Manufactured Homes Compared To Modular Homes

By Author: Jeremy Keith
Total Articles: 4
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Many people interested in building their home do not get accurate information when they try to learn the difference between modular and manufactured homes. I would like to help explain the difference between these two options that you may consider when building a home.

Manufactured Homes (mobile, trailer, HUD home):
1. The home comes on a steel frame (chassis) and must remain on this steel frame forever.
2. There is a permanent plate that has to stay on the home, like a license plate. This is a relic requirement from when it used to be a true mobile home pulled from place to place.
3. HUD homes have low-pitched roofs, typically 3/12 or 4/12, and never more than 6/12, because of architectural design limitations.
4. The quality of the materials is not the same as that of site-built or modular homes in most cases. To keep the cost low, most builders of HUD homes use suppliers that have designed products specifically to be the cheapest that can possibly be built and meet the HUD code.
5. HUD homes are built to a blanket federal coe, not your local building codes.
6. In most ...
... cases a HUD home will finance more like personal property, similar to a car.
7. There is required disclosure when you sell a manufactured home since it's not the same building code as a site built home or a modular home.
8. Refinancing is more difficult in almost every case, given similar income, credit, and loan amounts.
9. It is difficult to make changes to a manufactured home because it requires a state inspector to review plans and come do site inspections. Since the HUD homes are designed to the minimal structural code allowed in most cases, your options are typically limited to minor changes.
10. There are very few two-story manufactured homes, and those that are built have a very simple look to them.

Manufactured/trailer/mobile/HUD homes are in fact cheaper than modular homes as a general rule, and about the same or faster to install than modular homes because of their architectural and structural simplicity. As far as the cost goes, it has been our experience is that many people think that a manufactured home is cheap and spend a bunch of money upgrading it to look like a real home. They realize later that the cost comes out to something similar "all-in" like what they would have spent on a modular home.
http://modular-panelized-homes.blogspot.com/
Isaac Lassiter
Cutting Edge Homes Inc.
270 East Douglas Ave.
El Cajon, CA 92020
(877) 280-6496
http://www.cuttingedgehomes.net