How Much is a Mobile Home?
A new three-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home installed will typically cost between $40,000 to $160,000 not including land, site work, or additional structures. You can buy homes for a little less, and you can always find someone willing to sell you a home for more.
If you are putting your home in a mobile home park, you generally won’t have too many additional costs. If you own land, but there has never been a mobile home there before, you will often find additional costs. You may also choose to add decks, a garage, premium skirting, and other features along with your home that can also add to the price tag.
We will cover what goes into the cost below. Remember, these are general guidelines. Everyone’s situation is different, so be sure to call and get a quote tailored to your situation.
Want just a quick number? You can easily get a close estimate for the cost of a home with upgrades, delivery, and set-up on our website. The estimate will be pretty close if you are going to put your home in a mobile home park or on land that is ready for your mobile home, barring any surprises. Just test drive our “Delivery Estimate” tool on any home model page on our website (like the Clayton Amelia Mobile Home). If you are putting this home on land that needs to be made ready for the home, or if you want additional structures added to the property, you will definitely want to call a salesperson for price estimates.
Why the Big Price Range?
That’s a great question. Let’s break down the costs when buying a mobile home. The cost of the home itself will be affected by the factory building the home, the square footage, the sections, the options, and the delivery location. Then, we can talk about utilities, site work, and other structures you want with the home.
The Cost of the Home
How the Factory of the Mobile Home Affects Price
Mobile home factories generally stick to only a few models targeted at a narrow audience. For instance, when we talk about Tru Homes, their factories try to create as much value for your dollar as possible and they appeal to folks that want their dollar to go as far as possible. When we look at Buccaneer Homes that supplies our Clayton Farm House series, they focus on luxury mobile homes with that classic farmhouse style.
Because Tru Homes focuses on value for your dollar, you will find limited options. The reason they offer limited options is because the more a factory customizes each home, the longer every home takes to build. Think about it this way, there is a reason the automobile wasn’t very common until Henry Ford created the assembly line to make them all inexpensively, but to make the assembly line more efficient, the cars were pretty much all the same.
If you want to choose every little detail about the home, you will automatically find yourself buying a home from a factory that costs more because every home is essentially a custom home. It takes more work to build those completely custom homes.
The materials each factory uses will also be different. Tru Homes builds economical VOG walls while the Farm Homes are all Tape and Texture walls. The VOG walls take a ton less time to install, therefore, that wall type can save you a lot of money.
Yet, if you want a refined look, you will appreciate the extra details some factories add to their homes. Thinking of the Farm Homes again, they come with a weathered wood entertainment wall with an optional fireplace. It looks great, but definitely adds to the cost.
Hopefully you are starting to see why the costs may vary so much from factory to factory.
How the Square Footage of the Mobile Home Affects Price
This one is not going to be rocket science. The larger the home, the more materials the home needs, and the more labor required to build the home. A bigger home will also need a larger heating and cooling system.
How the Home Options/Upgrades of the Mobile Home Affects Price
Okay, this one is not going to surprise you either. The more upgrades you choose, the more the house is going to cost. Some options are just personal choices, like with the farmhouse style homes, you can choose to add a fireplace or an additional six inches to the wall height for a more open feel to the home.
Other choices we strongly everyone to choose, such as the Energy Star or Energy Smart Home Package upgrades. The energy saving upgrades often pay for themselves in just a few short years by reducing your utility costs on average of about 30% compared to a similar home without an energy efficiency package.
There are no right or wrong upgrades to choose, but most people should plan on adding a few thousand dollars in upgrades over the base price of the home.
How the Sections of the Mobile Home Affects Price
Most mobile homes come as a single section (single wide) or as two sections (double wide), though there are some homes available with more sections. Expect a single wide home from the same factory to cost less per square foot than a double wide. There are two reasons for the cost difference.
First, a double wide will automatically double the cost of delivery, because you are shipping two sections instead of one section. On top of that, double wide mobile homes have extra setup steps to join the two halves and then “trim out” the home where the sections meet. Depending on how far the delivery address is from the property, shipping the extra section could add a significant amount to the final cost of your home.
How the Delivery Location of the Mobile Home Affects Price
The first and most obvious cost when it comes to delivery address is the transportation cost. The further the home has to be hauled, the higher the cost will be to ship the home.
Yet there are other costs based on your location. Depending on where you live, there may be additional permits required, there are different taxes on the purchase of a home from each state, and more.
The Cost of the Property and Your Mobile Home
The Sky is the Limit with Land Costs
If you put your mobile home in a mobile home park, the only cost you need to worry about is the cost of the lease. If you are trying to estimate how much you are going to pay for land, the best thing to do is figure out about how much land you want, go online, and see what the average price is for the property size and area you want to live.
We are not even going to try to give you a price range for land. If you buy the land, you could pay as little as $2,000 for an unimproved acre in rural Lewis County, Missouri, to millions if you buy yourself a ranch with tens of thousands of acres out west. Finding out your local rates really is your best option.
There are two key points we want to bring up when it comes to shopping for land. Life will be easier and potentially cheaper if you don’t buy land for your home that is part of a flood plain. You will need more insurance, you may not qualify for certain loans, and there could be additional site work necessary to raise your home higher.
Also, look for the word “improved” when shopping for land. “Improved” land means that there should be utilities already connected to the property. Improved land will cost you more to buy but could save you a ton of money later on when it comes to hooking your home up to the local utilities.
The Cost of Hooking Up Utilities to Your Land
If you have improved land, and the utilities are up to date and properly sized, it will cost relatively little to hook up the utilities. If your land isn’t “improved,” you can plan on at least $10,000 to get connected, and it could be as high as $40,000 or possibly more. The closer your land is to public utilities, the less expensive it is going to be. If you are a mile away from power lines plus you need a well and septic system, the cost will be a lot higher to add utilities than land that is already near utility lines.
You will have to choose the land before you can get an estimate on these costs. This is where connecting with a sales representative earlier in the process can be a big help because they will be able to let you know what to expect in your area based on the experience of previous customers.
The Cost of Site Work and Additional Structures
This is another area where it will be best to connect with a sales representative to get costs, because the cost of something like a deck will vary significantly depending on the size you want and the going hourly rate for local contractors.
If the home is going in a mobile home park, you are likely good already, and you probably won’t have to pay for site improvements. That said, every mobile home park is different, so be sure you understand your lease agreement before signing on the dotted line.
If you bought land that has never had a mobile home before, you will need a base pador foundation for the home. Base pads in Texas typically run $2,000 – $4,500 while a foundation (required for a VA or FHA loan) is often in the range of $6,500 to $10,000. This cost can vary from region to region, with significantly higher costs in the far northern states where the deeper frost line means you need a deeper foundation.
Be sure to connect with a sales representative at your local mobile home dealership to get estimates on additional structures. They will know the going cost for common additions like stairs, decks, and what not.