There’s a Major Information Gap in Housing, and This Tech Founder Aims To Fix It

With more eyes on manufactured housing as a solution to the nation's deepening housing crisis, one expert says bringing more information to the field could clear the bottleneck holding the business back.

The manufactured home stigma "needs to catch up" with reality, says Greyson Gibson, CEO and co-fonder of LotRoll.

LotRoll, a startup company providing data for manufactured housing, uses data from public records, mobile home parks, and other sources. That way, it can assess the value of a property based on factors such as location, size, community attributes, and auxiliary structures.

"The homes are amazing. It's very hard to tell the difference between a manufactured home and a stick-built home when you're on the inside," Gibson says. But the growing segment is constrained, he adds, by identifying land availability and finding manufacturers to provide the supply.

Watch Realtor.com's full video interview with Gibson:

New answers for the housing crisis

Advocates of this component of the industry have complained about the information gap around manufactured homes. That starts with awareness.

Manufactured housing often lumps in many different kinds of homes. Mobile homes, which are built on a chassis, can get conflated with factory-built or "prefab" homes, where some or all components are constructed in a factory or built on-site.

Then there are companies aiming to mass-produce housing components in factories. All approaches are needed for different markets and housing types.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released proposed rules last week that would broaden the definition of manufactured homes, making it easier to build multistory homes in factories. Its new guidelines ease some laws around the industry.

Then, there's the bipartisan housing reform bill, the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which has advanced in Congress. It, too, aims to ease restrictions for manufactured homes.