Any experiences?

[joker]

My wife and I are under contract to buy a home from Palm Harbor. I just wanted to know if there is anyone who has had some experience after the sale. Hoe is you home holding up? How long have you been in it? Were any problems corrected quickly? Etc..

Thanks for your time.

[rmurray]

Just out of fairness I want to tell you that i worked for them in sales for over 2 years until they closed the store that I worked at...

PH runs all service from thew plants. Many areas have personal construction managers for the site prep and set up of the home..They act as general contractors overseeing the whole project...They are supposed to stay in regular (at least weekly if not daily) contact keeping you up to date on porgress..Your salesperson should call regularly during the process..

Pay a lot of attention to the warranty close as they call it...It is usually done by the GM and Office Manager. It will be voice recorded. This close is a detailed review of the whole deal and includes a video of the set process. Every line of your purchase agreement and policies will be covered...If it is NOT on these papers you will NOT get it...Be sure all is in writing and understood by all..At this close they should give you the name and number of your customer advocate...The person you would call if you are at loggerheads with the GM or Office Manager. From my experience, if you do your part they will do theirs. They try to do all very RIGHT NOT FAST. You will have to be patient.

Before you go for it search these forums for others opinions. Good Luck with your home...

[mannymanbo2]

From my experience, Palm Harbor is one of the most reputable manufacturers out there. They do try to be fair!

[Deb]

I bought a PH about 2 years ago. I had a few minor things that needed to be taken care of -window wouldn't stay up, door needed tweaking - right after I moved in. Those things were taken care of promptly. Some months later, I had a problem with some cracked tile in the kitchen. They sent people out to replace the tile in a timely manner. I am really pleased with my home. The people at the factory have been very cooperative and the people at the dealership did anything they could to help me. The contractor who did the site prep dragged his feet a bit, but the dealer kept me informed and contacted him for me when I couldn't reach him. Buying, building, etc. is a stressful situation, but I found the experience with PH to be no more stressful than it had to be. Good luck with your home. You'll get lots of compliments on the quality. I just wish the kitchen cabinets were a little less "plastic" looking.

[joker]

Do you own a Palm Harbor? Do you work for them?

[joker]

Thanks for your reply. I am a handyman type and have renovated our last two homes. The first thing I commented on walking through was how they still feel like mobile homes, i.e. tiny plastic trim, thin plastic tubs, "plastic" looking wood grain cabinets, etc. Overall, for the price per square foot, you get a lot for little. Even with the cost to upgrade things like windows and siding, I'm still way under $70 sq/ft, the cheapest I have heard to build.

[joker]

So what about quality? If you worked for them you saw the good and not so good. In comparison to other manufactured homes, how to they stand? Our sales guy really pushed the hurricane survivors. Supposedly there were many homes hit by (Katrina?) that were right next to other homes. All of the PH sustained minimal damage while other builders were torn apart. All I see are pictures of MF homes some destroyed others not. It's not like there is a big tag on there to tell which is which.

[rmurray]

The hurricane story you mention was not about Katrina but Andrew in South FL many years ago....The picture you saw was sent to PH by Allstate Insurance..The main home in the pic was a PH and insured by Allstate...They were so happy they did not have to pay much to repair, they gave the pic to PH to use in their ads..All 500 reps in the company can tell you the story....And you would see that same poster in all 120 sales locations..This forum is not big enough for me to type the whole story..

You asked about the quality from my experience...I did work for them a while only 2 of the 30 years I have been in the business..From my experience they are the MOST committed company in the business..They build a quality home and back it better and longer than the others..For instance...they just closed the store where I worked but only sales folks were let go...The factory reps in the area are all still there and every customer still under warranty was assigned a consumer advocate to take care of any issue....I have seen many companies close in this business but none has worried about the customer nearly as much. I could have transfer to another store, but I cannot move at this time..The other thing is..the day I was laid off the owed me a ton of money..Unlike others I have worked for they paid every dime exactly when it was due..Hurray and get a home soon before prices and rates increase any more..

[joker]

Well, we have a contract on a home already as I mentioned in another post. I guess I am just getting cold feet as we wait for the land issues to clear up.

[mannymanbo2]

I inspected them for the government contractor that inspects manufactured home factories. There were not too many plants that did a good job, but for the most part, Palm Harbor did. except the plant in or around Arlington TX. they were bad.