Factory-built homes have come
a long way over the past several years-bearing little resemblances to the mobile home of yesterday.
Thanks to sophisticated
production process, factory-built housing
is as good as it gets when it comes to efficiency, affordability and
innovative designs options.
You probably wouldn’t recognize a factory-built home if you saw one, so
close are they in design and structure to their site-built counterparts. But as a home shopper, you do know a bargain when
you see one. That's why in 1998 home-buyers like you bought 36,981 new factory -built homes in the United States.
Nationwide approximately 18 million people-more than 7 percent of the U.S. population-live in factory-built homes. Factory
-built homes represent a whopping 28 percent of all new single-family homes in this country.
Thinking of
buying a factory built home? Here is what you need to know.
What is a factory -built home?
Factory
built housing covers any type of housing constructed in a factory and transported to a residential site. Manufactured,
modular, and panelized housing are examples of factory-built homes.
Manufactured Homes: These are homes built entirely
in the factory under a federal building code administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (commonly
known as the HUD Code) went into effect June 15, 1976. It's the only federally regulated national building code.
Built entirely in a factory, manufactured homes are transported to the site and installed. Federal standards,
established in 1976, regulated manufactured housing design and construction, strength and durability transportability, fire
resistance, energy efficiency and quality. The government also sets standards for heating, plumbing, air, and porches,
must be built to local, state or regional building codes.
More Bang for your Buck.
Factory built homes cost, on average, about half of the price
of a site-built house. The average site-built house cost an average of $70 per square foot, while factory -built home costs
$35 to $40 per square foot, mostly because they are more efficient to produce.
New
-factory built homes may cost anywhere from $20,000 for a small simple model to $100,000 or more for a multi-section unit
with upgrades. You can customized your factory built home with skylights, picture windows, fireplaces, whirlpool's built
in bookcases, and entertainment units -virtually any feature available in custom site-built homes.
Most people
can't tell the difference between a factory-built home and its traditionally built neighbor. Their roofs have same heights
and pitch, and you can select such design features as a bay window, gable front, or pitch roof with shingles. Awnings, enclosures
around the crawl space, patio covers, decks and steps are also available.
Factory Hatched Is Better
"By
now being exposed to the whims of Mother Nature, factory builders can shorten the production schedule required to get a house
from the drawing board to a lot. They can also monitor waster better, reduced theft and more accurately maintain inventories-all
of which are very difficult to do when you are building out in the middle of an open field.
You get more bang
for your buck. You get quality product at a lower cost than a site -built home because the bulk purchase of materials, standardized
factory production and design ingenuity all work to keep structural costs low. Your home will appreciate in value-comparable
to appreciation of site built home (if your factory built home is well maintained)
You'll spend less on utilities. On
average, you'll spend 25 percent less on your utilities than with a site built home. Manufactures are offering homeowners
a variety of energy saving options, including better insulation to lower heating and cooling costs, energy efficient windows,
and the choice of a home -energy fuel .
Homebuyers at higher and higher income levels appreciate the sophisticated
manufacturing process that makes a house a valued home.
Recently, a San Francisco factory-built home provider
sold a 4,000-square foot, four car garage factory -built home on a lot with a Pacific Ocean view to a Woodside, Calif. Customer.
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Today’s
Buyer
of both new and existing manufactured homes may choose from a wide array of financing options. Some financial institutions
offer an entire menu of lending programs. The house can be financed as personal property, on leased land, in a manufactured
home community or on a privately owned site. Buyers who desire to acquire land in conjunction with the home can finance the
land and home together. Properly financed, the purchase of a manufactured home should lead to equity building for the homeowner.
Most buyers arrange financing for manufactured homes through the retailer from whom they buy their home. These retailers
maintain business relationships with a number of lending institutions—large national lenders as well as local institutions—and
can assist in the preparation and submission of a credit application. Customers also may shop independently for financing
which a lender of their choice.
Manufactured homes can be financed as personal property. Even when the home and
land are financed together, the home is often secured as personal property and the land as real property. A growing number
of buyers are opting to put their homes on land they are purchasing or already own. Traditional manufactured home personal
property lenders have created land-and-home financing programs designed to accommodate this trend.
Another growing
trend for homebuyers is to finance their home and land together as real property using conventional mortgage financing obtained
through a traditional mortgage lender. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the primary secondary market sources for mortgage loans
in the U.S., encourage this trend through their guidelines for accepting real estate mortgage loans for 20 and 30 year terms
secured by manufactured homes.
