Frequently Asked Questions

Blu Homes is committed to providing the greatest transparency possible on home pricing. Standard Blu homes come designed for free. All prices and premiums are published online, and Blu strive to minimize any extra delivery or building charges due to difficult sites or engineering requirements. In addition, Blu builds in its factory, where costs are often a fraction of what they would be on site. Thus, your home will come fully equipped and set by our Blu team with appliances, cabinets, countertops, lighting and floors—all eco-friendly, and all at a transparent, fixed price. 

Base Pricing Includes

• Blu house
• Standard materials and finishes
• Delivery and set on your foundation
• Finishing by our own skilled crew
• All appliances

Standard Pricing

Blu Homes standard pricing applies to the continental United States, excluding California, Hawaii, and Canada.

Premium Market Pricing

Blu charges a premium in California, Canada and Hawaii to cover additional services and material costs that allow us to better serve our customers.

Hawaii Pricing

Blu charges a premium in Hawaii that includes the cost of shipping to Hawaii.

Land costs vary by location and parcel size and are typically paid in cash.

a. Additional charges may apply based upon geographic location, site-specific conditions and applicable state and local sales tax. Please contact our sales team at info@bluhomes.com for more details. All prices are USD.Blu Homes charges a premium in the states of California and Hawaii and in Canada to cover additional services and materials costs required by building code in such regions. Base pricing contained herein is subject to change at any time. Such changes will be reflected on Blu’s website. For current pricing, see bluhomes.com.

b. The total cost of your home will depend upon a number of site-specific factors, including state and local permitting, the extent of landscaping and other site development costs, and foundation requirements based upon slope, soil stability and seismicity. Please contact our sales team to discuss a budget for your specific project.

c. For illustrative purposes only; please consult with a bank or lender for actual pricing. This estimate does not include the cost of land and assumes a 30 year fixed loan at 3.250% to 3.625% and a FICO score of 740+ with 20% down, using the calculator on bankrate.com for San Francisco, California 95030. Your loan rates may vary.

Blu Homes Starting Price

Blu Homes is committed to providing the greatest transparency possible on home pricing. Standard Blu homes come designed for free by our award winning architects and design team. They are built in our factory, where costs are often a fraction of what they would be on site. Your home price includes the Blu house, your choice of standard materials and finishes for selections like appliances, windows, cabinets, countertops, lighting and floors (there are wonderful upgrades available too, in case you are tempted). The Blu Home price also includes delivery and set on your foundation and finishing by Blu’s own skilled crew, as well as some basic design and project management services. Once we specify your project, Blu will provide you with a fixed transparent price for your entire project at the time of contract, so you don’t have to worry about the cost overruns that are so prevalent in conventional construction.

Typical Site Costs

Items that are not included in the Blu Home price are the foundation, site work (including painting, landscaping, decks, porches, garages) and the cost of utility hook-ups and permit fees. Typical site costs run about 40-50% of the price of the Blu Home model you select, but they vary greatly depending on individual client choices, geographic location, and site variables. Steep lots, complicated site work choices, and the need for additional infrastructure can drive site costs up. One good thing to note is that site work on flat or lightly sloped lots can be dramatically less expensive than steep lots. If you choose our BluServ Plus comprehensive project management services, Blu can take care of every aspect of your project as your General Contractor, including site work. If you prefer to use your own GC for your project, that’s great too.

Land Costs

Cost of land does vary greatly by location and size. A realtor in your local area can help you find a piece of land for your Blu home, or you can visit online land search websites such as redfin.com to research the cost of a parcel in your area. If you want to consider a tear down, typical demolition of an existing home can run around $10,000-$25,000. Check out our Finding Land page to learn more about what you should consider when looking for a lot.

Green Incentives

Many of our clients choose to take advantage of the numerous green incentives for which our homes may qualify in certain areas. Combined with lower monthly utility costs from living in an energy-efficient home, these incentives provide yet another benefit of green living. Please contact our sales team at info@bluhomes.com for an overview of the incentives that might be available to you.

Approximate Total Budget

To calculate your total budget, use this formula:

[Blu Home Cost]+ [Site Costs] + [Land Costs] = Approximate Total Budget

Our friendly Blu Homes Sales Consultants can help walk you through the process and answer your questions. We’d love to help you plan your project, and can make the process simple for you! For a free consultation, call 1.866.887.7997 or complete our contact form to have someone from Blu reach out to you.

Approximate Monthly Loan Payment

Most Blu customers want to finance their home purchase. Typically you begin with a construction loan, which finances the project until home construction is completed, and then rolls into a permanent home mortgage. Loan-to-value ratios vary by bank and personal financial situation, but Blu customers can typically finance about 70-80% of their home and site costs.

Blu charges a 10% premium in the State of California in order to cover additional services and material costs that allow us to better serve our California customers. The “California package” includes the following:

• Additional documentation services to meet CalGreen and basic local permitting requirements;
• Higher crane mobilization fees at delivery;
• Certain code-required building materials such as sprinkler systems and additional exterior lights;
• Calculation of site-specific engineering loads so that foundation costs from your site contractor will be reduced.

