Pre-Fab homes seem to be finally coming of age in the marketplace, with factory-built models offering a price advantage over traditional site-built homes, and yet now available in ultra-modern architectural styles that totally break with the old image of shabby portable cabins and trailer trash.

And yet the most attractive new designs seem to sacrifice a lot of cost advantage, sometimes even being priced at par with traditional site-built houses.

I'm investigating into whether overseas manufacturing could be used to the maximum extent possible to save on labor costs, shipping over finished modular units for assembly into the final product locally onsite.

The idea would be for customers to place their order via website, picking out one of the basic design layouts, and then selecting customizations right down to the floor tiling, countertops, wall panels, etc. The home would be assembled overseas and shipped over in modules for local site assembly with local contractors.

Right now, I've only heard of European and US companies pursuing this idea, and haven't really heard about overseas exports from China, for example. I'd like to hear from anyone with business experience in this market, and where they feel the key challenges are.

just joined. can i offer a suggestion? that grey backround makes it very hard to read and shows rough edges around the buttons. is there an option to change that?

There are huge opportunities in pre-fab homes. But most of the opportunities are already taken up by large companies which occupy the market. Simply begging for opportunity by suggesting going offshore and having third world people manufacture pre-fab components is very naive.

Your smartest opportunities are not in the basic manufacture but in supplying what is manufactured to the client.

Customers who want pre-fabs vary from those who will build a garage and live in it to those who want cedar A-frames built in remote areas. It's a gigantic market.

If you specialize you should do well.

I chatted (on the net) to someone who built cedar houses for people in remote locations and made a fortune from it.

There are many opportunities out there, just seek one and go for it in a big way.

I'd also suggest taking a look at SIPs - Structural Insulated Panels.

They are a whole new approach to pre-fab. Instead of true pre-fab it's a lot more like legos - you can frame a house in a day.

For these companies y'all are mentioning ... can you post a link? Prefab homes are hard to find in South Texas, AFAICT

Hi machine/BillR/CaptShady,

Well, I didn't say it was purely about using cost-advantages of overseas labour. I'm specifically pointing to the appeal of ultra-modern design in pre-fab housing.

Take a look at some of these links:


http://www.businessweek.com/innovate...ure/index.html

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,...566660,00.html

http://www.inhabitat.com/prefabhousing.php

http://www.fabprefab.com/

http://www.prefabs.com/index.html

http://money.cnn.com/2003/08/13/pf/yourhome/prefabchic/

http://mocoloco.com/archives/cat_architecture.php

http://rapsongreenbelt.com/

A home is an even more high-margin product than an automobile, and in my opinion there is great scope for cost-reduction in homebuilding, as well as for improvements in design, aesthetics and styling.

If you look at the crappy pre-fab homes of yesteryear, they look like the Edsel in comparison to the ultra-modern designs that are now starting to come out. But I feel that the emergence of ultra-modernist look should not be made into an excuse to arbitrarily raise prices.

Steve Jobs can charge an arm-and-a-leg for his slick-looking iPod, but you know there are plenty of knockoffs that can give more for much less money.
Just like cheap knockoff perfumes or off-the-rack dresses that look just as nice as the high-priced originals, I think you can have cheap pre-fab homes that look and perform as well as these chic ultra-modern pre-fab designs which are attracting so much attention.

As you say, it's all about finding a good niche market in which people will be willing to pay. One has to identify a good target demographic and cater to it. I'm willing to bet that ultra-modern is a good emerging niche market with huge potential.

What do you all say? Comments?

If you are not already, I would suggest getting involved with the Building Industry Association. They are a very supportive organization and you can find resources and information through their many services.

Here is a link to the California chapter: http://www.cbia.org/

Thanks for the links, I'll check it out.

But my main point is that why can't house-building be pursued in a more optimized and elegantly engineered way?

Let me use Honda's recent foray into aircraft-building as an example. Honda is most famous as a Japanese carmaker, but is now embarking on building small jets:

www.gizmag.com/go/4864/

Apparently, they are applying their famous engineering and mass-production skills towards the goal of making small aircraft efficiently and less expensively.

http://www.aopa.org/pilot/features/2005/feat0508.html

http://world.honda.com/AircraftEngines/

HondaJet advertisement clip:

http://world.honda.com/ThePowerofDreams/jet/mov-jet-60/

So my point is that why can't there be a Honda for Prefab housemaking? Imagine a homeowner pointing to their prefab home the way they'd point to their Honda Civic, and saying "I'm glad I bought that one. It's economical, reliable, looks good, and everybody else wants one too."

The quality of your home is at least as important as the quality of your car.

I've been involved in construction for nearly 40 years. I have pretty extensive experience with pre-fab, having installed/erected them as well as manufactured them.

I can say with confidence that there is really nothing "new" in pre-fab right now except the materials that did not exist until recently.

Take the idea/concept of insulated structural panels ...

We were building them in 1970 and they were not "new" even then. The materials are better now, no doubt.

The only two things that have ever held back the pre-fab housing industry, IMO, are the quality of the structure (whether actual or only perceived), and the general publics tendency to resist/mistrust them.

I have seen some real junk and some real gems.

And brand recommendations, Sarge?