If you’ve been following our journey of building a manufactured home, I’m happy to say we were approved for the total amount of our manufactured home, even though we went over budget by $24,000. Our next step is to hand over the down payment of $25,000 ($2,000 more than anticipated), ouch!

If you’ve not been following, you can check out my manufactured page with the links here.

We went over budget for a few different reasons including ($ – little impact, $$ – moderate impact, $$$ – greatest and most expensive impact on the budget):

  1. Modified floor plan – $: We made some changes and broke out a wall to create a den that opens off the living room. This really didn’t cost as much as it would sound like it would, but it added on a few hundred dollars.
  2. We flipped the floor plan – $: We wanted the whole thing flipped, again not really a big deal since it’s a double wide. They’ll just build it in reverse, sort of, and the price difference was only a few hundred dollars.
  3. Granite counter tops throughout house – $$: This was a splurge in the difference of a few thousand dollars. However, our other options were pretty crappy.
  4. Laminate wood flooring – $$: Again, this was a difference of a few thousand dollars. We could have just gone with linoleum and carpet, but wouldn’t have been very happy and would have had to replace the carpets (in the living/den area) within 8-10 years. (I think I’m justifying this additional expense by saying we won’t have to replace flooring for a very long time.)
  5. Upgraded appliances – $$: We weren’t happy with their base model package, they were very low-end. This ended up costing a few thousand dollars extra, but well worth it.
  6. Garage – $$$: The biggest budget buster was the garage. We were told upfront that garages add on an additional $28,000+ expense to a manufactured house. Yet, we really felt it added more value to the house and made it seem more like a house and less like a manufactured house. The garage definitely came in around $28,000.

We’re very happy with all of the upgrades and options we’ve added and ended up with including very nice appliances and a farm house sink as well as a very large patio behind our garage to work with in terms of an outdoor area. Our driveway is also quite long and will easily accommodate two parked cars (if not more) for guests. The estimated time frame we are now looking at is about 4-6 months with the building of the house and the construction work that takes place at the site.

The most painful part is parting with the cold, hard cash we’ve saved up over the past two years. Two years may sound like plenty of time, but we had to get super creative to save that much cash (I’ll have to do another post on the risks we took to make this down payment possible). Now, that cash that’s been sitting in various accounts for the past couple of years will be plunked down into a house (technically an escrow account).

We’re waiting for the final purchase order to sign and expedite the building process. On a side note, we’ve run into a hiccup with the final order. The last time we met with the designer, which was a month ago, we made a few changes. The price he’s given us does NOT include a few modifications we asked for, so hopefully our final price won’t change much. ARGH!!!!!

UPDATE: This weekend we’ll be signing the updated purchase order (which tacked on another $1,400!) which begins the build process.

Interested in the process of buying a manufactured home? Check out my previous posts:
An Option for the Home Hungry
I’m Buying a Manufactured Home
Step 2: Waiting on Park Approval
Step 3: Designing a Manufactured House
Step 4: Waiting on Final Pricing
Step 5: Final Pricing Is In

4 Comments

  1. Money Beagle Reply

    Very exciting times. You’ll be posting pictures during the construction itself, I hope!

  2. Millennial Moola Reply

    I suppose the smaller and cheaper the house, the more money you can spend beautifying the inside. I like it!

    • Definitely “cheap” by Los Angeles standards which allowed us to upgrade lots of items! I’ll be posting more photos as they begin to build the house and deliver it.

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