so why are more and more people excited about building a prefab home well if you take a look at a website from a company like connect homes you'll see that the cost of a home is as little as 350 dollars per square foot so it's cheaper than you could ever build a traditional home in Sonoma County but before you decide to go ahead I'll explain why that isn't necessarily the case and I'll also share the best and the worst things about building a prefab home so first up what is a prefab home well there are really two types of prefab homes a manufactured home and a modular home so let's start off with manufactured homes these are literally built in a factory they have a bad reputation because of the image they conjure up of I know a 1970s manufactured home delivered on the back of a trailer but connect homes they're manufactured homes but they're definitely one of the coolest looking homes out there and there are lots of different companies out there that do make manufactured homes but connect homes they have 23 diff different models to choose from so while you are limited to one of their floor plans you have a ton of options to choose from and then the home is literally built in the factory and then delivered on the back of a truck or rather delivered on the back of multiple trucks but if you don't like the look of the homes or you don't like the layout of one of their floor plans then they're probably not the right company for you modular homes on the other hand they're different because they're more akin to designing and building home using a predetermined set of building blocks you've got a lot more freedom in designing a home to your specifications as long as the home is designed specifically for a modular system like that from Lindell homes or devel homes which was actually formerly blue homes the components are all built in a factory before being delivered to the building site to be assembled a bit like a you know a big Lego house so what are the pros and cons so let's start with the pros whether it's a manufactured home or a modular home the Great thing is that the home is built in a factory in a controlled environment I mean how many times have you seen a house being bit framed out and then it just sits there in the pouring rain before before the roof goes on I mean you just don't get that with a home built in a factory so as well as the overall environment being controlled there's also a greater opportunity for quality control of the labor in the factory where you don't have to rely on casual labor or subcontractors to maintain the overall quality the next Pro is the sustainability generally a manufactured home is is going to be more sustainable than a traditional built home not just from the materials used but because many pre-built homes such as devel are built to highly energy efficient standards because the efficiencies can be designed into the DNA of the home on top of that there is generally generally less wastage because the homes are being designed and manufactured to a highly optimized template there's just less wasted the other big benefit is that it's easy to control the costs I mean we've all heard of general contractors issuing change orders through the construction process which can result in an overrun of 20 30 or even more over the original estimated cost the good thing with a manufactured home or a prefab home is that as soon as you sign a contract you know what it's going to cost they just aren't the same variables that cause the cost to go up and out of control compared to a traditional built home well the build cost may not absolutely much cheaper overall there's less risk or or rather more certainty over the actual finished cost so what are the disadvantages well the first one is the fact that there is there is less customization by their very nature their homes are you know pre-designed or in the case of module homes have to be designed to the specification of the modules even with the manufacturing terms such as the connect home you know you can't choose some of the finishes but there's a very specific set of materials that you get to choose from so it does limit your overall choices the other disadvantage is that the locations where they can be built you know they have their physical limitations because a home like a connect home is delivered literally on the back of a truck with the need for a crane to then lower the homes into position on the foundation you you can't build a manufactured home in a in a location where you can't get a huge articulated truck I mean this might not sound too limiting but these are big trucks that need to be escorted down the freeway so you definitely can't build one up a small lane or in the middle of a forest a modular home does have more flexibility but you still you still need pretty good access finally the price you see on the website is not the price of the finished hail and this is really important the price you see is literally the cost of the home that is built in the factory and delivered on the back of the truck it does not include the cost of preparing the site building the foundations doing all the Landscaping hooking up all the utilities and all the other elements that need to be done to get a home completed these costs can easily increase the cost of the home by 50 on top of the price of the manufactured home so what are the other important considerations well first you need to find a buildable lot I mean it's all very well finding a cool design for a manufactured home but you need somewhere to put it Instagram accounting this