Zillow Doesn’t Know Jack About Modular Housing

Careful Zillow, you’re West Coast is showing.

Zillow, the huge website devoted to home buying with listings in every state looked at the entire modular home industry and declared the
shipping container to be the perfect example of what a modular home should be.

Catherine Sherman, the author of this article, obviously has
never traveled beyond the 3 states of California,
Oregon and Washington. If she had she would have found
that the West Coast modular is a minority of the total modular housing in the US. Not
everyone wants to live in a shipping container.

Her article is limited to just two factories. One has
limited floorplans and the houses all look like Lego designed shoeboxes. She
offers us Meka Inc as an example of “Affordable” modular housing. This may be
affordable in certain parts of the west but $300-600 a sq ft finished is not
affordable in most other areas of the US.

Quoted from the article: 

MEKA Inc., a global
modular home builder, offers six models ranging from 320 square feet to 1,920
square feet. Pricing in the U.S.
starts at $61,500 for the smallest model and goes up to about $200,000 for the
bigger models. Kitchen appliances are not included, and the buyer is
responsible for the costs of the foundation, roof finishing and assembly. But
according to MEKA CEO Michael de Jong, they are still more affordable than most
alternatives.

Plus, modular homes offer flexibility that traditional homes
don’t have. MEKA’s homes are built to fit in a shipping container so they can
be transported virtually anywhere. Assembly takes only a day, and it’s possible
to move the homes after they’ve been assembled.

 “Like Legos, you also undo it and move your home,” de Jong
explained.

 While modular homes typically don’t have the architectural
complexity of some home styles, de Jong says simple lines can be attractive if
you make some modifications so the home doesn’t look like a container.

Please make her stop!

She also mentions Clayton
Homes as the largest
manufacturer of modular homes. I’m sure Uncle Si would agree with that. If
Walmart ever decides to sell “modular” homes, Clayton will create a Duck
Dynasty brand featuring double wide “modular” homes. Walmart would offer to sell the homes and quickly ship one to China where they would duplicate it for a lower price and then dump Clayton to the curb.

If the Zillow folks would ever take a look at what is
actually listed on their site, they would be surprised how many of the
traditional homes across the US
are modular and they don’t look like shoeboxes. If they want to define a type
of home, please have a reporter do her research instead of just calling on a “global”
insignificant prefab builder like Meka.

CLICK HERE to read the entire article.