custom home builder: Higher is the 2018 Word for Housing
- 05/29/18 03:10 AM
Housing is booming in the U.S. The economy is doing well and consumer confidence is growing. But, according to the National Association of Realtors, there is a housing shortage. As a country, we aren’t building enough homes to cover the need for homes for our growing population. Demand exceeds supply. Labor rates, oil prices, and lumber tariffs are in the news and all are impacting the affordability of your new home. Modular construction is the modern method of home building that offers the way forward in today’s environment of higher!
HIGHER INTEREST RATESIf you are purchasing a home and you need a mortgage to do … (0 comments)
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custom home builder: R-Value versus U-Value, Removing the Mystery
- 05/21/18 03:50 AM
When you start to think about building a custom home, most home buyer’s thoughts don’t drift towards designing for energy efficiency. They want tall ceilings, high roof pitches, and lots of windows. With today’s modern modular construction, you can have all of that and more. However, there may be a cost in terms of a home’s energy performance based on its design. That’s when you start to hear terms such as R-value and U-value. For most, these terms are confusing. What do they mean and why should they be important to you? Let’s demystify these two commonly used terms.
FIRST, IT’S ALL ABOUT … (1 comments)
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custom home builder: The Silent Relationship Killer...
- 05/07/18 04:13 AM
When you decide to build a home you aren’t just entering into a business transaction, you are actually initiating a long term relationship. When you embark on the journey to build a custom home you are about to enter into a long term relationship with your builder. A marriage counselor giving a seminar asked her audience what the biggest cause of divorce was. A participant’s hand shot up quickly to answer the question, “Sex, money, and communication!” That’s an obvious answer but not actually the right answer. It’s deeper than that. The same thing applies with the home buyer/home builder relationship.
THE … (5 comments)
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custom home builder: On the Path to a Zero Energy Home: Who Owns the Holes?
- 04/30/18 04:07 AM
Super-sealing a home’s building envelope is the single most cost-effective way to reduce heating and cooling energy use in a home. The building envelope is the physical separator between the interior and exterior of a home. Components of the envelope include: walls, floors, roofs, windows and doors. Air-sealing also improves comfort and indoor air quality. However, achieving a high level of air tightness requires more than just filling visible holes. High-performance homes have a continuous air barrier. The key word here is continuous. The secret to continuity is to reduce or eliminate penetrations (holes) in the envelope. But if you make … (1 comments)
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custom home builder: If You Build It(Using Modular Construction), They Will Come
- 04/23/18 03:46 AM
Off-site construction is taking off. Many prospective home buyers are discovering that having their home built indoors, in a controlled environment, provides a better home for them and their family. While there are several types of off-site construction, advances in modular construction in just the last few years has propelled it into the spotlight! The internet has become the best friend of the modular construction method. Now, more than ever before, home buyers believe it is important to know how their home is built. Google, Alexa, and Siri are teaming up to share the advantages of modular construction with curious home … (3 comments)
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custom home builder: Why Do I Need a Higher Credit Score for a Construction Loan?
- 04/16/18 03:55 AM
Banks are averse to risk. This means that when they loan money they typically want collateral to make sure that if they aren’t paid back that they have some type of asset that they can sell and attempt to recoup their losses. In some cases, it is the reputation of the borrower. If the collateral isn’t enough, then a borrower’s credit history of making regular and timely payments plays into the decision of making the loan. A construction loan is unique. A lender is loaning money on something that isn’t done or complete. The lack of a finished asset (house) means … (9 comments)
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custom home builder: A Production Home or a Custom Home: Which One is Right for You?
