Manufactered/pre fab modular homes

[Mrtwigg]

Some "Manufactured" homes are pretty much oversized mobile homes. The difference ? No axle.

If there is any settleing after installation its because the site was not prepared correctly. Set on a proper slab or frost wall it'll be rock solid. I moved my family into one thinking it would be short term till we sell our (former) primary residence but we like it so much we're looking into purchasing a new one.

Even the single wides are fairly roomy, the biggest I've seen was 16X80. Our current one is a little smaller and I heated it with just two tons of pelletts last winter. The "estimated" oil bill I received during the peak oil debacle last year was almost eight thousand dollars, compare that to the $550 I spent on pellets.

You can get a nice single wide for around 40K and a really nice double for not much more.

Real estate taxes will be much, much lower than a conventional stick built home.

As for the quality of the interior materials, you get what you pay for.

Modulars are even better but the cost goes way up, as does the sitework required, and tax burden.

[GHouse]

Modulars are even better but the cost goes way up, as does the sitework required, and tax burden.

True, we've received estimates from 2 different builders for a 1700 square foot, 2 story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath modular home (the same modular home from the same manufacturer but 2 different builders) and the cost is pretty close to what we'd pay if we bought an existing stick built house.

Including site work (about 20k, including a foundation with insulated basement) the cost is about 190K to 210k - and we already own the land which already has town water and sewer.

This is surprising because we were also looking in back 2007 and got an estimate for the same floor plan for much less, about 157k.

I can't think why there would be such a big increase in price when the industry is supposed to be hurting so bad.

[buck naked]

Delivery was a TRIP, watching our new HOUSE be lifted in the air and set down on the foundation. Holy Mackerel A house has to be built very tight to be able to withstand being LIFTED in the air with straps!


Val - that reminds me of the time I was following 1/2 of a pre-fab house - the driver went get onto the southbound ramp for Route 16 and it has a BIG corner - the pre-fab slid off the trailer and hit the highway - to my amazement, the house remained intact except for one corner which was crushed from the impact with the road

eventually road crews and police showed up along with the crane to pick it back up and put it on the trailer - I asked one of the guys if the house had to go back to be repaired and he stated "nah - we'll deliver it and repair it on site - the customer will never know....." :<

[buck naked]

I can't think why there would be such a big increase in price when the industry is supposed to be hurting so bad.

economy does not bring down the cost of building supplies - lumber has more than doubled in cost since 2005

[davidw89]

It will be hard getting any valuable on Preferred as they are a start up company and had only built 6 houses by 2009. According to their website, Epoch has been in business 25+ years, you should be able to get references.

Originally Posted by GHouse

We're looking into building a modular. Right now we're concentrating on a home from Preferred Building Systems in Claremont, NH. They're owned by the same family that owns LaValley's Building Supply. We're pretty impressed by what we've seen, we had a factory tour and we've seen a house that one of their builders put up.
It would be really nice and useful if there were some independent rating system or reviews of these companies for consumers to look at. So far as I know, Consumer Reports hasn't ever done anything on modular homes but it would be great if there was something like that we could look at.

References supplied by the company themselves are only so valuable since it's unlikely the company would give out the names of an unhappy customers.

Does anyone know where or how to check they reputation of these companies?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Lincolnian]

From what I have heard, LaValleys, a local home improvement company, manufactures excellent, energy-efficient pre fabs.

They have been manufacturing home components and offering shell packages for years. My friend had them build a shell 25 years ago and the house is a quality home.