Kit Home Blues

[mutigerfan]

Subject is a Kit Home.
It was site-built.
Nothing was pre-fab.

According to my Manufacturing Housing class I took a year ago - Kit Homes are considered under the Manufacture Home umbrella (or I am I wrong?)

For more info - It is a Wick Home. The truck pulled up and the home was in the trailer. It contained everything from the roof, cabinets, wiring to the kitchen sink. Some even provided the tools to build.
Once again, nothing was pre-fab.
Quality varied with each package type one purchased.

The home is in good quality and has been maintained adequately.
I inspected this thing really closely and could not find any signs it was a atypical. The only difference is that the materials were there all at once - instead of multiple trips to the lumber yard.

BTW - nothing in MLS, in regard to Kit Homes.
Actual Age: 25 yrs.
Effective Age: 10-14 yrs.

If the owner would not have told me it was Wick Home, I never would have noticed it. - Never had this situation, besides the normal explanation, what would you do ....?
So if its under the MH umbrella, is it necessary I compare it to MH's?

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

I've never come across one. Doesn't sound anything like a mobile home.

 

[Mark K]

If it walks like a duck, quacks....

You get the idea. If its built like a house and looks like a house...

There's no reason to consider it a MH. It was stick-built on-site. If you call it a MH, you might as well call them all MH.

Now if its built as pole construction with steel siding, residential dwelling or not, that's a horse of a different color. Finishing out the interior of a pole barn into living space puts it into its own category, imo.

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Kit or panelized homes are NOT manufactured or modular homes. They are site built homes. The only difference between them and a home stick built on site home is where the wood was cut and some boards fastened together. With a kit built home everything is cut precisely at a factory protected from the weather. Then depending on what the home owner wants, some parts are connected. Every thing is then packed up in a specific order and shipped to the home site. On the site the pieces are unpacked in a specific order and assembled. The materials have limited exposure to the weather because the homes go together quickly. The workmen doing the assembly don't have to cut a board three times and still be too short like they do on a stick by stick built home or have more materials delivered because somebody forgot to order 2" x 4"s. A home owner can order the kit in any configuration they want, all individual pieces to the manufacturer sending a crew and assembling it completely on site down to the carpet.

There are not any home builder's in Greenlee County, aren't any building codes either. So Jim Walter homes are very popular there. That is a kit builder that was around for many, many years. One way of identifying a Jim Walter's home is the dimensions. The walls will be exactly increments of 2' or 4' feet. An individually built on site home might have a wall 24.1' or 23.9'; a Jim Walter's home will have a 24' wall exactly because of the factory precision and protection from the elements.

Their quality can be any where from a Q5 to a Q1 depending on what the homeowner wanted to pay. They have to meet what ever building codes and zoning are applicable for the site.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

What JoAnn said.

This is a "kit" home - came one 3 semi's, assembled, bricked, and the garage was site built.

 

[CANative]

Agree with JoAnn. I've done several kit homes including the cedar log homes from kits. I've also done several proposed construction jobs where these type of kit homes were involved.

Appraise them like any other house. Fannie and Freddie consider them the same as other on-site, conventional construction.

 

[Ray Christ]

FYI - WICK homes makes or did make manufactured homes (HUD CODE), modular homes (UDC CODE) and kit homes (UDC CODE)

 

[sail143]

I have appraised homes by a developer with a factory where they construct the panels for specific models. This allows for quick erection of the structure but the interior is basically stick built with custom detailing. In another instance, the only difference I noted in a two-story, four section modular was the double width interior center wall.

 

[Joe Flacco]

Can one of these "kit" homes be put together by one person?

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Very difficult because there needs to be a body at the other end of the board. Quite frequently kit homes are constructed by the entire family (with members of all ages) and any neighbors and friends that volunteer. Since they come with detailed instructions the people working on the home just follow the instructions; fasten board A to board B then add board C on down the line.