Federal and State Laws and Regulations
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, has outlined some guidelines to be followed when putting up modular homes. This is aimed at ensuring that the house meets the necessary standards. The department also demands that all modular homes have an insignia stating that the houses are safe for human habitation. Most of the laws and regulations are not very different from those spelled out by state and local jurisdictions.
To ensure that your modular house does not pose any threat to your safety and that of the people living around, seek construction permits from the relevant authority. Failure to comply with these rules and regulations might see you incur hefty fines in court. Some of these permits are hard to obtain and if you manage to apply, they may take some time to get approval and this will derail your timeline. To avoid all this struggle and speed up the process of acquiring such permits, work with a contractor from the beginning.
Topography of the Land
Another important and critical factor to determine whether you can build a modular home is the topography of your land. The topography of the land entails things such as the gradient, soil type, and vegetation. If the land is completely or fairly flat, then it is suitable for erecting a manufactured home since it is easier to transport and install it without any hiccups. However, if the land is very inclined, then it will be very hard if not impossible to build a modular home. A very rocky land will need a deep excavation to put up the foundation while a very soft land will be impossible to hold the house in place. You will need to excavate deep otherwise, your modular house may sink in the ground someday. A land with a very deep tree cover may be a little challenging to put up a modular house since you would have to clear a big chunk to pave way for construction and transportation of the house.
Access to the Land
The land on which you plan to build your modular house has to be accessible. If there are no roads connecting to it, then it will be almost impossible to put up any structure. When building the foundation basement of the modular house, transportation trucks need roads to pass through. Without roads, even the trucks transporting the manufactured house will not have access to the site. You would then have to build the roads first then the house, which could skyrocket your construction budget.
Connection to Utilities
In the world, we are living today, water, electricity, and the internet have become among the basic commodities that we cannot survive without. When looking for land to build a modular home, you have to ensure that it is already or will soon be connected to water, electricity, and internet and have a proper sewer line. If your land lacks these amenities, then you have to make up your mind whether to wait or look for another land that is already connected.
Another great and important factor you cannot afford to overlook is the environment of the area where your land is. It has to be clean, unpolluted, and safe for human consumption. With your land given a clean bill of health, it is now time to look for a great contractor to work with. Since there are several companies dealing with manufactured houses, sample a few, and verify their credentials so that you land only the best manufacturer for your house in town. It does not cause you any harm to ask around from the people who have built modular homes in the neighborhood.
