"Modular?" I don't think so!

[Nancy in Friday Harbor]

Hi All,

Great thread. Points up, once again, the difficulty in differentiating betwen some manufactured and modular homes. In Washington State, the Dept. of Labor & Industries regulates all "Factory Assembled Housing". Both manufactured & modular have red HUD tags on them here. Did a two story Timberland modular (looks like a classic turn of the century farmhouse) that had red HUD tags on all four sections---even the two that were up a story! Here, I would be remiss if I assumed that anything with a red tag was manufactured. I typically look for the label inside the house and check with the assessor's office for title elimination -- modulars never have a title, but manufactured do.

Cheers,

Nancy in sunny, but cold (for us) Friday Harbor

 

[Nancy in Friday Harbor]

Oops, actually, they are red Dept of L&I labels -- same as HUD, but specific to Washington State.

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Kathy, your post reminded me of a question I have for appraisers all over the country. Marshall & Swift (and several other people) refer to dual tag homes. A home that is constructed to HUD building code and a site built building code like UBC or CABO or BOAC. I have talked to several manufacturers and they have never heard of such a thing. I am curious if any one is aware of any home that meets both codes and has two labels, one for HUD and one for the applicable site built code. Also I can't understand why such an animal would exist. If it was constructed in the factory to meet a site built code, nobody would want any reference to HUD code because of all the red flags and problems that could cause some lenders. So if anyone has every seen two building code labels on one home--please let me know!

By the way Kathy have you seen the two story HUD code manufactured homes in Seattle? With 18" between the two stories to accomodate the steel undercarrage of each unit. I am trying to figure out how the appraiser can photograph and note the HUD labels on the second story! From the description of your modular, I thought you were describing one of those until you said it had the Washington state label. I have seen photographs and read several articles about them and they do look like an old two story farm house.

 

[Rich Heyn]

Jo Ann:

Yes, dual compliant homes exist and I have seen them. I'm really not sure as to why someone would bother; I suppose it has something to do with situations like you have in your area relative to zoning. They are pretty rare.

There is also another animal of a similar nature. For a short time in the late 70's and early 80's HUD had a special dispensation program that waived the requirement for a permanent chassis. What you ended up with was a HUD code home with 2x10 floor joist system. The one's that I have seen looked more like a midwestern modular (drywall, wood windows, better quality cabinets and fixtures, 8' sidewalls and 5/12 pitch roof) than a typical HUD code house.

The two story homes in the Seattle area are in a neighborhood called Noji Gardens. I toured one last summer and took some photos that will be in the on-line version of the mfg. housing seminar I'm developing for the AI. I think there may be one or two images of them on the MHI website.

Gotta go; embarking on a three day drive from sunny FL keys back to cold MI. I'll try to check in on the way.

Rich Heyn