For about six weeks now ( off and on) I have been helping a family with a floor plan and a bid, Im know I was not the only contractor they were talking too
they called to tell me today that they decided to go with a tripple wide
the “nice man” there said there is no differnce in construction and look at all the goodies we throw in
he must have been “charles manson” with charm because I coul dnot even come close to telling them the differences
cant be……….he said there wasnt
call your bank and call the insurance companies I said, ask about resale, appreciation etc
we dont need to , they have the financing and we laready put money down
ok, have a real nice weekend and good luck
some salesmen are better then others, and admit it , we are all salesman to a degree.
Replies
resale, appreciation Those two items are probably the biggest quantifiable differences. He must have been a slick talker.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Throw in quality, design, appearance, and expected maintenance...
In our local real estate market, almost all repos are either "manufactured housing" or very old fixer-uppers.
That said, we do see a very rare true modular that's high quality. Might account for 1% of the manufactured home sales.
Some of you would be amazed to see how many "new" homes need to be re-roofed before they are one year old.You're unique! Just like everyone else! Scott Adams
I've seen the same roof thing in site built too, for whole neighborhoods.
I think it's a matter of which modular and which builder. I have seen a lot of modulear houses far better than some of the stick built that get thrown up now! For the record though, something tells me this thread was started around a mobile home with axles and not a modular factory built home.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
It's beginning to seem to me that "Fine Homebuilding" really ought to refer to the care and skill that goes into the construction, not so much the choice of materials. A sound frame on a sound foundation.... even if it's covered with some of the lesser materials it will have a solid future. Inexpensive materials can be replaced in most cases. No point in doing it though if what's underneath isn't going to hold together over time.You're unique! Just like everyone else! Scott Adams
I think the key word here is " triplewide". these are glorified mobiiiile homes and they depreciate by half as soon as they leave the lot and keep on depreciating and causing matenance problems.
I have a problem with houses built in assembly line fashion in a hanger. A friend of mine had a set of plans drawn and gave them to me for a price. After I gave him the price he said he couldnt afford that. Soooooooooo he went and bought a modular home. Had it trucked in in 4 sections,story and half. they put it together in a day.
he got it partially finished, meaning he had to side it and install the windows install and finish some sheetrock. All in all he did a pretty good job for a guy whos not in the business.but the thing sat in a field somewhere in virginia until they could ship it here to the outerbanks of nc. in that time a colony of large ants made themselves at home in the dnstrs ceiling and he didnt find them for about two months?(thatr was fun) and they have 2 yr old to boot. but he finally got rid of them.
Ihelped him as much as i was able to.helped him trim out and i installed some int. doors . I was installing the up stairs toilet (as the plumber left all the material to hookup sinks and toiles but didnt come back for about a month ) and found hot water to the toilet. lol.
anywho as a bulider of homes i think these guys should be stopped selling these homes.
just another day in paradise
G.E. Ely Construction
Ocracoke NC
wonder if he got it from john hardesty of elite mobile homes.I have done alot of work in ocracoke for him in the past
do you work out of Washington Bud. whos houses have you worked on?
tyke
just another day in paradise
G.E Ely Construction
Ocracoke NC
no not out of washington -morehead city but i know what you are talking about with washington,little washinton he pulled alot of homes out of there.i only worked on a couple few on the island but i remeber one time ran short of some sort of trim crown base board dont really recall but instead of the 2 1/2 ferry trip back he got in his plane and flew the stuff over.wish i could recall the bar and grill we ate at just about every day big ole burgers cold beers and half way cute waitresses that you could understand what they were saying.kinda hard to put that down east accent into a keyboard
>>For about six weeks now ( off and on) I have been helping a family with a floor plan and a bid
I hope you were paid for your time.
Hammertime,
I feel for you, It took me a long time to learn the trade.. Just like few guys can really build a house as well as you, you have sooo much to learn about selling, nothing happens untill you sell!
You probably spent more time with them than it took to sell, and you lost your customer before you ever left..
You need to read body language and facial expressions, you need to know when to ask questions and what questions to ask. You need to learn how to sell. Your customers will pay for your failure to sell them a house.. so you aren't the only one to lose. You did the work and now won't get paid for your efforts..
Selling is pretty fundamental. I'm not bragging but I know that I could have sold them.. I've been doing this for decades and have been very successful. My close rate is very close to 90%
The tone of your post was, how stupid they are for not buying my house.. Not trying to attack you (although I admit it sounds like I am) but you need to turn the question around.. What could you have done differantly to be successfull?
I'm just guessing here but I suspect that you failed to do a few trail closes along the way..
A trail close isn't some high pressure tactic but a way for you to find out if the customers are in agreement with what you are saying..
It helps you to answer their needs in a way that you profit while the customer gets what they want.. A win/win situation..
Thanks,
Part of the battle and story is that they came to me AFTER going to the mobile home insutry and several dealers, so they probablly heard several times the same canned answers.
And her sister lives in one and it is beautiful.
When I tried to talk about quality and depreciation, I could tell I was aginst a wall
but they stilll wanted to look at a stick built idea
what it really boiled down to I think was money and maybe a little on time
how fast can you get us in a house..................oh
who was it that said ,..............speed, cheap , quality,,, pick one
like I said they were laready conviced that the qulaity was the same and the manufactured sure had lots of bells and whistles for the money
so they looked at us or a trailer for half the price.
