I wanted to give everyone a second, or maybe a first look, at my top 5 articles for May 2026, from Offsite Straight Talk, my blog about the observations and questions we all have about what is happening in the Offsite Construction Industry.
Number 1
When a Modular Factory Hits Capacity, Why Don’t They Expand?
There’s a strange pattern in the modular construction industry that I’ve watched repeat itself for decades. A factory gets busy, really busy. The production line fills up six months out, salespeople are smiling again, builders are begging for production slots, and management starts talking about “carefully controlling growth.”
Then something interesting begins to happen.
Number 2
Cross Mods Came to Town… and Then Something Changed
On Saturday, May 11th, 2024, something happened in my hometown of Hagerstown, Maryland, that many people in the offsite construction industry believed could become a turning point for HUD-code housing in America. Kensington Woods officially opened as the first new community in the country to feature CrossMod homes on permanent foundations in an R1 residential-zoned neighborhood.
But sometimes the market has other ideas.
Number 3
When Offsite Construction Attracts the Wrong Experts
Every growing industry eventually reaches a point where it starts attracting outsiders looking for opportunity. In the beginning, an industry is usually too risky, too unstable, or too difficult for most people to pay attention to. The pioneers quietly struggle through years of mistakes, thin profits, skeptical lenders, workforce shortages, transportation issues, and customers who barely understand the product.
That’s when the advisors and consultants start appearing.
Number 4
The Most Dangerous Company in Offsite Construction May Never Build a Single Module
For years, modular factory owners worried about the same things every morning when they walked into the plant. Material costs. Labor shortages. Transportation delays. Backlogs. Interest rates. Finding enough set crews. Trying to keep quality up while speeding production up at the same time.
But something new is beginning to quietly move into the offsite industry that I don’t think enough people, especially older management, fully understand yet.
Number 5
Offsite Consultants Who Never Survived a Storm Are Now Teaching Others How to Sail
They say that industries that forget their history are often forced to relive it.
In offsite construction, that warning should make every startup factory owner and every factory less than ten years old stop and think very carefully about who they are taking advice from.
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