Build Your Dream Home: Floor Plan Designs in Manufactured Homes
Every manufactured home retailer offer a variety of floor plan designs. Although it is impossible to offer every option with every home, most floor plans can be customized. This is the beauty of a manufactured home: design flexibility. With design flexibility, it is fairly easy to take a feature from one home floor plan and add it to another. A buyer has the ability to customize his home from an existing pre-approved floor plan so that it is the best fit possible.
Before you buy
Look at a number of different homes and plans before you decide to purchase a manufactured home. If possible, get copies of the floor plans from different retailers. Looking at a number of different home styles will give you a good idea of what will and what will not work for you. For example, you may love the idea of a kitchen island. However, when you see a model home, you may realize it will not be practical for a large active family.
Most retailers offer features like garden tubs, fireplaces, parent retreats, and placement of the master bedroom away from other bedrooms. And existing rooms can be repurposed. For instance, a dining room that falls between the kitchen and bedrooms could be converted to additional bedroom space. Or, it might be possible to open up that space to create a great room. Most likely there is an existing floor plan that already addresses these scenarios.
Using a floor plan design as a tool
Get a printed copy of the plan for every home you like. Make a note of your favorite features as well as those you dislike. Photocopy several plans and cut them up. Then take pieces of your favorite features and place them into a plan that you mostly
like, to create a new plan. Use this ideal plan to help show the retailer what is most important to you.
Customizing your manufactured home
Once you find a home layout that you find most appealing, see where you can remove items that don’t suit you and add items that are lacking. Talk to your manufactured home sales consultant to see where you can remove items or features that don’t suit you, and add items that are lacking. Talk to your sales representative to see where you can save money so that the project will stay within your budget. You will need to know if the changes you are requesting will require engineering fees to accomplish. If so, you might reconsider an item that, as a result of those fees, may be a “budget buster.”
Plan for a bargain
You may find several floor plan designs that meet your needs without customization. One of those designs may be on the retailers’ display center just waiting for a buyer. After a certain amount of time, it starts costing the retailer to hold onto unsold inventory. Last year’s model may work for you. Ask for a deal. Savvy shoppers can save big on homes that have been on display for a while. Many times, slightly older models will sell at a deep discount even though they are still new. In these cases, think of it as buying a floor model.
The layout of your new manufactured home will be one of the most important aspects of the buying decision. This is the reason that manufactured home builders offer such an array of floor plans and customization options. They know that each manufactured home buyer has different needs and desires. This personalized aspect of manufactured housing construction is what makes a manufactured house a home.
(Kitchen design photo via Champion Homes)