You can finance a Blu Home like any other new home, through the use of a construction loan and permanent financing. Obtaining financing is a crucial first step in any homebuilding project. If you are looking to finance your Blu home using a bank or other lender, they will classify your project as new construction and will therefore offer a Construction Loan, which differs substantially from a traditional mortgage. Once construction is complete, your loan will be converted to a traditional home loan (mortgage).

Construction Loans are short-term and are most frequently structured as interest-only lines of credit. They are distributed in disbursements, or “draws,” as work on the project is completed, so it is important that you choose a financial institution that can accommodate the draw schedule associated with Blu’s construction process. Our sales team can provide you with guidelines regarding what you should consider when choosing a lender. We can even recommend preferred banks and lenders you can contact—all of which have experience with modular construction loans. Contact info@bluhomes.com or see our Finance Your Home page for more details about financing.

Something to keep in mind is that construction loans often require more money or equity down on a project, usually around 20-30%, however, because Blu’s build process is so fast, you will end up paying less interest than you would on a construction loan for a stick built project.

One of Blu Homes’ primary goals is to reduce the time spent in the construction process. A typical Blu home takes 8-10 weeks to construct in the Blu factory, and then 4-8 weeks to deliver and install on site. Although there are many variables like permitting and financing that can affect schedule, once you have chosen and personalized your home design, we estimate that your home will be completed in 6-9 months. This time frame is drastically reduced from the traditional stick-built homebuilding process, which is often 12-18 months or more.  

No. Although you can use your own GC for your project, we recommend that you choose our BluServ Plus comprehensive project management services so that we can provide you with a one-stop shop and make the home-building process even easier for you. With BluServ Plus, Blu Homes will act as your general contractor and our helpful and experienced team will oversee and be responsible for your project from A to Z – including site work, utility hookups, painting and additional on-site construction. This will allow Blu to better manage the construction schedule and maintain quality of construction.

Blu Homes are each privately owned. However, we sometimes host open houses in newly built homes and we regularly host factory tours where we have model homes. Check out our events page to look for upcoming open house and factory tour events.

“Precision-built” refers to the process of building a home within controlled factory conditions, as opposed to on-site. Once built, the home is transported to the final home site. The benefits of this process include less waste during construction, reduced disturbance of the land, no delays from inclement weather, less potential for mold from precipitation, a reliable construction schedule and controlled construction cost. 

Blu Homes builds structural frames using heavy gauge steel, unlike the wood frames used in traditional stick-built homes. Blu uses large hinges on these strong frames to fold the homes after construction, allowing us to transport homes virtually anywhere and to unfold them on clients’ sites. The result is a wide open floor plan with high ceilings and lots of windows. These are some of Blu’s most remarkable features.

Yes, every one of Blu’s homes will be designed and constructed to meet your local building code. Your home will undergo a thorough, multi-part inspection process in our factory in order to ensure that your home meets all applicable building codes. Inspectors authorized by your home state will visit our factory, inspect your Blu home, and certify that it complies with your home state’s building code. Once the home is on site, it may be subject to a final inspection by a local inspector who must rely on the previous approvals granted in our factory. You can rest assured that Blu’s homes are not simply built to meet code – they are built to exceed it.

We strongly believe that a well-insulated, cost-effective building enclosure is the most important way to get energy efficiency from your home. We use high-performing insulation (combination eco-friendly batting and rigid foam) and high efficiency, low-E, gas-filled windows to help self-regulate the interior home climate.

Blu Homes are designed to maximize energy efficiency. Using innovative 3D modeling technology, Blu designs homes to fit the sun, wind, and weather patterns specific to a building site. Wise use of a home’s natural environment can offer the most cost effective energy savings available. Then, Blu utilizes high-performance materials and systems, including Energy Star certified appliances, to regulate interior climate and reduce monthly energy costs for the occupant. Additionally, Blu’s homes are certifiable at the LEED for Homes Silver standard and are solar-ready, both of which elevate the home’s efficiency. 

Blu homes do not come equipped with solar panels. But, we can make your home solar-ready. Please talk with your Blu representative about your solar panel plan during your initial consultation.

Blu Homes are LEED certifiable. Please talk with your Blu representative about your LEED certification plan during your initial consultation.

We build homes throughout North America. Blu homes are dramatically stronger than typical site-built homes, and we have built in high wind zones, earthquake zones, high altitude areas with extreme snowfall, areas with difficult soils, and more. Blu engineers every home to fit specific site conditions, and thanks in large part to our steel frames, our homes are typically better equipped than site-built homes to withstand these conditions. Please see our land checklist for more information.

Blu Homes clients frequently combine our home designs in different ways to suit their lifestyle, creating compound-style living, putting multiple additions onto a home, etc. This is a creative solution that allows for a more flexible floor plan than found in a typical home. We offer single-level and two-level homes, but cannot stack homes.

Blu Homes can be built on top of basements. This is one way that some homeowners choose to increase their living space. This will depend on your land and local regulations.

Blu Homes is not a custom home builder. However, we offer a number of home designs and thousands of combinations of options for personalization. Some additional adjustments can be made to our home designs for an additional cost. Please consult your Blu representative with any questions.