Bullish on Amish-Built

A separate contractor lays a foundation on the home site, and Hertzler hires a crew to truck the home to the property. In one day, Hertzler and his workers put the house together and build the roof.

"As far as I know, they have held up well," Hertzler said.

After about a year of checking in with Hertzler, Greenfield made it to the top of the waiting list in late November.

One recent afternoon, Hertzler gave a visitor a tour of Greenfield's nearly finished home. Planks, scraps of carpet, and sheets of linoleum were scattered across the warehouse floor.

Hertzler buys many of his products and appliances from such mainstream vendors as Lowe's. Because Hertzler doesn't have a telephone, two Lowe's saleswomen drove to his warehouse that afternoon to discuss a pending order.

Hertzler's home-building operation is so low-profile that Lowe's saleswoman Penny Fleming said she "didn't really know that they were even really here" before she started taking Hertzler's orders.

In 2001, Hertzler took over the company from his father, John Sr., who started it about a quarter-century ago. The elder Hertzler, 67, still lives next door in a block farmhouse he built years ago. He and his wife raised their six children there.

The elder Hertzler sold his first modular home for $20,000, or about $17 a square foot. "Young couples coming in with a baby in their arms," John Sr. said. "Those were my favorite customers."

Since then, John Sr. estimates, the company has built 330 homes. Today, they sell for about $50 per square foot.

Greenfield said commercial modular home vendors offer similarly sized homes for two or three times the price.

The Amish can afford to sell at lower prices for several reasons, Kraybill said: They are exempt from paying Social Security taxes because they have waived the right to receive benefits; many family members work for the business and have a strong work ethic; and the way they operate helps keep costs low.

"They don't have bells and whistles in the shops," Kraybill said. "They don't have air conditioning, they don't have computers, they don't have red carpets. It's just bare-bones."

Once Greenfield made it to the top of the waiting list, she met with Hertzler to design the house. She ordered the largest he would build, 1,680 square feet, with cream vinyl siding and burgundy shutters.

To seal the deal, they shook hands. Greenfield said she was not asked to sign a contract or to put any money down. Hertzler wrote her name and contact information on an unpainted door frame.

Greenfield said she drove to Hertzler's warehouse to check in once a week until construction was finished. By mid-January, Hertzler delivered her home. A yellow crane lowered the two units like coffins into the foundation. Hertzler and his crew assembled a high-pitched roof.

And Greenfield still hadn't paid a dime, although she intended to pay in full once the construction was finished. "I guess they do it in good faith," she reasoned.

Benjamin Beale, a University of Maryland extension agent who works with the Amish in St. Mary's, said transactions based on trust are common.

"There certainly is a sense of doing business the old-fashioned way, on a handshake and a trust in the agreement," Beale said. "But certainly in the general public that's unheard of, isn't it? You go to buy a house nowadays and you go into settlement to sign 60 papers."