Manufactured Homes in S.E. Arizona

[KB]

I'm glad I found this site, certainly a lot of horror stories that have me concerned. I'm looking at buying a land/home package in Pima or Cochise county, mostly been dealing with Cavco, Fleetwood and Schult dealers. Anyone have opinions on Hardi-Panel siding? 50-year warranty on the stuff, Fleetwood and Schult use it standard around here, Cavco claims they don't use it due to cracking problems during shipment and installation.

I'm looking at a Fleetwood LakePointe SLE, 28x40 but the deal sounds a bit too good to be true. Dealer is offering 2x6 construction, R 37-15-22 insulation, 6"eaves, 18' dormer, shutoff valves throughout, plus $3000 in upgrades of my choice, 7yr dealership warranty (which is probably a farce, huh?). Price is $40,000. Any input from buyers in this region would be greatly appreciated, both good and bad stories. Thanks.

[Charlotte]

Fleetwood, I'd stay away from that thing, you are right, at least I think, it's too good to be true.

[Randy Eaton]

Hello KB,

Hardi-panel is not a bad product. I does crack some times during delivery but it can be replaced and it will hold up for many years. The deal from Fleetwood sounds good but you need to understand your buying a average constructed home with few residential features that wil appreciate slowly, if at all. If your after a cheap home and don't care about appreciation values in the future then go for the deal. If you want a home that will hold up over time and appreciate in value with residential type features then you'll need to spend about $40 per square foot.

Randy Eaton

[joy]

I just want to repeat my earlier post. There are some homes built better than others, but things are going to break and fall apart in all of them. The service is where it's at. If you can't get the dealer to help you, then you are looking at lots of worry, because they will drive you crazy trying to deal with them. They are only in it to sell, not to service.

[KB]

Thanks for all your inputs, I'm getting lots of good ideas from Randy's books. Still seems like spinning the roulette wheel, I have a lot more research to do.

[aikanae]

i'm in central az going thru the same thing - so let me know how your doing! i have heard TONS of negative about fleetwood (oakwood's only slightly more neg) and most of it has to do with the service after delivery being unresponsive. there's a number of dealers around here that have stated (?) they no longer carry fleetwood for that reason.

i'm looking at palm harbor or cavco now. palm harbor here, seems to have a clean reputation and cavco - i'm sorta wondering about still. seems good in that there's nothing....odd, for a manufacturer that almost any dealer can retail, including some that couldn't make it as used car dealers (lol). still it makes me wonder. they were bought out by centrex a couple of yrs ago and is probably one reason the track record is limited.

redmond supposedly has revamped their line - they make me a little nervous. i started out looking at pre-owned homes and the ones that fell in value the most were redmond (and fell apart too - several only a few yrs old, i would have gutted and started over, incl. floors and cabinets) they say....that it's different now (?) but the campion line to me looks like the bottom.

i'm having a hard time finding a home with regular doors (like stick built) normal tub (like stick built) plywood floors that are finished well enough for hard flooring (no carpet) windows that open, incl. bathrooms and regular kitchen cabinets and sink (like stick built) is that really too much? i just don't want to have to buy a home and then pay to retro fit everything. so many dealers will tell me it's regular sized and i'll take my tape measure out and nope - it's not.

i'm getting quite frustrated.
almost as frustrated as i am with mobile home parts charging the price of regular custom, for crummy quality - or paying for a major remodel to use a regular sized item....

[Jody]

Try looking at the Champion (Silvercrest) homes. We took the tour of the factory on Saturday and were very impressed. Worth a look. We were considering a Fleetwood but after hearing so much bad stuff about it we decided to look more and checked out the Silvercrest homes. Built better than most stick built in our opinion.

[aikanae]

you looked at Champion? what plant? i was just out at the redmond in chandler, az and was actually surprised - better built (or had the upgrades to being better, reasonably priced) than the redmond's i'd seen looking at pre-owned - like they've made some changes lately? seemed like champion's name homes are taking the place of where redmond used to be (cardboard homes).

silvercrest has got to be the best - but unfortunatley out of my price range. i don't really NEED corain counter tops, etc. i also heard about their i-beam flooring grid, which sounds excellent.

but i didn't know silvercrest was part of champion manufacturing too?

in all honesty, i never expected to have to learn were every screw, joint, nail and principles of ducting, wireing, and other things to buy a home. it's tireing at best and certainly does not impress me with the industry as a whole - or hud's so called protections (?). makes me think buying a used car is easy.