Oakwood Home

[Dave Dunn]

My wife and I have just started looking at manufacturer homes. We really liked the Oakwood model Snack Bar Four Bedroom Home. Of course the salesman made everything sound good. Still planning on looking at other manufacturers in the next coming months, just wanted to hear positives and/or negatives about Oakwood.

Thanks.

[Randy Eaton]

Hello Dave,

Here is my take on Oakwood homes... "Oakwood has been on a buying spree gobbling up smaller companies like: Crest Homes, Freedom Homes, Golden West, House Smart and Marlette. I have sold against Oakwood for years and I am familiar with their homes and their sales techniques. Oakwood is probably on the bottom of my list of recommendations. They have a poor reputation in the industry in regards to service and home construction. Five years ago Oakwoods stock was close to $40 per share and now it’s around five bucks. Oakwood is going after the entry-level buyer with price being their main focus. I like the companies web site and feel they do a good job getting the information out. They do have a tour page on their web site that you can log onto. Oakwood has always done a great job marketing them selves but their homes just look mobilehomeish and the quality was in the toilet a couple of years ago. My understanding is they are trying to turn things around in a big way. Oakwood is now offering a five-year warranty, which they are pushing hard. In Washington State Oakwood was able to offer customers in-house financing and they were able to take customers with poor credit and put them into a home. The problem was the interest rates were high and the homes did not appreciate much. There was a high repossession rate among Oakwood homebuyers because of this. The sales center here in Moses Lake closed up shop a few months ago. From reports around the country they are closing retail centers at an alarming rate. When the stock market was spinning out of control a few years ago so was Oakwood. Like many companies they were in the expansion mode, buying everything they could. But when the bottom dropped out of the stock market, Oakwood came crashing down. Yes…I am not a big fan of Oakwood Homes, my hope is they will stop building cheap homes and start focusing on what really matters, “Customer Satisfaction.” As you can guess Oakwood falls into the, “Poor Construction Category.” Oakwood homes cost between $30 to $35 per square foot on average. The company appeals to entry-level customers with price being the focus. I believe Oakwood is trying to turn things around and they may accomplish this but it may take a few years. Hope this helps and don't forget to buy my book on this site.

Randy Eaton

[Sandy]

Randy:
It absolutly infuriates me when people, including you Randy, lump all homes, i.e Golden West, House Smart, Marlette etc. under the same "Oakwood- they are awful with poor construction and bad customer service" umbrella. You say that Oakwood is appealing to the entry-level customers with price being the focus" Our home cost $93,500 for a 1456 sq. ft. home. I don't call that cheap!! I also don't consider our home in the "Poor construction category". You say you want Oakwood to focus on customer satisfaction, we have been nothing but satisfied. Anytime we have sent a request to our dealer for any type of issue in the home, Oakwood has called to speak with us or set up an appt within a day. They have done things for us in our home that they didnt even have to. Our home has all the "stuff" that you keep tauting as so important in a MH so I don't know where you are coming from saying that Oakwood is cheap. I don't think you can speak for every dealer in the US who sells for the different manufactures that fall under Oakwood. You are just turning people away from Oakwood with what your saying when it sounds like you have a personal thing against them.

[Sandy]

When I went to look at Oakwood HOmes, I was turned off by the fact that they do their own financing and do not negotiate on the price of their homes. When I told them I had a very high credit rating and had been approved by another finance company at 6.375% interest, they said that didn't matter - they financed everything themselves and would not offer me a rate that low, regardless of how good my credit is. Not too long after this, I saw that this same dealer was now showing Schult homes and learned that Oakwood has bought out Schult, which, according to this web site, is a very high quality home. Randy - this question is for you - do you think this buy-out will result in a lessening of the Schult quality or in an improvement in the Oakwood quality? I saw another Schult model at another dealership and was impressed with the quality, but now that they're (apparently) owned by Oakwood, I'm not if I should consider Schult.

Thanks for your input.

[Sandy Y]

I want to clarify that my previous message about Schult being bought out by Oakwood is written by a different Sandy from the message directly above mine, also by Sandy.

[Sandy]

My home is a Golden West home (owned by Oakwood) and was financed through Chase Manhatten. Maybe Oakwood Homes does their own financing but it doesnt mean that all homes manufactured under Oakwood do their own financing. In fact we werent even offered financing through Oakwood.
Sandy

[Mandi]

If Oakwood may or may not be recommended, then who is a good manufacturer to look at?