manufactured housing (Seaford, Clayton: rent, modular homes, buy)

[packrraat]

Does anyone have any experience/recommendations regarding manufactured/modular housing? We live in the Seaford area. Although we put a substantial chunk of change down on our current house, we didn't have enough to pay cash, so we have a mortgage. As I am 6 years away from retirement, I would like to become debt-free now rather than wait until I'm actually retired and then be pressured to either keep working or be forced to sell at whatever I can. Manufactured housing certainly seems like a more economical route to go. I visited Beracah homes and Clayton homes yesterday. Clayton seemed less expensive, but I found some bad reviews of them on the web, maybe not from around here though. We've already looked at the land/lease places like Pot Nets and don't want to go that route because we wouldn't actually be debt-free since we'd be paying monthly land rent fees. Anybody have experience with Clayton or Beracah or any other modular builders? Thanks for the help.

[phlydude]

Bob Vila's Home Again show did a series on modular construction and used a company call Simplex out of Scranton, PA - everything they did with the house looked to be top notch and when it was finished, aside from some larger than normal tranisitions from room to room (walls were thicker and thresholds were wider), the house looked like stick built. The key is going to be getting a contractor to prep the site and assemble the final product for you but based on what I saw, once it is put together, it is pretty much livable.


Here is the season and the overview of the project:
Modular Mountain Retreat Project, Home Again, Bob on TV, BobVila.com

[armx]

Packeraat:

Generally, modular homes appear to be a good buy in the beginning. They are built under contolled conditions so, theoretically, they should be built better and the cost appears reasonable.

But the cost for actually getting the house sittting on the foundation, buildng attached garage
is out of sight. Evaporating all the cost gains apparent above.

DM me if you want more details.

[packrraat]

Thanks for the info. I agree that, although a modular house seems reasonable at first, and may in fact be more economical, if you add in all of the things that are not included, land, driveway, 2 car garage, septic, well, utility hook-up, etc, the costs may not be as economical as at first sight. Considering the way the market is now, we'll probably stay put.