Phase II - MH Purchase

[Hunter]

I am so grateful I found the "MH Global Network" and would like to thank everyone who posted whether it was a question or response. I has certainly helped me and I sure it has helped others, hopeful I will heed advice found here.

So far the steps taken are 1) purchased Randy's book, 2) complied a book with info from the site, 3) made a list of questions to ask each salesperson, 4) talked to people at: HUD, FL Manuf. Housing Assoc., Division that handles MH at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and the BBB, 5) read various articles.

The only thing I'm still uncomfortable with is the selection of MH Manuf. My list is comprised of Nobility (once at the top, now at or near the bottom), Redmond, Jacobsen and Skyline. As to quality I'm all over the place. What I would like to find is a manufacturer that's better than "OK" but not necessarily top of the line (only for financial resons).

Now on to "Phase II" looking at MH, hopefully I'll not be swayed by the "cutesy" or "sales pitch" - WISH ME LUCK !!!

One other question - would it be a wrong move to have the dealership set up the MH and not be present?

[rmurray]

1)...I notice you have not mentioned Homes of Merit....From my experience they are just what you ask..Still have a 5 year warranty..like Jacobson..

2)..Watching them set the home will not help you...Just be there and check it out before you finalize the final paperwork or do a phone interview...

Good Luck...there are many good dealers in FL..

[JoAnne]

I realize not everyone can do what we did but, it in the long run it can really help.
We must have visited literally every sales lot in Michigan, saw hundreds of homes, had a spirial bound notebook just for guestions and brochours on all the homes, trying to decide if we should buy our home in lower Michigan where we were living at the time and have a set crew from downstate travel to set up the home, or to buy in Northern Michigan and have everything local. When you do this, also make sure to compare pricing on homes, even if it is the same exact manufacturer and home. Even though our home has a very unique floorplan that almost every manufacturer duplicated, we kept coming back to the Redman Eaton Park, and to the same dealer/sales lot. We also found that where you buy the home from matters a great deal in pricing.
Downstate (big city) pricing on the exact same home varied as much as $14,000.
YES, I REPEAT FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. Answer we were given, "Because the customer demand, cost of living, per capita says we can, and we do sell the homes for that much". So, out the door, tax, title, all the goodies, plus central a/c that we did not plan on in the original pricing, buying our home close to where we were moving to, cost us $12,000 less than just the base price if we would have bought downstate. That paid for almost 1/2 of the site preps/set up...