The Manufactured Housing Process

Picking Your Land

In our opinion, the land is alive. It has a life force whether you are looking at a tree, a rock, a lake, a stream, or a blade of grass. There is life energy there. Picking the land may be the single most important part of the process, for even after your home has crumbled to dust over hundreds of years, the land remains and eventually reclaims its realm.

When you make an appointment to look at land and lots, have a check list of features your land will need to be happy or content--your perfect piece of land. Treat this home site as the last one you will ever have. Assume you will be living here for the rest of your life. What will you need to be happy? Are you looking for a retreat or a place where people gather. Will it need moving, a lake, an ocean, a stream, a pond, or do you prefer pasture and meadowlands? Do you like woods or open farm land. Maybe you like the beach, or perhaps you want to live where all the action is, or near enough to it to be convenient. All these things need to be decided in advance. Take your time and don't rush this process. Take the time to dream. Do you like the big city or are you small town people? Do you like the country or the suburbs?

Go land hunting with these things in mind. We found our land under farms and acreage in the news paper. Some manufactured home dealers have land contacts they can refer you to, but they will only do that after you have committed to a home. This is why we chose to find the land ourselves first. Then, we picked the house.

Don't cross a piece of land off right away just because it may seem more expensive than you want to invest in. Wait until you have to make a choice, for there may come a moment that you find your perfect piece of land. Having to settle for less may take the joy out of your process. You can always purchase a lesser home for now, and upgrade later. Land waits for no man and after all, the perfect piece of land can make all the difference in your future happiness.

When you walk onto a piece of land, walk into it. Walk the boundaries, traverse it, study it. Do this with each lot you look at. Take time to feel how it makes you feel. If one particular lot makes you feel better than the rest, go back and walk it again. Write down your observations. Try to figure out what it is that makes you feel the way you do. Why does one property give you joy, while another causes you no feelings at all?

Do this with each piece of land until you have them narrowed down to two. Then walk them both again, this time allowing yourself to take in every aspect of it. It won't be hard to know which is right for you. When you are on the right land, suddenly everything is possible. Your mind will start reeling with all sorts of ideas and plans for its future. It will excite you, amaze you, thrill you, make you feel safe and content-- at home.

The Land

Looking at this spot from the west

Never fall in love with the land as it is when you choose it. This is one view of a part of our property before we fully understood the process. As you can see, we have our lawn chairs set out under the canopy of a stand of oaks nestled among the woods that make up the majority of our property. We had picked this spot for our patio area. The house will be sitting towards the front of the property. We wanted to insure a natural setting and preserve the wild nature of the property. The front of the property was open with only a few stands of trees dotting the area. We picked out a natural clearing for the house to save as many trees as possible. So we thought.

This is a picture of this same spot on our land as it is today. We are viewing it, however, from the South looking north. The two oaks in the background are all that is left of the beautiful stand of oaks you see in the top picture behind the man sitting in the lawn chair. In the foreground is a vast wasteland known as the drain field for the septic system. This wasteland lies directly behind the house between the house and the woods.

Shock is not a word I would use in describing my reaction when I drove up to our property and saw this picture. We had asked the land developer to not do anything until we got there and had a chance to discuss our plans for the land. We wanted to make sure everything was left as pristine as possible. The bulldozer had already been there when we arrived at our property. The bulldozer operator told us he had saved two of the oaks for us. Yea!

Why was this done? This is the spot the Department of Sanitation had designated for our septic system. It was the only spot on the land that perked, (meaning that it had proper drainage for the septic system). It had to be dug along the natural contours of the land. And, since the tree roots would become entangled in the sewer lines, they had to be removed. Knowing this did not help the feelings of being violated. Had we been allowed to participate in the decision-making process, we would not have felt this way. We may not have liked the outcome, but we would have felt that we were part of it and had time to adjust. We were shut out of the process at every turn. It was infuriating and often times heart breaking.

This is why we say to you, do not fall in love with the land as you see it for the first time! There are many stages of the process which will change the entire look of your property. We are providing this information so you will be fore warned and prepared for the process once it begins.

Picking the Home Site

Let us say that you have been looking at homes at this point and you have basically settled on a home design . When you are deciding where to put your home on your land, face all four directions. Stand at different spots. visualize yourself walking to a window and looking out. Visualize looking out the living room window, the kitchen, the family room, the bedroom. See what the view will be from each room. Feel the rightness or the wrongness of it. Before you know it, you will know just where the home will sit on your property. Bring stakes and spools of fluorescent marking ribbon , (the kind used by surveyors and building contractors.)

Pick one corner and place a stake. Tie a piece of the ribbon to the stake. Measure the length of the house and place another stake. Do this on each long side from each corner. Then start at one corner and measure the short length across the width of the house. Adjust the stakes until the stakes are square. This gives you your basic site.

Have the contractor, who will oversee your house set up, visit the site with you and provide information on site preparation. This is when you will find out all the land changes that will need to be done. Also, the septic and water cannot be done until you have picked a home site. This is the time you notify the land owner that it is time for these things to be done. If any trees have to be removed this is the time for this. This is also the time when most of your permits need to be procured.

These expenses are out of pocket. The home owner is responsible for site preparation and most of , if not all of the permits needed. The permits are paid for at the time of application. The site prep cost must be paid for either before or at the time of closing. This is also the time for any driveway, drainage ditches, leveling, scraping etc. to be done.

Trees may be a valuable commodity in your area. It may be possible to sell any trees, that have to be taken out, to a local saw mill. This needs to be researched before the trees come out. If you don't specify that you will mill the trees and retain the profit from them, the person doing the work or even the land owner may reap these profits. Since selling the trees could counter the cost of the site prep, you might look into this possibility, if trees have to be removed.

Special Note

Your piers and footers must be placed on virgin soil. If any fill dirt is used it must be compacted and a penetrometer used to measure the compactness before the footers can be dug. This is a crucial factor in setting the house and site preparation. So check with the manufactured housing contractor before bringing in any fill dirt for the home site.

Talk to your land. Ask its permission to place your home there. Thank the land for the beautiful spot. The following information may sound a little silly, however, we found that it helps in bonding to the land and establishing an energy connection to your land. You've heard of talking to your plants, haven't you? Well, this is the same thing, just on a larger scale.

Spend time on the land during the process. We would bring our lawn chairs and set up an area that we called our patio. We would come out every chance we could and picnic and walk the woods and listen to the breezes in the trees and the twitter of the birds. Each time we came out we discovered new and exciting things about our land. Once we saw wild turkeys. Another time we found a flying squirrel nest. Our neighbors told us of the deer that frequented our land. It was enchanted. We ventured into town and peeked in at all the shops and learned the town. It soon felt like home. We even made friends at the local corner grocery store and gas station.

The Process Continues - Click here!