- 04/09/18 03:24 AM
Buying a new home is exciting. It’s fun looking at models, viewing home plans on all of the home plan sites, and checking out the latest styles and designs on HGTV or Houzz. All of this makes buying a home a thrilling experience as you explore the options that you have. Still, many home buyers don’t understand some of the basic differences in the home building industry. One of those that is most often misunderstood is: “What’s the difference between a production builder and a custom builder?” There is actually a huge difference between the two when it comes to determining what … (0 comments)
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custom home builder: Building a New Home versus Buying an Existing Home
- 04/02/18 03:52 AM
Let’s face it, building a new home takes effort. Buying an existing home is just plain easy. You look, you buy, you move in. Well… it’s not exactly that easy. Today’s housing market is tough. Home inventories are the lowest they have been in years. With interest rates rising and the low inventories, good existing homes are hard to find. The best homes sell fast creating a pricing competition in some areas. Your other option is to build a house of your own. In today’s market, the cost of building a house is comparable to buying an existing home.
THE EXISTING HOME MARKETBuying an existing home … (1 comments)
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custom home builder: Building Science Makes Your New Home Better
- 03/26/18 03:55 AM
Most people don’t think of building science when they build a new home. They start out thinking more about the floor plans and what the outside of the home will look like. Next, they start thinking about the kitchen layout and the features they want in their master bedroom. How their home is built and why it is built that way isn’t something that the majority of homebuyers are thinking about… but they should. Building Science impacts energy efficiency, durability, comfort, and indoor air quality. This means building science plays a direct role in your health, your safety, your comfort, and your financial … (1 comments)
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custom home builder: Are We Approaching the Modular Tipping Point?
- 03/12/18 04:15 AM
TIP·PING POINTnoun
noun: tipping point; plural noun: tipping points
the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.
Residential construction in the U.S. has changed. While getting skilled and trained labor in many industries is hard, getting it in the construction industry has gotten more difficult than ever with no end in sight. Material prices continue to go up. Taxes and tariffs are adding to the cost of construction. Updates to building codes are adding requirements which are adding even more mandatory costs to every home. And… we have a housing shortage in … (1 comments)
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custom home builder: The Express Estimate: Budgetary Numbers for Your Favorite Home Plan
- 03/05/18 03:42 AM
Express Modular and Architectural Designs teamed up in 2017 to create one of the most unique opportunities in custom modular home construction. For the first time, someone could browse over 6,000 plans from leading architects and designers and know if they could be “modularized” because of our exclusive Certified Modular Friendly Rating System created by Express Modular. But knowing if a plan is modular friendly just isn’t enough. The very next question is, “How much will it cost to build?”. The Express Estimate was created to answer that next question quickly.
WHAT IS AN EXPRESS ESTIMATE?First, an Express Estimate is just that, … (0 comments)
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custom home builder: Increasing Interest Rates: Your New Home Just Got Smaller
- 02/26/18 03:58 AM
It’s happening and you don’t even know it. The silent increase in home mortgage rates is impacting your new custom home. If you are purchasing a home and you need a mortgage to do it, every interest rate increase means you qualify for a lower loan amount. This means you will make the exact same payment, but that payment will buy a smaller home or one with less amenities. Every time the rate goes up just a .25% means you could have lost the ability to get the mudroom you have always wanted or the granite countertop you have dreamed about. … (0 comments)
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custom home builder: The Construction Labor Shortages Direct Impact on Home Buyers
- 02/19/18 04:58 AM
Now is the time that prospective home buyers that are going to build their new home this year are getting serious about starting the process. One of the obvious drivers increasing demand this year is the rise in interest rates. Recent home sales statistics show that existing home sales have surged citing interest rates as the primary driver. The bigger threat to cost and availability of new homes for homeowners isn’t even on most home buyers RADAR. It’s the severe shortage of construction workers. This single issue is now causing home cost increases and delays in construction across the country.
WHAT HAPPENED?Movies … (2 comments)
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custom home builder: Getting Modules from Carrier to Foundation: How Do We Do It?
- 02/12/18 02:33 AM
Modular construction is becoming more popular so the fascination with the process of moving big boxes on the highway and then from the carrier to a foundation is growing. We answer the same questions many times each day: How much does a module weigh? How big can a module be? How do you get something that big to my building site? One of the remaining questions most home buyers researching modular construction ask is: How do you get that big module from the carrier onto my foundation? Well, there are two main methods.
