How Much Does It Cost to Buy a Prefab Home?

03/03/2020
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Prefab homes have become the popular choice of living for those who prefer to lead a more affordable and greener lifestyle. But how much does it cost to buy a prefab home? The answer depends on a number of factors. For example, the size of your container house, any customization demands, the laws of the place you live in, and more.

The price you see on prefab home manufacturers’ brochures and websites only tells half the story. Some are providing you with per square foot pricing while others would give you just the base price for the entire house. That being said, we are providing you with a detailed list of where your money is going when purchasing your small prefab house. This blog includes an estimate of how much it would cost you from ordering small modern prefab homes down to the customization. Read on to know more!

prefab home construction

Contents

The base price refers to the manufacturing costs of the selected prefab small houses. The average price of your prefab home at this point is about $50 per square feet. The price only reflects the base plan without any customization charges or changes to that base plan. The initial quote would only include the sections of your small prefab house as seen exactly on the base plan of your chosen prefab home. The delivery and installation costs are not included in the quotation.

The final cost of small prefab houses will change as you begin to include add-ons. Also, some companies would include unfinished spaces that are also part of the total footage of large and small prefab homes. These are potential rooms that can be customized to your preference. One such example would be an unfinished attic. Since that attic is unfinished, the base price would be lower compared to a prefab small house with a complete and fully functional attic.

grey detachable shipping container house

Image source:  www.jjchouses.com

To have a prefab home designed according to your artistic taste and design preferences you have to upgrade the base design. Customizations may range from adding another room, say, a garage to the base plan, change the flooring or the countertop finishes to entirely changing the floorplan to adapt to the client’s preferences.

The customization price would go beyond the base price mentioned in the previous section. A highly customized 4 bedroom prefab house can rack up as much as $400,000. The costs you’d expect at this point only include the amount for manufacturing the prefab home in the facility and the customizations that come along with it. It does not include the cost for delivery as well as work to be done on-site. On average, the prefab home at this point costs around $60 per square foot.

Add-on Cost (Average)

  • Two-car garage  – $27,000
  • Deck – $7,500
  • Basement – $18,000-$30,000
  • Shed –  $3,000
customized prefab home

Delivery price includes the cost of manufacturing the prefab home, the cost of customization, the cost for delivery and set up of the prefab home on site. Take note that the price here varies, depending on how far you are from the manufacturing facility of your prefab home. The farther you are to the facility, the more expensive the prefab home becomes. That being said, if you can find a manufacturer that is closer to your area, the better.

You might think that to set up your prefab home upon delivery means to finish entirely. But this is not the case. To set up means only to set and secure the prefab home on its foundation. At this point, the price of your prefab home costs around $65 per square feet.

Here are the things that are not included in this pricing:

 

  • Additional roof work
  • Touch-up
  • Creation of the foundation
  • Attachment of utilities
k-type prefab house

At times, you don’t want to stress yourself out about the ins and outs of building a prefab home. You might want to leave the dirty work to architects, realtors, and prefab home manufacturers, among others. This is the all-in price. Instead of doing it on your own, you’d let your realtor process all the permits, taxes and fees. An all-in price is difficult to estimate as realtors and architects charge differently. What you should do if you prefer this route is to research the average fees of the professionals involved in making your dream prefab home a reality.

transporting prefab homes

At times, you don’t want to stress yourself out about the ins and outs of building a prefab home. You might want to leave the dirty work to architects, realtors, and prefab home manufacturers, among others. This is the all-in price. Instead of doing it on your own, you’d let your realtor process all the permits, taxes and fees. An all-in price is difficult to estimate as realtors and architects charge differently. What you should do if you prefer this route is to research the average fees of the professionals involved in making your dream prefab home a reality.

JJC detachable container house

Apart from the cost of buying and building a prefab home, there are also supplementary costs that differ from region to region. This is where the size of the city comes into play. There are areas where the city council allows large land plots for prefab homes. This, in turn, allows prefab manufacturers to offer larger prefab home designs.

When you are building a prefab home, you need to be connected to the area’s gas line, water line, electricity, and sewage system. Each of these would incur some cost, which could range from $500 per line to $2,900 per installation. You also have to pay the sales tax if you’re going to buy prefab home components. Furthermore, you will have to pay for land clearing if your area is not yet prepared for the prefab home. Permit to build and soil testing are also parts of the cost when building a prefab home.

Steel Structure Prefab Villa in use

Conclusion

Before you order your prefab home, you must know what costs it would entail. Research the fees that might be included in the total cost of building your prefab home so you don’t have to face any unknown costs during the process. Do you have any additional queries about prefab home buying costs? Let us know in the comments below.

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