Modular Homes? Any one know about them...pros and cons

[Traci Austin]

Does any one know about modular homes. The pros and cons.. we found a piece of raw land and are wanting to build a ranch. My partner thinks we should just put a modular home on the land to live in and resale after a few years. Any thoughts on this idea?

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Aaron K.:

for the most part modular homes are just rebranded mobile homes

What? 

Modular homes or buildings in general are just buildings that are built off-site in shippable sections, or "modules." These are built to International Building Code vs. a "Mobile" or "Manufactured" home that's built to Federal HUD (Housing and Urban Development) Code. That's the main difference between modular/pre-fabricated and mobile/manufactured.

There may be some mobile home builders that also offer their floorplans as modular builds and can provide them, often to meet local zoning requirements. It's tough in a lot of places to put a mobile home. 

In any case modular buildings, including homes, can be nearly anything you'd like them to be, Traci. Custom modular homes are not that uncommon. I'm a big believer in modular construction and have been working with it for a long time at this point, I'll tell you what I like about it:

Modular construction should be a better construction method in general. The structures are built under controlled conditions in a factory. This leads to benefits such as materials not being exposed to adverse weather conditions (nor workers), better quality control and a clearer chain of custody throughout the building process. Many modular manufacturers generally keep their production lines running to keep the lights on so they'll have higher worker retention than a typical general contractor. 

Modular projects will typically be built much faster than a site-built project. The speed can account for savings in construction financing, general conditions and a faster occupancy, lease-up, etc.

A wood framed modular building uses about 30% more wood than its site-built counterpart due to redundancy in the structure. There's a wall on each side of where two modules meet, for instance. This results in strong acoustical and thermal performance and a sturdier building.

36 States in the Country have a factory built program that really streamlines permitting and inspections where the State is the authority having jurisdiction over the off-site portions of the project. This means the local jurisdiction isn't approving plans for anything built off-site nor inspecting those portions of the project once they arrive on-site. 

The challenge I find in my market is in the manufacturing base itself. It's hard to attract a factory to want to build a custom one-off project such as a single-family house or any project that's not at scale to gain efficiencies in the manufacturing process. I don't find much cost savings with modular projects until a real economy of scale is realized.

I think it'd be worth your time to look into. Below are some links to some other threads regarding modular on BP that might help you:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/44/topics/645...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/44/topics/634...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/47...