Once you've decided to build a modular home you need to select a building design that both meets your personal needs and expresses your personal style. Most modular home dealers will attempt to steer you toward one of their standard designs. And the fact of the matter is that most modular home buyers can find at least one of the standard designs attractive enough to choose as a building design.

Modular home dealers prefer to work with standard designs because they're easier to deal with. The manufacturers mass produce the standard designs so they are readily available and they come with standard pricing. Special orders may be more profitable but the pricing can be tricky and since they are not mass produced there could be delays as opposed to the immediate delivery of standard building designs in inventory. And when it comes down to it, the modular home dealers want to make the sale and get their money as quickly as possible.

If you can't find a standard building design to meet your needs talk to the modular home dealer about helping you with a custom design. After all, you will be the one who lives in the home so don't be pressured into buying a standard building design that you won't be happy with.

If you already had a building design in mind, ask the dealer to take a look at it and see if it can manufactured modularly. If the building design can't be reproduced exactly to your specifications, the manufacturer should be able to come relatively close. The building designs for some stick homes cannot be reproduced modularly. You could also ask the dealer if there are any existing building designs that resemble the one you like.

Some customers don't have a clue what they want. That's not an enviable position to be in when you walk into the dealer looking for a home but it happens. You really should do at least a minimum of planning before you go see the dealer in terms of how much you can afford and what type of building design you'd like. You should at least know how many bedrooms and bathrooms you'd like to have in your home.

Some prefer to work with an architect. It may be difficult to find an architect with much experience in modular construction considering the youth of the modular home industry. On the other hand, the modular home industry is growing rapidly so it should get easier to find architects willing to work with you in creating a building design for you modular home. Perhaps they even have a few building designs you can take a look at. You could check with the dealer to make sure they'll work with a building design created by an architect.