First time buyer, a little uncertain

[Scot]

Gina, you are doing the right thing. Keep gathering information. I checked out a copy of Randy Eatons "How to Buy a Manufactured Home". This book gives a good overview of each step in the process. I found it very helpful to compile a list of what I would want in my home. For me this centered around home construction details, such as roof pitch and load, floor joists, foundation type. With a list of everything my perfect home would have, I could then make informed compromises, which you will have to make because no manufacturer had everything on the list or sometimes the costs were prohibitive.

Since your property is on a sewer system you won't need a septic system. Getting a septic system can be a major obstacle to building. Since you are on a sewer, you probably are not in a rural setting. It is possible that zoning will not allow a manufactured home. Make sure you check this out with the building department of your city or county. Also are there other manufactured homes near your property, this will give you a clue if they are allowed.

The dealer I am using offers what they call a turn key home. This means they have a contractor who does all of the installation process, such as setting the home on its foundation, submitting a site plan, getting permits, grading, electrical, pluming, even adding decks or other site specific construction. You could find someone to do this for you if your dealer does not provide it. Someone like this is a General Contractor who handles all the details and hires the subs. In theory you could save money by hiring the subs yourself. You then become the General Contractor and are responsible for handling scheduling of the subs, getting permits etc.

I had done enough homework to know that the costs were competitive for these services, so I chose to use my dealer’s contractor to do all this. Even if the dealer you are working with is the one you decide to use, make sure check out several other dealers in your area. This will help you gain a level of trust in the one you go with.

[Gina Sigler]

Thank you so much, again. There are quite a few other manufactured homes on the same road and in the area. I often feel kind of like an idiot when it comes to all of this stuff. The more we look into it, the more complicated it seems. We did look at a couple other dealers besides the one we are talking with now but she seemed to have the best prices and seemed more interested in helping us. I just don't really even know what questions to ask her sometimes. We chose the model we liked best but we are going to order the home. She broke down all of the prices and everything for us to look at and decide what we want.

[Gina Sigler]

I don't think our dealer does handle the site work, because she gave us a couple business cards of contractors, that buyers have used in the past, for us to call. She also told us that we may have a hard time getting someone to finance the home if we want just the slab with skirting, that we may have to do a crawl space atleast. I really want to be sure we can even get the house financed before i go thru all this other work. So in your opinion, would it save us money to just get a general contractor to do all the work, or to hire seperate contractors for each job?

[Bill Fry]

I think I would get my financing squared away before I did anything.After that a general contractor would probably be your best choice.