Manufactured vs modular homes

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ferco

Recycles dryer sheets
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Sep 14, 2004
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Read recent article in"Where to Retire"on Manufactured vs modular homes. Any one with any experiences pro or con. Would you buy them as low cost investment properties or to live in. I'm toying with the idea, but need some background in/experiences. I also plan to "google" it later.

ferco
 
Manufactured home = trailer

Cheap, but hard to finance and they depreciate like a car. Guess what kind of tenant you'd get? If you are eager for this sort of thing, buy a trailerpark and play landlord.

Modular homes run the gamut. I've seen everything from a step above a trailer to high end stuff that rivals the priciest stick-built home.
 
Brewer I saw some thing on TV not long ago about the million dollar trailer homes along the coast in CA. Some of those trailers were like mansions.
 
Modular homes are a great bang for the buck. $38.00 per sq. ft. and very energy efficient. I am going to retire in one, there's one for every budget.

Big advantage is they appreciate in value. Just toured a manufacturers plant, very interesting how they assemble them.

Another advantage is you can have one delivered in 3 days if you want.

They now have 32 feet wide ones, so they are very spacious, 2400 square feet if you need it.
 
Take a long hard look at the applicable building code.  Make sure they are constructed to comply with stick-built code, not HUD's (the one that applies to mfg homes).

Also talk to the local insurer and lender.  Even if you don't need a mortgage the next owner will and how lenders will classify the house will make a difference in resale value.  NEVER take the word of the builder.  Ask for the names of customers who purchased their home 5-10 years ago, contact them and if possible look at the house. 

I have seen modular home constructors on the net and, based on their claims, that is a real option.  When steel was reasonable homes with fabricated steel framing were a great choice.  Strong, true, and framed in 2 days. 
 
I toured this company's factory when one of my clients was considering using them.   They are very high quality stuff.  I think they had to quit importing to the US based on some permitting issues in WA.   The State electrical code wanted builders/buyers to pay for the WA electrical inspector to fly to the factory or some such BS.
 
Jeesh, can I relate to that!  The skilled trades are using that type of move to protect their $$$. 

Before signing on the bottom line it is wise to have a heart-to-heart with the local building officials... or write a contract so that this is the manufacturer's problem.  This is very much local building offical behavior.  For example, this would be typical in urban Pudget Sound, Clark County, WA or Multnomah County, OR.   It would not be typical in small towns surrounded by rural areas.
 
The plant I was at (Design Homes) has models that are legal by states. They meet or exceed almost any codes I am aware of.

Some of these units come with Kohler Faucets, fireplace, china cabinets, Bosch appliances, Stainless fronts, built ins, soaking tubs, attached porches, brick exteriors, 3 car garages, central air, the works.

By the way an 1800 square foot unit only costs $400.00 annually to heat in the cold Midwest. I looked at one unit 3 bedrooms 1 and 1/2 baths only $38,000.00. Now this was on the cheap end and smaller, but my car cost more than that. So if you needed to retire on the cheap this is it.

You can upgrade to almost any high end item you want including a 10 course basement.

I have visited a number of manufactures models and they are very nice looking units. Talked to other buyers that had remarkable service when they needed a repair.

For me the property tax in the country would be half of what I pay now, and by the way my December heat bill was $411.00. So when I retire this will be like a raise for me.

The other place I looked that had the best value homes is Horkheimer Homes out of Iowa. They ship them just about anywhere. But again I would make sure they are legal in your area, they are in mine.

By the way I figured the cost per 100 square feet to be about $38.00 with appliances. I just heard on the news this morning average cost is $300.00 east cost and $500.00 west cost. But remember the $38.00 figure is house only, but land by me is cheap and may I add beautiful.

The basement , well, and septic would be extra. But still vey reasonable.

Just mho
 
... average cost is $300.00 east cost and $500.00 west cost. But remember the $38.00 figure is house only,  but land by me is cheap ...
Click to expand...

Here in Bethesda, houses on my street sell for $100+ per square foot for the lot -- the houses are being bulldozed for McMansion construction.  They'll put up a 4500-5500 sq ft house and sell it for about $1.6 mil -- about the $300/ft2 cost quoted above.
 
