Amazon sells a kit for a 2600 sqft house | Hacker News Reader

Amazon sells a kit for a 2600 sqft house

amazon.com

136 pointslisper90 comments

Relevant disclaimer in the description:

"DOES NOT INCLUDE WINDOWS, DOORS, PLUMBING, ELECTRICAL, ENGINEERING, FIXTURES. IT IS NOT A STOCK MODEL AND IS MADE TO ORDER. PLEASE NOTE THAT AMAZON's MAX HANDLING TIME IN THE SYSTEM IS 30 DAYS BUT YOU MUST ALLOW 120 DAYS AFTER ORDERING FOR DELIVERY."

At $150,000, how does this compare to building a house from scratch given all that's left out? Seems expensive to me for just walls, floors and a roof.

It is pretty expensive considering the cost of those items are pretty dang high, especially windows and doors of which numerous windows are custom shapes. Not to mention the labor costs of it all which are not included and are going to cost atleast as much as the materials. So it is closer to 300K for just the framework. I also don't see other things mentioned like roofing material or insulation and the whole thing needs to be painted or finished. The foundation is also a large cost.

150K seems overpriced. For comparison, I can buy a similar 2600sf home, built, for 275K -- ready to move in, completely finished plumbing, electrical, etc. That's from a local "custom" builder that builds from a standard set of stock plans. In both cases you have to buy the land and pay for the prep.

Check out menards or a local lumber package.. 2 carpenters can frame a house pretty quick so.. I would say until we get ikea modular houses pre wired and plumbed that this isn’t worth it.

One of my clients was a modular architecture firm. They had a nice set of contemporary designs of varying square footage. Most were in the 2500-3500 sq foot range and went from 225K and up.

They said their main problem was people asking for a 6,000 sq ft modular home for under 200K. They were under the impression modular homes should be cheaper and you should get tons more square footage. Nope, most of the same rules applies to modular homes. It's the process that's faster and which makes it less expensive; but not 300K less expensive.

Pretty sure they went under. Most of the post on their FB page were from 2014: https://www.facebook.com/HiveModular/app/143965932308817/?re...

It’s more of a stunt or wholesale type thing.

A normal manufactured home is a much better value, and includes things like code compliance and plumbing.

Is a "normal manufactured home" a mobile home/trailer?

Yes. The other replies are missing the distinction. A manufactured home is traditionally a mobile home. There is a wide range of sizes (single wide, double wide, triple wide) with a range in quality/price. These are the ones you see cut in half on a truck trailer on the highway. A more modern approach has become the Pre-fab homes. These can have a wider range of shapes than the rectangle which helps avoid the “mobile home” stigma. The manufacturing is also done in a warehouse to build pieces Of the house on a production line, like the walls, floor and roofs, that are stacked on a trailer and then erected as a puzzle on the building site. The advantage of pre-fab is that there is less waste and because components are built in a warehouse, they can be built during winter for assembly in spring. Hope this helps.

> A more modern approach has become the Pre-fab homes.

This isn't just a modern approach. See the Sears kit homes of the early 20th century.

My parents built their ~2800sq ft (not including basement) two story house back in 1976, and it came as a kit on a truck. My dad and uncle, with help from friends, built it, farming out specialist jobs (plumbing, including septic system, etc) as needed.

No, they can build modular homes in all sorts of different configurations. A relative had a ~2,000 sq ft house built this way, it was faster and cheaper to build than a traditional hose. It came in 5-6 sections iirc.

Doesn't a mobile home have wheel?

No. Many modern homes are manufactured off-site and then assembled on-site.

"manufactured" is the modern equivalent of a mobile home. You're referring to "modular"

https://www.claytonhomes.com/studio/defined-mobile-manufactu...

The link you provided makes a distinction between mobile and manufactured homes...

I'm seeing a $46,900 price point. Where are you seeing $150k?

That well may be cheaper than you'd get from a local lumber yard, plus I assume there'll be some labor savings as it's already cut to length.

When you click "see all buying options" the only one is

> $149,591.00 New + $4.49 shipping

I'm laughing pretty hard at the $4.49 shipping. What it's not on prime at this point? : P

When I click 'See all buying options', it says $149,591. You might be looking at the 'Lower Priced Item to Consider' at the top, which is a different product.

"New (1) from $149,591.00", at the bottom of the product summary.

As you said, this looks to be more of an advertising stunt than a viable purchase. All those + foundation, land, etc means you're looking at a pricetag almost double or more $150k.

With that said, I wonder how hard it would be to sell prefab sections/houses that are already wired for electricity and plumbing straight from the warehouse.

> With that said, I wonder how hard it would be to sell prefab sections/houses that are already wired for electricity and plumbing straight from the warehouse.

