Dreamline Modular Homes FAQs

The simple answer to this is our passion for modular homes.

You will never find another builder who loves what they do as much as we do.  We have countless years of experience in modular home construction and we take pride in what we do.

Every plan that enters this office we view and build as if it was our own. There are no games, hidden costs or lies.  We leave everything out on the table and we know you will appreciate our honesty.  We are building your house just as much as we are building a relationship with you.

Absolutely!

We specialize in custom floor plans and can have one of our designers work with you on a plan you already have or you may alter one of ours. We have built homes as small as 600sf to homes exceeding 10,000sf.

We will break this into three different phases for you:

Design, Permitting, and actual Construction. The design phase will take as long as it takes for you to finalize a floor plan with us.

Typically it will take one month until final drawings, including electrical and foundation plans, are completed. From there we order final state plans/building submission plans. These plans will take 3-4 weeks to complete.

Once the state plans are finalized we can finally apply for your building permit! Again permitting is a complete variable, but the local building official has 30 days to review your application. This excludes additional permitting, examples but not limited to demolition, conservation, board of health, and planning. Once we receive your building permit your ground work can be started.

Typically it is a 4-6 week process for excavation, new foundation poured and cured, and the lot backfilled and ready for your house. The beauty of modular is we are already building your home while the ground work is under way! From the day the modules are set onto your foundation a typical home will take 10-14 weeks for completion pending its complexity.

A common misconception with modular is the lack of construction quality. In fact that is quite the opposite.

We have a saying in the industry where modular homes are “built better because they have to be.” The simple reasoning behind this phrase is the transportation and set. Modular homes are actually overbuilt due to the transportation of these boxes (sometimes traveling for hundreds of miles) and the set of the crane (being lifted 40’ in the air).

Our homes have to be built to a certain standard to withstand these two elements. Whether your home is site-built or modular you need to pay attention to the materials being used. Modulars have to abide to the same town and state building codes as a stick-built home. Rest assured your modular home is built with pristine quality.

Absolutely not.

Most banks prefer financing modular homes since they arrive 80% completed. The risk on their end of the contractor not finishing the job is greatly reduced. However, modular is a relatively new industry and there are certain banks who have not been educated on modular construction. If this happens to you lets us know and we will be the ones educating them!

We recommend:

Edward Barrett
Salem Five Mortgage Company
o. 800.445.8600 | c. 508.654.4656 | f. 978.498.0348

No, No and No.

The most important questions you can ask your modular home builder are who is your manufacturer and who is responsible for the completion of the project? We want you to have the same mindset with your modular as you would when buying a car. When you are looking to purchase a car you most likely are looking for a certain brand (Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Ferrari). All of these cars offer you different performance, look, price and overall quality. Your modular home is no different. Just because two car companies are offering the same specs does not mean they are built with the same quality.

Now imagine the same manufacturer builds the exact same car and then gives it to a local mechanic to finish the car. Not all two mechanics are the same and this statement bodes the same with the local contractor.

The reason Dreamline Modular stays away from “drop ships” in modular is it is our name on your home just as much as the factory it is bought from! We want the house built right and pride ourselves in offering a turn-key package. Our best advice is get references from your contractor on jobs they have 100% completed and not just supplied the modular.

Yes!

Your builder and manufacturer are two separate entities working together to construct your home. As the customer, you are working directly with the builder, not the manufacturer. The modular home on average comes in around 80% completed from the manufacturer. Your builder is responsible for all site work before the modular arrives and finishes the construction once the modular is set.

We have heard horror stories from some of the most prestigious factories because the builder did not properly finish off the modular. Your modular home can only reach perfection when both the builder and manufacturer work together with the same quality and integrity.

As an elite modular home builder we pride ourselves on “thinking outside of the box.”

90% of consumers are under the impression that only certain materials can be used to construct your modular home. This may be the case with certain builders and manufacturers, but not with Dreamline Modular Homes. We buy our homes from quality manufacturers where customization is king. Whether you want to use vinyl, clapboard, cedar shake, fiber cement, brick façade, or stucco we can do it!

You have complete customization of your home and we are able to use ANY product you see fit to construct. Hardwoods floors, tiled baths and walls, granite countertops and HVAC are the norm in our construction.

This is the toughest question in the industry to answer and we will try our best to debunk a few common misconceptions.

Unfortunately many modular “builders” are very unethical in their pricing of houses and set up false expectations for clients. We don’t look at them as actual builders, but sales incentivized companies who are really only hurting the industry as a whole. We would like to break this down into a few different phases of construction: Modular home from the factory, button-up and site work, and soft costs.

The modular home itself will range from $75-$100SF pending the specifications. This is ONLY the modular home and often not the transportation and set. If you are looking at “drop-ship” modular companies this is what you are getting. The next phase is the site work, including but not limited to foundation, excavation, foundation floor, hardwood, HVAC, some electrical and plumbing, decks, porches, and utility costs. The site work portion of the project can be just as much if not more than the modular home itself. Soft costs are going to include permitting fees, utility fees, surveying and engineering of the property and a few minor details.

To get the quality depicted in our portfolio, a new home will cost you $175-$230SF. Why the large range? It really depends on your project and the specifications you are looking for. Total square footage will drive costing one way or another and the smaller the home the larger the impact on costing. If you take a 1500SF home, adding on a $10,000 upgrade will sway the total cost per SF much more than the house that is 3000SF. Have we built homes for $130SF and $230SF to $150-$250SF? Yes, but that would be setting false expectations one way or another. The best way to figure out the total cost of your project is for you to have a clear understanding of what you are looking for in your home and really defining a wants and needs list. Contact us today so we can help you!

A drop ship to us is the black eye of the industry.

Building departments can’t stand them, any good builder can’t stand them, and to us it comes down to proper education. We will use this analogy a few times in the FAQ because it tends to hit home for many.

Imagine you are going to buy a car and the dealer gives you two options. Option one is to sell you a completed car that you can drive right off the lot. Option two, which is less money on paper, is to ship 10,000 parts of the car to your driveway and you are responsible for hiring the mechanic to put it together. Don’t worry, the dealer told you it is easy to put a car together ☺.

Okay so you probably just realized you would have no idea how to put that car together as we sure wouldn’t either. That is because we are not mechanics. So why would it be an advantage for you to try and be the general contractor to build your own home when you are not a builder? BELIEVE US when we say a drop-ship is the easiest way to make a quick dollar in the industry and the difficult part is the button-up work.

With the button-up work you truly are taking on the liability of the project to be the general contractor, but we would have it no other way. Have we ever done a drop ship? Yes we have. Do we highly advise against them? Yes we do. We at Dreamline Modular don’t know how to design computer programs, perform surgery, or put a car together. We keep that to the professionals and you should keep your home building process to the professionals as well.