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What your prefab quote isn't telling you
Did your prefab quote include a number for site prep? If not, that's because the price you were quoted is for the unit sitting in the factory, not the grading, foundation, and utility work it takes to get it onto your land.
Prefab and modular units are quoted at $80 to $160 per square foot. That covers what gets built in the factory, but nothing that happens on your land. Site prep, like grading, foundation, utility hookups, crane placement, and permits, runs around $10,000 on a cooperative lot. A remote or sloped parcel with no utilities nearby pushes that to $80,000–$120,000. Against a $100,000 structure (roughly 700-800 square feet at this rate), that's the whole project cost doubled.
The Utility Run
Without utility stubs at your property line, you're paying by the foot.
- Electric: $5–$25 per linear foot
- Water: $25–$200
- Sewer: $50–$200, assuming municipal sewer is even reachable. On rural STR parcels, it often isn't.
- A well runs $5,000–$15,000.
- Septic runs $3,500–$20,000+, and engineered systems on slow-draining soil push past $25,000 on their own.
A lot sitting 500 feet from the nearest utility stub adds $20,000–$40,000 before you've poured a foundation.
The Rest Of The Bill
- Foundation: $7,000–$25,000
- Grading and clearing: $3,000–$12,000
- Crane set: $3,000–$10,000
- Delivery: $5,000–$15,000
- Permits: $500–$5,000
Remote or scenic parcels usually pull the highest STR revenue, but they're also the ones most likely to push total site prep past $80,000.
Before You Sign
3 questions to answer before you commit to a parcel:
- Where are the nearest utility stubs? Call the utility provider with the parcel number.
- Has a perc test been done? Failed soil means engineered septic.
- Can a crane and a semi get clean access? Tight clearances can kill a standard modular drop.
We built a free Site Prep Cost Estimator that takes your parcel's specifics, distance to utilities, soil type, access, and gives you a real site prep cost instead of a guess.
Plug your numbers in before you order anything →
