Has anyone done business with manufactured home sellers?

[jenseib]

Can you make changes to the design? Not just the interior decor like cabinets, but the design of the house?

For example, could you say, I want to flip the kitchen and the eating area.
And I want to double the width of that storage room that connects the house to the garage.
And I want to re-arrange the bathroom fixtures so that the sink is on this wall and the tub is on that wall.

I ask about those specifics because those are the changes I'm considering on the house plans we're looking at . . . which is stick-built, but I'm open to all my options. I haven't seen a plan yet that made me say, "Perfect!"

I think you can to some degree. My oldest DD's dad put up a modular 17 years ago. He got a 2 story, but at the time didn't want to do the upstairs yet (they only come as a shell and you have to finish them out) He wanted a second bedroom on the 1st floor for DD, so he had what as a dining room built into a bedroom. He also made a few other changes, but I can't remember them now.
He has since added on to the basement and firstfloor to make a new huge masterbedroom suite, and the new part of the basement was made into a bar area. He also re did the laundry room and added on for that as well.

 

[malibuconlee]

My SIL had one built 2 years ago. Her husband had the family farm before they met and the OLD farmhouse to go with it. They wanted the new house to sit on the same spot on the land as the original. The modular home was the quickest way for them to do this. They did have to move out for several months, but were in the house in late fall. They built a one story with a walk-out basement.

They were pretty happy with the way it went and I know it was much faster than doing a stick built house onsite.

As for being cheaper and getting more value for their money I couldn't answer that.

 

[DisneyClown]

Being able to walk through "your house" before you commit to it would be a very nice perk! Who wouldn't love the chance to say, "Let's push the kitchen bar out an extra foot, and I'd like an extra window there by the dining table." Seeing the actual house would certainly make this process better.

(I thought I posted this earlier but I don't see it on here.)

I would love to walk through a model of the home I want to buy, but since I can't, I've just been looking at alot of pics on the web sites and some that a nice DISer let me see of their new modular home.
The builder I spoke with said I could make any changes I want to the floorplan for $600, and any extra cost would just be for any extra materials needed for changes such as more sq. footage or extra doors/windows.
I would like to be able to do this next summer, but more realistically it will be the following summer, but who knows?! Maybe I will be able to put it all together for next year! That would be great!!!

 

[MrsPete]

I think you can to some degree. My oldest DD's dad put up a modular 17 years ago. He got a 2 story, but at the time didn't want to do the upstairs yet (they only come as a shell and you have to finish them out) He wanted a second bedroom on the 1st floor for DD, so he had what as a dining room built into a bedroom. He also made a few other changes, but I can't remember them now.
He has since added on to the basement and firstfloor to make a new huge masterbedroom suite, and the new part of the basement was made into a bar area. He also re did the laundry room and added on for that as well.

Sure, you can make changes within the house -- you can do that with any house . . . but I reallly meant, can you change the shape of the house? The square footage? Could you say, I like this house, but the family room is too small. I want to bump it out towards the back to double the size, creating a different shape for the house.

 

[aunties]

MrsPete - I guess changes would depend on the modular company you use. I used New England Homes in NH. I have one of their standard plans, except the entire house is flipped. If you are looking at my house from the street, the original floor plans have the living room and kitchen on the right and the bedrooms on the left. My bedrooms are on the right and living area on the left. You can use any one of their standard floor plans, modify one of their floor plans, or bring them your own floor plans. Flipping the rooms did not cost extra, but adding extra floor space, rooms, ect. would have.

When I took they factory tour, they were in the middle of building an 8 unit condo from floors plans designed by an outside architect.

 

[DisneyClown]

I did a walk-thru of a modular display home at a local builders and it isn't the model I want or even close to the size I want, but it was still nice to see it in person. My husband thinks that the price is going to be waaay more than we can afford, and he thinks I am deluding myself into thinking we can afford it, but I say he is wrong. True, I haven't actually sat down with the builder to figure out price, but from what I have been reading from others, it really does look affordable.

 

[bobcat]

I'm reviving this ancient thread to see if anyone has experience with modular builders in Ohio. We are at the beginning of our search and are looking at the first of the year to start building. We really like Midwest homes and found a floor plan we like and are going to look at Unibuilt in the next couple of weeks since we have friends that have one.

