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Modular Homes for Under $50k

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171–180 of 343 posts

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#171

This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?

Since they're very up front about referring to them as Accessory Dwelling units, the primary market is likely people who want to quickly put an ADU in place alongside a traditional single-family home for extra living space or rental income. About one-third of the cost of new multifamily development is typically tied up in zoning/permitting/planning processes. Against that backdrop, ADUs -- particularly if the city pr…

'Accessory Dwelling Unit' is the most depressing way to talk about a home I've ever heard.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#173
post #78
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is yet another tech 'solution' in search of a problem. And that problem is political, not technical. And the problem they search for has been solved half a century ago — the modern highrise apartment building.

But that would mean you wouldn’t be able to use cars and a public transportation system would have to be built.

That's good. But if you did want cars - that's totally doable. You build the garages in lower floors / underground and the apartments higher up. There's lots of buildings like that in central Melbourne for example.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#174

I will not comment on the business, just the website. It is bad (not quite terrible). It is actually responsive, but it came from some cheap template. I am not sure why is that. Does agencies charge way too much for their work, so they didn't want to pay 150K for website, but spent 150 instead. There should be a room in-between for this.

You judge websites based on how expensive they are?

Not how expensive they are but how much budget you spend on making them. You have to spend money to make good website.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#176
post #146
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you quoting prices including the cost of the land? Around here there's plenty of new construction being sold at well under $200/sq. ft., and even a fair amount at or under $150 / sq. ft. This is even when you include the price of the land.

Construction prices should not be assumed to be standardized, comparable or equivalent between locations.

agreed - many medium cost places in central NC are still under $200/sqft for new builds, including the land. It's typically a smaller lot than, say, 3-4 years ago, and the construction quality is (continually?) slipping, etc, but location is still a huge factor.

We were close to pulling the trigger with a builder last fall and it was going to be around $180/sqft, and it was a custom build, and included around .8 acre. Lumber and material spike through the winter here has put that on hold (and put a lot of their building on hold) and we might not be able to afford a revised price when things 'get back' to normal. We'd actually had plans sent to an engineering firm who came back and said "you have to redesign this, because some of the foundational materials aren't available, and won't be for at least 6 months". So we couldn't even get a final price had we wanted to, without revising the original plans, and... there was no guarantee that whatever the redesign included would be available at that point (possibly now it would - this was back in March/April?). We're basically in a holding pattern for a bit longer (as are some of the other customers they had lined up).

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#177
post #56
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I earnestly believe that an ADU (or anything, such as a car) on market provides an option. That is what I was trying to say. My original question was this: how does adding an ADU to the market hurt the lower class?

I don’t think providing an adu of What am I pointing out is how you phrased your statement like the lower class has other options than the cheapest option available, whether or not it’s sub standard. If you are unaware the mythological story around Marie Antoinette is that when she was told the peasantry could no longer afford bread responded with “let them eat cake” because she did not understand that going above th…

This is part of an ongoing attempt to create quality affordable housing - just as other products have done over time.

If the product weren’t there, the option wouldn’t be there - and your reasoning functionally favors driving down lower classes by denying them steps up.

No, there is not some grand capitalist conspiracy to subjugate multitudes into poverty to seize their paltry holdings. Capitalism raises the poor by giving them options that benefit both parties; the burgeoning ADU market seeks to give better homes to poor, which is a hard goal with limited (but existing!) incentives.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (wo)man 'Person' is the non-gendered word that goes here.

In old English man was gender neutral. Wer, as in werewolf, was the masculine. World comes from Wor-old, or literally, age of males.

We know. But language shifts.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#179

This house is 375 sq ft and uses low end materials, and it doesn't include setup, so it's going to cost ~$100k, or $266 / sq ft. Most new home construction is more like $150 / sq ft. And with this system, you're very limited in what you can build. Who's the target customer for this?

Looking at this primarily on a cost per square foot basis seems like the famous slashdot mistake of 2 decades ago of dismissing the iPod because it had less memory than a shitty competitor.

I mean, it's an ADU, designed to be small, but would basically have the same fixed costs (appliances, plumbing, electrical) of a house twice the size, and I'm sure the manufacturers could make a house twice the size with only a marginally increased cost. But keeping it small is obviously ideal for people with limited yard space who are using this as an ADU.

Re: Modular Homes for Under $50k

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admire your admiration of him, it's a sign you haven't reached the level of cynicism required to classify him in the 'snake oil salesman' category yet.

Snake oil salesmen do not send self landing rockets to the ISS. He may have a bit more hype and may be manipulative in some ways, but you have to admit that he has given a good amount of technological progress to the world. Would you think the big car companies would scramble for electric cars if not for Tesla?

SpaceX sent a self landing rocket to the ISS. CEOs matter, but Musk seems to consistently get more credit for his company's successes than other leaders. His reality distortion field that enables him to hire very strong engineers is his biggest boon.
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