Thinking of buying Modular Home???

Dennis Gardner

hearingimpared wrote:

That is what I keep thinking . . . if the home is in a good school district, in a nice established neighborhood, very low real estate taxes, has exactly what we want in a home, no sales tax in Delaware, low cost of living overall, low mortgage and the house is not going to fall down around us in 20 years, I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't want to live in this home.

Just because you can't afford a $300k home today doesn't make throwing $100k away a "good investment". I would suggest you buy what you can afford, in a decent school district, and trade up as your life goes up. It is how its been done for generations, hard work, savings, and smart investments along that path.

Just my experience................

disneyjoe7

Joe,

Not sure if I wanted to start out with single wide, just because of where it is maybe.

Libertyc

Hey Joe,
The houses looked good to me. I don't know much about the build quality but do know that most new higher-end homes (Toll Brothers) are just slapped up from prefabed pieces by cheap labor. I would be concerned with the resale value. Check out link below. Tonight i'm recovering from the Eagles loss listening to Neil Young Harvest and JATPS;) .

http://www.google.com/pagead/iclk?sa=l&ai=BJoxWhF8PRezGNcieiAK27LCgBNn8khGzobiuAd_90g7AqQcIABACGAIg-7KVAygCMABIljlQl6D7tfz_____AZgBxUygAd2XhP4DqgESY29tLm5ldHNjYXBlOmVuLVVTyAEBlQIuB0IK&adurl=http://www.sunriseaffordablehomes.com

TroyD

hearingimpared wrote:

ANYBODY KNOW WHY RUSSMAN HASN'T WEIGHED IN ON THIS YET???? I am waiting with my mouth open for his feedback.

Joe

Maybe he doesn't want to? Maybe he doesn't exist for our personal wishes?

Just guessing.

BDT

shack

I have yet to see a modular home I would buy. One of the largest prefab home builders in the contry is headquartered in this area. Several plants within a few miles of here. I get stuck behind these modular homes all the time taking up 2 or 3 lanes. If it can be set on a foundation easily, it can be removed easily (blown off). If I'm going to live in something that can be moved down the road....It better look like this!

Libertyc

I think he would scratch his vinyl in that thing...

cmy330go

Here is another 2 cents worth.

I have worked as a contractor and currently work in real estate appraisals. From personal experience I can honestly say that there are some modular home builders out there that will give the best of stick builders a run for their money.

Something to consider is that there are many stick built homes that go up in less than desirable weather and therefore have a bunch on contractors that are less than tickled to be at work, and could care less if they cut corners. On the other hand many of the better modular builders have equally talented craftsman that get to come to work in a climate controlled building where they can focus on what they are doing rather than being pissed about the weather they are currently working in.

Also I have seen modular homes bring just as much and sometimes more than comparable stick built homes.

Just be very thorough about your research, and don't be afraid to contact some local professionals and see what their opinions are about the company you are considering.

Hope you find what you're looking for.

MrNightly

Dennis Gardner wrote:

Just because you can't afford a $300k home today doesn't make throwing $100k away a "good investment". I would suggest you buy what you can afford, in a decent school district, and trade up as your life goes up. It is how its been done for generations, hard work, savings, and smart investments along that path.

Just my experience................

Excellent advice. I'm still on my way to the 300K house. My first was a 3br place for 110k, fixed it up, made 40k on it. Now I'm in a 150k Fixer upper, and it'll sell for 250K when I'm done! Then I'll get my 300K home that's a fixer upper and sell it for who knows how much Hard work, savings and smart investments for sure, all pay off, no matter where you are at.

I don't have any real advice on the modular stuff. I've always been leery of them, but some of the guys do have good points. From the few links provided, i doubt one could ever tell the difference once they are attached to garages and basements.

In the end, you have to do what you feel is the smartest for you and yours.

TroyD

Man, I got a tune stuck in my head...

The wheels on my house go 'round and 'round......

F1nut

I honestly don't see that a "stick" built house is much, if any, different than today's modular homes. I've seen million dollar homes around here go up in 3 or 4 days. Pre-fab foundation on day one, pre-fab framing on day two/three and then the roof. So, what's different?

hearingimpared

TroyD wrote:

Man, I got a tune stuck in my head...

The wheels on my house go 'round and 'round......

Nyuk, nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk.

I think you're watching too much Sesame street . . . the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round . . . .

There are no wheels on this house.

faster100

These homes have come a looonnng way since the mobile home.. If this is what you can afford and suits you and your wife, that is what you need to consider.. everyone can't afford 300k in a house.. if you plan to stay 15-20 years, re-sale is almost a moot point as the market go's up and down and alot more of these pre-fab houses are going to be out there..

It's like the resale of cars, Honda's carry a high re-sale they say, Yeah but to who? to the dealer who's reselling it? or when you trade it in and get raped..

you can't always ride on resale unless your flipping the home or trading up in 1-5 years..

anybody who insults you for buying one has no sense to begin with.. Thier are some great suggestions, take them with a grain of salt and do your research and decide for yourself. we are looking to buy our first home in the coming year or so and can't afford 200k and up, so we will be searching for awhile, unfortunatly its a well developed area and no open land is ever available to build on.. to get a pre-fab, because we certainly would think about it..

