# Manufactured Home Dealers and Installers: Know the Home Fits Before You Sign, and Own the Plot Plan After
The home is sold. The customer picked the model, signed the contract, and is waiting for a delivery date. And the date depends on a drawing nobody on your team controls.
Every dealer knows how this goes. The plot plan unlocks the local permit, the local permit unlocks the state installation permit, and the installation permit unlocks the truck. When the drawing is late, wrong, or kicked back, the schedule moves, and the customer calls you. They never call the county.
SitePlans.ai moves that drawing to your sales desk. Check whether a home fits a lot in minutes before anyone signs. Produce the plot plan from the same project afterward. Edit it yourself when a reviewer asks for changes. Your first plan is free, with no card required.
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The Sale Doesn't End at the Signature
A manufactured home sale is a chain of approvals, and you answer for every link in it.
- The customer signs.
- Someone confirms the lot can take the home: zoning, setbacks, septic, access, flood zone.
- A plot plan gets drawn for that specific parcel.
- The local office reviews it and issues its permit.
- The state housing agency issues the installation permit.
- The home is delivered and set.
- Inspection compares the finished site against the approved plan.
Steps 2 and 3 are the weak points, because they depend on information that lives with the customer, the county, and a drafter's calendar. That's also why delivery pricing and timing can't be locked in until the site is understood. Site access, permits, and distance all change the number. If you quote before you know the lot, you're guessing, and the customer remembers the guess.
Same Home, Three Different Plans
The most expensive assumption in this business is that a plot plan that cleared one jurisdiction will clear the next. Here's what three northern Arizona jurisdictions ask for, for the same kind of home:
| Mohave County | Bullhead City | Yavapai County | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who issues the local permit | County Development Services | The city, which also administers the state installation program inside its limits | County, issued before the state permit |
| Plan format | Scaled 8½×11 | 8½×11 site plan | 8½×11, black ink, engineering scale, no smaller than 1" = 60' |
| Entrances | Every step, landing, and deck at each exit, with sizes | Standard site plan content | Accessory structures and dimensions |
| Minimums to show | Setbacks in all four directions, distance between structures | 80 sq ft storage, a 10×20 carport or garage, a 12-foot driveway | Distances to and between all structures and property lines |
| Septic and water | Septic with leach line distances | Utility connections | Septic with leach area, washes within 200 feet, wells within 100 feet |
| Slope | Not called out | Grade at property pins | High and low points with slope arrows |
| What breaks inspection | Plan not on site | Missing minimums, survey monuments, house numbers | Home placed differently than the plan, which triggers a Revised Plot Plan |
These come from county and city documents, and they change. The point isn't to memorize them. The point is that three jurisdictions in one region ask for three different plans, and a dealer who sells across them needs a way to build each one quickly without a drafting department. Our Mohave County guide and Yavapai County guide go through each in detail.
Other jurisdictions show the same pattern. One Kansas county wants a plan to scale showing home location, utilities, lot lines, easements, and roads. A North Carolina coastal county accepts a site plan or a survey drawn to scale. Manufacturer consumer guidance says a permit application may require a plan showing setbacks, property markers, driveway grade, and water and sewer locations. Same document, different list every time.
What You're Doing Now, and Why It's Slow
| How the plan gets made today | Where it breaks |
|---|---|
| A salesperson sketches it | Inconsistent, often incomplete, and rejected at intake. You eat the resubmittal |
| An outside drafter | A queue, a cost per plan, and a revision loop you don't control |
| The customer hires a surveyor | Weeks and often $500 to $2,000 or more, and now the customer owns your bottleneck |
| The installer figures it out on site | Problems surface after the home is ordered, which is the most expensive time to find them |
Every one of these makes the delivery date someone else's variable.
The Lot Check: Answer "Does It Fit?" Before the Contract
Most delays trace back to a fact nobody checked at the start. The fix is to run a short lot check at the sales desk, with the customer in the room.
