Modular Building Process
1. Before Buying A Home, Get Your Finances In Order
Line up your financing, set aside a down payment (if required), and study the loan programs available. By doing your homework, you will know exactly how much you can pay and what it will cost you.
- Get Pre-Approved or Pre-Qualified
- Experts recommend speaking to a lender about getting pre-approved or pre-qualified for a mortgage as soon as you become serious about buying a home to see what price range you can afford and what your approximate monthly payments will be.
- If you don’t have a lender, we have some lenders in our financing page you can contact.
- A homebuyer is always free to choose the mortgage company of their preference. Always compare interest rates and fees.
2. Locating A Home Site
There are a few key items to think about when buying a site for a new home construction. For proper drainage, the house should not be in a low spot or at the bottom of a hill where runoff will head. Each piece of property has easements that dictate where utility lines can go. Set backs, septic / well locations, and lot restrictions will also influence the actual location of the house.
- Does the lot you are looking at have public utilities? If so, we need to learn about any connections or tap fees that have to be paid.
- Buyers should contact the electric companies servicing the site area. Power companies require homeowners to make application for service. Hence, it is the purchaser’s responsibility to make such application. The power provider will make the determinations as to how service is to be installed (underground or overhead).
- If it is a rural site, does the land have the ability to have a septic system installed? If so, what type? There is large variation in prices of septic systems. Also learn about access to water for your new home.These are questions you will want to know the answer to before you purchase your potential building site.
3. Permits & Inspections
Our General Contractor will make sure that the proper permits are obtained, building codes are met, and that inspectors are scheduled. With modular construction, this typically means finished electrical, finished plumbing, mechanical (heating and cooling) system inspections, and final inspection.
4. Select Your Floor Plan
You can choose a floor plan from our website that meets your needs, or bring us a floor plan of your choice. If you can draw it, in most cases we can build it.
6. Finalizing The Home Specifications
At this stage we will prepare the final contract. This contract will provide a detailed outline of the transaction.
- Floor Plan Print Sign Off
- Contract Price
- Site Improvements Included
- Interior / Exterior Specifications Sign Off
- Final Colors, Countertops, and Floor Covering Specifications
- This is the contract your finance company will require to provide you with your final loan commitment.
7. Placing The Home Order
Once your final loan commitment is received, we will order your home from the specified Manufacturer. The home construction period will range from 3 – 6 weeks depending on the Manufacturer’s backlog.
8. Site Improvements
While your home is built at the Manufacturer, site improvements will begin immediately. Excavation can happen quickly. It will be important to make sure that any trees you want to keep are protected. Insure a place to take excess dirt from the excavation is available. Plan exactly where it will go on your building site. It can’t interfere with construction vehicles, crane locations, or the staging / storage area for your modular home sections.
9. Site Delivery of Your Home
Your new home will be shipped directly from the Manufacturer to your site.
- The modular home delivery, set and weathering in is a process that happens quickly. Essentially, a well-coordinated jobsite will have the modular delivery, modular set, and the weatherization of a home that is 85 – 95% complete in 2 – 5 days depending on the complexity of your new home.
- A modular home typically comes in 2 or more sections/modules. These sections can be 14’ – 16’ wide and up to 76’ long. The building site must be managed in such a way as to allow a crane to get near the foundation and access each of the sections easily to assemble them on the foundation.
- If there is limited room on the jobsite, a staging area to store the home sections may be required. This may also require the use of a toter, a specialized truck to jockey the home sections from the staging area to the modular home site.
10. Assembling Your Home on the Foundation
Our experienced licensed and insured home set contractors will set and assemble your home on the foundation. A two section home is set and weathered in within one day. A home with 6 -8 sections can usually be completed in 2 – 3 days. This process is heavily dependent on the weather. At the end of the assembly of your home it will be weather tight. This means that the roof shingles are completely installed, any and all side walls are up, and all windows that may have been installed at the site are at least rough set.
11. Exterior Finishes
Now is the time to complete the exterior finish of your new home. If you have chosen vinyl siding, much of this has already been installed at the manufacturing site. The remainder will need to be installed onsite. Soffit, fascia, and guttering will also need to be completed onsite. If you have chosen specialty siding, the amount of work to be completed onsite vs. at the factory will vary. Any porches or decks will also be completed at this time.
12. Interior Finishes
When completing a modular home, the finish work is typically confined to minimal drywall, light trim, and floor finishing/seaming work. As a modular home comes in sections, this work is usually limited to work on “mating” walls (i.e. walls where the sections line up and attach to each other.) Systems like electrical and plumbing are basically completed in the factory within the sections and must be tied into the onsite connections.
13. Mechanical Systems
This section of the process involves installing cooling systems/heat pump (HVAC), oil or gas furnace, or radiant heating.
14. Final Inspection
We, the General Contractor, will schedule the final inspection. Upon its successful completion, the Building Inspector will issue a Certificate of Occupancy. This certificate is evidence that your jurisdiction has approved your new home for occupancy.
15. Final Closing
The Certificate of Occupancy is required by your lender for final closure of your loan. All parties to the transaction will work closely with your lender to schedule the closing which normally takes place at a title company or an attorney’s office.Closing is the formal transfer of ownership from the seller (the builder) to the buyer (you). “Closing Statement” or “Settlement Sheet” – is an itemized statement of charges to be paid at closing. The charges can vary depending on your loan type. When you’re finished, the settlement agent will record and then you receive the keys to your new Home!
It is important to start the process as early as possible. The longest part of the building process is usually arranging your financing, waiting on appraisals, health permits and building permits. This can take several months. The actual erecting of your home only takes from 30 to 90 days depending on the amount of site-built additions, modular sections, and of course, weather conditions.
