The key is in the name: “module.”
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A modular home is a house that is built, section-by-section, in a factory setting. These are massive, climate-controlled facilities that assemble homes according to the International Residential Code (IRC), which requires compliance with all state and local building regulations.
IRC is similar to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in that both put forth standards for quality and safety. When it comes to manufactured homes, HUD requires each home to have an attached steel chassis to help with transport, whereas homes constructed to IRC specifications are set on a permanent foundation — just like a site-built home.
When a modular home has been fully fabricated, the sections are then transported to the building site (usually via semi truck) and, with the use of cranes, are assembled on a poured foundation.
Once assembled, the construction process of a modular home is just like that of a conventional build: It’ll be hooked up to utilities, and the interior will be fitted with appliances, cabinetry, flooring — all the bells and whistles.
“Inside, you can have the exact same cabinets, granite countertops, whatever you like,” says Reeds.
Modular homes “are a night and day difference from 20, 30, 40 years ago. They’ve stepped up the quality and can truly be equal to a site-built home.”
Just as blueprints for new-construction homes can vary widely based on customer needs, neighborhood regulations, regional norms, lot size, and overall budget, so can the floor plans for modular homes.
Depending on your personal preferences, modular home design can be rustic, ultra-modern, traditional, or anything in between.
Because modular homes are highly customizable, manufacturers often have architect partners who can work with you to adapt floor plans to your individual wants and needs.
So, whether you’re downsizing your home and would prefer a small home akin to a studio apartment, or your family is growing and you couldn’t possibly consider a house that isn’t at least 3,000 square feet with two floors, today’s modular homes can accommodate your lifestyle needs.
Aside from the made-for-you adaptability of the modular home construction process, there are several additional perks to taking this increasingly popular route to homeownership.
Because these houses are fabricated indoors, there are no construction delays due to adverse weather conditions. This allows modular homes to be built year-round, finishing major components in weeks rather than months.
Thanks again to the indoor construction, modular homes demonstrate an exceptional level of quality and consistency. Whereas a site-built home is exposed to the elements and thus subject to rain, wind, and temperature changes during the construction process, a modular home is fabricated in a climate-controlled setting that ensures straight walls and corners that meet perfectly every time.
Plus, modular home sections have to be transported to the site, meaning they must be resilient enough to withstand handling. “From a structural perspective, they’re pretty strong homes,” says Reeds.
By streamlining the construction process and avoiding on-site delays that can arise due to anything from inclement weather to supplier mishaps, modular homes simply cost less to build.
While a shorter lead time contributes to lower costs, manufacturers also buy their materials in bulk, resulting in cost savings that are easy to pass along to the consumer. As Reeds says, “You generally get more for your money [with a modular home] than you do with a site-built home.”
The efficiency of fabrication helps to reduce excess materials and overall construction waste, and due to the exceptional construction quality, modular homes are reported to operate approximately 15% more efficiently than site-built homes — saving you money in annual heating and cooling costs.
What’s more, because modular homes are so adaptable, yours can be designed with self-sufficiency in mind, like solar panels, energy batteries, low-energy light bulbs, or even the chance to go completely off-grid.
And if you’re not in a position to build but are considering making an offer on a house that happens to be a modular home? These advantages still apply. You’ll enjoy the high-quality materials and craftsmanship, the energy efficiency, and you’ll have the same opportunities to finance as if you were looking at a site-built home, thanks to the proper foundation and the fact that modular homes are considered permanent structures.
Modular homes undergo the same appraisal process as site-built homes — with regard to age, materials, location, size, and condition of the home — so not only are financing requirements comparable, but so are property taxes and homeowner’s insurance.
Wondering if there’s a catch? While it’s true that these houses have plenty of arguments in their favor, it’s only fair to also consider some of the potential drawbacks of building or buying a modular home.
Though this may not be a personal concern if you’re on the cusp of building a new modular home, it’s something to bear in mind should you plan to later sell the property. This is where it’s key to work with a great real estate agent who can educate potential buyers and strategically market the home.
“Most people don’t know the difference between modular and a steel-frame mobile home,” says Reeds. “The connotation is the same, and this tends to negatively impact resale value. You’ll need an experienced agent to differentiate.”
Reeds notes that much of the negative association with modular homes comes from the early days of prefabricated housing, when cost was king and manufacturers had to draw in customers by being substantially cheaper, which meant paring down on the quality of materials.
Even so, those issues were cosmetic, not structural. If you’re looking at a modular home that has been built since the Y2K scare, the interior components — such as doors, trim, and cabinetry — may look outdated or low-budget. Still, the bones are solid, and renovating a modular home can be as straightforward as any other upgrade project.
“Once you’ve upgraded the cosmetics, you’re not going to be able to tell the difference from a site-built home,” says Reeds.
While your agent can help you find the perfect lot for your new modular home, it’s important to be aware that not all areas are zoned for these homes due to their unique assembly. Before making an offer on a piece of land, be sure to check local zoning ordinances or HOA covenants.
Mobile homes have come a long way since your grandparents’ time. The trailer homes of the s have given way to today’s mobile homes—and sometimes, you can hardly tell the difference between a modern mobile home and a traditional home without a good, hard look.
Better-looking options at affordable prices are helping mobile homes make a comeback these days—just like baggy jeans (no thanks), cash stuffing (yes please) and Nickelback (no comment). And thanks to the red-hot housing market in most areas, many people are considering saving money by downsizing to mobile homes. Sounds good, right? But here’s the problem: In the long run, it’s a terrible deal.
Mobile homes are an awful investment because they drop in value quickly. It’s less like buying real estate and more like buying a new car, which loses value the second you drive it off the lot.
