The Manufactured Housing Forums

Greetings,
I am seeking information from anyone who is willing to provide accurate information regarding the Karsten homes and the Cavalier homes. From what I have seen to date, it appears to me that Karsten builds a high-quality home. I've only seen one Cavalier to date ... it appeared to be comparable to Karsten. Does anyone have first-hand experience in owning either of these type homes? I would greatly appreciate any information you might be willing to share, either positive or negative. Be Blessed!

Sir,
I am both a Karsten dealer and Cavalier dealer and I can tell you that Cavalier and Karsten are 2 entirely different homes. First, let me clarify that Cavalier builds a muriad of different "lines" of homes from the most basic to a mid level home. They offer little to no customization in their homes and the decor choices are limited. It is very difficult to say how "good" the Cavalier home that you looked at is without knowing which model it is. Karsten on the other hand only builds the highest quality homes on the market today. Being in Texas, I can only speak for the Texas region, but they use only 2x6 exterior walls, 2x4 interior walls throughout, 2x8 floor joists, full T&T with bull nosed corners, 8 foot sidewalls, Hardi panel siding, 30 year architecural shingles, raised panel oak cabinets, thermal pane windows, 10 year warranty, and there are many more spec's that are way above industry standard in Texas. These 2 manufacturers also have 2 different price points with the Cavalier being less expensive. Both manufacturers are a great value for the dollar, just different homes.

I understand that you are in Texas. I am in Houston, Texas and am interested in seeing the Karsten homes. Is there somewhere near that I can visit. I am currently looking at a Champion home which has some of the same features that you mentioned. Since this will be my first home, I am kinda anxious and unsure of what exactly to consider most important. I have looked at Fleetwood homes but I was not impressed with the way the home looked structurally. The salesman was mainly focused on the fluff such as the home coming with a big screen tv, but he failed to discuss the structure itself. On the flip side, the sales of the Champion home discussed the structure.

Is there someone in Houston that has had experiences with this homebuying process and the quality of homes that are offered here.

Thanks in advance for all comments.

I am from Houston but don't live there anymore so I can't help you there. But, I can tell you that I carry Champion Homes in addition to Karsten and Cavalier. I know that sounds like a lot of different builders on one lot, but it gives customers a lot of options. The Champion homes are a mid level home but can be optioned up to a "high end" type of home. The only real similarities between a Karsten and a Champion is Hardi panel siding, 8 foot sidewalls, 12" eaves, and bull nosed corners when you do T&T. T&T is not standard and they will not texture closets and pantries. They offer a whole slew of upgrades ranging from 6/12 roof pitches, Log siding, T&T, to just about anything else under the sun. They will also make substiantial changes to floorplans. However, depending on what is important to you in options, if you were to option in everything a Karsten has as a standard into a Champion, you will end up spending more money on the Champion. You can go to www.karstenhomes.com and find a location for a Karsten dealer in the Houston area. I know there is one in Tomball. I hope this helps.

I bought a Skyline home instead of the Karsten. The reason was I could get the same things that Karsten offered but at half the cost. Karsten has the best name as I was going with them at first. My dealer messed that one up as he thought we were stupid and were going to take whatever he said as the gospel truth. NOT. What we have found with the Modulars is they are a good product but you had better have an excellent set up crew(our guy went out of business after our house). We had no recourse but to finish things ourselves. We put out a lot of extra money. Be aware that as soon as the home is on your lot the dealer can just go away. We got ours FOB which we were stupid and did not know what that meant. We thought(another stupid thing) that it just meant part of the delivery. You need to check everything out and I do mean everything. The home we have is great and we do have 2x6 construction and we did add extra insulation. Just be sure to get a good crew. Ours was recomened to us so we felt it was fine. No it wasn't. Good luck with your. Jane

I really like my Karsten Home but their customer service stinks. I have had a leak in my fireplace for over a year now. They have had 5 different service people out to fix it. They kept saying it was the storm collar but that was not the problem. The chimney pipe was installed incorrectly. A new pipe was installed and that was installed wrong as well and we still have a leak and the fireplace is unusable. I have been in contact with the General Manager, CEO and President as well as my service rep. On Oct 15, the General Manager emailed me that the repair company had been told to repair as soon as possible and was surprised to hear that it had not be done and that Karsten was working to get this corrected. I contacted the repair company myself yesterday and they have never been contacted by Karsten (my original email about this new leak was sent September 20 after the first rain of the season). I have an electricial surge ever time I use the vacuum or blowdryer. They are telling me this is normal, I think not. When they came out to take a look at the electrical problem after requesting service for 9 month, the electrician they sent out stated that we have a frayed wire in our panel box, but they have not be out to fix this either. We will be hiring the repair company ourself to repair the fireplace and sending Karsten the bill. I could go on and on but I'm sure that there is a limit to the number of characters I can use.

We have had nothing but problems getting Karsten to fix things covered under their warranty. It takes months and many requests to get a response to a request for service. I hope you have better luck.