The home is the cheap part
Getting a manufactured home onto land takes power, water, septic, a pad that drains, and a county that signs off — in that order, with different rules in every county. We do that work, and we tell you what it involves before you commit.
Why projects stall
Most of the cost is below the floor
People price the home, then find out the home was the predictable number. The pad, the meter loop, the tap or the well, the septic field, the driveway culvert, the anchoring — that’s the part that moves, and it moves based on the land, not the house.
It also has to happen in a particular order. Skip a step and you don’t just wait — you sometimes can’t proceed at all. In several counties around here a utility is not permitted to energize a meter until the county has signed off on the sewage facility. That’s not a scheduling preference. It’s written into the county’s own orders.
The sequence
What has to happen, in order
Each step below is gated by the one before it. The gates are where projects lose months.
The full sequence- 1
Confirm the land can be served
Which utility is certificated to serve this parcel, whether water is reachable, and whether the soil will take a septic system.
Do this before closing, not after. - 2
Address and permits
A 911 address, then the county permits that apply where you are — which is not the same list in any two counties.
A factory may not ship without an address. - 3
Pad, driveway and culvert
Grade set, fill placed and compacted, and access built well enough to carry a home down it.
The delivery has to physically reach the site. - 4
Septic and water
System designed to the bedroom count and soil class, installed, inspected and approved. Tap set or well drilled.
Septic approval gates power in some counties. - 5
Meter loop and service
Service entrance built to the serving utility’s spec — which differs by utility — then inspected and energized.
- 6
Set, anchor, and finish
Home delivered and set, blocked and anchored, then skirting, steps and landings.
What we do
Services
Electric service
Meter loop, service size, and getting the meter set.
Water
Taps, availability letters, and when a well is the answer.
Septic
Sizing, soil class, and what fits on the lot.
Pad and drainage
The part that decides whether everything else lasts.
Anchoring and blocking
Piers, footings, straps, and re-levels.
Skirting
Ventilation, vapor barrier, and access.
Decks and steps
Landings, rise and run, rails, and egress.
Moving and set
Delivery access, transport, and set day.
County by county
The rules change at the county line
One county here charges $240 for a development permit. Several require no placement permit at all. Septic permit fees across this area run from roughly $200 to $600. One requires the finished floor in a floodplain to sit three feet above base flood elevation, two feet more than the federal minimum — a cost that appears on no fee schedule anywhere.
We keep a page for each county with what’s required, what it costs, who issues it, and how long it takes.
Johnson · Hood · Somervell · Erath · Hill · Parker · Ellis · Limestone · McLennan · Bosque · Freestone
Before you buy
Check the land first
The most expensive problems in this business are bought, not built. A parcel with poles visible from the road may still have no utility able to serve it. A cheap lot may have no legal access, no reachable water, or soil that won’t take a drainfield at the size the house needs.
Most of it can be verified for free before you close, if you know what to ask.
The pre-purchase checklistGet the site priced
Tell us where the land is and what you’re setting. We’ll look at it, work out what your county and utility require, and give you a number for the whole thing — pad, power, water, septic and finish.