Beyond Affordability: The Hidden Operational Challenge in Manufactured Housing
Nov 20, 2025
Manufactured housing is finally getting the attention it deserves. After years on the sidelines, it is being recognized as one of the most practical solutions to the U.S. affordability crisis. The numbers back it up: according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average manufactured home costs around $123,300, compared to $367,000 for a site-built home.
That affordability gap is driving investment across the country. Southern states like Texas, Florida, and North Carolina are leading the way, with high demand for both new developments and community expansions. Yet as more units are produced and more communities grow, one question becomes unavoidable:
Can operators manage this growth efficiently or will outdated workflows hold them back?
The Scale Problem No One Talks About
Affordability is a success story. Efficiency isn’t.
Many manufactured housing operators now manage portfolios that look more like regional property networks than single communities. They are handling rent collection, maintenance, rule enforcement, and resident communication across multiple sites, often with lean staffing and limited tech resources.
Paper trails still exist. Emails get buried. Residents make phone calls that never get logged. Even operators with property management systems often rely on staff to manually track updates or transfer data between systems.
As new units come online, these inefficiencies multiply. The problem isn’t how to build or sell more homes, it’s how to manage the communities that already exist with the same level of consistency and service quality.
What Growth Looks Like Without Efficiency
Rapid growth without operational automation tends to follow a predictable pattern:
More administrative noise. Teams spend hours searching through inboxes, spreadsheets, and text messages to verify payments or coordinate maintenance.
Slower resident response times. Even basic requests like “I have a leak” or “Can I pay in installments?” take too long to route and resolve.
Compliance headaches. Violations and notices get missed or inconsistently documented, exposing communities to risk.
Staff burnout. Site managers get overwhelmed, and turnover increases.
What used to be manageable at 200 units starts breaking down at 2,000. Growth alone doesn’t scale; process does.
The Real Fix: Automation That Works With You, Not Around You
Manufactured housing operators do not need another dashboard or login. Most already use established property management systems like Rent Manager, Yardi, or Buildium. The real opportunity lies in automating the manual communication that happens between those systems and the people using them.
AI-driven automation can:
Ensure nothing slips through the cracks. Every resident inquiry, work order, or payment reminder gets logged directly into your existing system.
Triage issues before escalation. When a message mentions “water leak” or “power outage,” the AI flags it as urgent, sends proper instructions, and notifies staff immediately.
Handle routine follow-ups automatically. Residents receive confirmations and updates without staff intervention.
Keep data audit-ready. Every interaction is time-stamped and recorded in the PMS, creating full transparency for compliance and reporting.
Automation doesn’t replace your team. It simply removes the repetitive, low-impact work that keeps them from focusing on high-value tasks like community improvements and resident relations.
Read our article AI for Manufactured Housing: Streamlining Collections and Resident Support to explore how AI improves efficiency and resident satisfaction across expanding communities.
Why It Matters More Now
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Manufactured Housing Survey (MHS) shows that shipments of manufactured homes are once again rising after a brief dip in 2023. Federal policy trends also support this growth. The U.S. Department of the Treasury and HUD have both emphasized the role of factory-built housing in addressing the national supply shortage.
That means larger portfolios, more residents, and tighter oversight. Operators who can automate effectively will scale faster, maintain compliance, and offer a better resident experience without hiring a larger staff.
How Domos Can Help
Domos AI works in the background, fully integrated with the property management systems you already use. It communicates with residents through email, phone, and text, creating work orders, payment reminders, and policy notices automatically.
For manufactured housing operators, that means:
Every maintenance request or rent reminder is tracked.
Emergencies are detected and escalated properly.
Residents receive consistent, professional communication at any hour.
Domos does not replace your PMS; it amplifies it. It keeps your data clean, your team focused, and your communities running smoothly, no new platform or learning curve required.
Ready to scale smarter?