
Amazon, Obvious invest in Yves Behar-designed prefab home startup - smalera
https://marker.medium.com/why-amazon-is-betting-youll-buy-a-million-dollar-prefab-homes-e618aa9d2a8c
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djrogers
Some of the designs look amazing, but this is a killer:

“ The first of Behar’s line is the YB1; it retails for $300,000 (plus another
$100,000 for things like delivery and installation) and is a 625-square-feet,
one-bed, one-bath that looks like a glass cube with a slatted wooden
exterior.”

Well over $600/sqft for construction costs? That’s extremely rarified air,
especially for an ADU.

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tehlike
I imagine with scale it will come down.

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LegitShady
If you can't build a tiny house in trailer for reasonable money nobody should
invest in your prefab business.

There are ready to move (RTM) structures all over. Not sure why this is so
much money.

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mc32
The proof of this pudding will be in the living.

Seems like the structure does well in mild climates like that Santa Monica.
How would it do in rainy places like Seattle, or Cold continental places like
Minneapolis?

Perhaps it'll do well. People will need to know it does well and appreciates
as much as co-located traditional homes.

It does have nice aesthetic design cues, but except for people who can afford
to tear down and rebuild when bored, homes have to last. I guess we'll find
out.

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Gys
$300,000 for only the house? What about the three most important aspects of
real estate? Which are also mostly determining the value: location, location,
location

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briefcomment
I would imagine the point of a prefab house is that you get high quality
design for cheap because of economies of scale. Is that not what's happening
here? Is there another reason why this is a compelling product for consumers?

The designs are fine, but if I were going to spend that much, I would feel
weird not having input into the design and limiting myself, regardless of how
celebrated the designer is.

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vsskanth
Can some share some insight on why the construction industry hasn't moved to
prefab for cookie cutter single family homes ? Does it not reduce labor costs
in comparison to the current method of home building ?

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georgeoliver
I think the efficiency cost reduction isn't as great as you might imagine. If
you look at the National Association of Home Builder's estimates for building
a home in the USA [1], construction cost is about half of the total, and you
still have to prepare the site, build the foundation and finish the site (at
least 20% of construction costs). So your share of offsite construction cost
would be at most 40% of total costs. Though factory construction work tends to
pay a little less than field work it's not that much less -- maybe 20%. So in
the end you don't save much and still have to deal with the logistics of
delivery.

That said there are other production efficiencies which would make it
worthwhile IMO. But cost is king.

[1]
[http://www.nahbclassic.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=260...](http://www.nahbclassic.org/generic.aspx?genericContentID=260013)

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52-6F-62
I actually love the design...

I'll pass on Alexa, though. I'll take a dumb home, please. I don't mind
flicking a switch. Or I'd rather build much if that side out myself...

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haydn3
The only thing I like about Alexa is when the servers go down and they're no
logner supported in 10 years, people will be stuck holding-the-bag like
Betamax and Laser Disc holdouts.

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tehlike
And what's the problem?

Noone uses rotary phones today, but that is ok.

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imtringued
You can replace a rotary phone. Alexa is built right into the house itself.

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carrozo
I’d prefer one of these:

[https://www.mimahousing.com/mima-essential](https://www.mimahousing.com/mima-
essential)

