What is a Pre-Built home?
A Pre-Built home, also called a Modular Home and officially known in California as "Factory Built Housing", is built in a factory to the same state and local building codes as homes built on- site. The home is then carried in sections by special trucks to the building site where a crane places it on the foundation and a licensed contrator puts it together.
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What is the difference between Laurel Creek, Genesis, Barvista, and your custom Modular and SmartPanel homes?
Genesis Homes offers our best value for the price, while still offering attractive exteriors and many customizable features inside the home. Genesis has several floorplans to choose from (view), including 1,500 sq. ft. homes for urban lots to 5,000 sq. ft ranch homes.
Barvista Homes is a semi-custom builders with custom flexibility and excellent value. They provide some design customization as well as having available specifications that exceed Genesis Homes, and are comparable with those used by a semi-custom stick-builder. While they cost more than Genesis, you get a higher standard specification. Barvista homes are built in lower production facilities which build less homes per year, which ensures that more time is spent ensuring higher quality control standards in your home.
Our custom modular home factory (view) can build to any size or layout of the modules, and to virtually any specification. We have a dedicated design and engineering team that pushes plans through the process quickly. If the factory cannot complete a necessary option or specification that you would like, the contractor can complete it on-site. It is helpful to begin working with us to design your custom modular home before doing conceptual plans as stick-built plans will need to be modified somewhat to maintain efficiency in transportation and to simplify setting the modules on top of the foundation.
For detailed pricing, Contact Cutting Edge Homes.
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How long does it take to build a modular home?
A modular home is usually completed in half the time it takes to build a home on site. Under normal market conditions, it usually takes a factory six to eight weeks to construct a modular home, which is done concurrently with the completion of the foundation by the contractor at the jobsite. After the home is delivered, it usually takes a skilled set-crew another six to twelve weeks to set and attach the modular sections, connect the utilities, and to complete all of the miscellaneous finishing work. Most projects that don't involve complex engineering and site-work can be completed within 4-6 months of receiving the building permit.
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What areas do you service?
Our market area is currently focused on the entire state of California exclusively. We do not service other states at this time unless you have a large development in either Arizona, Nevada, or Oregon. We have three offices statewide, in San Diego, Corona, and Trinity County to serve our clients. Most of the work that we do is done by email, telephone, and fax, so location is not important except when we do a route survey at your lot and when we deliver the home. In areas that we do not have an available general contractor, we will find, train, and work with a new local contractor to do the on-site work.
We are confident that we can compete with any local retailer of modular or Smart Panel homes on price, and our services are more thorough and customized than our competition in California. We work under an "Open-Source" philosophy: Give your clients all of the information you have, tell them exactly how your competition operates and what the alternative options are, how your prices compare, and work hard every moment to ensure that your client gets the best home and work on his/her site at the lowest possible price. We fully disclose all the information we have about ourselves, the industry, and our competition because we are confident you will choose us when you have all of the facts.
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What is your experience and certification to be selling these homes?
Cutting Edge Homes Inc. was founded in 2004 when our principals were looking for a more affordable way to build residential homes. After several years of developing, we wanted to speed up the construction process and reduce unknowns without sacrificing quality. Since 2004, we have been one of several companies focused on the regional distribution of modular homes in California, with a focus on the more custom buyer.
All full time staff members of our company hold a certification from the Modular Housing Training Institute, an industry training and certification program that sets a best-practice benchmark for the building and setting of modular homes. Although our staff members are focused on the planning phase through ordering, delivery, and service coordination of modular homes, we cross-train to ensure a fundamental understanding of all phases of modular construction.
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Are there model homes that I can visit?
We have model homes throughout the state that are available to be seen by appointment. We can also provide you with the locations of homes already built and will be happy to provide references. You are welcome to visit one of factories where the homes are built, and you could qualify for a $500 rebate off the price of your new home.
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"Factory Built Housing Law" and other state laws make it illegal to discriminate against housing based on whether it was constructed on-site or off-site. Local zoning ordinances will provide guidance as to where a single-family residence may be placed, but cannot discriminate against any of our homes versus site-built homes. The law allows for local input for an architectural and design review, as well as design loads.
For more information, please click on this link.
Our factories will be happy to accommodate any concerns that the local building department has, and we often encounter building department officials that have no idea what the law is. A Cutting Edge Homes representative will contact the building department to clear up any concerns, and if there are any misunderstandings we will have the California Department of Housing and Community Development contact your local building department to inform them of their responsibilities. Regardless of what an individual at the building department may say, the stringent California state law preempts local building department permitting requirements. You will not be required to go through a complete engineering "Plan-Check" that similar site-built homes must go through or pay engineering "Plan-Check" fees, because the state of California has already performed the "Plan-Check" function during the approval process for your home.
Important Notes *** If you do a custom modular home or a customized version through Barvista or our custom factory, you will have to go through a state-level review of the engineering of the home. This process negates any time efficiency in the permitting process versus stick-built construction. You will still get major efficiencies in the construction process, but our experience has been that the permitting time frame is not shortened if you go through the state process and then through the local process, even if the local engineering plan-check is bypassed.
Since Pre-Built homes are constructed to the same building codes as site-built homes,
you can get the same lender financing as you would for the construction of a site-built home.
Other types of homes built in a factory, such as manufactured homes, generally have less favorable
financing options because of high foreclosure rates that Fannie Mae has encountered.
It is preferable to use a lender who understands the financing of modular homes built to
UBC code to ensure that the project is funded appropriately. We have several lenders who
will lend on your home project at the market rates for site-built construction, with no
added fees. Financing up to 100% is available. You can fill out our contact form and we will put you in touch with one of our lending
specialists, or call (800) 737-7751.
