Modular homes?

[Turner52]

Here in north eastern WI it can be hard to sell an older modular. A lot of banks will not give a mortgage on an older modular. They do tend to go down in value. I have seen a few very good examples of modulars, but a lot of them are two trailers fastened together. A lot of them also use very questionable materials as to quality. I have demoed some where the exterior walls did not even have headers above the doors or windows. Most of the exterior doors were not standard 6'8" heighth. Interior doors were 2" off the floor to allow air flow. No heat register returns in the rooms, only 1 large wall one at the furnace. They can make them look very nice at the showroom lot, but be carefull.

[Bill Wilson]

My brother worked in a modular home factory a few years back.  Those homes were very well constructed and you could get packages that included just about anything you wanted in the way of interior and exterior finishes.  They certainly would rival anything stick built and while they weren't cheap, they were competitively priced, compared to stick built.

Contrast that with the modular that my parents bought in the mid-70's.  While it was still much better built than what we called "double wide trailers", it was designed as lower cost, a step above entry level housing.  My brother still lives in the house today, so it has held up OK, with the normal level of maintenance and remodeling that most 50 year old houses require.  I doubt it would have the resale value of a comparable stick built house, but I don't believe it depreciated like a trailer would.  Once this was installed, there was no way you were putting wheels back on it and hauling it away like a true "mobile home". 

Now the double wide trailers were very poorly constructed, but they weren't intended to be forever homes.  THey were homes for people with a little money, either a starter home for a young couple or a last home for older folks who couldn't take care of or afford their former homes anymore.  I think the build quality improved on mobile homes in the 80's & 90's, compared to the ones I was familiar with in the 70's, but I don't think they come anywhere close to modular homes today.

[Cooler]

My first job out of college was selling aluminum structural insulated panels to home improvement contractors.  I would always attend the first installation to make sure that they were using the product correctly. 

I was set to arrive in a couple of days and the customer wanted to mount the header before I arrived.  I explained that he should use lag bolts with at least 2" penetrating the studs.  So if there was aluminum siding (1/2") sheathing (1/2") the aluminum header (1/4") then the bolt had to be 3-¼" long.

When I showed up I discovered that the header was mounted to a mobile home (this was in 1972) and the homeowner now had coat hooks 0n 16" centers. 

Since I was not sure that he had actually hit the "studs", I had them remove the header and peel back the aluminum to see where the "studs" were.  The "studs" were no more than 1-½"x 1-3/4" furring. 

More alarming than that, all the electrical was done with extension cords plugged into each other, the cord end clipped, and then attached to the wall outlets.  I am surprised that any of them lasted more than a few years.

We mounted a 2" x 6" at the roofline on the inside and outside and then lagged through both. The contractor trimmed out the 2" x 6" inside the trailer so it looked finished. 

I admit I was skeptical when I visited the modular home factory, but the work seemed very good and it was all done to local code.  But the homes that are shipped in from outside the region make me a bit nervous.  Are they to local code?  Are they using appropriate materials?  Have they been properly engineered?  Will they be worth anything in 10 years?

https://www.mhomebuyers.com/how-much-doe...each-year/
Step #1

The first thing you need is the year you purchased your mobile home. You need to know the exact sale price of the mobile home. If the mobile home is furnished, you should reduce the purchase price to 80% and if it is unfurnished, reduce it to 95%. For instance, if you bought the mobile home for $20,000, the initial depreciation amount would be $19,000 if the home is unfurnished and $16,000 if furnished.
Step #2
Once you have that, subtract 5% from the depreciation price for every year you have owned the mobile home. For instance, If you have lived in your mobile home for two years, the value has depreciated by 10%. Let’s go back to the $20,000 example. The market value will be $17,000 if the home is unfurnished and $14,400 if the home is furnished. Furnished homes are allowed a maximum depreciation rate of 35% while unfurnished homes are allowed a maximum of 50%.

[crokett™]

Here we have trailers (mobile homes), double-wides (modular homes that are single story and shipped in 2 sections) and houses like mine that are factory built but are shipped in as many sections as necessary. The double-wides look like it - smaller houses with low-pitched roofs because the roof peak needs to fit under overpasses. Mine does not look like it was built in a factory. The house is transported with the roof folded down. I can tell you that from a recent appraisal for a refi, and my county doing a reassess for taxes, my house has gone up in value considerably. Trailers won't appreciate in value, even if a foundation is built under them. I'm not sure about doublewides. My guess is they will, but not as quickly as a house like mine or a conventional stick built.

[Cooler]

The modular home factory near my house was built on the same tract of land that they purchase for all the houses they sold.  A couple of years ago they sold the last of the plots so now they are looking for work off premises.

There was no height restrictions because most of the houses travelled less than half a mile to the site and there were no bridges or overpasses to contend with. 

They are now doing "home improvements" which seems to be additions to existing homes. 

Their homes were built exactly like site-built stick homes, but perhaps more efficiently and with greater precision in the factory setting. On-site they look exactly like any standard-built home.  They seem to be holding their value very well.

The modular home that was erected near my house seems to fit in nicely.  I doubt that there will be any distinction based on the manner in which it was built.

This is the company (lots of photos shown):  http://wmhconstruction.com/?gclid=EAIaIQ...gLCVPD_BwE

[Wolpea]

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[fixtureman]

I have 3 modular homes near me 2 are single story and 1 is 2 stories if you didn't know they were modular you could not tell.

[Snipe Hunter]

Another old thread resurrected by a spammer?

[EightFingers]

Another old thread resurrected by a spammer?

Obviously, just look at the writing style.

[barnowl]

Modular homes are a good alternative because regular homes are getting expensive to build and the prices are still going up and up. I was talking with a DELETED LINK the other day and he was telling me how people are slowly, but surely, orienting themselves towards cheaper options of renting a place. The equation is pretty simple. There are more and more people on this earth and the resources are limited. Hopefully, everyone will be able to find a convenient way of solving this problem because it is truly something that is involving every single one of us.

SPAMMER DISPATCHED