Living in the Los Angeles area means that our real estate prices are insanely high compared to salaries. One might ask, “Why don’t you just move?” But it’s never as easy as that. So, instead of giving up on ever owning a house, we decided to “think outside the box” and get creative. Our creative thinking led to purchasing a manufactured home in a community. We’re still in the midst of finalizing the design and waiting on final pricing, but in about 5 months, we should be moving into our brand new home.

I’ve found that there are some benefits to purchasing a manufactured home compared to buying an existing one or even designing one from scratch. The one benefit I think stands out the most is the design element – you can choose pretty much exactly what you want, tweak the floor plan, and in a matter of months have a well-built home. Obviously, buying an existing home limits your choices based on what’s for sale and building a home from scratch is a much longer process. Another benefit to buying manufactured is that the home is very well built with excellent insulation, double-pane windows, and a whole-house ventilation system.

There are also many manufactured home companies to choose from, so if you can’t find a plan you like at one company, you can select a plan from another. Some of my favorite plans and exterior designs come from Karsten Homes and Palm Harbor. Of course, most of the companies mimic each other in one way or another, so if one company’s pricing is not within your budget, you can switch to another company and find a similar plan for less. Here are just a few I personally like:

Karsten floor plans with the courtyard option are quite sweet:

Karsten floor plan and exterior
Karsten floor plan and exterior

The Kingsbrook by Silvercrest has a nice exterior (very similar floor plan and exterior to the Golden West Limited Edition that we picked out):

Silvercrest Kingsbrook Model
Silvercrest Kingsbrook Model

Ultimately, we picked out a Golden West Limited Edition Beach Front and tweaked the plan a bit turning one of the bedrooms into a den that is attached to our living room making a huge open area in the front:

Our Golden West Limited Edition floor plan w/modifications
Our Golden West Limited Edition floor plan w/modifications

We’ll soon know if we are over our budget and by how much!

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