Enter the address. In covered counties, the parcel loads with property lines, bearings, distances, and building footprints from county records.
Place the home at its real dimensions. Rotate it to match the installation plan, and watch where it lands against the lot.
Generate setbacks. Set front, side, and rear to the zone's numbers, and see immediately whether the home clears them. If it doesn't, you've learned that before the deposit, not after.
Add the access. Draw the driveway and mark gates and overhead lines. If a wash crosses the route, you'll see that now.
Read the slope. Generated contours show where the lot rises, falls, and drains.
Write down what the plan can't answer. Septic status, flood zone, the unit's age against local rules, and whether the lot sits inside a city or the unincorporated county. Our Yavapai County guide has a longer checklist.
The whole check takes about ten minutes once you know the workflow, and it does two jobs at once. It protects you from selling a home to a lot that can't take it, and it shows the customer exactly where their home sits, on their own parcel, before they commit. A customer who can see the home on the lot has fewer reasons to hesitate. That's the sale the drawing was blocking.
The Plot Plan: Built From the Same Project
Once the contract is signed, nothing has to be redrawn. The lot check becomes the plot plan:
- Accessory structures. Add carports, sheds, decks, and garages. See placing a shed and placing a deck.
- Steps, landings, and decks at each exit. Size and label them. Some jurisdictions check these first.
- Utilities, septic, and wells. Mark them, with distances, in your labels.
- Dimension lines from every structure to every property line, and between structures. See how to create dimensions.
- Clean labels. Rural lot lines run irregular, so fix cluttered property line labels and adjust label placement.
- Title sheet. APN, zoning, address, and date fill in automatically. Add your notes and branding.
- Export the PDF. See exporting your plan.
When the local office comes back with comments, you edit the same project and export again. You don't open a ticket and wait.
Keep the Plan and the Pad Matching
A plot plan is also a promise about where the home will sit, and inspectors check the promise. In some jurisdictions, a home set differently than the approved plan shows means a Revised Plot Plan before you can close out the permit.
It happens in ordinary ways. The pad crew shifts the home to miss a tree. The installer rotates it a few degrees. Nobody tells the office.
Three habits prevent it:
- Give the installer the exact plan that went into the permit.
- Make any move off the plan a call to the office first.
- Update and resubmit before the move, not after the inspection fails.
Keeping the plan in an editable project makes the third habit cheap, because a revision is a few minutes, not a drafter's turnaround.
Why a Dealer Would Pick This
Real property data, not a blank page. In covered counties, the property lines come from county parcel records with bearings and distances, not just lengths. That's the survey-style detail a reviewer scans for, and plenty of drawing tools don't produce it.
Most of the plan builds itself. Parcel lines, building footprints, contours, and the title block populate from the address. You place the home and the structures. Roughly 80% of the plan is automatic.
One project from quote to permit. The lot check, the customer's layout, the plot plan, and the revision all live in the same file.
You control the schedule. Your sales or admin staff produce the plan. Nobody's queue sets your delivery date.
It's honest about its limits. A preliminary plot plan is not a survey, a seal, or an engineered foundation plan, and the page says so. Dealers have been burned by "permit-ready" promises that turned out to mean a drawing the county didn't accept. We'd rather you know exactly what you're getting.
Your first plan is free. Run one real lot through it and judge the output yourself, with no card.
Who in Your Shop Uses It
| Role | What they do with it |
|---|---|
| Sales | Lot check at the desk, showing the customer where the home lands |
| Permit or admin staff | Build and revise the plot plan, export the PDF, handle county comments |
| Installer or setup crew | Work from the exact plan that went into the permit |
| Owner or manager | Spot problem lots before they become delivery delays |
If you run several lots a month, the builders and contractors pages cover the plans built for repeat use.