MOVING MODULES Modules are moved on things called carriers. A … (0 comments)
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custom home builder: Modular = Genius
- 02/05/18 03:37 AM
Modular is actually a design approach. An intelligent method that makes building almost anything better. It is a process that divides a system into smaller parts called modules. These modules can then be individually created and later, assembled together. The modular process is used in many products we use every day; cars, computers, elevators, furniture, etc. Modular design works to combine the advantages of standardization with those of customization. It is the smarter way that industries have discovered to produce custom products using standardized modules or assemblies. Modern modular construction makes use of the modular approach when it comes to building new custom … (2 comments)
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custom home builder: Get it Fast AND Right with Modular Construction
- 01/29/18 02:11 AM
One of the old sayings that applies to buying just about anything is that you can have it fast OR you can have it right, but you can’t have both. Using modular construction to build your new custom home turns that saying on its head. The whole premise behind modular construction is to take advantage of two main tenants of factory construction; to build quickly and to build correctly AND in addition, to do it consistently each and every time.
TURNING HOME CONSTRUCTION INTO A MANUFACTURING PROCESSThink about the current method of custom home construction. It is one of the only processes left … (1 comments)
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custom home builder: Using the Right Tools to Get Modular Homes to Difficult Home Sites
- 01/15/18 05:08 AM
Modular construction is a great way to build your new custom home. Many times a home buyers building site is in a remote area with narrow roads, narrow bridges, and tight turns. Other home buyers may live in dense urban areas with cars parked on narrow streets, have powerlines over the sidewalk, and have a constant high traffic volume, and with almost zero lot clearances. Because of the perceived access issues homeowners that have researched building modular home and decided it is a better way to build just give up on the option because they don’t understand how such large modules could … (0 comments)
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custom home builder: Modular Homes: When You Don't Have Time to Think About Quality
- 01/01/18 05:16 AM
Think about the last time you purchased a new car. You went to the car dealer and described the features you wanted. They went through the options, found a car they had that was the closest to what you requested, and let you take a test drive. If you had very specific requirements you could order the car with the exact options you wanted (maybe) and get it in about four to six weeks. If you were the typical car buyer, at no time in this conversation did you even question how the car was assembled, ask if the braking system … (1 comments)
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custom home builder: Home Styles 101: Every Home Isn't a Colonial
- 12/18/17 04:01 AM
Open up any real estate guide or look at descriptions of homes for sale on any website. How many say “Nice Two-Story Colonial” or “Cute Colonial”? While most homes in communities tend to look the same, there are many homes out there that do belong to a specific style. There are actually dozens of them. An architectural home style is characterized by features that make a home or building notable or identifiable. A style is usually defined as when a home has similar elements such as form, a similar construction method, common building materials, or regional character. Let’s review several of the … (4 comments)
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custom home builder: The (R)Evolution of Modular Homes
- 12/04/17 03:58 AM
We still fight it every day. The preconceived notion of what a home built using modular construction is or isn’t. The internet and Google have become the best friends of modular construction. Home buyers are now, more than ever before, able to research building methods, materials, technologies, and home performance/energy efficiency without leaving their living room. What smart home buyers are doing is discovering modular homes and then digging a little deeper. They are learning that a modular home IS NOT a mobile home. When they do their research they are finding that modular construction (or off-site construction) is the way that home … (1 comments)
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Housing is booming in the U.S. The economy is doing well and consumer confidence is growing. But, according to the National Association of Realtors, there is a housing shortage. As a country, we aren’t building enough homes to cover the need for homes for our growing population. Demand exceeds supply. Labor rates, oil prices, and lumber tariffs are in the news and all are impacting the affordability of your new home. Modular construction is the modern method of home building that offers the way forward in today’s environment of higher!
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