With demand for skilled homebuilders on Cape Cod high and supply low, one businessman is hoping those looking for new construction on the Cape will choose a new option: build their homes in Canada instead.
Of course, the home owner can still look forward to living south of the border and east of the canal. Jacques Lapointe, president of Pleasant Bay Homes in Harwich, will have the home shipped to them.
Citing advantages including quicker turnaround, controlled construction conditions and sometimes a lower cost, modular homes have been a popular option among consumers wanting to build a home. Combining those factors with contractors’ busy schedules that could result in delayed construction, Lapointe said more people are now choosing to build the modular way.
From what I’ve seen and heard, all of the modular companies are increasing their business year after year, said Lapointe, who is in the process of starting his business and opening an office on the Cape. I can’t tell you by what percentage there has been an increase, but its definitely growing.
Roberta Joy, controller at Canterbury Co., a distributor of modular homes based in Yarmouth Port, agreed.
It’s off the wall at the moment, Joy said about the demand for modular homes. It’s so busy its unbelievable.
The company with which Lapointe works, Pro-Fab Homes of Vallee-Jonction, Quebec, Canada, has been building homes for the last 15 years, and has had a presence in the New England region for about the last five years.
Last year we sold over 120 homes in places like Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and three homes were sent to Martha’s Vineyard, Lapointe said. Word is now spreading south.
Lapointe, who is relocating to the Cape from Quebec with his wife, is in the process of completing the finish work on a Pro-Fab home recently delivered to Harwich in which he will live.
Like Pro-Fab, Canterbury has been marketing modular homes locally for about five years, and Joy said the market for modular homes has been growing every year as it becomes harder to secure a general contractor. Gradually, we’ve been getting busier every year, she said. The more people learn about alternatives to site construction, the busier we’ve been getting, and since we’ve been on the Net, now we’re getting hit with 30 e-mails a day from people interested in modular homes.
As another example of growth in the market, Joy said the company hired its first full-time salesperson a year ago and today there are three.
Lapointe said one of the more important factors considered by home owners when choosing modular homes is the length of time it takes to build them.
These days, it can take anywhere from one to one-and-a-half years to build a house on site, he said. Everyone is very busy. All of the builders have two or three projects ahead of them before they can get to yours. With modular homes, from start to finish it might only take five or six months before you are in your house making Sunday dinner.
He added that Pro-Fab’s factory turns out about six new homes a week.
A lot of people can’t get a contractor to call them back, or they’re too busy and won’t get around to building the house for two or three years, Joy said. People have been doing a lot of research, and they’re discovering there is an easier way to build a home.
Lapointe added that once the building arrives on site, local tradesmen are used to connect pipes and utility lines and perform other finish work.
More Models
Jennifer Putnam, an agent with Compass Real Estate in Orleans, which handles marketing for Pleasant Bay Homes, said a lot of time associated with building homes is spent with planning and permitting, and time spent there can be saved with modular homes.
When you consider that by the time you agree on final plans it’s been four to six weeks, then the permitting process takes at least three to five weeks down here, then there’s another three weeks for delivery, it can add up, she said. But with modular homes, while you’re still doing the permitting for the site, they can be building the home and getting it ready.
Another attraction to modular homes in recent years has been an increase in the quality of construction and variety of homes available, Lapointe said.
We have close to 80 different styles, and we’re adding about 10 per year, he said. The library of homes is growing. He added that Pro-Fab can also custom-design a home for a client.
They can do every custom design, he said. If you have an idea, they can design it for you. Plus the quality of construction on the homes is very good. Everything is glued and screwed. It has to be built well because it has to make a 500-mile trip.
The increase of customized homes and the corresponding increase in quality has allowed modular building to blend in with their site-built counterparts, Joy said. If I drove you around and showed you a bunch of different homes and asked you to tell me which ones were modular, I bet you dinner that you couldn’t tell me, she said. Unless you went in the attic or in the basement to see the floor joists, but other than that, I dare you.
Both Lapointe and Joy said in addition to time, customers are also now appreciating that fact that the homes are built in a controlled environment.
You don’t have the exposed wood sitting out in the rain and getting warped. It’s all done inside and everything stays dry, Lapointe said. He added that a lot of the lumber that is used on the Cape comes from the same area in Canada where the Pro-Fab factory is located, about 30 miles south of Quebec City.
A large factor in homebuilding is the cost, and modular construction is no different. Both Joy and Lapointe say that while quick turnaround is usually most important for their clients, there can be a slight cost savings associated with modular homes.
Lapointe said costs of Pro-Fab homes range from about $45 per square foot for an unfinished home where the homeowner would be responsible for some of the interior work, to between $100 and $125 per square foot for a higher-end turnkey home.
While a customer might not realize significant savings compared to the original cost of a site-built home, Joy said the home owner ends up saving more over the course of construction.
It’s cost-effective because there are no cost overruns, she said. Once you make your decisions, that’s it. When you have a site-built home, you’ll walk through the unfinished house and decide you want to make little changes here and there, and the costs associated with that start adding up.
Though they are built in other states, and in the case of Pro-Fab, another country, modular homes must meet Massachusetts building codes. Each page of plans for the home must receive an approval stamp from the state, and a third-party inspector at the factory makes sure the home meets local codes.
I think modular inspections are even tighter than others, Joy said.
Aside from coordinating the transport of the modular home pieces over the Borne bridge or reserving spaces for the home on one of the island ferries, Joy said the only disadvantage modular homes have over site built homes is misinformation.
The biggest problem is educating people that a modular home is not a trailer home, she said. They have a hard time separating mobile from modular. They sometimes think a modular home is just two trailers bolted together.
