Alot of people always ask, “Why should I build a modular home, and why should I build a modular with your company?”, its a great question - and one that everyone should ask whenever they are buying anything - especially a house. Well i’m going to explain that answer - in two parts.
Part 1 will answer why should I build a modular? I’ll answer Part 2 in my next post.
Modular Construction has been around for decades, yet only has caught on in the past 10 years or so, since technological advances have enabled the manufacturers to build completely custom homes with floor plan designs and amenities that rival site-built homes. Some people still consider Modular Homes “trailers” or “manufactuered homes” or “throw-away homes” and to be honest - Modular Homes are anything but those types of homes. The only thing they have in common with trailers and manufactured homes is Modulars are built in a factory, and travel to their final destination on the back of a truck, thats where the similarity ends. In addition, disputing the idea that Modular Homes are “throw-away homes” - Modular Homes are usually built better than most site-built homes today.
Speed:
- Construction is completed in 1/3 the time of site-built homes
- Construction of the home can occur while the foundation is being built
- House arrives in one piece, no waiting for certain materials or work crews to be free from other jobs
Affordability
- Controlled factory environment ensures guaranteed fixed pricing and no costly overruns
- Reduced on-site manpower
- Lower labor rates
- Minimal waste
- Minimal debris clean-up cost
- Less interest on construction loan
- Minimum of 15-30% cost savings
Exceptional Quality Control
- Modular Home passes numerous internal and third-party building inspections at all phases of production
- Home meets or exceed all federal, state or local regulations
- Tight quality control by manufacturer ensures safe and secure structures
Superior Materials and Manufacturing
- High-quality name brand materials used for construction (Moen, Anderson, Shaw, CertainTeed, American Standard, Merillat, Therma-Tru)
- Modular units are safely housed and assembled in climate-controlled factory
- Materials never subject to inclement weather, natural elements, vandalism or pilferage
- Homes delivered 85% complete, and erected onsite in hours
Durability
- Modular homes are built to last
- Withstands tramsportation to building site at speeds of up to 65mph (gale force winds) and crane lift onto foundation (earthquake conditions)
- Constructed with 30% more lumber, more glue and more nails than site-built home
- Unquestionably stronger than conventional stick-built homes
Outstanding Long-Term Value
- Endurance
- Reliability
- Minimal upkeep
- Longer life cycles
- Great return on buyer’s investment
Flexibility and Choice
- We offer vast range of choices for exterior treatments, customized interior features and accessories
- Large variety of house styles
- Custom designs or modified architectural plans
- Homes for all budgets and lifestyles
So there it is - why building a Modular Home is a great idea, and a sound investment.
Check back soon for Part 2: Why Build with The Modular Home Group
Let me know if you have any comments or questions by emailing me at andrew (at) modularhomegroup (dot) com
March 22nd, 2007
I’ve been following pretty closely the “Dream Home Diaries” blog which is written by two married writers for the New York Times (Alison Davis, and Paul Brown). In a nutshell, its the story of a husband and wife who already own two houses - one in New Jersey and a second in Massachusetts - as they build their “Dream Home” near Tampa, Florida. The whole blog series is based on the fact that Alison & Paul have no experience in building a home and they are going into it not knowing what to expect.
When I first heard about this series, I thought, “This is perfect! This is exactly what our customers do - build their home with no prior experience, I’m courious to see how well Alison & Paul make out in this endeavor.” (In fact, I even tried contacting them to see if I could be of help - but didn’t hear anything back.) In anycase, I’ve been following their posts closely, comparing their experience with the experience that our customers have when building their own home - the only difference being Alison & Paul are building a site-built home, whereas our customers (obviously) are building a Modular Home.
Over the past two weeks or so there Alison & Paul were trying to figure out if they needed an architect to build their house - or if the contractor could use their simple drawings done on paper - well as you may have figured, they realized they needed an architect. They expected to spend about 15% of the cost of the home for architectural fees, for them, that number would be around $45,000, since they expected their home to cost about $300,000. When Alison and Paul met with their architect, he gave them a minimum price of $70,000! That was a MINIMUM!! Nonetheless, the architect didn’t seem to excited about working with them because they were working on a “small” (less than 4,000 square feet) home.
I was blown away by that! Right then and there, Alison and Paul could have saved over $70,000 if they built their home as a modular - why? Well, if you build a modular home with The Modular Home Group, architectural fees are included in the cost of your home, and when they are broken down on an invoice, the fees usually don’t total more than a few thousand dollars.
Why is that?
Well, unlike site-built construction, Modular Homes have to be built to certain dimensions and constructed using certain materials and using certain methods, so each Modular Home Manufacturer has to do full scale architectural drawings for each house they manufacture, this includes drawings which contain the elevations, floor plan, basement layout, electrical, plumbing and mechanical layout, as well as roof plans, and a few other odds and ends. This includes drawings which may be from a manufactuers stock layout, or plans which started with a simple layout written on a placemat - we have the capability to do a completely custom home - the way you want it - AND do with out the outrageous architectural fees!
Many people ask us, “Do i need to hire an architect to build my modular home?” and the answer is quite simply, “No!” all the money saved on architectural fees can be either put into upgrades in the house, or just money that can be put back in your pocket!
I’m looking forward to the next seeing what other problems Alison & Paul may experience by building their home site-built instead of modular, and I’m sure there will be plenty!
-Andrew
March 19th, 2007