Manufactered/pre fab modular homes (Claremont, Newington: motel, neighborhood, buyers)

[mosrto]

We been looking for homes & When we find something we like, it's a manufactered/prefab model. I've been checking websites but the eyes start spinning after a while. It would help if someone who actually lives in these could give us an honest opinion of them. Also do these homes have a good appreciation value----Thanks

[motoracer51]

Originally Posted by mosrto

We been looking for homes & When we find something we like, it's a manufactered/prefab model. I've been checking websites but the eyes start spinning after a while. It would help if someone who actually lives in these could give us an honest opinion of them. Also do these homes have a good appreciation value----Thanks

We're living in Colorado, thinking about making the moveto NH in the next few months.

We have a manufactured home here. I'm a contractor here, and bought this place mainly for the land and the view, and the house was "free".

The only thing I do like about the house is the energy efficiency!! Our bills are drastically less than our neighbors who have stick built homes.

The list of things I don't like are long and varied. Constant settling, cracking, etc of the floors and walls. Cheap, garbage is used throughout the house for cabinets, doors, fixtures, etc.

Roof shingles blow of in winds of 40mph. Exterior siding is garbage, expanding and shrinking with humidity fluctuations.

Creaky floors. Doors that don't close due to the settling.

Any other questions, feel free to ask, but like you again, I'm in the market to buy a house, and when you see a manufactured house, don't walk - run away!!

[mosrto]

Originally Posted by motoracer51

We're living in Colorado, thinking about making the moveto NH in the next few months.

We have a manufactured home here. I'm a contractor here, and bought this place mainly for the land and the view, and the house was "free".

The only thing I do like about the house is the energy efficiency!! Our bills are drastically less than our neighbors who have stick built homes.

The list of things I don't like are long and varied. Constant settling, cracking, etc of the floors and walls. Cheap, garbage is used throughout the house for cabinets, doors, fixtures, etc.

Roof shingles blow of in winds of 40mph. Exterior siding is garbage, expanding and shrinking with humidity fluctuations.

Creaky floors. Doors that don't close due to the settling.

Any other questions, feel free to ask, but like you again, I'm in the market to buy a house, and when you see a manufactured house, don't walk - run away!!

Thanx--Is a pre fab the same?

[newhampshiregirl]

We don't live in a prefab, but we live in a neighborhood that recently saw prefabs pop up left and right during a building boom. I've been in several. They had the same problems that motoracer mentioned. However, the biggest problem I've seen isn't so much the building materials or construction of the homes, it's the fact that they're not customized for the location they're plopped into. This is New Hampshire - the Granite State - and the ground isn't always nice and flat and level. There's ledge everywhere where we live (of course, that's not the case everywhere in the state!). Too many of the prefab houses in our neighborhood appear to have been chosen from a catalog, sitework was done as cheaply as possible to accommodate the building, the building is plopped onto the foundation and the result is a ridiculous looking homesite. We have nicknames for some of the houses in our neighborhood: Luge run house, skyscraper house, no-sun house (because one huge SOUTH FACING wall is windowless!). My opinion is that these slapped-up homes really detract from our otherwise nice rural neighborhood.

My husband works in the trades. The only prefab homes he's seen that are pretty well built are by EPOCH (I think).

My best advice is to make darn sure that your building site will appropriately accommodate a prefab...OR that your prefab will be customized to accommodate the building site.

[Annabelle]

We put a modular home from New England Homes on our land in southern Maine back in 1990 and sold it in 1999 for a decent profit. When the buyers had it inspected, the inspector could hardly believe it was a modular home and not stick built. With my husband being a carpenter, he did a lot of the button up and some finish work himself. The home was very tight and energy efficient. We did a lot of homework before purchasing. Some companies we were not impressed with but we were very happy with our purchase from New England Homes out of Newington.

[mosrto]

Originally Posted by newhampshiregirl

We don't live in a prefab, but we live in a neighborhood that recently saw prefabs pop up left and right during a building boom. I've been in several. They had the same problems that motoracer mentioned. However, the biggest problem I've seen isn't so much the building materials or construction of the homes, it's the fact that they're not customized for the location they're plopped into. This is New Hampshire - the Granite State - and the ground isn't always nice and flat and level. There's ledge everywhere where we live (of course, that's not the case everywhere in the state!). Too many of the prefab houses in our neighborhood appear to have been chosen from a catalog, sitework was done as cheaply as possible to accommodate the building, the building is plopped onto the foundation and the result is a ridiculous looking homesite. We have nicknames for some of the houses in our neighborhood: Luge run house, skyscraper house, no-sun house (because one huge SOUTH FACING wall is windowless!). My opinion is that these slapped-up homes really detract from our otherwise nice rural neighborhood.

My husband works in the trades. The only prefab homes he's seen that are pretty well built are by EPOCH (I think).

My best advice is to make darn sure that your building site will appropriately accommodate a prefab...OR that your prefab will be customized to accommodate the building site.

Thanx I didnt plan on building one, These are already built. I thought they were stick built When i was looking at the homes

[newhampshiregirl]

ooops, I read your post too quickly!

Well, now everyone knows my thoughts on prefabs

[Valerie C]

My husband and I had a modular home built for our first house back in the 80's. We went with Pennsylvania Deluxe homes, and honestly, we had no problems whatsoever. We ordered it out of a catalog, changed quite a few things from the "basic" model, did a "mirror image" based on our site and orientation for maximum light, upgraded cabinets, Anderson windows, fixtures, etc. Except for being WAY LATE on delivery (let me tell you how fun it was to live in Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge for 3 (!!!) months, with a 2nd grader who developed chicken pox halfway through) but Penn. Deluxe did pay for the motel and all of our meals the entire time.

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! Once it was secured to the foundation, another crew came in to "button up" the house (seal the front and back halves together). Any cracks from the lifting/setting down were taken care of by the crew, from putty to sanding and priming. We lived there for 10 years, and when we sold, the home inspector found only very minor issues, mainly with things you would expect from a 10 year old house (bath fixture loose, etc) When we told him that it was a modular home, he was amazed at how tight it was, and commented that "any tighter and it would be unhealthy".

Disclaimer: this was back in 1988. The company may or may not still be in business, and I have no idea if their quality has gone downhill, as so many places do... I just wanted to share that my experience with a modular home was a good one... YMMV

[nhrocky]

We've lived in a modular 2 story, 4 bdrm, 2 1/2 bath colonial for almost 7 yrs from Superior Builders that we had built for us. We were able to change the floorplan somewhat to accomodate our needs and we elected to put our own flooring in the foyer, DR, kitchen and bathrooms and we had the main oak staircase built onsite. I have to tell people that it's not a stick-built and that a crane lifted the 5 pieces together in one day and presto, shazzam! there's your house, lol Right now, we're dealing with another company to have another modular built, this one much more custom. We had plans we brought to them and they worked with those. Right now, we're hitting a glich with delivery dates, but I don't think it's any different than a contractor not showing up for weeks or material delivery delays or even worse, weather exposure for a stick-built home. NH uses the IBC for modular homes, so we had to get an engineer to determine the high wind rate for our area and of course your building plans have to be submitted to your local town for approval. You do have to remember that you are usually dealing with an independant representative/builder, and not the modular company directly, when you choose to go this route.

My husband works in the trades. The only prefab homes he's seen that are pretty well built are by EPOCH (I think).

Epoch Homes has built at least one custom modular home on Governor's Island ($$$$$$) on Lake Winnipesaukee and they have a good reputation as far as I know, but there are many reputable, excellent modular companies in the U.S., you just have to do your research.

[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.