The Difference Between A Modular Home VS Manufactured Home

Manufactured and Modular homes can be very similar in appearance, but very different underneath 

The terms Manufactured Home & Modular Home are many times interchangeably used, but in reality it is the code the home is built by and how the foundation is made. Choices in either type of structure can have an effect on the location the home is placed (such as a city lot), the finance options (Modular title can be merged with land as real property), the tax implications (depreciation), future value and salability, etc.

What is a Manufactured Home?

A manufactured home is any home factory-built in the U.S. to the HUD Title 6 construction standards (commonly known as ‘the HUD-code’). The HUD-code took effect June 15, 1976.  (A mobile home is a factory-built home that is built before June 15, 1976, and not built to a uniform construction code.) This is confusing, as many people commonly say they live in or want a mobile home. This term needs to used exclusively for homes not built to the much higher standards now enforced upon "today's" manufactured homes!

A HUD-coded home built after 1976 will display documentation called the Certification Label and the Data Plate. The red Certification Label (sometimes called the HUD Label) can be located on the tail end of each transportable section of the home. The Data Plate will be located inside of the home. Regulation states that the Data Plate be affixed inside the home on or near the main electrical breaker box, or other readily visible/accessible location. These documents are extremely important; as per the HUD Title 6 regulation removal is illegal. Removal could hinder the buying, selling, financing, or insuring of a manufactured home; they are not replaceable. The data plate is pictured here!

A manufactured home is built on a permanent chassis to ensure transportability. However, typically a manufactured home is not moved from its initial installed site. It is set on concreted piers, strapped down in concrete, axels and wheels removed along with the pulling tung used during transportation to the lot. 

What is a Modular Home?

A modular home is any home factory-built to a local state code. In some cases, a state may have adopted one of the uniform construction codes (i.e. UBC, IRC, etc.). Modular homes will not have the red Certification Label, but will have a label attached to the home stating the code it was built to. 

A modular home can be built as an “on-frame” or “off-frame” modular. On-frame will be built on a permanent chassis, whereas, the off-frame modular will be built with the removal of the chassis frame at location. An off-frame modular will usually require additional cranes to assist with home placement on a solid brick type perimeter or even set on and over a basement. Modular homes are, more often than not, attached to private land, and then classified as real property, or permanent to the land. They also qualify for most all traditional financing. Some will say; an on frame modular home attached to a permaninat foundation could be a little more secure, but others will say an off frame attached to a permaninat foundation is just as strong. The main reason for having an off frame modular set, would be it truly not movable, and may even appreciate more in value.

Brett Swearingen