Understanding Pricing on PA Modular Homes

Has anyone ever asked where you bought your “box on a lot”? Do you even know what that means?

When shopping for a new modular home, most people check with a few builders, walk through their models, and ask for price sheets. They look at the number and assume this is the cost of their new manufactured home, built and ready to move in. They expect that a basement will cost extra (maybe $10,000), but aside from that, their home will be complete for the advertised price.

Here’s where we bring you back to reality.

Basements are not $10,000, unless you don’t want a floor, doors, stairs, windows or anything but the walls; and everything is not included in the price of your home, unless you’re looking for a literal “box on a lot”. Or, at least that’s what you’ll find at some home sales centers.

Not all home builders are created equal. With that in mind, do you even know what a box on a lot is? At RidgeCrest Home Sales (a Western PA Modular Home builder), we’re not sure either. You can’t live in your new manufactured home or modular home unless it’s weather tight and on a foundation. Since most home buyers don’t have the means or the experience to do this on their own, why would we sell you a home that isn’t fully constructed?

In order to keep their prices comparable, many manufacturers and resellers have begun selling homes without setup or delivery included. In some cases, merging of the halves (or boxes) to construct your home is not included either; hence the term, box on a lot. At RidgeCrest Home Sales, we’ve had many discussions of the pros and cons of “home only” pricing. For the buyer who is collecting price sheets and not reading the fine print – or asking what’s included – our base prices will appear to be about $3,000 to $5,000 more. However, when other retailers give you the cost of delivery and home setup, their bottom line price has proven to be the same or more than RidgeCrest Home Sales.

In keeping with our pledge to do more, tell you more, and include more, we’ve decided to continue including normal delivery and home setup in our advertised prices. We will continue to provide budget amounts for additional code required items such as your foundation, excavation, utility hookups, etc. If we were purchasing a home and had no prior knowledge of factory built homes, we would assume the price of the home would include delivery to the site and it’s full constructed. While our industry is competitive, RidgeCrest Home Sales hopes our customers appreciate our honest business strategy.

When shopping for your new double wide or single wide home, ask what’s included in the price and be sure you get the answer in writing. You should also ask what is NOT included in the price and request an estimated budget to complete all code required items. Many items will be site and home specific, but any experienced home consultant will be able to give you a ballpark figure based on previous construction of similar sized homes.

For more information on what you need to know when buying a home, view our Buyer Shopping List on our website and browse our selection of floor plans.