This is a little bit complex, but bear with me and I’ll give you an overview of what is possible and what isn’t.
First of all let me say that we strongly recommend that you pay cash for your entire process and that is what happens in the majority of the homes we put in. Having said that, there are times that a loan is needed for part of the process and that has worked out for some of our clients. The following is information on it, but please understand that we are not lenders and you must get all that information from the professionals listed below.
For specifics as to applying for a loan, rates, etc., you must talk to a lending institution. By law, we can’t give you that information. However, we do have two sources that we recommend who our clients have worked with successfully in the past. Their contact information is at the end of this article.
Overall information
For a replacement project to work out where you save the largest amount of money, you first need to own or purchase the lot (and older home) the new home will be built on. You cannot get a loan to both purchase the lot and older home as well as for the construction of a new home.
Note: for you to be able to get the totality of a new home and lot for it to be bundled into a financing package, a Manufactured Home Dealer would need to buy the lot and they would then mark-up the final purchase price significantly (up to $80,000 or more or whatever the market would bear). That is standard in the industry as they are assuming all the risk. When you are able to do it in the way described below, you save that mark-up.
We work directly with you as the homeowner, but for you to save the Dealer mark-up, you have to own the lot (and the older home on it). There are exceptions if you have lived there for some time and only have a small amount on your loan to pay off and the property has appreciated significantly–but you need to talk to your lender about specific cases.
Here is the typical process
- If you don’t have a lot, we can help you find a lot with an older home on it and you can buy it. If you already live in an older home you want to replace (or inherited it) you then go to the next step.
- You contact us and we can give you a rough estimate of the costs for putting on a new home. This will be a TOTAL, realistic estimate.
- At that point, you want to talk to a Lender (the contact and other information from the two we recommend is below).
- If the loan is approved, we will then write the contract and work out the payment plan with the lender.
- You will need to pay the upfront design and plot plan fees to us to proceed. This cannot be part of the loan. This is $6,500.
- If you have cash (which is always easiest and best), we simply write the contract and all the monies go into escrow.
- The escrow instructions will carefully detail the payouts of the monies, which must go to the factory for building the home, transport to bring it to the lot, the set-up costs (including lot prep and all accessory items such as driveway, shed, etc.), and finally the payouts to our company, Dealer of Record, taxes.
- Your home is built and you have a wonderful new home!