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Look, I’m not saying mobile homes aren’t nice or a good living option. There are some really snazzy-looking ones out there. Heck, some of the more modern manufactured homes might even be engineered better than some older “regular” homes. But that doesn’t make them good long-term investments.
First, let’s define three key terms: mobile homes, manufactured homes and modular homes. While these types of homes all exist in the same family of construction methods, there are some important differences between them.
Mobile homes are the grandpa of the family. When most people hear the term mobile home, they usually think of those classic, self-contained, shoebox-shaped houses typically seen in trailer parks—made popular in the mid-20th century alongside Elvis and I Love Lucy. Depending on how they’re built, mobile homes can be transported either with a tow hitch and a truck (like a camping trailer) or on the back of a flatbed.
A manufactured home is basically a mobile home with a master’s degree. In , mobile home standards changed a lot when the federal government passed the National Mobile Home Construction and Safety Act. Then, two years later, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rolled out the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards.
From that point on, all mobile homes had to be built to meet universal standards and, just like Prince, they got a name change: manufactured homes.
But even with all the fancy, sophisticated additions and certificates, the manufactured home is still constructed on a moveable foundation.
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If a mobile home made after is built to HUD’s standards (meaning all of them) and could potentially be moved, HUD now lumps it into the manufactured home label.1
Today’s manufactured homes come in three sizes: single-, double- and triple-wide. Just like the name sounds, you can build your manufactured home to double or triple the standard size (a single is usually 500 to 1,200 square feet), depending on how much room you want.2
For the sake of this article (and simplicity), we’ll use the term mobile home to talk about these types of homes. The only one I’m not including in this category is modular homes. Here’s why:
A modular home is like the sophisticated city-slicker cousin of the mobile home family—it’s reading The Wall Street Journal every morning while other mobile homes are watching reruns of The Price Is Right. It’s the only manufactured home that technically isn’t mobile.
The pieces of a modular house are built off-site in a factory, like its relatives, but then the pieces are attached to a permanent foundation at the homesite and built to local building codes, just like traditional homes. That’s why they’re often referred to as prefabricated. When the assembly is all done and it’s ready to be moved into, you can barely tell the difference between it and a conventionally built home.
No matter what name they’re under, all mobile homes eventually lose value to some degree. It might not be fair, but perception is a big factor in the mobile home market.
If the average person sees your mobile home and thinks it came in on a truck, your home won’t go up in value.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average price of a new mobile home was nearly $129,900 in May .3 Of course, the price varies with the size and look of the home:
Type
Avg. Cost
Avg. Living Space
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
Single-Wide
$86,
500–1,200 sq. ft.
1–2
1–2
Double-Wide
$160,
1,100–2,400 sq. ft.
2–3
2
If you’re looking for the stats on triple-wide homes, the Census Bureau doesn’t call out the numbers for them—they were just lumped in with the total amount.
Buyers should know that costs and size regulations vary by state because these homes have to be transported—just like that Chipotle barbacoa burrito you ordered from DoorDash when you could (and should) have picked it up yourself for free.
The price will also depend on personal customizations, like snazzy granite countertops, and add-ons, like a large front porch. There are also other costs on top of the home price to consider—like insurance, which will also vary depending on where your mobile home sits.
If you buy a mobile home, you’ll also need to either buy or rent land for it to sit on. It’s difficult to determine the average cost of renting a mobile home plot since those numbers aren’t reported in the same way as traditional real estate, so just know that the price will always reflect the local state and city real estate market.6 For example, if you live in a high-price state like California, you could be looking at something significantly above average than if you lived in, say, Indiana.
The lot price also depends on your access to amenities, including things like electricity, trash pickup or even an on-site pool.
If you’re smart, you won’t look at a mobile home as an investment because they lose value over time. From a financial standpoint, buying a mobile home is like buying a very large (and expensive) car that you sleep in. And unless you’re planning to hop on the #VanLife trend (hey, you do you), that’s not a great idea.
Some like to argue that buying a mobile home is better than paying rent on an apartment or home. There’s a problem with that logic, though. When you pay, say, $1,200 a month in rent, that’s all you’re losing. But when you buy a mobile home, you’re still losing money every day because it can depreciate so quickly.
How quickly do mobile homes depreciate? History says a $150,000 double-wide mobile home will depreciate by more than $50,000 in just five years (a third of the original value!). That’s not an investment, folks—that’s a money pit. And you didn’t need me to tell you that a money pit shouldn’t have a place in your investment strategy.
Now, you may run into some people who try to convince you that mobile homes go up in value, and they’ll even have stats to back it up. But those stats are misleading. Why? Because most of them, like those reported by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are based on the value of manufactured homes titled as real property, which means they’re permanently attached to the land.8 In those cases, the value of the land is going up, not value of the manufactured home.
If you’re looking at investing in real estate, there are much better opportunities out there than mobile homes, and that’s because of one magical word: appreciation.
Despite the ups and downs of the real estate market, most properties increase in value over time. In fact, home values have been rising pretty much nonstop for nearly a decade now. Meanwhile, as we just saw, mobile homes have taken after your car—losing value every year.
Instead of investing in a mobile home, put your money toward a better investment. Here are my two favorites:
If you do choose to invest in real estate, you shouldn’t do it alone. It’s one of the biggest investments you’ll ever make and, though it can be a big moneymaker, it can also be really confusing (and risky) to navigate if you don’t have someone in your corner.
That’s why I recommend working with a real estate professional who’s the best in their field. Connect with one of our RamseyTrusted agents who can help you find what you’re looking for. Through the RamseyTrusted program, you’ll get instant access to the right real estate professional for your family.
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