Good luck in your search,

hearingimpared

faster100 wrote:

These homes have come a looonnng way since the mobile home.. If this is what you can afford and suits you and your wife, that is what you need to consider.. everyone can't afford 300k in a house.. if you plan to stay 15-20 years, re-sale is almost a moot point as the market go's up and down and alot more of these pre-fab houses are going to be out there..

It's like the resale of cars, Honda's carry a high re-sale they say, Yeah but to who? to the dealer who's reselling it? or when you trade it in and get raped..

you can't always ride on resale unless your flipping the home or trading up in 1-5 years..

anybody who insults you for buying one has no sense to begin with.. Thier are some great suggestions, take them with a grain of salt and do your research and decide for yourself. we are looking to buy our first home in the coming year or so and can't afford 200k and up, so we will be searching for awhile, unfortunatly its a well developed area and no open land is ever available to build on.. to get a pre-fab, because we certainly would think about it..

Good luck in your search,

Thanks for your kind and encouraging words.

Joe

jdhdiggs

Do you have to be in Dover? A lot of people cross the state line and get a lot more house for the money.

ND13

My father-in-law sells and erects modular and manufactured housing. There is a HUGE difference between the two. A modular is a stick frame home that is built in sections. A manufactured is tralier-like in it's construction. My in laws live in a 4,000+ sq ft modular Cape Cod that's extremely nice and well built. If you didn't know it was a modular, you wouldn't be able to distinguish it from a conventional home. It is a very good alternative and you'll get a lot more home for the money. Do your homework and pick a reputable company to do biz with. As with conventional homes, some builders are better than others.

Good Luck

hearingimpared

jdhdiggs wrote:

Do you have to be in Dover? A lot of people cross the state line and get a lot more house for the money.

We are in Philadelphia, PA and are moving to DE. The reasons for our Delaware choice is as follows: very low real estate taxes, no sales tax, lower cost of living in gereral as compared to Philly or NJ, able to get a 5% mortgage in DE, excellant school districts etc. All these factor into us being able to buy more house for less money as compared to PA or NJ. Plus living in Dover and due North in Delaware keeps us close to our families.

Our circumstance don't permit us to go the conventional route of buying a home, selling up, then selling up etc. We've been through all that. We are not spring chickens and are on fixed incomes and we have a 9 year old son in fourth grade. We have a nice amount of money saved which enables us to put down a very good down payment and still have money left over for our needs. We are literally looking to find a home and stay there until well after our son graduates college or death. We also have a 23 year old who is on his own and very sucessful and doesn't affect this equation.

hearingimpared

ND13 wrote:

My father-in-law sells and erects modular and manufactured housing. There is a HUGE difference between the two. A modular is a stick frame home that is built in sections. A manufactured is tralier-like in it's construction. My in laws live in a 4,000+ sq ft modular Cape Cod that's extremely nice and well built. If you didn't know it was a modular, you wouldn't be able to distinguish it from a conventional home. It is a very good alternative and you'll get a lot more home for the money. Do your homework and pick a reputable company to do biz with. As with conventional homes, some builders are better than others.

Good Luck

Thanks for your kind and encouraging words.

ND13

hearingimpared wrote:

Thanks for your kind and encouraging words.

No problem. I just recognize that a lot of people confuse the modular and manufactured homes. If I can get ahold of my father-in-law, I'll see if I can get you some info about the different companies that sell modulars.

hearingimpared

ND13 wrote:

No problem. I just recognize that a lot of people confuse the modular and manufactured homes. If I can get ahold of my father-in-law, I'll see if I can get you some info about the different companies that sell modulars.

That would be really great thank you!

Holydoc

ND13 wrote:

No problem. I just recognize that a lot of people confuse the modular and manufactured homes. If I can get ahold of my father-in-law, I'll see if I can get you some info about the different companies that sell modulars.

I know I was confused about the difference. Every day I learn something new.

DarqueKnight

ND13 wrote:

My father-in-law sells and erects modular and manufactured housing. There is a HUGE difference between the two. A modular is a stick frame home that is built in sections. A manufactured is tralier-like in it's construction.

Exactly. I would not hesitate to purchase a well-built modular home from a reputable builder. In fact, I would prefer modular over stick built mainly because they are built in a controlled indoor environment. As with anything else, the quality of the finished product will vary from company to company. There are modulars that sell in the million dollar price range. I do not think people would be willing to spend that kind of money on a modular home if they thought it was constructed with the same structural integrity as a doublewide trailer.

Any quality modular home will have more sturctural integrity than a stick built home because it must be built to withstand the rigors of being moved to the constuction site.

Modular contruction is standard practice for large aircraft and marine vessels. It is simply more economical and more efficient. Assuming that the same type quality controls are applied, why would modular construction be good for aircraft and boats and be bad for homes?

Modular homes get a bad rap because of the association with manufactured (trailer) housing. Do your research. Talk to some modular homeowners. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

exalted512

hearingimpared wrote:

That was my first question to the salesman. His reply was that he can't afford to live in one yet and is currently renting a 3 bedroom home for $900/month. If nothing else I had to give him credit for his candor.

