Modular Homes - The Good, the Bad? (Waldoboro, Waldo: insuring, mortgages)

[221B]

How are modular homes viewed in Maine, as far as resale value; quality? Any drawbacks or good points to highlight? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

[maureenb]

I have a personal, unsubstantiated bias against modulars. I am a bleeding heart purist. LOL!

I know people that live in modulars, and are quite content. Modulars fulfill a need for basic, sometimes immediate, and/ or temporary housing. They are pre-fab, which doesn't excite me for whatever reason. As far as resale value, I would be more interested in the property that the modular sits on. As in, the greatest value would be the land, not the house. At this point in my life, a stick built home is all that will do. Well, anything other than pre-fab. At some point, this may change.

There is a market for modulars. Obviously, they aren't my fav - for me. I don't mind them one bit for other folks to live in.

Definitely research the fabricators of any modular.

PS - you ask great questions. Hoping someone that is more helpful, and less opinionated, will chime in

[kellysmith]

A guy I work with bought a modular as a starter home. The modular was 20 years old when he bought it. When he went to sell it, he had a buyer that was pre-qualified by the same bank my buddy had his loan with. Turned out the bank wouldn't approve the loan since the modular was over 25 years old. Don't know how many banks have that stipulation, but obviously some do. As it turned out, my buddy had a clause in his loan that stated it was transferrable. They worked out a deal where the buyer took over the existing loan and paid some additional $$. Bank was OK with that. So it seems to me that it might be harder to sell a modular down the road. Don't know how common that is, but something to look into for sure.

[lovemaine]

We looked at a modular cape when we were house hunting. Price-wise, it was close to what a stick-built house would have cost. We liked it a lot, not so much the location unfortunately. Personally, I don't mind modular homes. Given the choice, I would pick stick-built though. Here are a few nice models from a local modular house seller:

Maine Modular and Manufactured Homes Dealer offering modular homes, double wide homes, single wide homes and used homes. Ralph’s Homes located in Waldoboro Maine.

[Submariner]

I do not care for modular homes.

Manufactured home makers set their prices to match the conventional home market. But IMHO, far too many of them are falling apart 20 years later.

I do not think that they age well.

Personally I do not like stick and sheetrock construction either. I have done a lot of ticky-tack repair work on previous buildings we have owned.

Faced with moving to Maine and constructing a home, we chose to go with a steel building. On a per square-foot basis a steel building can be done much lower priced than stick and sheetrock.

We are very happy with our new home

[399083453]

Originally Posted by kellysmith

A guy I work with bought a modular as a starter home. The modular was 20 years old when he bought it. When he went to sell it, he had a buyer that was pre-qualified by the same bank my buddy had his loan with. Turned out the bank wouldn't approve the loan since the modular was over 25 years old.

I think you might be confusing manufactured home (trailer) with modular homes (kit). I'm not aware of any lending issues with modular homes as they follow the same codes, inspections, and are built as good or better than a regular stick built home. Yes with manufactured homes (trailers) there are issues with mortgages on old ones. They are basically treated like a car, they go down in value.

Modular Home (below)



Modular Home (below)



Manufactured home (trailer)

[1986pacecar]

One of our first homes was a double wide, a really nice one that was well built and looked better than 90% of the houses in the neighborhood. However financing it was a nightmare. Even though it sat on a foundation with our own septic and well banks treated it much differently than a conventional home. We paid a substantially higher interest rate and even insuring it was more costly.
Now I don't know if things have changed since then (late 70's) but they certainly didn't make it easy. Selling it was even more difficult as, again, banks would not offer traditional financing. Took over two years to sell it. I know modulars are looked at differently but I imagine they run into similar problems, especially resale value. I'm not sure if I'd ever go that route again, not so much because of the quality of the home but rather everything else involved.

[221B]

Originally Posted by 399083453

I think you might be confusing manufactured home (trailer) with modular homes (kit). I'm not aware of any lending issues with modular homes as they follow the same codes, inspections, and are built as good or better than a regular stick built home. Yes with manufactured homes (trailers) there are issues with mortgages on old ones. They are basically treated like a car, they go down in value.

Modular Home (below)



Modular Home (below)



Manufactured home (trailer)

Very good point. Yes, we were addressing modular, not mobile homes. Thanks for the info.

[shadowfax1997]

Modular home is built in a factory under controlled conditions. A stick built is at site and suffers from elements - rain, snow.

Like anything you buy, you can get the "ford escort" version or the "cadillac" version. I have been in some incredible modular homes that there is no way one could tell.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by shadowfax1997

Modular home is built in a factory under controlled conditions.

Logically they should be far superior.