Factory-Built Houses

It may not be cheaper, but it might be better, to have your next house built off-site and trucked in.

If you'd like to build a new house, whether it's right now or 10 years from now, you probably know most of the choices you'll face. Selecting your financing, building lot, house design, builder and contractors may be the big decisions. But there will be plenty of smaller ones that can drive you to distraction too, like what color to paint the powder room downstairs ("We need to know right now, pal") or whether a 1/2-hp garage door opener is the right size for you. In fact, the logical people in your life have probably warned you off the whole idea already, at least twice. But...

Saying that there are a lot of decisions to make, though, is not the same as saying none of them are fun. For most of us, selecting the house design is one of the high points. This is the time when everybody gets to dream a little, and there's nothing wrong with that. Usually these dreams are focused on traditional designs built in more or less traditional ways.

But this isn't true for everyone. Today, more and more buyers are opting for houses that are built on factory floors and then transported to the building site for final assembly. These factory-built homes have something for nearly everyone, and their quality is often better than you'll find in their site-built brothers and sisters–including those from the right side of the track.

The major problems with site-building are best seen during a building boom, like we've had for the last few years. Every component of the system gets stretched to the limit, especially job management. No-shows and unreturned phone calls become chronic. In most markets, you can also throw in bad-weather delays, skilled-labor shortages and a general decline in lumber quality.

What you end up with is a witches' brew of hard-to-control variables, most of which would be manageable in a factory environment.

Click title for full story. It's a long, detailed, excellent report on factory-built homes. Anyone already building, or just thinking about building a home will find this article informative.