SELECTING THE RIGHT MODULAR BUILDER IS IMPORTANT

Linkedin, the semi-social network for the white collar and industry leader crowd, is one of my Internet stops every day.  I look at the latest comments about housing and real estate looking for trends and news that I feel the readers of this blog would enjoy.

Recently someone posted a topic on one of the "groups" asking for the distinction between modular and manufactured housing.  One comment really caught my attention.  It was from Greg Hewlett, owner of M H Imperial Homes in the Glen Falls, NY area.

 

You can feel his frustration with some modular home factories and I believe he makes a good argument as to why factories need to have a better vetting process.

Here is his comment:

We have an identity crisis in the industry but I do not agree with the causes stated above. We do very well with getting customers past the design limitations issues. 3D rendering tools hundreds of images for our customers to see that they have no design limitations. If they can get it from a site builder they can get it from us only better. That is for the customers I get to see. The issue I see is for the ones I never get to talk to because of the preconceived notions of what modular has to offer and the quality concerns.

The quality concerns are real. In my block there are 4 mod dealers. One of us is a builder. The other three are retailers. The majority of the mods built in my area are garbage and cost way more then people expected. That is because these old school trailer sales lots still work on "Sell" the home and let the customer fend for themselves on the rest. Hundreds of horror stories exist. We all know they exist in site building to, but it is harder to label them into a group the way mods are.

Every manufacture tells me how they would like to work with QUALITY builders but if they can sign up a sales lot they will regardless of reputation.

All the market of LEED and Green in the world is useless as long as some of those houses are pushed through dealers that leave the homeowner to fend for themselves. The best thing we are seeing is banks that will not finance if there is not a define GC other then the home owner. But what would solve our industries problems the fastest is legislation that requires the Dealer to be wholly responsible for the entire project. Over time this will weed out the non-builder dealers, improve the consistence of completion of modular homes and allow the industry to be seen as the Quality houses modular homes should be when properly completed. If would help if the manufactures bought in to this.
Posted by Greg Hewlett