What Are the Steps To Purchase a Manufactured Home and How Much Time Will It Take?

1. Discovery. (1 Day)

The first step is to discover what is available and what might suit your needs. Set up an appointment with a local housing consultant or retailer and go over what you want with them. These professionals can not only answer your questions but also let you know about answers to questions you haven’t thought of yet. You will want to visit a model village so you can see the homes firsthand and get a feel for them. Sometimes something looks one way on paper and another in real life. Seeing the real thing will give you the inside scoop. You can discuss the options and upgrades you might be interested in as well as the models.

2. Financing. (30 Days)

You will want to set up financing before ordering your home from the manufacturer or making any decisions. This will let you know how much you have available in funds so you can plan accordingly. You will need to set aside funds to not only purchase the home but also build the foundation, buy land if required, arrange transport, and get utilities made available and hooked up. The cost of these items will vary drastically depending on your home site. It would be wise to get as much financing as you can so you know your absolute top expenditure. You don’t have to borrow the full amount but you will know what your limits are.

3. Select a home site. (variable)

Now that you know how much you have to spend it is time to choose where you will be placing your home. The site will inform you about which models are suitable. Or if the site is less important than the model you can choose a model and find a property that will fit it. Do you want to own or rent land in an existing community or do you want to buy a property and put your new home on it? Rural or urban?

4. Choose your model and order your home. (1-30 Days)

This could be a quick process, or it could take a little while, depending on your manufacturer. Once you’ve decided on what you want and all your options and upgrades you will place an order with the manufacturer. The order might be placed right away, or it could be delayed if the manufacturer is overly busy. But in general, this should happen in from 1 to 30 days.

5. Getting Permits. (4-6 months)

Bureaucracy can take a while. Getting permits is painful but necessary. There is nothing worse than having your home delivered to your site and finding out you can’t place it because the permits aren’t correct or you don’t have enough access to the home site to place it on the foundation. Fortunately, this step can be done while your home is being manufactured (step 6) so the time is overlapped rather than being added on. You should have some idea regarding permits before you order your home to make sure the model you’ve chosen is permissible, but the details will take time, and you can order your home beforehand while ironing them out. Some locations do not allow manufactured homes so you will want to have this sorted out before you commit.

6. Having your home built. (6-18 months)

Once your order has been processed the actual construction of your home could take from 6-18 months, again depending on the manufacturer and how busy they are.

7. Land preparation and setup (1-6 months)

Before your new home can be delivered and mounted to your foundation, you will need to prepare the land and build the foundation. The first thing you will want to do is interview contractors. It would be good to find a contractor who specializes in manufactured homes since there are lots of little details they will be aware of. Once you have found your contractor you will need to discuss the type of foundation you wish to build and where it will be located on your property. You might want to also discuss the logistics of getting the home onto your property to make sure you have the clearance required and the process of marrying the various segments of the home if it is a double-wide or triple-wide. Again, it is vitally important to make sure you have access to the site with sufficient room for the home to enter the property before it is delivered. If it can’t be delivered to the site it will go back to the factory. You will also want to make sure the utilities are available since you will want to make sure everything is hooked up correctly when the home is delivered.

8. Freight and transportation. (Time depends on distance traveled)

Once your home has been completed by the factory it will be shipped to your property and set in place on the foundation you built. The travel time will of course be based on the distance from the factory to your property. Once the home arrives it will take a few days to set it up and hook up the utilities. You should check that everything is as it should be while the installation crew is there. Turn on the lights, check the water, and make sure everything was hooked up correctly.

9. Operational inspection. (Depends on local government)

Once the home is in place and all the utilities have been connected some areas may require a government inspection. This will vary depending on where you live. Some places may not require this at all.

10. Punch list and warranty. (30-60 Days)

Once the home has been set up you will want to go through your punch list before moving in. This is checking that everything is as it’s supposed to be and having the contractors fix anything that isn’t up to standard. This is a quick run-through of the entire home. You will want to catch anything that needs adjustment before the contractors leave. Things can shift during transport. Once you have gone through your punch list any defects found after that will be covered by your warranty through the manufacturer.

There you have it. You are moved in and enjoying your new home by this point.