California Modular Houses, Inc. offers a variety of modular house plan design services as well as permitting:
We have stock plans on our web-site that are usually the best overall value.
We can customize one of the plans on our web-site. Go to the Contact Us form on the web-site and provide us with some basic information, then let us know you’ll be sending us the mark-up of the plan you want to build on your property and we will be happy to discuss that with you.
If you have an idea of what you want to build and it’s different than the plans on our web-site, you can provide a dimensioned sketch, and we can provide you with a proposal to turn your dream house into reality drawing it up from scratch.
Another way that we work on designs for prefab homes is to start with the property itself and its size. Then address parking along with the setback and local zoning requirements. We can provide a proposal for designing something that meets your needs as well as the requirements of the local planning and zoning department.
We have permitted homes in dozens of jurisdictions around the state, whether it’s a city or a county jurisdiction, we can help you with the entitlement process if that is a service that you need, you are not alone in this.
https://www.californiamodularhouses.com/designdrafting
DESIGN & DRAFTING
To give you an idea of things, here are some of our stock plans that are on our web-site. Some of them have remained as they are, others have been customized, and others are brand new home designs that we have created. This is just an example, each of these plans has a history. Feel free to contact us by phone or through our web-site and by providing us with a mark-up or more information about your needs, property, budget, and local requirements, we can help to create a strategy to design exactly the home that is right for you.
ADU Stock Prefab Plans: The Hummingbird, The Sandpiper, The Swan.
ADU Customized Modular Plans: The Nighthawk, The Quail, The Plover, The Robin, The Jaeger.
ADU Custom Design Modular Plans: The Teal, The Warbler, The Heron.
Single Story Stock Prefab Plans: The Ripon, The Huron, The Oakdale, The Yountville, The Rocklin.
Single Story Customized Modular Plans: The Sunland, The Clayton, The Montara, The Cimarron.
Single Story Custom Design Modular Plans: The Yreka, The Pinole, The Toluca Lake, The Alhambra, The Malibu Lake, The Albany, The Pike, The San Jose, The Madera, The San Mateo, and all of The Hollywood Series of homes.
Usually, modular homes by nature take on a Craftsman or Ranch style and that is the most economical way to go. If you want your home to have a different style, whether it be California Bungalow, Colonial, Southwest, farmhouse, contemporary, mediterranean, etc., we can design exactly what you want.
Your modular home can be completely customized to fit your specific design preferences.
The modular floor plan can be customized to meet your individual needs.
Your modular home can be modified to meet specific family necessities.
Rooms can usually be modified to be larger or smaller.
The layout of the rooms in your prefab home can be modified and customized.
Interior finishes are completely your choice as each home is custom built.
The exterior finishes and facade of your home can be customized for the exact look you require.
https://www.californiamodularhouses.com/gallery
GALLERY
Completed Homes Gallery
Here in our Complete Homes Gallery, we have over 250 pictures of our homes with more being added all the time. This is the best way to view a wide variety of homes. You can see some of them during production, delivery, during the on-site construction, and some of them fully completed.
For property owners, there are ways that you can view our homes in person:
When we are having a tour, we announce them through our newsletter. We will have staff there that can answer your questions and you can walk through the home, show you the different features, let you know what was completed in the factory and what was completed on-site.
You can go to the factory in Sacramento as well if you would like to see a variety of homes at different stages of production showing the different cabinets, countertops, shingles, Fixtures, etc.
We can provide you with an address of a home or two that you can discreetly drive-by in person. Conditions do apply as we want to respect the privacy of our clients, just like we will make sure that you aren’t disturbed in any way once we build a home for you.
https://www.californiamodularhouses.com/modularbenefits
MODULAR BENEFITS
General Prefab Modular Pricing
California Modular Houses, Inc., doesn’t build cheap homes though we also don’t focus on high-end homes. Our entire philosophy is to help good people who want to build but want cost controls in order to make them comfortable with their budget. Our clients are ones that want a high-quality home that is built to the California Building Code but don’t want to get soaked on Upgrades, Change Orders, Surprises, and the rapidly increasing cost of building a home on-site. What are the benefits of choosing modular homes over traditional site-built homes?
What is the average cost of building a modular home in California? That really depends upon your property, local requirements, the home model chosen, and the exact finishes you choose for your home.
Our Factory Built Homes start out at around $250.00 Per Square Foot for the home delivered, including tax and transportation and go up to about $400.00 PSF. In general, two-story homes, cape cods, and really small homes have the highest Per Square Foot cost. Standard-sized homes that are made of two or three modules which have as much work done in the factory as possible are overall the best value.
We recommend starting with homes a little smaller than what you “want” and then move up the list to find the right size home that meets all of your needs, without building more home than you need to.
