The Manufactured Home Advantage

Often overlooked, manufactured homes are America’s number 1 source of unsubsidized housing, and remains a vital option for a growing number of families who have been priced out of the traditional site-built real estate market.

It is well documented that today’s modern manufactured homes offer homebuyers an abundance of savings when compared to a site built home. The savings are significant. The building cost of a new manufactured home floor plan will be up to 50% less than a comparable sized traditional site-built home utilizing the same building materials, equal or superior in health and safety features, energy efficiency, design, and amenities.

Having your home built in an indoor facility lowers building costs and saves you money and time. The following are 4 additional advantages resulting from the indoor building process—the manufactured home advantage.

Assembly line Production

“Imagine if Ford Motor Company said ‘For this new F-150, we’re going to ship all the parts to an open field and assemble them using a local company we just met for the first time last month.’ Sounds like madness.” a Builders Magazine quote by Zephan McMinn, CEO of Blu Homes, Vallejo, Ca.

The irony is that site built houses are still made the same way, with workers carrying parts around and building homes one-at-a-time.

Manufactured homes and modular homes, however, uses carefully planned, reliable assembly lines to move the whole home through a line of trained workers at a record pace. The innovative process utilizing precise and pre-cut materials allow assembly line personnel to build more homes with more efficiency and consistency than site builders. Typically a manufactured home factory assembly line will complete (off-line) between three to ten or more homes per day!

Climate-Controlled Environment

Even in the mildest of climates, weather can limit or delay building time on site built homes. Taking more time to build a home costs more money for a contractor or builder which in turn is passed along to the home purchaser.

Manufactured homes are not affected by the weather as they are built inside a climate controlled facility in a comfortable environment that allows workers to build year round. The building process is consistent, reliable and timely. Lumber and other building material are also indoors and not affected by adverse weather conditions.

An unfortunate consequence of building homes outdoors is vandalism and crime on the job site. Whether there is theft of materials for building supplies or tools, builders are forced to include these potential risks and costs in the final cost of your home. Theft, damage, and vandalism are non-existent in an indoor manufactured home building facility.

Efficiency

Because manufactured home factories regularly produce their homes, manufacturers are able to purchase building materials on a large consistent scale at prices with significant discounts compared to building a stick-built home. These efficiencies and savings on materials translate directly into affordability for the home buyer. There is no difference between building materials utilized by site home builders and manufactured home producers.  However, manufactured home builders are more efficient in eliminating material waste with inventory control, precision planning and knowing the exact cost of the materials needed for every home. The savings passed on to the home buyer is significant.

Quality Control

Manufactured homes are the only form of single family housing built to a stringent national building code. The HUD Code is a series of performance standards that address every aspect of a manufactured home: heating, plumbing air conditioning, thermal and electrical systems, structural design, construction, fire safety, energy efficiency and even the transportation from factory to on-site installation. The goal is to ensure the highest degree of safety and construction in your home. When a manufactured home leaves the factory, it does so with a “Red Seal” attached indicating the home has passed what is arguably the most rigorous inspection process in the housing industry.
For more information, check out our previous posts: “Manufactured Homes: Safer Than Site Built.” Next time you are in the market for a manufactured home, make sure to think of the manufactured home advantage, and shop through thousands of manufactured home floor plans or inventory from one of the hundreds of manufactured home dealers we have listed on ManufacturedHomes.com!