FACTORY TOUR

[Patrick]

MY WIRE AND I ARE LOOKING AT AN INDIES HOUSE 32X90(86). WE ARE PLANNING ON GOING ON A FACTORY TOUR THIS FRIDAY. IS THERE ANYTHING WE SHOULD PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO?

[RuthieG]

Patrick......How did your tour go? Did you like what you saw? Thinking of buying a MF Home so interested in any thing you have to say....

[Patrick]

Ruthie G, hello, we went to the factory for Indies House. Getting to talk to the salesman from the factory (the one who takes the orders from the dealers) was the biggest help. We had been to 3 Indies dealers since looking for a home. We are the most interested in that brand as they build a 32 x 90. They also allow your own floorplans and custom design ie: move the light here, add doorway there, ect... We were able to get straight answers as to what changes we can make and what options are available. All the dealers that we talked to wrote us up a spec sheet with pricing as to our floorplan; but the spec sheets were very different as to what was standard or optional. Funny thing is all had prices within $1000 of each other. We are to receive the spec sheet from the factory's salesman this week. We are going to take it shopping to as many Indies dealers as we can. The factory is well aware of this and will know the house is ours as soon as a dealer ask for his pricing. We are going to pick the dealer who offers us the best price. We are setting our home on a walkout basement, therefore there is no warranty after the initial set and walkthrough. My advice to you : after you find the brand of home you want, take the factory tour and get the salesman to go over every detail that you want included so that nothing gets lost in the translation from the dealer to the factory. We were pleased with the construction of the homes. Only thing I saw negative was the wall plug-ins were not nailed to the studs, just snaped into the sheetrock. hope this helps. Patrick

[RuthieG]

Patrick...thanks so much for your answer. My husband and I have recently bought 10 acres and it just seems to us that a manufactured home is the best option for us, so I am interested in all I can find out about them. How did you decide on the basement and have you already talked to people about building the basement. Do you know if putting them on a basement will affect them in any negative way? Since we are going to be in Florida I am concerned about hurricane force winds. I am wondering what area of the country you are in. Our property is in Central Florida around the Ocala area. We have only looked at the Palm Harbor homes but are very interested also in the Jacobsen home.....

After reading as much as I possibly can, I get the definite impression that the installation/foundation is a very very important matter so I just have to do some checking and make sure that I know exactly what the "best" is and how to go about insuring that our retailer (who ever that might be) has/uses the best ones available.

Any information that you feel would be valuable to us in our house hunting would be greatly appreciated.....

[Patrick]

Hello RuthieG, I will try to answer your questions 1 we decided on a basement because of the lay of our land, it is a hill, going to the 32 x 90 size we wanted would have the front side of the house about 6' off the ground 2 we have talked to people about building the basement, I am acting as my own general contractor to save money. I will be hiring a different crew for each phase of the job and also doing some of it myself 3 puttting a home on a basement can affect the home if it is not supported correctly, I have a copy of the installation manual for the brand of home we are going to use, we are following the instructions for a permanent foundation, the only differance is our perimater walls will be 8' tall our basement will be a walkout type, meaning only 3 walls are below grade, a crane is used to lift the home up on the supports the factory and the dealer say this voids any warranty after the initial walkthrough, fine with me, this means I won't have to keep calling and hoping they are coming out, 4 we are in N.W. MS check out mobilehomerepair.com for photos af a basement set 5 high wind concerns check out steel frame homes @ heritagebuildings.com

[RuthieG]

Patrick.....be sure and take pictures of your operation as you progress. It would really be interesting to see .........

[Rick]

Why should setting a home on a basement void a warranty? I don't think this correct. Don't sign away your rights. HUD mandates a one year warranty. If the home is set-up according to the factories manual, the warranty should be in effect.

[Brad]

Patrick: My wife and I are looking at homes we would like to take a factory tour. How do you go about doing this. We are in NW Indiana Thank you Brad

[PATRICK]

BRAD, WE TOLD THE RETAILER WE WOULD NOT SIGN ON ANY HOME TILL WE HAVE TOURED THE FACTORY AND THOROUGHLY DISCUSSED ALL OPTIONS AND LOOKED AT EXAMPLES. WE TOURED INDIES HOUSE ON OUR OWN, WE CALLED THE DEALER REP FOR OUR STATE AND SET UP A TIME TO BE THERE. WE TOUR GATEWAY HOMES WITH OUR RETAILER. WE STILL HAVE NOT MADE UP OUR MINDS. WE ARE GOING TO GET A TOUR OF CHAMPION THIS WEEK.

[pats1111]

Dear RuthieG:

I am a Florida Insurance Agent who specializes in MFG Home Insurance. Before you buy the Palm Harbor, do yourself a favor and go look at the triple wide Skyline homes. You can also tour the factory (cameron) and see how they are made as well. Dollar for Dollar, they are built everybit as well as PH, however considerably less in cost. They really are some beautiful homes. As far as hurricane winds go, NO MOBILE HOME will stand up to a severe hurricane, period.

Stay away from these brands:

Liberty
Nobility
Champion
Redman
General
FLEETWOOD (especially)

Good Brands:

Jacobsen
Homes of Merit (ironically, owned by Champion)
Skyline
Palm Harbor
Horton