is definitely where the challenge begins and and also the expense begins I mean it's pretty much impossible to get a lot for less than 250 000. I mean if you want a lot that is build ready in one of the popular places in Wine Country it likely cost you 500 000 to you know up to about one and a half million dollars if you see a lot for less than 250 000 in a decent location the chances are there's there's something wrong with it for example a client of mine Marissa bought a flat one acre lot in a great part of Kenwood for 750 000 and she'll likely end up with a home that will be worth over three million in a neighborhood that can easily support that valuation I mean what you don't want to do is to buy a lot in an area where building a modern prefab home will be too much house for the neighborhood so it won't support the ultimate valuation of the finished hair and the other thing you need to think about I mean to State the obvious you need water sewer electric and gas hooking up the utilities and electric and gas or propane in rural areas it's pretty straightforward but it all costs money so if you are thinking of buying a lot for your prefab home this is probably one of the most important things to think about you need a lot that will support the number of bedrooms in the home that you want to build if you don't have that there are no guarantees you'd be able to build the home that you want to the septic system in will likely cost you 60 to 100 000 and you know there are lots where septic systems can cost as much as two hundred thousand dollars so you need to know Advance what you're getting into and this all adds a lot to the cost of the bill that's quoted on the container home website the other challenge is financing you need to finance the entire project I mean this includes purchasing the lot paying for the site development including foundations and utilities and of course buying the prefab home itself my client Marissa worked with Ty Kurt Patrick from Arroyo Consulting Group who specializes in working with clients who who want to finance construction as well as have somebody to help them through the process they provide both the lot and construction loans as well as the permanent financing at the end of the construction and it's worth bearing in mind that financing a construction loan for a prefab home is typically it is a bit different from financing traditional construction because there are two distinct parts to it there's the financing for all the site work with the general contractor and then there's the financing for the prefab home itself so for a 2 000 square foot connect six home the list price is 684 000 before any upgrades and the cost of the Adu is 184 000 so making a total of 868 000 but as I said the cost of the site work can easily add another 50 percent on top of that to the entire project even on a flat lot the cost of the prefab home to the site work and the infrastructure the ratio can be two to one so on a more complicated lot that ratio it will only increase the great thing about Marissa's loan is that as soon as the construction is complete it automatically rolls into a regular without requiring a new loan or any new appraisal once you're approved you don't need to re-qualify which is a great thing about this particular type of loan so one of the best things about prefab homes well certainly in my view like the delivery day it was absolutely unbelievable I've never seen the delivery of a home of this scale so it was really exciting when I went to see Marissa's project being delivered in her case she had an Adu a 2 000 square foot home and a connect home carport all delivered on the same day the Ade was the first module to be set down on its foundations and because the Adu is a self-contained unit it was delivered almost move-in ready I mean the floors were in the tile was in even the appliances were all in the kitchen it was literally ready to go once you've got it hooked up the main house on the other hand it was a little different because it was delivered in six different modules that all need fitting together like a big Jenga puzzle I mean it was awesome to see them being picked up off the trucks one by one and seeing them dropped into place so including the delivery of the Adu all the six units for the main house and the carport the whole process took just over five hours which is which is pretty impressive it's definitely a slick operation so should you consider buying a prefab home you probably gathered I'm a huge fan of the modern aesthetic of the connectors but there are lots of more traditional prefab homes out there if you've never built your own home a prefab is a much less daunting option because of the the greater certainty around the costs not to mention the excitement of delivery day that being said you still need to find an affordable lot that is to build on and has access to full Services I mean that part is no different from building a traditional home however you will have to compromise on being able to come up with your your own design but you'll end up with a great product at a definitely an affordable price I get calls all the time from people looking to you buy homes around the Hillsburg area about Sonoma Windsor and across Sonoma County at large so do reach out to me if you are looking at buying or building a home in Sonoma County or if you'd just like to know more information my number's in the description below if you enjoyed this video I'm sure you'll love the next one on screen right thanks for watching until the next video go well [Music] thank you