Pros and Cons of Manufactured Homes

Pros of manufactured homes:

1. Economical:
Manufactured homes are 40-50% cheaper than conventional homes or modular homes. It is because manufactured homes are made in factories.

2. Fast construction:
Modular homes can’t be made until the land is prepared for development. Clearing trees, grading, filling of the site must all be done before modular or conventional home construction begins. But for manufactured homes, one hand you can order it from your nearest dealer or factory, and on the other hand, you can start preparing your land. Within two months, your manufactured home will be ready for delivery. So the whole process may take a maximum of 2 to 3 months. Sometimes there are already constructed manufactured homes ready to deliver at manufactured home dealers or factories. In that case, your whole home construction time will be maxing 1-month considering site preparation.

3. Low Property Tax:
Most of the time, manufactured homes are not considered Real Property. It is regarded as personal property. In those cases, property tax will be meager compared to conventional or modular homes.

4. Federally mandated build quality:
All manufactured homes built now must follow federally mandated rules. You can rest assured that your manufactured homes are produced according to code.

5. Can be moved if it needs to be:
Manufactured homes are made on a movable platform or trailer. Though most of the time upon delivery, it is being put on a permanent foundation. Still, if it needs to be, you can move manufactured homes from one place to another. It’s impossible to move a modular home.

Cons of manufactured homes:

1. No Conventional Loans. Small FHA Loans:
It’s impossible to get conventional loans for manufactured homes. Even FHA loans are not available from all lenders. To qualify for FHA loans, you have to follow some FHA rules. On top of that maximum amount of this FHA loan are not higher than 70,000 dollars.

2. Outside does not look so beautiful:
From outside modular homes look beautiful. There are so many designs of modular homes to choose from. Even if you want, you can customize everything of a modular or conventional home. Manufactured homes are rarely customizable. There are fixed floor plans to choose from. Outside always looks boxy. However, as there are many manufactured home manufacturers, floor plan is not a problem but outside still looks mundane of a manufactured home.

3. Construction material could be of low quality:
Manufactured homes are built according to federally mandated rules. But construction materials are not all the same. Manufacturers could choose to make a manufactured house with the lowest priced building materials. What’s the actual quality of materials under the floor or on the roof you never know. But don’t get discouraged. Whatever the quality of materials, manufactured homes are always built by federal guidelines.

4. Some cities/town does not allow manufactured homes:
There are cities or towns where manufactured homes are not allowed. Before buying a land, please make sure your local government allows manufactured homes in that zone.

Debate regarding manufactured homes:

1. Manufactured homes depreciate over time like a car:
This argument is not right all the time. There are a lot of variables. We have seen many manufactured homes depreciated. We also have seen some manufactured home prices have gone up.

Pros of manufactured homes:

Cons of manufactured homes:

Debate regarding manufactured homes:

Few References: