Manufactured Housing & Tariffs: How to Cut IT Costs in 2025

2025 is panning out to be the year of changing landscapes for many different industries. 

Especially if you’re in an industry that’s set to be affected by the 2025 tariffs. For manufactured housing, the impact is going to be especially strong. Costs for essential materials like lumber and building products are going to go up, and as consumers feel the economic impacts, they are likely to pause their search for the perfect home, adding to the uncertainty.

But higher costs for essential materials doesn’t necessarily mean that manufactured housing companies have to start exponentially raising prices to keep up until the dust settles. One often overlooked area where you can reduce expenses is by optimizing your IT infrastructure. 

In an industry where every dollar counts, rethinking your IT strategy could be the key to offsetting rising costs caused by the tariffs. 

In this blog, we’re going to show you how IT management services can help you cut costs, improve efficiency, and strengthen cybersecurity ensuring your manufactured housing business stays competitive no matter what the economy is doing.

Understanding the 2025 tariffs

Today (March 4, 2025) marks the effective date of President Trump’s executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico. A 10% tariff was also levied on China and Hong Kong. Manufactured housing companies are particularly vulnerable to these tariffs due to the reliance on imported construction materials. 

If you’re in the manufactured housing industry, here’s what these tariffs could mean for you:

Increased cost of materials: Lumber, especially softwood lumber products, are often imported from Canada, which is now subject to a 25% tariff on top of the already effective 14.5%. This means that the overall Canadian lumber tariffs will be up to almost 40%. With the additional 25% tariffs on goods imported from Mexico, we’re looking at increased building product costs across the board.

This escalation leads to higher production costs, making it difficult for manufactured housing companies to maintain profitability without significantly raising prices.

Supply chain disruptions: As suppliers reassess sourcing strategies to help mitigate their own costs, this could lead to supply chain disruptions which will cause project delays.

Reduced profitability: As material costs rise and supply chains are disrupted, your profit margins could shrink if you don’t find a way to reduce costs elsewhere. 

While this section might feel doom and gloom, we’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be. In the next section, we’re going to dive into exactly how your IT could be costing you more than you think, and where you can make the necessary changes to help alleviate some of the financial burden of the 2025 tariffs.

Hidden IT costs in manufactured housing

In most industries, IT is often overlooked until it becomes a problem. Most businesses, especially small to medium sized businesses, overlook their IT because it functions on the backend. It’s easy to forget it’s there until something needs to be upgraded or something new needs to be implemented. 

Maintaining outdated IT systems is actually costing you more than you think. Let’s peek under the hood:

High maintenance: Outdated IT infrastructure requires constant repairs and manual updates. The cost of maintaining old servers and systems can add up quickly, especially if they are frequently malfunctioning. This ongoing maintenance is not only expensive but can divert valuable time away from growing your business.

Limited scalability: Older IT systems don’t scale with you. As your business grows, your legacy systems may not be able to handle the increased load, forcing you to invest in costly upgrades or new hardware. This lack of scalability can stifle your growth and create unnecessary financial strain.

Increased vulnerability to cyber attacks: Older systems are often less secure, making them prime targets for cybercriminals. Without the latest security patches, your data and customer information are at a much higher risk of being breached. The cost of a cyber attack – from legal fees to lost business – can far outweigh the investment in modern, secure IT solutions.

Unnecessary Downtime: The average employee loses 20 minutes per day to a lack of IT support. That’s two weeks per year that is spent fighting a downed server or a glitching system instead of focusing on their jobs. If you think about it in terms of numbers, that’s a huge cost for your business. 

These are just a few ways that your outdated IT infrastructure could be costing your business more than you think. Now, let’s get into how you can cut costs and strengthen security.

How managed IT services reduce costs and strengthen security

Managed IT services are a really powerful solution for reducing costs and improving security, especially now. Put simply, managed IT services act as an extension of your team by helping you avoid the high costs of maintaining legacy systems. With managed services, your systems are continuously monitored and maintained, meaning less downtime and fewer (if any) emergency fixes. 

Because managed IT services offer expertise in a variety of IT functions, they can actually help you scale more effectively. You get flexible solutions that grow with your business meaning that you only pay for the services you need, when you need them. This helps you manage costs while optimizing your IT infrastructure. 

Another major benefit is that managed IT services actually strengthen your cybersecurity defenses. With 24/7 monitoring and proactive threat mitigation, the risk of cyberattacks or data breaches is significantly reduced, protecting you and your business from a financial disaster that is all too commonplace these days. 

MSPs are your IT partner, not just outsourced IT support. They can help guide you through best practices and recommend critical changes to your IT infrastructure that will inevitably cut costs. From cloud migration to patching up cybersecurity breaches and helping you transition away from costly and outdated legacy systems, having an MSP on your side is a game changer.

Network Thinking Solutions: Helping Manufactured Housing Businesses Thrive

At Network Thinking Solutions, we know that the 2025 tariffs are putting a strain on the manufactured housing industry. Rising costs and tighter margins are forcing many businesses to rethink how they operate. That’s where we come in.

Our managed IT services can help streamline your IT, reduce unnecessary costs, and make your business more secure—all without the headache. We specialize in helping businesses like yours cut through the complexity and focus on what really matters: keeping your operations running smoothly and efficiently.

Seamless IT Management: We’ll ensure your IT infrastructure is optimized for both efficiency and cost-effectiveness, enabling smoother operations and reducing unnecessary expenses.

Comprehensive Security & Monitoring: We proactively monitor your systems for any potential threats, providing around-the-clock cybersecurity to minimize risks and keep your business protected from data breaches.

Cost-Effective Solutions: With managed IT services, you only pay for the resources you need, helping you avoid costly overages and making your IT investment work for you.

Scalability & Flexibility: As your business grows, we’ll help you scale your IT infrastructure to match your needs, ensuring you stay competitive and future-proof.

Ready to optimize your IT infrastructure and cut costs in the face of 2025’s tariffs? We’re at TEXCO 2025! Contact us or meet us onsite to learn more.