In all honesty, a salesman is a salesman. Most of the time, theyre not made of money and especially on an investment like a HOUSE, just because he doesnt live in one doesnt mean he doesnt believe in them.

Go to a car dealership and see what all the employees drive. Sure, the ones that have been there for 10+ years probably have a car that the dealership sales, but a job is a job.

Even if he could have bought a house and didnt buy a modular, there could be many more unforseen reasons why he didnt. As someone mentioned earlier, maybe where he wanted to live there was no room to build.

I dont know a lot about the differences, but I would say theres a lot of great advice in this thread, best being to see if you can go into houses that were built a few years ago and see how theyre holding up.
-Cody

Beekyman

I am the proud owner of a modular home and I have nothing but praise for this method of construction. My home is very well insulated, the windows and doors shut tightly and have good seals, the walls are plumb and square, and no where is there a hint of "cheapness". My house may have arrived in sections on a flatbed trailer but I will put the quality of my home against any stickbuilt home that I know of. A good friend of mine also is the proud owner of a modular home and we both feel that this is the way of the future and we would definitely purchase again.
Check out Apex Homes or North American Housing Corp. for more details.
Good luck!

hearingimpared

Beekyman wrote:

I am the proud owner of a modular home and I have nothing but praise for this method of construction. My home is very well insulated, the windows and doors shut tightly and have good seals, the walls are plumb and square, and no where is there a hint of "cheapness". My house may have arrived in sections on a flatbed trailer but I will put the quality of my home against any stickbuilt home that I know of. A good friend of mine also is the proud owner of a modular home and we both feel that this is the way of the future and we would definitely purchase again.
Check out Apex Homes or North American Housing Corp. for more details.
Good luck!

Thanks for weighing in. . . we needed to hear from a modular home owner. We are going down to Delaware tomorrow to check out the "dealer" again and check on more models. This fella told us he can hook us up with a realtor that specializes in land for modulars. We were also planning on asking for some references, like people that purchased in the past few years that we could talk to about their homes and maybe let us walk through.

Holydoc

hearingimpared wrote:

Thanks for weighing in. . . we needed to hear from a modular home owner. We are going down to Delaware tomorrow to check out the "dealer" again and check on more models. This fella told us he can hook us up with a realtor that specializes in land for modulars. We were also planning on asking for some references, like people that purchased in the past few years that we could talk to about their homes and maybe let us walk through.

Sounds like you have a great plan organized. After you make your decision, you need to keep us informed on how the build and home works out. I am looking forward to hearing more about things like maintenance, wiring, insulation, and enegy costs as compared to a normal home. If those type of things work out as similar or better, it definitely would appear you are on your way to a place that will be something to brag about. I definitely applaud your research and effort in finding the perfect home for your family.

Early B.

I'm predicting that ten years from now it will be standard practice to build modular homes in new subdivisions in suburbs of most major cities throughout the country. The economics and construction quality are too compelling to ignore.

So in 2016 I'll still be on this forum and we can talk about it at that time.

brettw22

Also, get pictures of the install process.

Are you able to have a basement with these types of homes? Are there limits on where you put them (can't install one of these if you want to just knock down an existing structure in a developed neighborhood?)

hearingimpared

brettw22 wrote:

Also, get pictures of the install process.

Are you able to have a basement with these types of homes?

You can have a basement dug and the house set on the foundation.

Are there limits on where you put them (can't install one of these if you want to just knock down an existing structure in a developed neighborhood?)

It is cheaper to place the home in an existing neighborhood. The builder would demolish the old structure and place the modular on the existing foundation. Since all the utilities are already in place viola. As far as limits are concerned, we have seen neighborhoods that have restrictions on doublewides but not modulars. We have also seen neighborhoods that have restrictions on modular single story homes, cape cods and two story modulars were okay. It all depends on the neighborhood.

It's funny though, I've seen some beautiful double wides that you couldn't tell that it was double wide until you looked underneath and saw the steel chasis. If it was on a foundation, you would never know.

Beekyman

My basement area will soon be completed and I will have effectively doubled the living space and best of all...my dedicated media room!

hearingimpared

Beekyman wrote:

My basement area will soon be completed and I will have effectively doubled the living space and best of all...my dedicated media room!

In the modular model that we like, the room that I will be using as my AUDIO ROOM is all mine (no WAF believe it or not) and is 26' 8" X 16' 7" . . . My 1.2 Tls will have all the room they need. The reason I am calling it my audio room is because my wife has agreed to let me try the living room 18' 5" X 14' as the video room to see how that works out and if it doesn't then I would have to move it into the AUDIO ROOM. I told her I loved her more today than yesterday!!!!

Guess what, the manufacturer makes the same home in a double wide. I saw both today. You can't tell that either are pre-manufactured. The only way I knew the double wide was a double wide is that I looked under a skirt and saw the steel chasis.

I'm not sure why having a steel chasis on the bottom of my house is an altogether bad thing....I would think it is better than a cinder block bottom or wood framed bottom. I leave these explainations to people who know construction. . . I'm just a dumb technical support guy.:o