Now they want me to bid putting a foundatin down for it and a garage
sorry , im too busy now, just signed a contract for a house, true
but you are right about one thing about me, I am not a pushy salesman
so in the baove situation, how or what would be a trial close.
always wanting to learn
A trail close is simply a way to see if those you are working with are in agreement with you. It's not at all pushy. You want to see if the two of you understand the same thing in the same way..
The simplist trail close is to present a hand written quote and ask them to sign it..
They won't, they will have objections,, and those objections will tell you where to focus your attention.
I've found the wierdest things in a trail close, things I'd never thought of but are very important to the customer..
Face it not everyone is good at communication.. I don't always hit the nail on the head myself but a trail close will help me see where the nail is..
Signing a contract is a high pressure thing so it helps if you agree to remove the pressure first..
For example, I usually tell my customersthat if they want I'll gladly tear up the contract tomorrow.. If they change their mind, if they have a case of buyers remorse (I use those words, buyers remorse) if they don't like my hair, whatever I don't want a deal that they are unhappy with..
I explain that I can't make enough money off their deal to retire on. That I depend on word of mouth for referals and referances..Thus making them happy is critical to me and if they go into a deal they don't like it won't turn out OK.
Let me give you an example.. I meet Joe and Sue Smith for the first time.. They are going to ask me to build them a house.. I know approximately the cost of doing so either because I figured it out up front or experiance or whatever method I use..
The idea of going home to figure it out may be why the triple wide sold. They could have thought that either you didn't know your business or that you were going to figure out some scam..(You never know what goes thru peoples head untill you ask them)...
Anyway back to first visit with Mr. and Mrs. Smith..
asking critical questions, (never any question that can be answered in either a yes or no) you find out they want a three bedroom ranch with no garage.. 1100 sq.ft. is enough for their needs and budget.. Your number in the back of your head is $88,000 (or whatever) and you verbally give them that number..
Then you ask the critical question, if I can build that house for you for that price would you want me to do so?
Note!
No discussion of door knobs or trim levels. Just the facts...
You've Just asked for a trail close.
Next time I'll discuss how to effectively handle objections..
just ask me..
I don't build houses, just fix them. I have been in factory built homes that rival stick builts but more often than not they are like the one your couple is getting. And man are they cheap! Event he carpet is junk.
Anyway I am convinced that often times the folks that buy these simply don't want to have to make all the decisions and go through the building process. But they are sold in their mind that they have to have a "new" house so they won't have the problems of an old house. And of course there is cost. My experience is they are never satisfied. Every one I have worked on the customers have a laundry list of things they hate and say they would never do it again. DanT
Modular homes in general are aimed at the bottom of the market. It's not surprising that most are built cheaply. Customers buying those homes understand price but most cannot judge quality, so quality construction would go unnoticed.
But many other builders build cheap low quality housing as stick built. Recently due to a job transfer I moved to a new town across New York state. There wasn't much to choose from, but I found a home constructed in 2000 in a new development that was designed to be "executive" housing. It was built by a home builder with slick marketing materials, whose web site bills themselves as "Western New York's #1 home builder." The original asking price to the first owner was over $250,000.
Well, the home is cheaply built. The walls are only 2 x 4 construction, and the house is considerably more expensive to heat than my old home in a colder climate. The roof has cheap shingles and leaks. The carpeting is thin and barely padded. The subfloor was not glued down; you can hear the subfloor clap against the joists when walking around. The vinyl is so thin it looks like they wallpapered the floor. The basement is only 6'-4" high at the high end. The land is graded to slope towards the foundation. The breakers in the main panel are not labeled per code. There's no outside faucet on the front or sides of the house. There are only two rooms in the house with telephone jacks -- one in the master bedroom and one in the kitchen. There are no linen closets, no closet near the foyer. I could go on.
I guess my point is that well built homes are unusual, even in stick built, and something to be treasured when found.
I have very limited experience with pre-fab homes. But I saw the same few things happen during the construction of the few that I have been in and around.
1) custom falls for the age-old instant gratification. The house shows up on flat beds and in a few days or less, their new home is standing on the lot. I would imagine that this is a huge selling point that the salesmen push.
2) customers pay WAY more than they ever thought they would for the house going into it. EVERYTHING is an upgrade and they pay accordingly. In the end they pay close to, or even more than they would have for a home built with traditional methods.
3) customers wish they went with a traditional stick built when it's all said and done.
2) customers pay WAY more than they ever thought they would for the house going into it. EVERYTHING is an upgrade and they pay accordingly.
Very true in our area. The old bait and switch is alive and well. Although, custom builders do the same thing with their paltry allowances, then tacking on 15 - 25% on top for any overages.
Jim
I had lived in and worked on some out west that rivaled and sometimes exceeded the structural quality of site built houses. It was generally only the kitchen cabs and the trim mouldings that were cheaply done.
but it is interesting that there was a comment on this subject in the latest FHB to the effect that it seemed that most modular buildres start with the premise, "let's see how inexpensively we can build these houses"
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I had lived in and worked on some out west that rivaled and sometimes exceeded the structural quality of site built houses. It was generally only the kitchen cabs and the trim mouldings that were cheaply done.
30 yrs ago I purchased material for a doublewide factory in Arizona. Those homes were always permanently set, started at $40k (early 70's). Saw what happened to one half, upside down from winds in transit. One window cracked, no mirrors broken or any other problems. They were expensive at the time. 3 yrs later I went to visit and found that the company was out of business. Buying public had spoken.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!