Pre-fab new construction in Columbus / Clintonville Area

[Robert Ellis]

Just want to fill you guys in on a project I have been working on myself in the Columbus area. There is an area called Clintonville that is very popular and one of the hottest areas in town. There is barely any new construction in this area. Our real estate team did some direct mail to land owners and found a great one that we got a great price on in Clintonville. When we started to look at the costs of construction by general contractors we were quoted $150 per square foot and above. 

That's when I learned about and explored the opportunity of pre-fabricated new construction. If you aren't quite sure what it is the home is built in a factory and then assembled by a crane. It is as strong as a stick built home, lends the same way, but new construction can be done in less than 3 months compared to new construction at a fraction of the price. 

We are going through the permitting process to build the home right now through the City but our team is hoping be all in on the home and land for $130k and comparable sales put the home resale at $200-$240k. Just general numbers right now and once we get closer we will get a better price but looking forward to showing the community this project. 

I've heard other people mention they get the cost of construction down below this if there isn't a markup, is that true from what anyone here knows? Getting it below $130 a foot seems almost impossible from the builders I have talked to in Columbus and Central Ohio. 

For this project we are using Clayton homes out of Marion Ohio. 

[Patsy Waldron]

I haven't talked to anyone yet, I was just researching whether it existed. Clayton actually has a commercial section that does multifamily of various sizes (duplex all the way to large apartment buildings). Another one that I looked at was Westchester Modular Homes, which also does duplex to large multis (I really liked their styles). If you just Google "prefab apartment buildings" or "modular apartment buildings", you'll get a whole list of them. I don't know whether they specifically serve the Columbus market, though, as I haven't gotten that far into my research on it. If you do find out more, I'd be interested in hearing what you find!