Fact. Easy to verify.

I personally would not have a problem at all in buying one. Assuming I ever settle down, lol.

[GregW]

Building a house in a factory has several advantages. The foremost being it is built dry. Another thing is people that usually know what they are doing assemble the components on fixtures. The completed houses have to be strong enough to take the transport stresses and there are opportunities to inspect the entire building before it is shipped to the site.

This just has to be better than illegal labor working under outside conditions at piecework rates

[mortimer]

GregW said:

> Building a house in a factory has several advantages.

Other than $1 million+ homes, all the homes I have seen built in
the past (more than) ten years are essentially factory-built.
Even some of those have preassembled sections.

Trucks bring in preassembled sections that are just bolted together.
Typical 2200-3000 sq ft houses in our neighborhood were framed in
a couple of days. All the cabinetry was just bolted in.

For the electricity and plumbing, the whole neighborhood was essentially a "factory"
where all the fixtures and terminations were the same from house-to-house.

Assembling houses on-site has some advantages from a shipping standpoint.

One of our cars picked up a nail at least once every few months
during the two years or so of construction in our neighborhood.

[Zoidberg]

There's a great deal of interest these days in building homes out of shipping containers.

Since it's cheaper to build a new one in China than to ship an empty one back, they tend to collect in the U.S. A decent condition one can be had for $3500 (retail) delivered near Albuquerque. At 320 square feet of leakproof windproof space, it makes an excellent template for the do-it-yourselfer.

With wind/solar power, you can make your own power, and with rain catchments and cisterns, you can collect your own water.

Take that city governments and utility companies!