Factory built Homes anyone? (Knoxville, Sevierville: fit in, for sale, real estate)

[LLuce]

My husband and I are going to be moving within the next year to 18 months to East Tennessee. We have made a couple trips over with another upcoming trip the first weekend in November to look around some more. Our problem is actually finding exactly what we are looking for in a home and property. So we are also considering a factory built home and buying some property. I am having problems finding what factory built home is a good sound one, that is over in the TN/ NC area. I have read a lot of information on them on the internet but haven't spoke to anyone over there that can recommend a couple reputable factory built home builders.
I know there is a dealer of a few different ones in Madisonville, TN and we might check there as a starting point. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[DubbleT]

Tennessee Modular Homes Building Directory
The only one on the list I have been to see was Clayton homes. Took my ex with me since he's a subcontractor. He went over a couple of the model homes inside and out, and underneath too. He was impressed with the framing, and said that the homes were much more solid and nicer than he expected.
Decided not to build after all, for unrelated reasons, so didn't get much chance to look at anything other than the one manufacturer.

[LLuce]

Thank you DubbleT for the link and your input. I will take a look at the Clayton Homes. I have heard the name but nothing about them. I wonder if there is a website with ratings of different modular homes?

[dixierambler]

What you are looking for is known as a modular home. And as far as I know, there are no true "modular home" builders in this area. Oh sure, there are some mobile home manufacturers that build what THEY refer to a modular homes, but they are really just mobile homes with different floor framing. If you want a TRUE modular home, one that you cannot tell the difference between it and a stick built home, you will have to locate a builder in another area that delivers here. Wish I had some to recommend, but if you Google modular homes, I'm sure you will have plenty to choose from. Just be sure to separate mobile home builders from modular builders. Clayton builds mobile homes and THEIR version of a modular home.

[LLuce]

dixierambler that is exactly what we are looking for. A true modular home that can be mistaken as a stick built home. We don't want anything that looks like a mobile home. I understand there are these builders in North Carolina. We have a very nice factory built home outfit in Wisconsin that has several other locations in Iowa etc. but nothing as far south or east.

[RS-1080]

Modular home, mobile home, or trailer, either way they'll get blown off the map in a storm, while the neighbors house stands tall. I've lived in 'em both during storms and my old house was over 100 years old and the ten years that I owned it, it stood a few real hard winds. Like a fool, I wanted a farm since I was raised on a large one, and sold the old house after it was paid for to buy land. I bought the land, but couldn't afford to build a house without going deep into dept again, so I ordered a modular home, had it set-up, then I ran all the electric, water and septic myself to save lots of money. It all worked out, but when the wind blows hard.... you can feel the place around you in a way that'll make you head for proper shelter. I never felt my old house give or popping in a high wind. Yes, a direct hit will take out even the best built houses, but a modular home does not have to take a direct hit to come apart.

[LYoda]

Clayton is the main one you hear about in Eastern Tn. Not sure where you're looking to live, but here is a site for homes built in Seymour, TN. They are real nice homes - my sister toured them. Eagle Creek Landing - Sevierville Tennessee Homes for Sale - Century 21 AAIM Real Estate- Jeff Linginfelter (http://jefflinginfelter4.point2agent.com/ - broken link)

[DubbleT]

LLuce, just to say that Clayton does offer modular/system built homes in addition to their mobile homes. Nothing fancy or complicated in this area, but at the time we looked they did offer a few cape cod models and a two story cottage along with their other typical homes. Higher pitched roof lines, dormers, porches, etc. If you are looking for something a bit fancier Clayton probably isn't the way to go. The houses in the link LYoda provided are about the usual for Clayton.

Modular homes are not common here in TN and many people think they are one and the same as a mobile home, so you may run into a lot of confusion over the issue. You'll probably run into that with banks and insurance agents too. Nearly everyone assumed I meant a mobile home when I asked about about building a modular home and I had to explain it more than once. Heck, it might be easier to just not use the word modular and call it something else instead.
Make sure you do your homework on how to tell the difference between the two with a visual inspection, as we found at least one Clayton employee who didn't know the difference either. ( We gave him the benefit of the doubt and decided he must have been new to the job, lol)

We had a hard time finding places to view modular homes too. We only found a handful of places in TN, none at all in west TN, a couple in middle TN, and the rest were in east TN. One lot we went to didn't have any modular homes in stock to look at and the other lot had only three homes. The dealers we visited also had the modular homes and the mobile homes on the same lot.
Interestingly the salesman we finally wound up with told us that for a price they could make a custom, modular version of any mobile home on the lot and encouraged us to look at several mobile homes too. I halfway think that might have been a sales tactic just to get us to look at their mobile homes (a mobile home version of bait and switch?) but who knows? I do know that several of the salespeople were very surprised at how adamant I was about not wanting to even consider buying a mobile home. I think I may have hurt some feelings over it.

One last thing that probably won't affect you at all, but which tickled me is that there were several homes with signs up saying "reduced, end of year closeout special." We asked the salesman and he told us every year they sell off some of last years models to make room for this years, just like a car lot. For some reason that struck me as funny, selling houses like cars.

Good luck with your search.

[hiknapster]

Modular homes have to be permanently affixed to a foundation. They are made in the factory and are considered to be more sturdy than a stick-built home due to many factors which include not being out in the elements while most of it is built. There is a huge stigma about them, though, because they are often lumped together with mobile homes, which they are not.

After Hurricane Andrew, it was found that modular and masonry homes held up better than stick-built.
FEMA Library - Mitigation Assessment Team Report: Hurricane Andrew in Florida

[LLuce]

Lyoda Thanks for the link to the subdivision in Sevierville. But hubby and I are not real keen on living in another subdivision. We were hoping to live a little further apart from other houses. Not isolated, but just not stacked one next to the other. We did go in some modular homes in a subdivision called Stonebrook in Lenoir City when we were down there in July. They were beautiful homes and did not look ANYTHING like a mobile home. These might be the same manufacturer, they look similar.

I seen in a reply you made to Singagirl that you live in Seymour. We have not been around that area yet, but we are considering all areas around Knoxville. How far are you from a main town where there is shopping like Lowes, Home Depot, WalMart, etc? How big is Seymour?

DubbleT, I think that not being able to find any models or factories to tour will be our problem. It's like buying a car sight unseen, nobody wants to do that either! At this point we are checking prices of these kinds of homes if we can just in case we can't find our "dream home" already situated someplace. We are amazed at the subdivisions that they are doing over there where they have cut all the trees down and leaving these big empty looking subdivisions....looks just like Illinois. If I'm going to live in Tennessee I want it too look as natural as possible. So finding an established neighborhood with the perfect house would be better for us, but if we can't find it then it will be land and a modular.

hiknapster, you must have read the same information I've read on modular. Sure you didn't write it? LOL!