Modular Homes
 

We are in the process of selling our house (we're staying in the area, just downsizing, it's a long story* ), and one of the potential options is to buy a plot of land and build. To that end one of the options I'm looking at is a modular home. A modular home on the end of the spectrum where it rivals stick-built for quality, as opposed to the mobile homes that come to mind when the phrase "modular home" is used.

Anyway, we had two previous threads on this:

FrogMan: The day they delivered us a home... - Front Office Football Central

wademoore: New Construction vs. Intensive Renovation - Front Office Football Central

Those were a while ago, though.

What I'm looking for is advice on how to find a good builder for this stuff, and what kind of things I should be looking for, should I interview a builder, in terms of how or what they use to not only construct the house in the factory, but set it up on site (I recognize this could be two separate groups entirely).

Again, it's just an option. It's much more likely we're just going to buy a house, but there is some land for sale exactly where we'd want to live, so I figured I'd educate myself.


*So, here's the story. When we moved to Maine my oldest was going to be going into Kindergarten that year. So we had a relatively small time window to establish residency so he could start in the school system we expect/intend him to stay in, long-term. The problem was that there was very little on the market. In the end, we purchased a house that has been great, but is also waaaaaaaaaaaaay bigger than we ever intended/needed: 4000 sq ft, to be exact. We, ideally, would like something more like 2200 sq ft. Our house in Illinois was 1800. So we always intended to sell and downsize, which is what we're doing now. Plus carrying a smaller mortgage will be nice (though we could afford the bigger mortgage just fine).

Look up lungs too. I think he essentially had a modular home built last year

Also read some horror stories about getting cable hooked up if you're building on the edge of a neighborhood.

Correct, after my house burned down we figured a modular home would be much faster than trying to line up contractors on short notice for a stick built home.

We looked at several different companies, met with several different companies before settling on the company we did. We took a design we liked from one company, modified it, and took it to another company that was more than happy to use the design we had come up with. Customizing to our needs wasn't a problem for any company we dealt with, though a few were pushing us to take a model off the lot which I didn't want.

The company we did go with (Wisconsin Homes) was more expensive than the other companies but we felt that they were much better built between the interior and exterior. Didn't have the trailer house feel that some of the others did.

All told, my house burned down April 1st of last year, and I was in my new house by November 15th. A little under 1600 sq. ft. ranch style ran a little over $200k (which includes the cost of geothermal heat). The company we worked with was good about allowing us to swap in components (Geothermal vs. their furnace, appliances, etc...) we wanted.

Right now we are working on finishing up the basement, but overall I'm more than happy with the experience. Only advice I have would be to work with somebody you are comfortable with. If something sounds too cheap, it probably is. Even if I did have time to go with a stick built, I'd probably still go modular.

dola

Also VERY important is facilitating good communication between the contractors that will pour the foundation and the house builders. It'd suck to pour the foundation and bring the pieces to the house in and realize they don't fit :)

Didn't happen to me but we definitely had to facilitate the communication between the two.

Thanks lungs. Glad to hear it worked out!

I haven't done much residential work but I have extensive knowledge with commercial construction. Some ideas that come to mind;

1. Yes, definitely interview/meet with multiple modular home builders as well as site contractors. Beware of the fine print or what may be excluded. Add on or change orders could kill you in the end.
2. Never give them money unless the contract states that it is required and/or you have reviewed their work first. Any qualified contractor realizes that the work needs to be completed and a punchlist (list of incomplete work or insufficient work) created before partial payment is due.
3. Review the rules for lien waivers for work completed. That was they won't lien the property should there be small issues.
4. Complete your due diligence on utility mains and the proximity to your parcel. Water, electricity, gas, telephone, cable, etc.
5. Verify if there are any zoning ordinance rules that affect modular homes for the parcel. There could also be local amendments to the building code so make sure to reach out to the municipality during your due diligence period.

The modular home companies should be well versed in all of this stuff and be able to answer your questions immediately. If not then it would raise a few flags for me.

My parents rebuilt an old beach cottage in Massachusetts with a custom modular home. I am pretty sure the company that built it was Pro-Fab (from Quebec). They had an architect design the house (intending to stick-build it). They ended up giving the CAD plans to the modular builder and with slight modifications, they constructed it. The on-site builder you work with will matter a lot. They will work with the modular home company and there is still a lot of work that the on-site builder does after the boxes are delivered. All those details matter.

The home is beautiful and worth maybe $800,000 so it is not low end. Other than minor things like the greater distance between the ceiling of floor 1 and the floor of floor 2 (that you would not notice unless you were really looking) it is comparable to stick-built.

I wasn't intimately involved in the process so I can't give too many specifics but if you have questions, I could ask them. They are very happy and it cost considerably less than stick-built.

Two things that haven't been mentioned:
1-Check with your county Zoning/Planning/Design Review Board. I some counties in the US modulars are not legal, period.
2- Check with your Home Owner's insurance carrier. Some will not insure modulars.



I own a few rentals and 2 years ago one burned down (while a tenant that had been asking about breaking a lease for 2 months lived in it :/) we were going to put a modular in (not a mobile home but a high quality modular $200k house) just for construction speed. The county the home was in doesnt allow them. So I got the good fortune of rebuilding and losing rent for 9 months.

Thanks for all the responses & advice folks. It's very helpful.

Our county & city allow modular homes. I'll have to check on the insurance, definitely.

There will be no issues with hook-ups. These particular plots are in the middle of a regular-style neighborhood. Essentially one homeowner owned something like 10 acres for years, and a couple of years ago decided to subdivide and sell them off. The city's already put a road through to connect up to other roads.