Home in New Mexico?

[Dan Hamm]

I am relocating to Albuquerque, NM, and 'might' be interested in purchasing land adn setting a manufactured home there. I say 'might' because of a good/bad experience with my manufactured home in Hillsboro, Oregon.

The good: We purchased a residential lot in 1995 in the only subdivision in Hillsboro that allowed manufactured homes. We also put up a large garage, cement driveway, covered breezeway, etc. We purchased a Marlette MH, which we absolutely love and which was excellent quality-wise. Now here is where the bad experience part comes in: we had a HORRIBLE time with the banks! Because ours was the only subdivision with this setup, we could never get comparables for the appraisal so we could never get what I considered a fair value assessment for it. This was in spite of the fact that our home was much higher quality construction than a lot of the "cracker box" stick-built houses we found going into the nearby subdivisions. We did finally sell the home and relocate, which leads to 2 questions:

1. I know MH's vary a LOT from factory to factory and brand to brand: does anyone know what brand/factory makes the best MH's in or near the Albuquerque area? I want to put in a quality home if I go this route.

2. Does anyone have experience with the banks on home/land packages in the ALB area? Are they more reasonable on values? I have noticed a ton more MH/land packages down here than back in Oregon, so I am inclined to believe the banks are more used to this setup, but I would really appreciate your opinion.

Sorry for the long post, and thank you for any guidance you can give.

[Anton]

I don't live in Albuquerque, but I do live 3 hours North in Farmington where we have 27 different manufactured home dealers. Back in October, when my wife and I were hunting around for new manufactured homes, our landlords (Owners of several MH parks and a concrete business that installs MH foundations) directed us to Faver's Homes Inc. (Dealer of Cavco) and Solitaire Homes. (Our Landlords also asked us to steer clear of Fleetwood and PalmHabor because of serious structural problems.)

After looking at all of those dealerships and manufactures both good and bad, my wife and I realy came to hate MH because of the cheap plastic sinks and tubs, paper thin walls, cardboard doors, plastic windows and paper cabinets. A MH was not worth our hard earned money after all necessary (necessary to make the place liveable in) upgrades, land and foundation.

However, our view changed when we stepped into a Solitaire home. Not all Manufactured Homes are created equal! The standard features on a Solitaire are much better than the highest upgrades of any other MH that we have seen. We love these homes, no paper cabinets, everything is solid. Some friend of ours have purchased their Solitaire Home two years ago and they have not had any problems with it. Solitaire homes are only found in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska and the nearest plant is in Deming, New Mexico. Look on the web at http://www.solitairehomes.com/ to see the floorplans and construction.

I hope that I was of some help

[Tami]

hi,

I dont live in New Mexico, but was born and raised there. My brother in law is a mobile home inspector for the state of NM and HIGHLY recommends the Solitaire home. I've done some research on my own and have found that constuction is better than the others. The double wide has 2 x 6 walls on 16" centers, tongue and grove plywood floors, better insulation and tape and textured walls. Price wise they are even competitive if not below the other manufactured homes. Fleetwood and Palm Harbor to name a couple are mostly cosmetic. I dont think you'd go wrong in purchasing a Solitaire home.

[Peggy Williams]

Solitiare homes are great, but our daughter &her husband signed a contract for one to be delivered to our Oklahoma property and they pulled off the contract to make homes for FEMA, to send to the coast just days before the delivery was to be made. Solitiare said it would be at least the first of 2006, maybe 6 months before delivery. Now they are wanting them to take an electric one (they ordered gas). They said due to rising prices, they would have to wait until the prices went down if they didn't take this one. It is 5 months old. I feel like they are bullying my daughter to back out of the contract so they can sell the house they planned for them at a higher price. Peggy Williams, Bennington. Oklahoma

[rmurray]

You could be right...but if so..why would your daughter want to do business with a company treating her like this now...how do you think they will treat her later when she asks for warranty service....Does her contact have a delivery date in it...if so she might have some action against the dealer for her added expenses..which will be large..interest rates are rising everyday..by Jan they might well be 2% higher than now..adding tens of thousands to her overall costs....Consult with an attorney..there must be other dealers she can deal with....

[Peggy Williams]

This is an addition to my previous e-mail. Now Solitaire Homes are telling my daughter that she will have to pay $15,ooo more if she wants the home she signed a contract for. Is this legal? It's sure not right. Peggy Williams