Palm Harbor Price

[Barb]

Well I'm not a dealer but my husband is now a retired builder and lumberman, having owned a sawmill years ago. Last week we toured Schult factory, Cavco and Palm Harbor. They came out is this order Cavco #1, Schult and then in the distance Palm Harbor. We were going to New Mexico to tour Karsten but we live in a Karsten now so decided we pretty much know their quality.

Schult had decent buildings but they use pine under their flooring and he doesn't like pine because of something about the nails loosen with any dampness but it was otherwise good, the Cavco uses Hemfir which is very good, construction looked heavy and well done. Now the Palm H used what he considered 4grade under the floors, some of it even had some bark on the pieces and the roof looked like little kids playing with matchsticks (light little wood) and the insulation in the roof was uneven and didn't look full like the others.

This is just our opinion but we fell in love with the Americana by Palm Harbor and no lie I cried as we left the factory as I wanted that home so much but I'm not putting over 100 grand on it and worrying that its going to fall apart. My advice is go to all the factories you can and get your own opinion and don't be swayed by fluff and glamor or a salesman You can see more if you inspect before they put all that lovely furniture inside like Palm H always does.
Hope you find what you're looking for, we now have.

[KVR]

The reason we did not consider another Palm Harbor home is price. I did not feel that we got what we paid for in 1996, which was confirmed by a Palm Harbor employee 2 1/2 years later when I tried to get rid of it. He told me the home was not worth $80,000+ when we bought it and was maybe only worth at the time we tryed to get rid of it $50,000. Of course this was a totally different person than who sold the home to us. He told me that he was sorry I paid so much for that home. I know mobile homes depreciate, but that was ridiculous. We also financed the home on a 30 year note at 6.4% interest. If we paid the note it would have cost us over $200,000. That's why I was so delighted when I was able to get out from under it. I also learned from that experience.

My new husband and I, bought our Oakcreek in 1999 used for $30,000 with no interest on a 5 year agreement with DH's father and spent another $10,000 over a 3 year period to upgrade. The home was built in 1989 and sold to DH's father brand new off the lot for $42,000. The home has never had any construction problem. It is built very well.

Our next home we are trying to purchase with the money we will obtain from the sale of our current home. We are not considering superficial upgrades like cabinets, fixtures, etc. like I did before. I found those upgrades our not worth it in the long run.