multiple topics/questions

[Anthony]

We are thinking of selling our older home in town (bad neighborhood, want more room for our daughter to play, etc) and buying a manufactured home to put on some land our family owns in the middle of no where. We have started casually looking around at homes, and of course skimmed through Randy's book (I'll read it again better before we actually make a buy). I've come up with several questions comments for you.

Because the land I mentioned is far from everything, running power lines to the property is going to be very very expensive ($15k - 20k) and we're thinking of powering everything solar/wind. As a result, all heat-related appliances need to be gas (dryer, range, furnace, water heater) and all/most light fixtures need to be florescent. Likewise, the walls need to be 2x6 with high insullation ratings. All the homes we've looked at have been all electric (appliances) and have incandescent light fixtures. Will the factory usually 1.) omit these items so I can install them or 2.) install what I need instead? Also, most of the homes I've been in have 2x4 walls, although the fleetwood dealership we went to today said we could 'choose' 2x6 walls on any of the plans if we wanted. Is there a particular manufacturer that would be more amiable to these types of change requests? Or better yet a manufacturer that builds in the option of gas/electric from the git-go?

Speaking of visiting the fleetwood dealership today, I must admit I was nearly rolling on the floor laughing. Not at the homes - some of them were absolutely stunning - but rather the whole "manufacturer-owned dealership" scenario from Randy's book being played out before my eyes. ("What size payment were you looking to make?", etc) Thanks for the eye-opener before this visit, Randy.

The land seems to sit in Tornado Alley, so we would definitely have to have a basement, but most of the homes we've looked at and liked haven't offered an optional basement stairwell. Is there a particular line of homes that is better about offering this option?

Finally, in the past week we've seen several home lines that we liked. One - the Fuqua line - has had several comments on this discussion board, but the others have not been mentioned (at least in the last few months) so I would like to bring them up for discussion. MHEInc.com aka. Mansion homes seem nice and have a lot of the features I need like 2x6 walls but I've never heard of them before today. Commodore homes had a model on a local lot we liked a lot and when I was looking at their (very disfunctional) website it mentioned that their homes have truss systems designed for use of the attic space (for storage only of course) where as the trusses in most manufactured homes do not. Is this true? What do you think of Commodore homes in general? Any general comments about Fuquoa, Fleetwood's Barrington Elite series, Commodore's, MHE's, or Shult homes lines would be greatly appreciated.

Anthony
Springfield MO