I don't have any personal experience w/ a modular home, but a friend of mine got one a few years ago & I was amazed at how much stuff they still had to do/hire done once they got it. At about the same time another friend had a house stick built acting as their own contractor (down side of this, they had a very hard time getting financing for it). While I haven't come right out & asked either of them exactly what their total costs were, my dh is really good about picking up little pieces of information in general conversation, asking a few "innocent" questions & putting all the numbers together in his head to get at least a close estimate. And based on his estimates my 2 friends paid about the same for their houses when all was said & done. BUT . . . the module house is I think around 1600 to 1800 sq ft (not positive, it's a small 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath house, personally I really dislike the floorplan, but the size, w/ a more open floor plan would probably be ok) in a rather out of the way location (ie. land was inexpensive but resale will be lower as well because commuters aren't real likely to want to live that far out) no garage. My friend who stick built as their own contractor has a GORGEOUS house (not the exact floorplan I'd choose, but if I had to choose one of the two houses I'd choose this one hands down) around 3000 sq ft, 3 car garage, a nicely secluded piece of wooded land (2-3 acres I think) that feels very rural and yet is easily accessible to major commuter routes (great for resale, and increases land value drastically). About a year before all of this happened we bought our house, new construction in a neighborhood. We choose the plan & such but then just sat & waited while others built it & bought it when it was done. We also paid about the same as the other two. Our land is much less, but probably equally valuable (resale-wise) to stick built friend & more valuable than modular friend, because of location. Our house is between the 2 in sizes also (abour 2400 sq ft, 2 car garage). Current resale values, I'd say stick built friend could probably get close to 3x what they put into it, we could get close to double what we put into ours & modular friend would make a nice profit but I would put them at least $100k less than ours (and I've been house/land shopping in the area where they live so I have a relatively good idea of values there compared to here).
So . . . all that to say, at least in this situation, the modular option seems overpriced for what you get. I think a piece of this was the friends who did the modular home didn't have as good a feel for the market around here. (the dh made comments at the time that were illogical considering this market & continues to do so, IMO). I'm not saying don't go w/ a modular, but be sure to do your research to determine exactly what is included, get price quotes to determine how much you will pay a contractor to "finish" it, etc. If you have the time/skills, doing your own contracting & as much of your own work as possible (ie. my friend who stick built laid all their own flooring, including buying unfinished hardwood floors & finishing them themselves) is definately a cost effective option IMO.