The on-site work is similar to what you would pay for that on-site work by a local General Contractor. That said, we do have several contractors that appreciate working with our clients and will take good care of you and usually will offer you a better deal than if you found a licensed contractor on your own. All homes require a foundation, utility connections and have city fees. Many need a driveway or garage, grading or a septic system, etc. These are things that are all prepared and put on plans so that you, the contractor, and the City/County are all on the same page on exactly what is being built. A licensed General Contractor will directly provide you with pricing for the on-site work, there is no mark-up from us. It’s not a bad idea to budget half of the cost of the modular home, or even two-thirds for the on-site work. If you end up paying less than that, than you will be happy and we will be just as excited for you. Building in California is not an easy process and it’s not cheap. That said, we can make it much easier for you and we don’t want to see you pay any more than you have to.
Financing Your Brand New Modular Home
What are the financing options available for purchasing a modular home?
There are a variety of ways to finance your modular home. No one solution works for everyone but usually there is a solution that will work based on your situation. Please review the financing and loan programs below so you can discuss them with your sales agent and your lender to determine the best solution for you.
The first thing is to own the property, whether buying it free & clear, or getting a “Lot Loan”.
From there, here are the typical methods of paying for your modular home.
Cash: Many of our customers have been able to save up all or most of the money to build an ADU or their Single-Family Residence. This is good for the homeowner as they don’t have to deal with financing or pay loan fees, etc.
Insurance Money: If you have lost your home in a fire, it usually isn’t enough to build a site-built home and that is where modular homes come in to help you get your house replaced and still stick within a reasonable budget.
Heloc / Home Equity Line of Credit: This is also a very common way to finance your home. This type of financing is usually faster and the most economical method to get a loan to build your home.
Construction-to-Permanent Loan: A fair number of our clients do end up getting a construction loan. The loan shouldn’t really close until about the time that you get permits as the loan is for a limited period of time and the bank needs an exact contract from the contractor for the on-site work before they will close the loan, which means that all plans have to be in place so that your General Contractor can provide you with the paperwork and pricing that you need for the loan. In this type of situation, it is common for us to sell the home directly to the contractor so that he can include it in his pricing and that makes the financing easier rather than them having to pay different companies. Most banks that you run across are based out of state and they have no idea what a modular home is. We of course do have some lenders that we can introduce you to, who work here in California, know what a modular home is, and have helped our clients in the past (they have a proven track record). Usually a construction loan does require a good credit score. The lender will be able to provide you with the exact requirements.
There are other types of financing options that are available out there but they usually aren’t set up for Constructions Loans in California. These include FHA, VA & USDA Loans. The challenge with these types of financing is that in order to get the loan you need to have all of your costs in one contract and close the loan. If there are no plans and no permits, then it is very hard to get competitive pricing from a contractor in order to close the loan.
Are you a Reputable Company That Can Meet My Needs & Will Help Complete My Project?
How do I find reputable modular home builders in California? You already have, we are right here ready to assist you!
We have been doing this for a couple decades now and the biggest issues we hear are specifically about 2 things. The first is buying from a brand-new start-up company that gets millions from investors but doesn’t know how to do the work and get homes started or completed.
The other, which is more common, is that someone finds a company that is out of state offering them a deal. These companies don’t know the complexity of building modular homes in California. There are mistakes in their plans, things that aren’t required in other states but they are here. If these companies can’t get past the plan stage, then you can imagine the rest of it doesn’t go well. Then they have to deal with permitting and entitlement and can guess that if they are out of state, don’t understand the process, and weren’t prepared for this, then the permitting process will be harder than it already is. We haven’t even gotten to the building or the sticker shock of the transportation costs and there really isn’t a point in getting into it here, but you can see the problem. We get a call every 1-3 months from someone who bought from a bougie start up company or one out of state that has lost anywhere from several thousand to over a hundred thousand dollars and has to start again…but with less money. So, if you take that path, at least now you know the risk.
Reputable California Companies Do Have Things in Common:
Real pictures of their homes, not just renderings
A history of completed projects in California
They don’t have a bunch of negative reviews or bad press about them
They work with reputable companies that are here California to help you get all your plans completed
They have an exact strategy and process that they can explain to you (if someone can’t answer your questions, that is a red flag)
They belong to some of the professional organizations in, either here in California, or nationally. These are typically the AIBD, ResidentialDesign.org, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the Modular Home Builder’s Association, the BBB, etc.
In order qualify us, all you need to do is to pick up the phone and give us a call. We can explain and show you who we are and how capable we are of helping you.
We can’t tell you how fast the local jurisdiction will take to approve plans. We can’t provide you with an all-in-cost as your general contractor has to provide you with pricing for the on-site work based on a fully approved set of plans (what the City/County requires to issue permits is exactly what the contractor needs to provide you with pricing for his portion of the work. Yet, we can answer just about every other question that you can come up with. While some clients are ready to go the day they call us, typically it does take a couple of months to make a decision to move forward and over that time you will make your own decision that with us you are in very good hands.
We are with you from the first phone call, until your home is fully completed here at California Modular Houses, Inc.