Avalon Building Systems Blog

If you are thinking about building a home this spring, consider building a modular home. Modular homes are built faster and easier than traditionally built homes. But don’t be fooled, they are also built to higher standards and are up to date with all the local building codes.

Best of all, modular construction is also less expensive to build and to maintain than a traditionally built home when comparing apples to apples. There are many reasons for this:

1) Energy Efficiency:  Modular homes are green homes. Using SIP’s, Avalon’s modular homes easily exceed "Energy Star Standards" and are certified to be built to meet LEEDS platinum standards for new residential construction. This directly translates directly to high energy efficiency.

2) Less Material Waste:  In modular construction there is far less material waste which means lower material costs.  In stick-built construction the money spent on materials that are wasted is money lost.

3) Faster construction time:  Modular homes take just a couple of months to build. You’ll be living in your new modular home in no time.  Because of this, you will spend far less money on living expenses: paying for hotels or for two mortgages, paying for storage, and construction finance costs.  

With modular construction, you will get a better quality home faster, and for less money. Contact Avalon Building Systems for more information.

You want to build a new home, but the price is holding you back. Have you thought about cost? Cost is really the value proposition of your new home. Is the new home worth the price?

Well, what figures into price? The actual cost of course, the price of the building materials and labor. The time to build the home has to play into the cost for sure. Who want to pay for something they can’t live in for a year and will cause a lot of stress? What else figures into cost? The stress should figure in. Building a new home is stressful and time consuming and there are always hidden fees right? Wrong.

What about the price of a manufactured home or modular home? The price comes down quite a bit when you consider the entire value proposition.

The price of materials is less with modular home construction because there is no loss for weather, poor cutting, or materials stolen from the job site. The time it takes to build the home is dramatically less. A standard home takes about a year to build, a modular home take about 12 weeks! Thus reducing labor costs and the stress of the actual build time.

Building a modular home is dramatically less stressful because the costs remain constant and the time frame to build it is so much shorter. There are no hidden fees, no material cost increases.

Also the value of the home over time should figure into price of a manufactured home. Modular homes appreciate at the same rate or faster than a traditionally built home. Your resale value will be that of, or better than a traditionally built home.

Contact Avalon Building Systems for more information on building a modular home for less in less time.

You have decided that you want to build a new modular home. Now you are shopping for land, or perhaps you own the land already, your existing house is on it. Perhaps you’ve never liked where on the property your house sits, or you just want to change it up. Where should you build your new modular home on the property that you own?

When you first start thinking about this, you will most likely think about how you want your new home to look from the street, and how close you want to be to the neighbors. Your lot's location compared to the surrounding properties will affect your decision. If you have a corner lot, you may need to consider which street you want as your address, or where you would like the driveway.

You also should consider where the sun comes up and goes down in relation to the lot. In New England, taking advantage of natural sunlight in the winter can greatly reduce your heating bills. What you want to do with the yard once your modular home built is also important.

The shape, size, and slope, or grade, will play a big part in where you put your new home. Consider if you’ll need to use stairs to enter your home if you face the front door to the east? If you put the house in below the hill, what do you do when it rains?

Other factors include trees and open spaces, and existing stone walls and driveways.

At Avalon Building Systems we can help you consider your lot and where to build. Building a new home is exciting; we don’t want you to get stressed trying to make all the decisions alone. We are experienced at building homes and at looking at land. Let us help, there may be interesting facets to your property that can be accentuated in the construction process.

Right now with mortgage rates staying so low, you may be thinking about buying a new home. However, that means getting your own home ready to sell. Have you thought about building a new home? New construction is exciting, you can build the rooms you need, where you want them.

Building your dream home may seem more challenging than buying a home, but the rewards are plenty.

When you buy a new home you are also buying the problems and design of that house. Your new modular home can be customized to meet the needs of your family. You can feel free to add an exercise room, a home office, or surround sound. But best yet, down the line, your home may be more resalable because of the modern customizations.
 
Building a modular home takes far less time than building a traditional home. So,  keep in mind, the building process of a modular home could be shorter than the new home buying process in today’s housing market in New England.
 
Contact Avalon Building Systems if you are interested in a new home.

One of the most common questions asked to bankers, builders and realtors regarding modular homes pertains to their resale value. “When I sell my modular home, will it sell for the same price as a stick built home that is comparable?”

Many people wonder about the resale value of a modular home. Oftentimes however, your profit will be higher, provided you have maintained and cared for your home, because modular homes cost about 10-15% less to build. Modular homes are appraised to the same standards as a site built home, so both types of homes are assessed at the same amount.

So now that this question has been answered, let’s point out some of the other benefits of modular homes. They are built much faster; in approximately 10 to 12 weeks from the day you decide to build a modular home is when you will get the keys to move in. The modules are built in a factory and delivered to your building site. From that day the process takes about 3-6 weeks to complete.

However, these benefits above are not the best part of building a modular home. Talk to anyone who has built a traditionally constructed home and they will tell you that it cost far more than they had initially planned. When building a modular home, your budget is solid. The pricing is guaranteed, unless you make a change in the building process. When you decide on a floor plan, the cost of building that home can be priced to the dollar. At Avalon there are no surprising material costs or labor costs. That is the biggest advantage to building a modular home.