I.e. a manufactured/mobile home?

More like "modular homes", where you can mix and match components and swap out a component for a different one if desired.

Project Ara^, only for e.g. "home theater room", "film darkroom", etc.

^ https://www.theverge.com/2016/5/20/11721594/google-project-a...

I was hoping for Prime shipping.

2900 sqft is actually a lot of house. With windows, plumbing, and wiring such a house would cost over $1MM in Amazon's home, Seattle.

$1MM is mostly for the real estate, not the BOM.

That's simply not true. Empty plots sell for MUCH less than half the cost of homes in the area.

But the actual construction costs aren’t that high. You’re neglecting the labor (time, effort, and redoing) required meet city codes :-(

The point of a DIY house is you do the labor... yourself.

Yep but you have to pay for the labour from the many inspectors who have to verify it's correctness and the legal cost for properly filing all the paperwork to legally allow the structure to stand.

the difference in cost between a plot with and without a house is not an honest way to gauge BOM cost; there is value in the effort, permitting, and planning.

Where I live that would go for around 400k. I’m about level to LV prices. At 150k you have a pretty strong budget for the land. Don’t know what the plumbing and electrical would run though.

Edit-Ok after looking at the photos I could see that going for more toward the 500k line. That’s a very nice home.

This isn’t Amazon, its just a seller on Amazon - just an advertisement for an engineered lumber log home kit (not sure who would want that?). You can buy all sorts of kits like these all over the world. Some include more, some less, some log, some not. How is this interesting or news?

Agree. Doesn't seem like the vendor actually intends to sell one of these through Amazon. That would mean they'd be giving Amazon a cut, and subject to all of their policies. I think this is just a silly attempt to make their product more visible.

Seriously, I thought Amazon was trying to pull a Sears during their heyday when I saw the title.

For months, I've been seeing this headline in Google News, repeatedly blocking sites promoting it, only to have new sites pop up. I'm getting served ads on Facebook and Twitter about these house kits - and now it's an HN headline? I'll say this much - I'm impressed at the veracity of the marketing machine behind this product.

I don't know what it is, but the internet seems so small these days. Every news aggregator or media outlet seems to have all the same stories. I miss when there seemed to be a vast world out there. Maybe I've just gotten trapped in a bubble.

I'm not sure if there's some powerful force controlling the media as many paranoid people would have it, or if it's emergent behavior.

I often feel the same way.

When you search for anything to buy on Google, the first 10-15 links are for Amazon. Type in the manufacturer and the list dwindles to about 5-6 Amazon links, which is absurd. If I'm looking for Bose headphones or Adidas shoes, shouldn't the actual manufacturers site be page page 1, #1?

I would think so, but it's not the case anymore.

http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

> I'm impressed at the veracity of the marketing machine behind this product.

Did you mean 'tenacity'?

'Voracity' would be my guess

Maybe capacity?

Kit houses have been around for the past 100 years at least, I'm willing to bet the ones from 100 years ago are better quality than the ones now.

Sears used to offer houses in their famous catalog.

MUJI sells little kit houses in its Ginza flagship store (actually they sell them online as well https://www.muji.com/jp/mujihut/en.html).

Kind of unrelated but MUJI has pretty nice clothing, it's minimalist, well priced, and good quality.

Sears Catalog Home: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home

One of my good friends lives in one. There is even a little shed in the back yard that was the living quarters while her grandparents built the place.

As in Buster Keaton's "One Week", which also features one of the greatest and most enviable marriages in all of cinema.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6ddOlbKp8

Yeah, that was Sears Roebuck's wheelhouse for some time. They actually looked pretty good in the catalogs; though I'm not aware of having been in one knowingly. Though I wouldn't be surprised if I have been in one.

This 99pi episode discusses them https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-house-that-came-i...

Apparently there aren’t a lot at least in anything like their original form.

I live in a Sears house from 1912. My house was rebuilt 10 years ago though and an extra floor added. All my neighbors have pretty much the original design though. They are pretty sweet little houses with a tiny drive way. Maybe a Model T could have fit down it - but no modern car can.

I lived in Sears house for about a year in the 1990s. It seemed like a fine house. It turned into a punk house at that point and the plumbing couldn't hold up to that but I suspect with normal use it would have been fine for a while longer.

Kate Wagner did a few writeups with some information about early-20th century kit homes.

https://mcmansionhell.com/post/166916762911/looking-around-a...

https://mcmansionhell.com/post/155602312686/the-mail-order-a...

I don't think Amazon really has anything to do with this except it's listed on their website.

I've seen a few prefab buildings sold by merchants on Amazon's site, most seem to be aimed at the ADU (backyard cottages for rentals basically) market.