Just got a call from an old friend I hadn't talked with in years. They have their home on the market. For those of you in California looking for a nice Mediterranean style, 3800 sq ft home with a pool and vineyard, located on 10 acres within the city limits, this $539,000 beauty might be just the palace place for you.

http://tinyurl.com/d6hv8

One minor detail: It's located in Waco (no, not wacko :)) Texas. And expect the property taxes to triple once it sells.

BTW, check out the photo of the real estate agent. "Hold my beer and watch me sell this house." :LOL:
 
Spike, individual local building officials are an imperial bunch.  Just because it is OK'd by the state doesn't mean that they won't set a "higher" standard.   

Frankly, I love the concept of modular homes.  They are much higher quality than manufactured homes, and many a stick-built house.  I don't want you to be caught in a trade cat fight.
 
Could somebody help me with definitions? How does a manufactured home differ from a modular home, other than it sounds more upscale in a marketing sense.

There are "modular homes" sold here in the NW, like Pan-Abode and other very upscale cedar homes. but there are quite expensive. Comparable to a stick built home of similar materials.
 
Also, there are $85,000 manufactured homes with Hardee-Plank siding, fiberglass tile roofs, high end fixtures and even oak flooring

Is there some go-no go test can be applied to differentiate a modular home from a manufactured home? It seems to me that if it has to go down a highway, in no matter how many pieces, in this part of the country it is called a manufactured home.

I am not against them at all. So much housing here really stinks- it is old, cramped, the wiring sucks. Or it is new and slapped together by over hasty poorly trained crews. Or, it is nice and costs$1.7 Mil.

Any info appreciated.

Ha
 
The big difference is the applicable building code and the propensity of "manufactured" housing to steeply depreciate. For example, manufactured homes build to HUD requirements are not as strong. Sheryl may be able to go into the differences in the construction details, but historically manufactured homes have not held up well long term.
 
Modular homes are stick-built homes.   They just aren't built on-site.    They tend to be built stronger than traditional stick-built homes because the modules have to withstand transportation via truck.   Basically, they are stick-built homes engineered to withstand significant lateral loads, which makes them great for areas prone to earthquakes and huricane-force winds.

The downside to modular homes is design.   Traditional makers tended to build very boxy ranchers, but that has changed.   Well-designed modular homes are popular in places like Denmark, and they're slowly starting to catch on here.

Modules pre-built in a clean dry work place just makes a lot of sense.
 
Spike, do you have any web site links for the modular homes you were talking about?
 
When I used the phrase "stick built" I intended to describe a house constructed nail by board on site. 

There are developments in CA where steel framing was pre-fabricated with the passageways for electrical and plumbing pre-punched.  The walls are designed to be liftable by two people, are stacked on a trailer in order of assembly.  Not a prefabricated home, but a significant move that direction. 

Be sure to include the site work in the construction cost.  It is wise to have the foundation work complete and finish measurements provided to the fabricator before they start the home assembly.  There are always quirks, if only in the placement of the tie-downs.  You want the work-arounds to be minor.
 
Here are some examples of modern modulars:

http://www.re4a.com/modern-modular/

I believe the basic design constraint is that a module can't be wider than a wide-load truck (16 feet?). But I really like the concept of modules prefabricated off-site. I honestly don't know why the current practice of building on site survives. So inefficient, and you're at the whim of the elements.
 
First off I meant to say $38.00 a square foot. Not 100 sq. ft.

http://www.designhomes.com/

http://horkheimerhomes.com/

I have a summer home in the country and there are literally hundreds of these unit's all over by me. I have lots of land, with well, electric, and septic. So I am gonna just drop one on.

Horkheimer is the cheapest, I found a great house for around $80K, but there are extras, garage, basement, deck, etc. His prices are negotiable.

You can buy it by the foot, so if you need an extra 10 feet you just order it.

Also some are 16 feet wide and you put two together so it is now 32 feet wide.

My understanding is stick built is made on sight (appreciates)
Modular is built in a factory and has a wood frame (appreciates)
Trailer is factory built, is less than 16 feet wide, and has a metal frame (depreciates)
 
Most "mobile home" have lumber - 2x4 or 2x6 - framing, afaik. Relatively cheap fixtures, like faucets and lighting, and they sit on a metal frame/trailer, though the axles and wheels can be removed, and the thing set on a foundation, and hopefully strapped down (code in many places). Owned one in the 70s... Had a particle board sub-floor, which sucked if you got it wet. But hey, my cost used was $4500...

