First time buyer, a little uncertain

[Gina Sigler]

Hi, my husband and I, along with our two little ones, are planning to buy a manufactured home to place on a piece of property given to us by my in-laws. We have looked at many models and have decided on what we want. I am just really uncertain about exactly what the next steps are that I should be taking. We hope to place it on a slab instead of a foundation and apply for a construction loan. We also have an aquantaince who is a plumber to do the tap ins and hook ups, but i just don't know what we need to do next. Who decides where the house can be put? Who do we need to call first? We have never purchased a home before and we really don't know anything about what we are supposed to do. Can you help us? Thank you so much!

[Scot]

My wife and I are placing a manufactured home on some property we own. We visited several dealers and talked to lots of salesmen, and viewed many floor plans. What we needed to know was what could be done on our property before we chose a home. We would ask to meet the site prep contractor to discuss these details, but it never seemed to happen. Finally we met the owner of a dealership close to our property at a home show, I explained my problem, he picked up his phone and had the site prep contractor meet me the next day. The contractor told me where the home could be placed, based on zoning etc. He evaluated the septic, water and power situation. The contractor (who I found out later is a co-owner of the business) then called the salesman. Only then did we discuss which home to buy. The salesman also had a detailed list of the costs to prepare the site, thus allowing us to know what the final cost would be when we chose our home. We encountered no high pressure, just good information. This was not the case with any of the other dealers. So my advice is find a dealer who will give you this kind of service, and work with him. They do this every day and have a vested interest in your succeeding.

[Mark]

Scot is going in the right direction.

The FIRST thing you need to do is contact your local Zoning and Planning board and find out if you can even place a mobile home on the property.
You can call them and give them the address or plot ID, and they can look it up.
If it's approved for MH's, then find out what the setbacks are.

Then, you will need a site plan, showing where you would like to place the home (based on Z&P board's info), along with where the septic, power, water and driveway(s) will be.
Remember that the stated homes size is actually smaller.
IE a 24x50 may actually only be 22 x 46
Your measurements don't have to be exact, but they need to be very close.

You will take this back to the Z&P board for approval.

Second, you will take your Z&P permit to the Enviroment office for a septic permit.
Note that if city sewage is available on your property, you may be required to connect to it, rather than installing septic. Even if the property already has septic, you will still need a permit!

Get all your paperwork for these items done before visiting these offices (your MH dealer should have them for you to fill out). Things will go much smoother if you have done your homework.

I've never seen or heard of a manufactured home being placed on a slab. A crawlspace of at least 24" is pretty much the standard code. To do otherwise would require the way the home is built to be completely changed.
Aside from that, doing so would be very expensive right now.

As for the construction loan, you may not need one, if the you can finance in the cost of the site improvements.

Mark
www.thehomeforums.com

[mac]

As to placing the home on a slab - slab foundation with concrete block skirting is very popular in the Pacific Northwest. I wanted at first to have a poured perimeter foundation... was led to believe it was easily done. Maybe so, but not by my manufacturer, who was just starting to do it. I like the slab just fine. I'm out in the country; without the slab and block skirting, critters may tunnel under and in... they did with my old place.

[Mark]

A slab with a crawlspace is NOT the same as a poured slab foundation. The fact that you have skirting tells me the home isn't sitting on the slab, it's sitting on piers.

[Bill Fry]

Being MH's are built on I-beams that are about 24 inches high you would have at least that elevation even if you set it right it down as far as you could on a level slab.Much more practical to pit set it if you want it at ground level.

[Gina Sigler]

Thank you so much. Your response does help a lot. The house will have concrete block skirting, so maybe i just said that wrong. We also live in SW Pennsylvania which may make some difference. I really have no idea at all. The dealer we have been talking to is a small family owned business which has been around for about 60 years so i am kind of trusting her to know what she is talking about. She did give us a name to call for the foundation or crawl space but i have not contacted him yet because i wasn't sure what to do first. Would this be the Site Prep Contractor? Does he do all of that? We do have city sewage on the property which we have to pay a fee to tap into, but they don't allow septic in that area any more. I knew nothing about the Z & P board, she never mentioned that.
We are really very new to all of this and any information is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

[mac]

Mark - any stick-built house in my area sits on piers. Big deal.

[Mark]

Virtually NO homes around here are built off grade. They are built on slab. Meaning the concrete serves as the floor surface for the entire home, septic and water lines are run through the concrete before it's poured..

But, back to Gina's questions..
The dealer should be handling the site prep, foundation work and setup. It's fine if they want to get with you to check on details, but you shouldn't be contracting out these jobs yourself. You absolutely need to find out for sure, in writing, from the Z&P that you can place a manufactured home on your property. If you place it there and it isn't zoned for it, you can be required to remove it, at your own expense, or risk having the home condemned and a lien for the cost of it's removal placed against the property.

[Bill Fry]

In my area nothing other then homes 30 miles inland are built from a slab up.Depends on your elevation and whether or not you're in a flood zone.A slab built house is not superior to a off grade one even though that seems to be Mark's belief.

Not all dealers handle site prep and foundation work.In most cases you would be better off getting your own sub to do this work.That however is on entirely up to the buyer.

Gina, call your counties building dept ,they will be listed in your phone book.Explain to them what you need to do.They will be more then happy to tell you what permits you need to proceed and what inspections they require.
If the property needs site prep(fill dirt,grading,etc a site prep sub contractor
can be hired.He may also be able do the block work and concrete slab for you.You will aso need a licensed electrican to do your hookups.the same goes for the plumbing as all that more then likely needs to be inspected after the work is done.It all depends on your counties building requirements.Call them.

Be sure you are clear on what things cost before hiring subs.Most of the things you will need done are pretty basic so a sub should not have a problem setting a fairly firm cost for you.