how can you tell a modular home from a mobile home?

Answer 1

Mobile homes and modular homes are both manufactured houses. Mobile homes can be single wide (house trailers, double wides, RV's etc) They can be set on piers or on a foundaiton.
Modular homes are precut pieces made in a factory and installed on your building site. Most use foundations with eaither a crawl space or a basement. In some states you can purchase modular homes that appear to be build in sections and trucked to you.
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

mobiles are on metal frames that wheels attach to. true modular homes are not. they arrive on flat bed trucks and are pieced together like a puzzle.

HOWEVER the people that sell them are putting three and four mobiles together and calling them modular, in one sense of the word they are, but in another they are not. since they are built on the metal frames to travel, they need not meet any building codes at all. true modular homes must meet all the codes.

most so called modular homes today are just several mobiles put together like i said, and are so shoddily made and wired i would not touch them with a ten foot pole, true modular are another thing.

Answer 3

the easiest way I believe is that modular homes are on foundations whereas mobile homes are not.