<I'd love to see Pak's thoughts>

Scarey request, mate..

In any event, I'm sure there ares some very cool mfct'd homes. The idea of having the "lot " already completed and the potential for future development, seems pretty sound to me as well.

25 years ago, a friend of mine was building a spec home that was constructed in a warehouse and then assembled on site. It was a very nice place. Another friend & I did the drywall contracting, which was one of the more foolish things I've ever done, but thats another story.

I guess you can go a few different ways with this one. Buy a decent quality manufactured/pre-fab home, either new or resale, or buy a cheaper model, and then have the option of remodelling-adding to either at a later date.

Buying one of these homes can be an entirely different process, so to speak. The sales contract is different and the concerns are as well. I've sold them, but not recently. I'm wary of homes that are too portable (such as in a wind storm) and would look to anchoring it pretty soon. (Many of these homes are assembled on a foundation at the site, but many aren't.) I'm just not familiar enough with current building codes around this issue, but that should be easy enough to determine.

Two other areas of concern are flammability (some of these homes are scarey; they all aren't built with the same fire protection that stick-built homes are.) and Toxicity. All that panelling and glued together stuff can be highly toxic. This is a problem in LOTS of homes, but it can be more pronounced in pre-fabs. I once sold a home to a local fire chief and learned a lot about fire safety issues that are covered by modern construction code: I was impressed with some, but I remember that he had concerns about others. I'd never thought about the issue before.

All this wouldn't necessarily deter me, but they are concerns that bear attention.