Champion, Cavco or Palm Harbor??

[Susan]

We are still searching and trying to make the best home purchase with the limited budget we have available. We have looked at Karsten & Patriot which seem to have the best quality, unfortunately, for the square footage we are trying to get, they are a little out of our range.

We like Palm Harbor and have heard positive feedback. We are looking to get the upgraded 2x6 exterior walls, tape & texture, upgraded insulation & flooring.

But now we have heard you can get just as quality of a home w/those upgrades from Cavco or Champion, whithout having to spend as much.

Can anyone recommend Champion or Cavco as a quality alternative to Palm Harbor, or are we better off spending the extra money for the Palm Harbor name??

Thanks for all the help!!!

Susan

[Charlotte]

Better check the customer service for Cavco. My brother has a friend who has had very BAD luck with the company. They didn't make my "short list."

[KVR]

We compared a Solitare to a Redman (made by Champion) as our final choice. We picked Redman because we liked the floor plan better and it was slightly more square footage than the Solitare. We chose the 2x6 walls, higher insulation and tape/texture walls as upgrades on the Redman and it the home's base price came in slightly cheaper than Solitare with those upgrades as their standard.

Although I did feel the Solitare was a nicer, classier home than the Redman we saw, we liked the Redman better + we didn't get to see the Redman with the modications on the lot. Also, the Redmand dealer is more interested in working with us than Solitare on the final price.

You might try picking a floor plan that you like of each of the homes your intertested in, go to a dealer and tell them exactly what upgrades you want in the home and have them give you a price. See which one comes out better to fit your needs. If you find something you really like, it meets your specifications, and is within your price range stop looking. Otherwise it will drive you insane.

[JohnnyJ]

KVR is right.

My wife and I researched and learned from a lot of resources, all about the
way to purchase a manufactured home. You need to have your ducks in a row
when you walk in the door of the sales lot.

You need a floor plan, and specifications for everything that you want in a
home..... I mean EVERYTHING. You need to have specs for sidewalls,
floor joists, plumbing cutoffs, type of lavs, flooring material, sidewall material,
number of electrical outlets, etc., etc. You want to design your own home
within the constraints of the manufacturer's offerings.... EVERYTHING!

Don't forget to also have your financing in order before dickering with a
dealer. They make money on financing in most cases.

Go through as many dealers as possible and pick one that comes the
closest to meeting your requirements.

We eventually opted to go the "stick built" route, but everything we
learned in our research holds true when selecting a builder for them
as well.

After we had our plans drawn up, and went through 7 builders with our
requirements, we found one who had price, quality, and an ability to
meet our needs. Everyone of the builders we got estimates from just
about dropped a load when they saw that we had an itemized list of
everything that we wanted in our home. ( we even had model numbers
of tubs, showers, faucets, light fixtures, etc.)

That's what you have to do though. It takes time, effort, and a little bit
of thought on your part. It will be well worth it when you get down to
the bottom line of your satisfaction in a new home.


good luck

[angelnstix]

We owned a Palm Harbor previously. The only problem we had was the floor joists buckled. There were very obvious ripples in the floors in the living rooms. Palm Harbor fixed these with no problems. These buckles appeared about 3 months after we purchased the home. Palm Harbor was a great home and the customer service was excellent. We now live in a Fleetwood. It is far from a Palm Harbor home, but we got a very good deal on our Fleetwood and it is much bigger than our Palm Harbor we had. We checked into Champion Homes when we bought our Fleetwood and they were too pricey for our budget. Good luck with your decision. We love our Fleetwood, its the Entertainer series and our payments are perfect for our budget. Having owned 2 previous homes I decided it was very important to be comfortable in monthly payments that aren't difficult to make. God bless! Angelnstix