 

[kymom99]

I had looked very seriously at K Hovanian, then they went out of business here in NKY. They had 3 beautiful model houses built along I75 that are now up for sale. We had fallen in love with one of them. Oh well. I know someone who used TK Constructors and is very happy with their home. They have model homes all over the area.

 

[jenseib]

Are you looking at the ones built from a kit or one they build and bring to your property?
We got ours from continental. We actually bought the model house though. Most of the branches have gone out of business in our area though.
My husband cousins got one of those built from a kit, he had a lot of issues with the builders. Every little thing was extra in cost. Like...he had to sign a contract saying he would clear the construction site everyday of debris or they would charge extra each time it was left, etc.

 

[mbf]

We have had a modular home now since 1999 and are very happy with it.
The best part about modulars vs manufactured homes is that the builders have to conform to your local building codes when constructing it. This is important especially as it pertains to snow loads and insulation. Another bonus is that they are built with a heavier wood products than a manufactured home as well as sheet rock interiors (which also help with insulation and sound issues). The insulation they put in our rafters is a combo of fiberglass rolled out and blown in.

We opted to add on the plywood package rather than have the chip board exterior under our siding as DH feels the chip board disintegrates too fast. Your manufacturer may already use plywood only but this is something I would look into.

Things I would change: Anything you don't want to have in the home they will credit back to you in the price. I would not get their carpet again, I would rather have a better selection of colors and textures than what my particular builder had. However, we have been EXTREMELY happy with the laminate floor we had them include. It is Alloc and looks the same today as it did back then. I thought all laminate floors were comparable until I went to a friends (stick built) house and saw her laminate was peeling and is not even close to the same age as ours. I would upgrade our windows as well. This is not something easily replaced and the seller assured us these were high quality windows. They are good but at this point some need replacing in areas where they get full, direct sun all day long.


We did not get granite countertops. This is tempting but frankly, the basic countertops have been great for us. You can also just not get any counters at all and have your own installed. Same for cupboards.

We also ordered our appliances (fridge, dishwasher, and stove) with our house and (knock on wood) they are still going strong aside from the dishwasher (we replaced about 4 years ago). They are GE brand.

Modifications we were able to make were: reverse floor plan, added a bow window in the front, upgraded to oak moldings and doors, took garden tub out of master bath and replaced with shower stall and extra cupboards (this was less costly so ended up being a bit of a credit to the good), added shower doors to our DD's bath, added a 3rd bath (half bath), and upgraded our electrical to (I think this is it but I am a dummy) 220 service so that we could have the ability to use a generator if needed.

Like most people here I was not wanting to go through the time and hassle of having a home built from scratch. We were living on the property in transitional housing at the time and I did not want to wait the 6 months to a year it takes builders in our area to do a home. And then on top of it have a lot of finish work to do inside (DH is a chronic do it yourselfer and would have probably just had the most basic home built - believe me we would still be working on it lol). Because of this we were able to finish our basement into a game room and extra bedroom within a couple of years of moving in, added front and back decks, and an attached garage. Had we built from scratch that would have all been on the backburner until DH finished the inside!

 

[goodfood4ursoul]

I thought I would chim in a little different way. I work for a mass appraisal company, I write the software that caculates the tax value of houses for tax purposes.

Mobile Homes depreciate FAST, which means they loose value quickly. In fact, Resell Value of a mobile home is HORRIBLE. I couldn't recommend one unless you plan on living in it the rest of your life and never reselling it.

Modulars come either On-Frame or Off-Frame. On-Frame is installed identical to a mobile home, off-frame requires a crane and is installed on a foundation. As you can expect, crane rental is expensive, driving the cost way up. On-Frame modulars are often confused with mobile homes for tax purposes (this is good for you.)

Yep
My parents built a modular home (on stilts) from Cardinal Homes in Rodanthe, NC in 1992 and it has done well all these years
.
My neighbors all have modular homes- one is off frame and one is on frame. One looks like a stick built cape cod and the other looks like a double wide.

We have friends with a double wide modular they bought 20 years ago and when they had their appraisal for re-fi it came back very low because the appraiser assumed it was on frame.

They had to have a special appraisal done with an expert in foundations (or some such) to prove that theirs was off frame and that appraisal came back much better.