Author: American Homestar

If you’ve studied our website or researched online, you probably know that Oak Creek prides itself on having some of the highest resale values in the industry.  Considering that most people only keep their house for seven years before selling it, this is an important and substantial consideration when choosing the right home.  Obviously, the extra money you pocket when selling your home should be factored into the home-buying equation at the BEGINNING of the selection process, otherwise you may be comparing apples to oranges.  That being said, one must ask WHY Oak Creek is considered a better investment by most third party appraisal services and the banks who rely on them.  The answer is simple:  quality.  Oak Creek has a reputation for building the strongest, longest-lasting homes in the nation; a reputation that has taken 45 years to build.  Over time, banks and finance companies experience fewer problems with Oak Creek homes and that has led to happier customers who become more likely to pay off their loan.  The moral of this story?  Don’t let a small price difference stand in the way of a happier living experience; you’ll get it back when you decide to sell it and buy a larger, newer Oak Creek!

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I’m sure you’ve heard of the tragic flooding in South Louisiana over the past several weeks.  Some estimates show 60,000 people without adequate housing, many of whom must completely rebuild their lives due the total loss of their homes.  On August 19th, FEMA contacted all approved manufacturers of FEMA emergency housing (including Oak Creek) to solicit their assistance in responding to the crisis.

 Though we are proud to assist in these times of need (and proud to be one of the manufacturers that FEMA trusts with their housing needs), we are also concerned about our commitments to those in unaffected areas who are in the process of making a housing change.  Though we will continue to build non-emergency housing for our regular customers, the amount of time it will take to do deliver special order homes will grow substantially.  Furthermore, storms like these always create exaggerated demand for building materials, causing home prices to increase. 

There is still a short window for ordering your home before demand accelerates and prices increase.  In an effort to keep your housing change on schedule and in budget, we can either provide you display models for immediate purchase or lock in pricing on special order homes if sales are initiated by September 15^th. Give us a call to discuss your housing plans.

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If you’ve seen the list of stock models currently featured on Oak Creek’s website as well as the individual dealer sites (if not, check them out!).  Why are these homes so much cheaper?  Is something wrong with them?  Do they not have the normal warranty?  Well, there’s a lot of reasons to discount stock models, namely that Oak Creek constantly updates its decors, options and floorplans to keep up with popular tastes and styles.  Does this mean that a discounted stock model doesn’t come with the commitment for service that Oak Creek is famous for?  No way!  All stock models come with the same warranties and Home Service Protection (if applicable) that are the hallmarks of our homes.  So why the big discounts?  Because these homes often show the minor wear typical of being used as a model home.  You may see the occasional scratch or carpet wear, but the discounts traded for these shortcoming typically far outweigh the negatives.  Please take a look at our clearance homes by clicking HERE.

The post What’s Up with the Deep Stock Model Discounts? appeared first on Oak Creek Homes.

So you want to tour our houses but you just don’t have the time?  No problem.  Just click here and take a look at one of our 3 dimensional home tours.  You’ll be able to get an overview of our floorplans and click anywhere in it to see the interior of a particular part of the house.  From there, you can navigate to multiple points in any room (even closets) and get a full 360-degree perspective using your mouse or keyboard.

Navigation is a breeze as you move from room to room and get the truest interpretation possible of our houses without leaving your computer screen.  You’ll find this is a great way to view the various décor choices and option packages we have available as we’ve done our best to include different ensembles across our home offerings.  Furthermore, you will be able to narrow down your home selections before visiting your local home center, saving you time and confusion.

Unlike our competition, Oak Creek goes to great effort and expense to make sure virtually all our homes offer this online experience.  We hope you take advantage of this great new technology!

The post Have You Seen Our 3D Tours? appeared first on Oak Creek Homes.

Salespeople.  The very word brings fear to the mind of most people.  Many people dread working with salespeople out of fear of being taken advantage or of being lied to.  At Oak Creek, we understand that purchasing a home is one of the biggest decisions of your life, and we’ve hired and trained our staff to approach their job differently than those at other companies.  Here’s how:

Our people have two ears and one mouth and use them proportionately.  In other words, we listen!  We know you don’t want to waste valuable time so we ask the right questions to determine just which homes at our dealership would fit your needs.  If we can’t find one there, we’ll get online and find the perfect home for you elsewhere in the company.

