Southern Estates Question

[bolineclan]

My husband, 3 children and I have been looking for a manufactured home for about two months now. We had considered a Solitaire but , today, happened upon a lot that carries Southern Estate manufactured homes. We were very impressed with "The Logan" which is 32X68, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2176 square feet (Model No. ES328). The lot is asking $91,900 and agreed to include the Polar Package (2X6 outer walls/extra insulation). I did a little research on this manufacturer but would like to get any input before we make the decision. Thank you for your time.

[TeresaL]

I don't know anything about Southern Estates, but we have been living in a Solitaire Legend 4 (when we purchased it, it was called a DW-973) since 1998 and I can tell you that it has been a much better experience than the previous manufactured home we lived in for 9 years. By the end of 9 years in the brand I won't name, deterioration was quite noticeable. This Solitaire, on the other hand, looks as good as the day we purchased it, with normal repairs and maintenance. We've been making upgrades the past year and a half, and have hired workmen for the jobs we couldnt do ourselves, and they have all been quite impressed with this home, previously having thought that manufactured homes were just a fancy name for "trailer house", and not realizing that Solitaire's are built more like a site built home than anything they had ever seen before. We've found that there is very little difference in upgrading our Solitaire than there is in a site built home; and the same is true for repairs. We've had French doors purchased from Lowe's installed (worker had to cut into the house to make opening larger and install new headers), replaced light fixtures, installed ceramic tile and had a very high quality carpet installed in the master bedroom and great room.

If I were you, I would talk to someone who has lived in a Southern Estates home for several years before purchasing one. That's what we did before we purchased the Solitaire; we spoke with several different people that had been living in Solitaires for several years to see how much maintenance they required, if they were aging gracefully, and if the people still loved their homes as much as when they purchased them. All answers were surprisingly to the positive, and I can tell you that we love ours very much. Due to changing lifestyle, I may even consider purchasing another Solitaire instead of a site built when we sell this one. My in-laws love it and would buy this one from us in a heartbeat.