Trailers, or manufactured homes constantly get a bad rap. Gone are
the days of tires on the roofs and “tornado magnets” - today’s
manufactured homes are actually a preferred form of housing.
After
being a homebuilder and designing “traditional housing” for over 20
years I decided that the future had wheels and I wanted to roll along
with that trend. After looking for 10 years, I’ve found my destiny – I’m
now officially a Trailer Diva.
Why manufactured housing? Try to
take any traditionally built home down the road at 65…OK, maybe 55 miles
an hour and let me know how far you get. Whether a manufactured home is
$20,000 or $2,000,000 they are built to withstand all of the potholes
and issues that we have to face every day when we drive down the road.
There
is a misconception that manufactured homes are made with “trailer
parts” and to fix or replace anything in your home you would have to go
to a special store and get special parts. Any home that I have been in
is built with the same materials that you would find in any home (if not
better) and you can upgrade your faucets or carpet at any home
improvement store.
While working with Patriot Homes I’ve been
fortunate to be able to visit all of their building centers and get to
know quite a few of the people who are responsible for building these
homes. They are an amazing group and really take pride in the homes that
they build. When’s the last time you saw a happy contractor at a
typical construction site? Another bonus with manufactured homes is that
you have a workforce who works at the same location every day in a
controlled environment and are supervised. Manufactured homes are built
to national – not local codes and each home is inspected by a national
inspector. Patriot’s northern plants are in areas that have a high
concentration of Amish workers – true craftspeople that take great pride
in their work.
Designing trailers is a blast! I haven’t met a
snob yet and they have all been open to new ideas and trends. The day is
coming where trends start in the manufactured housing field and then
get picked up by site builders. MSNBC recently had a live poll and asked
people if they would buy a manufactured home. Over 85% of the people
polled stated that they would live in one if it was well designed.
The
next time you are considering buying a new home or thinking about
investing in a vacation or retirement home, take a look at what
manufactured housing has to offer. I promise you it will be one of the
best investments of time you will ever make.
