Manufactured homes: nicer look but the same low prices

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 05/17/2007 | Barbara E. Hernandez

[Lorianne]

DUBLIN - Building a home can cost families up to $300 a square foot, making a 2,000-square-foot home a costly proposition even without the land. But if residents knew that they could get a house built as well, looking as good for less, would they take it? And would it make a difference knowing it was built in a factory?

Sam Sendee, chef and owner of Thai House Restaurant in Danville, bought one of Valley Home Development's "granny units," a 600-square foot, two-bedroom, one-bath manufactured guest house for his 82-year-old mother and teenage daughter after seeing it at the Spa, Pool and Patio Expo last year in Pleasanton.

"We liked the idea of a separate unit for privacy," Sendee, 44 , said. "They had a pretty good system to build a house and it's a very reasonable price."

The $120,000 structure was placed in his back yard in Dublin by a crane before being affixed to a permanent foundation. In the next few weeks, it will be stuccoed and painted and look as if it had been part of the construction all along, said Steve Vallejos, 39, owner of Valley Home Development in Fairfield.

Vallejos said he has placed five of the granny units since the beginning of the year, and his company is going to be completing four modular homes in American Canyon and three in Benicia.

Altamont Homes, based in Martinez, works throughout California and Arizona and represents 17 different factories that create modular, or "factory built homes," said Victor Angulo, project director.

Their typical job is a 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot home, usually for a buyer looking for a good price. "Usually they're looking at building the traditional way but trying to save money," Angulo said.

[cmsgop]

I am amazed how nice some of the new manufactured homes really are.

[eastforker]

My grandparents house was built in 1901, ordered through Sears and Roebuck catalog and delivered to the train station, picked up by mule and wagon and assembled.

[SandRat]

Still Tornado Magnets too.

[Dustbunny]

My grandparents had a Sears home also. Lots of built in’s, very little wasted space. I would love to have one like it.

[Lecie]

A modular home is not the same as a mobile home. Here's the web site of the company mentioned in the article.

http://www.altamonthomes.com/

[Gamecock]

Yup, a double wide today is the lap of luxury!

Queen Of My Double Wide Trailer

Well I met her out at Murphy's restaurant
She said she was fresh from the farm
And I remember thinkin' for a country girl
That she went pretty well armed
We sat there talkin' by the lobster tank
I ordered her a slow gin fizz
And when them chicken fried steaks arrived
She said I like living like this

So I made her the queen of my double wide trailer
With the polyester curtains and the redwood deck
Times she's run off and I've got to trail her
Dang her black heart and her pretty red neck

Well a few nights later I run into her
With some stranger on a park bench
She said he rebuilds engines and his name is Earl
He's the Charlie Daniels of the torque wrench
I whispered honey let's just go on home
And have some onion rings and watch TV
And as I walked her to the truck
Earl was cryin' don't you leave me
I told him

This is the queen of my double wide trailer
With the polyester curtains and the redwood deck
Sometimes shes runs and I've got to trail her
Dang her black heart and her pretty red neck

I said this is the queen of my double wide trailer
With the polyester curtains and the redwood deck
Sometimes she runs and I've got to trail her
Dang her black heart and her pretty red neck
I said this is the queen of my double wide trailer
With the polyester curtains and the redwood deck
Sometimes she runs and I've got to trail her
Dang her black heart and her pretty red neck

She's the Queen
She's the Queen

[CindyDawg]

120, 000 for 600sf. Nah. You can get 2000 with the lot, built from the ground. My husband could probably it for 10-20k, give or take a few permits.

[gcruse]

My father was a cement contractor who built for us a ‘concrete tilt-up’ house. They poured concrete slabs that were later tilted up with a crane and anchored with rebar anc cement to concrete pillars. These formed the outer walls of the house, which laughed at tornadoes. Once the walls were stuccoed, it looked like any other house in the neighborhood.

[John W]

Yeah, but he’d sell it for $250K, thats the point.

[D-Chivas]

Not many tornadoes in San Jose.

[eastforker]

The house I grew up in was quite a bit older. The old part of the house was built with hand hewn rafters held together with wooden pegs, back then they used straw, mud,rocks and horse hair for insulation in the walls. We found this out when we installed an extra room so we could install a bathroom and running water.

[Boundless]

> I am amazed how nice some of the new
> manufactured homes really are.

They run the gammut, with the top end being the
equal of the best site stick-builts. Modulars,
of course, cannot compete with ICF or Monolithic
Dome, because those can’t be delivered by road.

Modulars have to be stout to handle transport.
Arriving with fully finished seamless drywall
and NO cracks is not uncommon.

Anyone considering one needs to inventory the
regional suppliers, and take factory tours.

If factory tours aren’t allowed, you just cross
that junk-maker off the list.

Around here, one of the top is Wardcraft, who offer
a large catalog of plans, but will build you
anything that can be site-assembled out of
60Lx30Wx16H modules (roof peaks are site-installed).

2x6 walls with composite concrete siding are
std. options. They’d probably do steel framing
and foam insulation if you asked.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Some are built better than stick homes!

[SandRat]

What you do for the roof gabbles and roofing material?

[claudiustg]

My house was built in 1907 from materials and by people from right here in Montana. When it went up there was no pavement, electricty, or running water. It’s been lived in, modified and cared for by people rooted in this community ever since. It’s a matter of pride and place.

[gcruse]

Other than the outer walls, it was like other houses. Two by six or whatever studs inside, asphalt shingles on an A-roof.

[SandRat]

Just wondered if the gabbles were steel I-beams and the shingles those new concrete ones that look like Ceder shake roofing.

[Moonman62]

I am amazed how nice some of the new manufactured homes really are.

They are, but the really nice ones aren't cheap either.

[Kimberly GG]

Buyers Beware!!!Manufactured homes are VERY VERY difficult to sell. Most people think they are an ‘affordable’ alternative and so the market attracts buyers without the best of credit scores and banks will NOT loan to them for this kind of purchase... even if their jobs are stable and income is good. I owned a great new 3br 2bath, 2001 home, in a wonderful community, and it took me from 2004 until 2005 to sell it.

Also, many elderly are loosing their ‘mobile’ homes for this reason....When communities raise their lot rent beyond the homeowner’s ability to pay, even if the homeowner tries to sell it, the homeowner can’t sell the house fast enough...and if they can’t afford the thousands that it costs to move the home to another less expensive community, they end up loosing them, often to the very community who originally financed the purchase and then raised the rent.

Two more warnings, from my own experience...Manufacture Home ‘Realtors’, in some states, can agree to sell your home for a certain amount, but can offer the home for sale at any amount they choose, in order to make the commission they want for themselves. This can delay a sale on a home that you may think you’ve got ‘priced’ to sell. Also, because these homes are ‘titled’, you are forced to sign over your title long before receiving payment. In my case, not only did I have to sign over the title, but I almost had to move out before receiving payment for the home! My hissy fit is the only reason I received a check for my property on moving day!