The manufactured homes industry has come a long way since its inception. For homeowners, it’s mostly about finding an inexpensive alternative to traditional construction. For contractors, manufactured homes provide an opportunity to excel in a field that comes with considerable demand.
Becoming a manufactured home contractor, therefore, gives you a chance to develop expertise in a field that can reward you greatly if you follow the right path. Here’s why you should consider it.
1. You Get the Chance to Specialise
One of the main attractions of becoming a manufactured home contractor is the chance you get to specialise. Remember, general construction is typically an enormous field, where contractors have to compete with hundreds of businesses for different kinds of work, including residential projects. Manufactured home installation takes a different approach that requires in-depth knowledge of very specific construction processes.
You will take manufactured housing-specific courses that help you master elements like soil conditions, levelling, foundation systems, drainage, and many others. This creates a significant knowledge barrier where contractors with the right expertise and experience will have a competitive advantage.
2. You Can Take Advantage of the Transition Complexity
In traditional construction projects, a larger percentage of the building process happens at the property. That isn’t the case with manufactured housing, which can be a great opportunity for the contractors who see it. Remember, the home is substantially constructed inside a factory before it reaches the final site. After this, it will be transported to the construction site in one or more sections on a permanent chassis.
For contractors, this can be a perfect logistics business opportunity to coordinate the delivery and setup of mobile homes to their final construction sites. This, however, means you will have to be excellent at coordinating different moving parts, including access evaluation, site preparation, and fulfilment of all manufacturers’ installation requirements.
And even if you don’t turn it into a business, understanding this entire chain makes you much more valuable than a contractor who would just arrive on installation day.
3. You Can Partner With Manufactured Home Retailers
At first glance, it looks like you have to rely fully on individual homeowners for business. In reality, however, manufactured home retailers can be a vital source of repeat work because they need someone to install the homes they sell.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations, manufactured homes should be installed by the retailer itself or a licensed professional that the retailer contracts to perform the installation. In rare cases, a homeowner may install their own manufactured home, provided they meet all local building codes and manufacturer specifications.
For mobile home contractors, this creates a potentially attractive business-to-business relationship. Instead of constantly finding a new homeowner for all your projects, you can develop relationships with retailers and become one of their dependable installation contractors. Make sure you are reliable, however, as that will be your main competitive advantage.
4. You Can Expand Your Service Delivery Into Different States
Another interesting fact about manufactured home installations is that it is a bit different from a licensing perspective compared to ordinary residential construction. HUD administers installation requirements in some states, while other states operate on their own qualifying installation programmes. In HUD-administered states, installers are subject to federal licensing requirements, while those in states with their own programmes will follow the state-defined responsibilities.
This creates an interesting opportunity for contractors who may be interested in expanding geographically. HUD states that a HUD-administered installer licence is valid in all states where HUD manages the installation programme, even though additional state or local business licences may still be required. This means your specialised qualification can support a broader service territory.
Enough Reasons to Dive In?
Of course, there are plenty more reasons why you want to try this niche profession, but what we have mentioned in this post should give you a perfect glimpse into what this is all about. Before getting started, however, you’ll want to ensure you are ready enough.
So, head over to rocketcert.com to learn more about manufactured home installations to determine whether they are the right option for you.