Modular homes are rising in popularity due to advances in the prefab home manufacturing industry. They can build modular homes based on your needs while being cost efficient as well as time efficient, a great value with all the performance of a stick-built house.

Here are a few features of contemporary modular homes:

• High Quality

  – These houses are built at factories with high quality-control standards. These houses can be mass produced while maintaining a high level of quality. These factories have access to machines not generally available on a job-site. Walls that are built are generally built stronger than stick-built houses’ walls.

• Low Cost

  – Contemporary modular homes are cost efficient because of the automated process of house prefabrication. With the use of machines there is less labor, less travel to and from a job site, and mistakes are handled inside the factory before the house is completed instead of later on. There is an overall lower cost of materials, lack of job-site risks, and theft.

• Fast

  – A prefab house is built much faster than a stick-built home. A small prefab home consisting of two “modules” can take three to four weeks long to complete. Again, machines make this possible by automating a lot of the home building process.

• Green Building

  – Newer modular homes are being built to federal “green building” and EPA standards. These houses are Energy Star compliant and very energy efficient. You will save money over the life of the house due to lower electricity, water, and heating bills.

• Higher Value

  – While modular homes generally cost less than a stick-built home, they are typically worth at least the same or more. Due to the modular home’s high quality construction they retain their value very well.

Contemporary modular homes are not the same as mobile homes. A modular home is built to the same standards as a normal site-built home. Mobile homes are built to different federal safety standards. This is one reason for modular homes increasing in popularity.

Modular homes are a great value, performance based, high quality alternative to a stick-built home.  These companies make some very nice modular homes:

From the HIVE website: “A HIVE home is an eminently practical, somewhat whimsical, always functional, affordable expression of how you want to live. For those who value a modestly sized, well-designed residence, be it modern or more traditional, there is a Hive home to meet your needs.”

Contemporary Modular Homes by Hive

More contemporary modular home information.

Modular Homes and the Owner Builder
In the 1950’s Sears and Montgomery Ward began selling packaged homes during the peak of the real estate boom when building supplies were scarce and costly. Since then the modular home industry has transformed itself into a state of the art production.
Today’s modular home is the symbol of efficiency and quality. The modular home industry provides a wealth of advantages for the owner builder who wants to save time and money without skimping on quality.

What’s different about a site built home and a modular home? Modular homes are 90% built when they leave the factory. This includes walls, flooring, stairs, cabinetry, insulation, lighting fixtures, electrical and plumbing work completed. This reduces on site labor significantly. Since modular homes are built in an off-site indoor controlled environment, control of cost and quality are easily achieved and construction delays are eliminated.

Design
Today’s modular home gives the owner builder a vast array of design options. From a simple ranch design to a customized plan, almost any style of house can be built with today’s modular home technology. The end result is indistinguishable from a site built home.

How are they built?
First your plans are broken into modules which are built in an indoor environment by computer assisted design stations. The plans are fed to building stations where modules are constructed exactly to specifications with complete accuracy. Each phase is completed by experienced tradesmen in an assembly line fashion. The entire home can be built in 30 – 90 days versus the 4 – 9 months needed for site built homes. Once completed the modules are delivered to the construction site and are erected by crane.

Is a Modular Home considered a Mobile Home?
No. They are entirely different in many ways.

If you want to know if you are looking at a mobile home, look underneath the structure. If you see I Beams, or a chasis, you are looking at a mobile home or manufactured house. Manufactured homes are built per HUD standards, modular homes are built to local code. Fannie Mae lending institutions will not typically loan on mobile homes.

A modular home is real property and taxed that way unlike a mobile home which is considered personal property. A mobile home is not attached to the property so it can not be taxed as real estate. Visit the HUD Website for a clear definition.