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What about the resale value of a Pre-Built home?
Since a Pre-Built home is built to meet or exceed the same standards as a home built on site, it should appreciate at the same rate as a comparable site built home. Unlike manufactured or mobile homes, a seller of a Pre-Built home does not have to keep a state or federal insignia on the home stating that it was built in a factory. The national appraiser's guideline does not have a designation for a Pre-Built modular home versus a site-built home. Each are just permanent homes. The state of California considers a Pre-Built home, known legally as "Factory Built Housing," to be fundamentally the same as a home built on site. The legal department at the California Department of Real Estate (DRE) has said that if their lawyers were real estate agents in the field, they would not disclose that a home was built using modular construction methods at resale, because you only disclose negative items. A modular home is simply a "Single Family Residence." Future sales of the developed property will be registered as fee-simple real estate. From a legal standpoint, the only difference between modular construction and stick-built construction is during the construction phase. At completion, each construction method renders an equal home from a legal, regulatory, insurance, and appraisal standpoint.
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Genesis, Barvista, and the Custom Home collection for examples. A home built on a more modest budget will look like a stick-built home built on a modest budget, and a home built on a large budget will look like a custom stick-built home.
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How much do Pre-Built homes cost?
Our Pre-Built homes retail from between $65 - 150+ a square foot delivered, depending on the brand, model, and features. Site work, upgrades and options will be additional. Pre-Built homes generally cost 5% to 20% less than a comparable finished home built on-site in a urban or suburban area of California. In some rural areas, stick-built homes are so inexpensive to build that the prices may be comparable.
While our homes are normally less expensive than site-built homes, the homes will not be as cheap as a manufactured or mobile homes, as our quality standards are much higher. We typically tell our clients that if they can't afford $115-130 a square foot for their individual project, they probably cannot afford our most value conscious Pre-Built homes. Because there is no difference in appraisal guidelines or a required disclosure, there is no good reason that a modular home has to be less expensive than a site-built home. It often is especially in the more expensive areas closer to cities.
It is the industry standard not to publish detailed pricing on the web. If you would like to find out more about the pricing for our homes, Contact Us.
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Can I custom design my own Pre-Built home?
We work with a custom modular home factory that can design any style of home that you desire. We can adapt existing plans or work with our architects to design your dream home. We have loads of experience working with client's and their architects to design and engineer a custom modular home that is efficient, practical, and looks like it is a custom site-built home. Barvista Homes allows for plenty of customization of their plans, depending on what fits your budget. Genesis Homes does not customize its plans, and only allows standard floor-plan options like switching in a set of french doors for two windows.
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We offer comprehensive training to the factory certified set-up contractors that we work with so that they understand how to properly install our Pre-Built homes on your lot. Before we train them and they work on several modular home sets, a typical site-built General Contractor does not have the knowledge, skill, or understanding of the "Factory Built Housing Law" to place our homes in a cost-effective manner. For this reason, the factory requires that all homes are set by experienced, licensed set-up crews.
Cutting Edge Homes does not act as a General Contractor on your project so that we can focus on helping you find the perfect home for your family without concern for how much we would make off of the construction of a particular floor-plan. Other competition have a vested interest in your using particular manufacturers because it will mean more profits for their construction business. We do a large volume of homes and want you to pick the the perfect home for you, regardless of the manufacturer. We plug you into the process and know-how so that you can get the best prices from lenders, contractors, and real estate agents, and so you navigate the building permit process as quickly as is possible in California.
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Do I need a general contractor?
You do not necessarily need one, but most people find it smart to use one because of the complexities of the building industry in California. Imagine the amount of technical details, state laws, and local codes in any high-tech industry. Would it make sense to try to build your own computer from raw materials yourself, or to hire a company to manage the process of getting all of the components and assembling them in a professional way? Building a long-lasting home is much more complicated than building a computer from scratch. If you have a typical full-time job, it will be very difficult to find the time to manage your project as an owner-builder. There are very few cost efficiencies in contracting a job yourself because it will go slower and you will pay higher subcontractor bid prices than if you were a regular general contrator. You will also make more costly mistakes than a good contractor. If you are a contractor or developer with experience, it may make sense for you to contract the job yourself and have us provide the home delivered. We can introduce you to a certified set-up contractor that will work directly with you to provide the installation of the home.
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What is included with my Pre-Built home purchase?
The Cutting Edge Homes proposal for you home includes the home, options and features that you select, delivery to your site, and applicable state sales taxes on the base price. Additional costs which are paid to our local contractors include site-related plans and engineering, grading, utilities, foundation, garage, driveway, decking, landscaping, set-up, and any other jobs that are required based on your needs or your site requirements. Permits and fees are paid to your local municipality and the state of California. All on-site construction costs will be bid directly with you by a licensed California contractor outside of the scope of our contract.
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Is a warranty included with my Pre-Built home purchase?
All of our homes come with a 7-10 year structural coverage and a one or two year system's coverage from the Residential Warranty Company or a comparable warranty insurer, depending on the brand you choose.
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Can Cutting Edge Homes help me find land to put my Pre-Built house on?
We work with a network of of experienced real estate professionals, including Tri-Coast Realty in San Diego, (619) 667-3377. If you are in another in part of California, contact us for a referral.
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What is the cost of a particular model?
Please contact us for more information on the pricing of a specific model.
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Watch a video (Real Player) that explains Off-Site, modular construction.
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