I worked for a few months building mobile buildings, for construction site offices, add-on school buildings, etc. Reasonably well-built, IMO.

As with most things, caveat emptor. Check the specs!
 
spike said:
First off I meant to say $38.00 a square foot. Not 100 sq. ft.

http://www.designhomes.com/

http://horkheimerhomes.com/

I have a summer home in the country and there are literally hundreds of these unit's all over by me. I have lots of land, with well, electric, and septic. So I am gonna just drop one on.

Horkheimer is the cheapest, I found a great house for around $80K, but there are extras, garage, basement, deck, etc. His prices are negotiable.

You can buy it by the foot, so if you need an extra 10 feet you just order it.

Also some are 16 feet wide and you put two together so it is now 32 feet wide.

My understanding is stick built is made on sight (appreciates)
Modular is built in a factory and has a wood frame (appreciates)
Trailer is factory built, is less than 16 feet wide, and has a metal frame (depreciates)
Click to expand...

This is not correct, at least as to manufactured homes. They also come double wide, which are 24 or more feet wide. They usually have wood studs, although I would consider steel studs an upgrade, all else being equal. Some have 2x6 studs, rather than 2x4, to get greater insulation space. And they are all "stick built" --stick in this sense just means studs. However, in popular usage, stick built means built onsite, not in a factory. Why this should be a good thing, I have no idea. It would seem to me that a bunch of illegals shooting nail guns in a nice warm factory could do a better job than the same guys out somehwere in the freezing rain.

My guess is that builders and realtors have some joint interests that are served by disparaging the competing products.

Ha
 
Sears & Roebuck did used to sell homes...I didn't know they still do! The house next door to me, and one of the houses across the street are both Sears & Roebuck homes. They were built around 1925. And there are like 5-6 other homes not too far away that look like the same pattern, but I'm not sure if they were Sears & Roebuck models. Pretty standard template though, a small 24x36 1-level, with the short side facing the street, and a 6x24 porch across the front. Basically you went into the livingroom, which was on the left side of the house, and then the dining room was behind that and the kitchen behind that. On the right side you had two bedrooms, one in the front, one in the back, and a hall and bathroom in the middle.

And there were variations on them. For example, the one next to me only had a half-porch up front, and a 6-foot longer living room that took up space where the porch would have been.

As for whether it's modular versus manufactured, here's how I always broke it down...

A modular home is simply a home built in a factory, in modules. Often ends up being stronger than a conventional stick-built home, because each module has to be able to stand on its own. Still has conventional-height ceilings, conventional thickness walls, etc. The newer ones are often harder to spot, but older ones were usually easy because the bearing wall going down the center was usually double-thick. This is the case with my Mom's house, which is a 24x48 modular rambler.

Now a manufactured home, IMO, is nothing but a glorified double-wahd. Usually has a flatter roof peak than a conventional house. Also usually has lower outside walls (like 7 feet or 7 feet 6 inches, compared to the normal 8-9 feet for a regular house), but they make up for it with a cathedral ceiling. Shorter people might not notice it as much, but I feel claustrophobic in them because of those low outer walls. Usually the windows are mounted lower too, so that the tops aren't as close to the ceiling. The outer walls might use normal studs, like 2x4's, but inner, non-bearing walls usually only use 2x2's. And instead of drywall and paint, many of them just use those 4x8 RV-style panels, and so much plastic trim that you get more outgassing than most new cars! And these things can either be put on a permanent foundation, or just leveled, tied down, and skirted like a house trailer. Manufactured homes rarely have a basement, unless you had a site-built staircase that's actually outside of the original house. This is because you really can't have a staircase going down through the frame of the structure.
 
By me I have never seen a double wide mobile home/trailer. They are not legal in many places and you have to have a parcel of land that permits them.

As to the metal frame I am speaking of the frame below the floor, where the wheels are attached. These homes come with a title and are movable. It is very hard to get mortgages on used ones because they depreciate in value.

In the Midwest these types of homes are very drafty and cold. Most of them that I do see are older and none that are wider than a tractor trailer can pull down the highway.

But I don't dispute in other areas of the country with different zoning laws nicer ones exist. I also see no reason that very high end ones do exist, did see something on the travel channel about a park in the south somewhere.

Where I live you cannot have mobile homes within the city limits.
 
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