The big house hunt. Part III

This is where things took an unexpected turn. The first time we went to look at the Barrington, I decided on our way home to swing by another community to see if there was anything worth looking at. On our way out there, we drove by a neighborhood out in the country. I made the comment that it would be nice to have that extra space and long driveways so Joe could train his strongman on his own area. And we left it at that.

A couple weeks later, we were just driving around town, enjoying the weather, just cruising. We ended up back in that area again. We started talking about what we liked about the houses in the country. Privacy, quiet, maybe more house options? It seemed like a possible idea to look into.

As we kept driving, we passed a modular/ manufactured home dealer. And decided to go in. They had about 8 house to look at, plenty for us to get an idea if we even liked them. And it gave us the opportunity to ask some questions, such as:

- Will the houses blow away in a hurricane? (Nope)
- Are they on wheels? Blocks? (Only manufactured homes are not on a foundation. Modular homes are on a real foundation, like traditional homes)
- Do we have to own land first? (You don’t have to. Most companies will do a land search for you, and factor it into the house purchase)
- Do we have to figure out sewer, electricity, etc? (Nope, they will do that as part of the transaction as well)
- Will that make us (half) white trash? (Since they aren’t trailers, not at all)

We looked at several houses, all of which we really liked. Suddenly we had another option. And a good option at that. Unlimited houses to choose from, all of which are customizable. At the same prices or cheaper than the new construction houses we were considering before.

Here are the some of the things we liked about the modular homes:

- We could get the house we wanted when we wanted it. With new construction houses, you may like a floor plan now, but in 2 years they may not have it available. And if they do, it might not be in the area you like.
- Modular homes are built indoors, with the building materials kept indoors. We saw several stick built homes with the 2 x 4s just sitting outside, uncovered in the rain. Joe could see warping already.
- Modular homes are built by the same people, all the time. I like the idea that the same guy has been building houses for 10 years and it’s a supervised process.
- Modular homes are built to withstand the transport from the factory to the homesite, so they are built stronger than a site built home
- Modular homes are placed on a foundations (yay! Not a trailer!) and appreciate in value just like a site built home
- Modular homes are built to the same building codes as a site built home.

All in all, we couldn’t see why we wouldn’t want to go with a modular home. We could get exactly what we wanted at the exact time we want and in the area we wanted. It just makes sense to me. Add in the privacy of having our own land and we were sold.

Check out part IV for our crazy modular home search.