What is a modular home? A house built in sections in a factory to the same local building code as a site-built home, then assembled on a permanent foundation, where it is financed, appraised and taxed exactly like one.
A modular home leaves the factory as two or more finished modules, complete with wiring, plumbing and interior finishes, travels to the site on a carrier, and is craned onto a permanent foundation, joined and finished. Because it is built to the state and local code (the IRC, as adopted locally) rather than the federal HUD code, and because the transport chassis does not stay under it, it is legally a house: conventional mortgages, FHA and VA loans, and appraisal against site-built comparables all apply, and there is no lot rent because it is not going anywhere.
That is the whole difference from a manufactured home, which is built to the HUD code on a permanent steel chassis and can be moved. The two are confused constantly, and the confusion costs money: a lender's answer, a county's property tax treatment and a future buyer's financing all depend on which one a home actually is, and the paperwork (a HUD label on each section for manufactured, a state or third-party inspection label for modular) is the proof.
Modular construction costs roughly ten to twenty percent less than a comparable site-built home and takes a few months rather than a year, with the savings coming from factory labour and weather that never stops work. The land, the foundation, the utilities and the crane are the buyer's, and in the Las Vegas valley those often cost more than the modules.
A worked example
A buyer owns a lot in the northwest valley and orders a 1,900-square-foot modular home: $210,000 for the modules, $45,000 for the foundation, crane and finishing, and $30,000 for utilities and permits. At $285,000 it appraises against site-built comparables at $340,000 and is financed with a conventional construction-to-permanent loan.
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Questions people ask
Is a modular home the same as a manufactured home?
No. A modular home is built to the local building code and set on a permanent foundation, and is a house for every legal and lending purpose. A manufactured home is built to the federal HUD code on a permanent chassis.
Do modular homes hold their value?
Yes, like site-built homes in the same area, because appraisers compare them to site-built sales. The label on the home is what tells an appraiser and a lender which kind it is.