Where Parcel Data Is Live, and What That Means for Rural Lots
Coverage is the first thing to check, because manufactured homes often sit on rural parcels, and not every rural county is covered yet. Here's where parcel data is confirmed in the states where manufactured housing runs heaviest:
| State | Confirmed counties |
|---|---|
| Texas | Montgomery, Travis, Denton, Fort Bend, Dallas |
| Florida | Miami-Dade, Broward, Pinellas, Pasco, Lee, Manatee, Palm Beach |
| North Carolina | Wake, Durham, Guilford, Buncombe, Forsyth |
| Georgia | Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Henry, Paulding, Douglas |
| South Carolina | Charleston |
| Tennessee | Davidson, Hamilton |
| Arizona | Mohave |
Check the coverage page for the full list. If your county isn't there, tell us which counties your sales come from. Coverage expands based on where dealers and builders actually need it, and your list tells us where to go next. In the meantime, SitePlans.us can build the plan for you with a human review. It's still a preliminary, non-certified plan, and it isn't a substitute for a seal where your jurisdiction requires one.
What This Doesn't Replace
The plot plan is one document in a stack. SitePlans.ai produces a preliminary, permit-style plot plan. It isn't a legal boundary survey, an engineered foundation or footing plan, a septic design or approval, a flood elevation certificate, a sealed drawing, or a guarantee that a permit gets approved. The state installation permit is a separate process from a separate agency. Where your jurisdiction requires any of those documents, that requirement stands regardless of how the plot plan was made.
FAQ
Can a dealer produce its own plot plan?
In many jurisdictions, yes. Some counties publish a checklist and accept applicant-prepared plans that meet it, without a licensed surveyor. Others require more. Confirm with the specific county or city before you rely on a dealer-prepared plan.
Does this replace the state installation permit?
No. The state housing agency issues the installation permit, and the local office handles zoning, septic, access, and the plot plan. They're separate processes, and in some counties the local permit has to come first.
Does it work in my county?
Check the coverage page. In covered counties the parcel loads from county records. In others, you can still build a plan by hand, or SitePlans.us can build it for you.
What does it cost?
Your first plan is free, with no card required. For repeat use, the plans on our pricing section cover higher volumes. If you place more homes a month than those cover, contact us.
How long does a plan take?
About ten minutes for most lots once you know the workflow. Rural lots with irregular lines and several structures take longer.
What if the county rejects the plan?
Edit the same project and export again. A revision takes minutes, and you aren't waiting on anyone's queue.
Can I show the customer where the home will sit?
Yes. The layout shows the home on their parcel, with setbacks. It's one of the most useful parts of the lot check, since the customer sees the result before committing.
What about septic and flood zones?
The plan shows them, but it doesn't approve them. Septic approval and flood documentation come from their own agencies. Ask about both at the first sales conversation.
Does the plot plan have to show steps and landings?
In some jurisdictions, yes, and inspectors check them. Mohave County's checklist requires the location and size of every step, landing, and deck at each entrance and exit.
What happens if the home is set differently than the plan?
In some jurisdictions you need a Revised Plot Plan before the permit closes. Hand the installer the exact approved plan, and send any change back through your office first.
Is it a survey?
No. It's a preliminary site plan built from county parcel records. A survey comes from a licensed surveyor, and some jurisdictions require one for specific situations.
Can I use it for park models, sheds, and carports on the same lot?
Yes, you can place accessory structures on the same plan. Some jurisdictions have separate rules for park models, so confirm those locally.
Who should I contact with a coverage request?
Use the coverage page and tell us which counties your sales come from.
Run the Next Lot Through It
The permit clock doesn't start when the home arrives. It starts when the permit issues, and some jurisdictions give you only a limited window to finish inspections after that. Every week a plot plan spends in someone's queue is a week that doesn't come back.
Take your next three leads. Run each through the lot check before anyone commits. If it shows you a problem early, it paid for itself. If it doesn't, you've lost ten minutes and nothing else.
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