Think back to when you first had an idea about the house you wanted for your future self. Was it large, spacious, with every amenity you could think of (and maybe a puppy or two)? What about now? Have you been able to find the perfect home, or are you still on the lookout? How has your budget been affected by all the many changes in the world in recent times? Is paying high rent no longer a feasible option for you? Are you searching for energy-conscious housing options?
Well, manufactured housing may be the future of housing for you!
The housing industry is quickly gravitating towards a huge growth in interest & investment in modular and manufactured homes. One of the biggest innovations within the housing market in the last few years is the introduction of digital home shopping. You can now order your ENTIRE HOME ONLINE! Yes, you can order manufactured homes from Amazon, supplied by third-party vendors! A future isn’t far where Amazon might sell its own branded manufactured home. The latest modular homes are not only modern but sustainable as well, sometimes coming with built-in technology, which has grown demand for them to an all-time high!
Reinventing the process of building a home
Up till now, homes have had to be built gradually, first setting in the foundation and then building every part of the house around it. However, with significant technological advances in the housing industry, manufactured homes can be built simultaneously on site (the foundation, the base, and the bedrock), while the housing unit is built in a factory. This saves a lot of time, money, and effort while giving the client hundreds of customization options. Builders also have more control over how they create a housing unit since everything is agreed upon before they even start – based on the models they create.
Instead of planning endless meetings, with a number of different opinions voiced throughout the process, modern manufacturing can automate the entire process within a factory, and create designs virtually using 3D-based design modeling. Builders can interact with the technology they use, cutting down the need for materials that do not fit within the processes’ framework. Individual housing components like flooring, walls, roofs, and more can be machine coded with RFID technology so that they can be scanned and put to use in a matter of seconds.
From the trailer park era to community housing solutions
For years the mobile/manufactured home community has been predominantly associated with trailer park communities. These communities are often categorized as low-income areas meant for people earning poor wages. For a lot of people, mobile homes were a necessity, a low-cost housing solution. Most of these people wouldn’t even own the land on which their home was dropped. However, with the advent of modern manufactured homes, mobile housing is seeing a community-based renaissance, since they can be built for cheap on an extremely fast time scale.
The modern ideation of ‘plug and play’ housing, wherein entire vertical buildings can have smaller units strategically built into the larger building. This will enable to the creation of more holistic and connected communities, through increased accessibility and efficient flexibility. Communities will be able to easily add or remove commercial housing units based on the communities’ needs. You can also get stationary travel trailer insurance with low and affordable premiums to protect your home from any theft or damage.
Energy efficiency & sustainability
Revolutionizing the process of home manufacturing had another salient effect: housing units (and communities) can now be built with an eye on energy efficiency. These units can be produced with net zero energy, net zero carbon, and net zero water concepts, in order to be as environmentally conscious as possible. This has led to a spike in interest in modular homes since they offer ecologically conscious consumers an alternative to the traditional house model.
Builders can also incorporate green solutions, like terrace gardens, recycled water, and solar panels into each apartment, on request or as a part of the deal. The prefabrication of modular and manufactured homes also helps lessen the environmental impact of construction in a community, since a lot of dust/debris/raw materials will be taken care of in the factory. At scale, a lot of prefab housing solutions will even offer people the ability to achieve net zero energy without accruing incremental costs, which will also save them money in the long run.
Traditional homeownership meets technology
As the population grows, so will our need for housing. As more and more people get into the market for new houses, the amount of land available will continue to decline. This will lead to even more housing crises, compounding on the problems that already exist post-pandemic. Through the use of advanced technology such as 3D Printing, customization apps, 360-degree virtual designing tools, and state-of-the-art building materials, constructing a home depends a lot more on digital technology. Becoming a homeowner has, as a result, become easier, and access to homeownership has entered the digital realm. Consider that a modern solution to drywall, LG HI-MACS (acrylic solid surface), costs half what drywall does while reducing the need for upkeep.
Unlike mobile homes of the past, these manufactured homes are crafted with precise technology, and the market for these homes is only growing. By creating factories to craft housing units, giving users the option to customize, and cutting costs to a third of what they were, people can own a home customized (with the click of a few buttons) to their preference, at a price that makes it as cheap as paying rent. Through this system, potential homeowners will find that they are buying into a service proposition over the traditional home-owning process. This service strategically blends the best that technology has to offer with the everyday needs of a population, giving them the ability to own property at an affordable rate of investment.