I'm curious to watch and see how long before a big company like Amazon or AirBnB starts offering their own standardized ADU build-outs that are integrated with their smart locks and other services. I would think they could use their scale to come up with something that could be sold and built for a reasonable price.

I doubt either of these companies would ever want to take on the massive costs in developing these. They are technology companies with large margins, the capex requirements and margins they would see going down a manufactured housing path make no sense for their business models and other people are already willing to do this for them.

$4.49 for shipping? I thought Prime got me free shipping?!

I bet they ship you a miniature at this price.

The shipping price was incorporated into the main price. The kit doesn't include most of the things (like windows, doors, electric installation, plumbing etc) and it's just walls, it's actually quite expensive for what it is.

$5 would have been the deal breaker for me.

Not all items are eligible for Prime.

Why would you use a platform like Amazon for high value, high complexity, low volume sales like this? Amazon is for a bunch of sellers competing on the same product used, or for highly similar products like "USB hub" or "guitar picks."

For one, I wouldn't sell it without cash in hand/wire/ACH or something that's chargeback/dispute proof, and for two, I'd use Shopify or something like that only shows your brand and allows you to have the appropriate info re: shipping, delivery time, etc. (or again, if you are one product that costs a hundred grand, you can afford to throw together a custom order UI and add Stripe for payments).

Because it costs next to nothing to list it on Amazon... and then the link gets passed around on all sorts of sites as people say “you can buy a house on amazon!” Basically it’s just a marketing move.

This isn't entirely relevant, but for anyone looking for a laugh: https://www.amazon.com/Allwood-Eagle-Vista-1336-Cabin/dp/B07...

This seems to be the same concept as the Sears Home Kit. https://www.forbes.com/sites/reginacole/2018/10/23/the-sears...

Again, given the number of spammy, crappy copycats, fake reviews bad products I have sort of lost my trust on Amazon. It's just super crappy.

Sears started by shipping homes by the way, it would be awesome for someone to pull this off in 21st century.

It already exists.. check out menards. Or call your local lumber yard and ask for a kit house.

Sears started as a mail order watch and jewelry company in 1886 (sold by Sears, then reformed in 1892 with Roebuck). They started selling houses in 1908. They already had the present day equivalent of over a billion dollar valuation at that point.

GLT Engineered Wood >

Isn't "engineered wood" created from wood scraps glued together, which is prone to Formaldehyde off gassing?

Weird state of the world we're in where natural wood planks are being replaced with this garbage.

Your great-grandfather likely complained that quality heart pine was being replaced by cheap "natural wood" planks. Wood has been on the decline for decades and it's a stark reminder of how much of the natural world we've plundered as a species.

Luckily, cheap treated wood is pretty durable.

You are partially correct (and maybe more so with this product). But there are types of engineered woods and beams made from glued and pressed stick lumber/boards. Imagine the concept of plywood but with several 2X6s to replace a true 6”x12” beam which would be 1) not as dimensionally stable as wood naturally warps and 2) needs to be milled from a much larger tree. Engineered woods that are not made with harsh chemicals like Formaldehyde are often ligher, stronger, and can be made from younger, new-growth timber stands. We have a nostalgia for pure lumber but engineered woods are really a better building material for certain situations.

While we haven't run out of trees yet, better to use the scrap than not.

Umm... lookup formaldehyde off gassing and then let me know if you still think that.

Personally, I do not want a house constructed of wood + glue.

There's a midwestern chain of home improvement stores, Menards, that will sell you all of the materials to build a house as well: https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/books-buildi...

Though I don't know anyone who's actually bought one.

So, they're Sears?

Top tip: you can approximate sqft -> sqm by dividing by ten

I think Sears did this first. About 100 years ago now...

There are still some Sears kit homes out there. They've become mini tourist attractions.

> #1,986,196 in Patio, Lawn & Garden

It has 3 bathrooms, but there's no "master" bathroom. Kinda awkward.

2600 square feet. I'd love that, that's luxurious (I live in Manhattan)

$149,591 + $4.49 shipping, lol

How does that work? Can I purchase it with my credit card?

Is the 4.49 shipping a joke?

me wonders how many people bought it from this HN post

4.49 for shipping

Are these comingled with inferior copycat houses?

If you were making the inferior copycat kits, what corners would you cut?

My picks:

* Lead paint (still in inventory from the 60's)

* Ant or termite infestation in the wood

* 2 similar but noticeably different types of flooring for the main level

* Most subtly, making the ceilings 7'9". 3" savings multiplied by all the sruds adds up! The scraps could be sold as firewood, or maybe with volume, the wood could come at a discount from a supplier.

Full on Sears

How much for expert installation?

FBA?

Dropshipping!

Apple: HomeKit

Amazon: I'll show you how HomeKit is really done!

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