Our people get the best training in the industry.  Every Housing Consultant (that’s right, we consider them consultants) is given a thorough 10-day class upon hiring to educate them on our homes and company.  Then, they are given a battery of online classes and exams to further reinforce this knowledge.  After that, they each spend 3 days in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex at our our two Texas manufacturing facilities seeing our homes built and observing each step of the process.  Given all of this preparation, you can feel safe knowing you’ll be in good hands with an Oak Creek Housing Consultant.

We’re not pushy.  We’ve got the facts.  We’ve got the proof.  We are confident you will come to the right conclusion without coercion or sales “silliness.”

So come meet one of our fine Oak Creek professionals.  You’ll enjoy the process and feel good about your purchase.  Most importantly, you’ll love your new home.

The post What to Expect from an Oak Creek Housing Consultant appeared first on Oak Creek Homes.

Every home builder will claim to build the best home for your money, and frankly, we won’t be any different at Oak Creek.  We’ll tell you our homes are built stronger, designed better, more affordable and that we’re more committed to your satisfaction.  But with all manufacturers making their own claims, how can you know who to believe?  At Oak Creek, we strongly advocate PROVING everything we say about ourselves.  If we claim we have higher resale value, we are going to show you an N.A.D.A. record.  If we say we’ve got the best protection plan, we’re going to show you all of its coverages.

Oak Creek uses better and stronger materials when we build our houses, and more of them.  This causes our homes to weigh more than other brands.  How much?  Sometimes SUBSTANTIALLY more.  How do we know?  More importantly, how do YOU know?  By looking at Record Detail form, which is required by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.  Obviously, all manufactured and modular homes must travel on the State’s highways and thus must be measured for weight.  This document exists for every home and is available by request from any dealer who wants you to see them.  At Oak Creek, we do want you to see them…they are proof that a whole lot more goes into our houses.

The post At Oak Creek, we DON’T watch our Weight appeared first on Oak Creek Homes.

Oak Creek Homes prides itself on having some of the highest resales values of any manufactured home built in the country.  This value is derived from the N.A.D.A., an organization that determines values not only for homes, but for cars, RV’s and motorcycles.  They are the single most reliable source for appraisers, banks and independent buyers in determining just what someone should pay for a pre-owned manufactured home.  Almost without exception, the N.A.D.A. feels that an Oak Creek Home is worth more than a comparably sized manufactured home built by one of our competitors.

But what does this REALLY mean?  Obviously, it means you’ll get more money for your home if you eventually sell it or trade it in.  But the better question to ask is WHY are our homes valued higher?  The answer is because they are BUILT STRONGER.  If a home is built like an Oak Creek, it holds together better over time, has fewer service issues and is thus considered a better long term investment.

So, when it comes time to choose the best home, don’t just take our word for it.  Take the word of a third-party independent expert…the N.A.D.A.  You will be glad you did.

The post What Does High Resale Value REALLY Mean? appeared first on Oak Creek Homes.

Celebrating forty-five years in the single family housing industry is a milestone that few companies have achieved, especially in the factory built home segment. But that is exactly what American Homestar Corporation and its 665 employees are doing this year.

From humble beginnings in 1971 as a single model home center on Spencer Highway in Pasadena, Texas operating as Mobile America and featuring Mickey Gilley in their TV campaigns, the company grew to become one of the region’s leading manufactured home retailers. But when the oil boom went bust in the southwest in the 1980’s in order to survive, the company found it necessary to change its business model and go down a different path.

Company founder and CEO Buck Teeter recognized the market the company could serve was for REO services provided to lenders faced with liquidating manufactured homes whose owner’s had defaulted on their loans. According to Teeter, “we had the infrastructure and talent in place to serve this need and help the financial institutions reduce losses on foreclosed homes. We refurbished and re-marketed thousands of homes during this period helping not only the lenders but many home-buyers who were in need of affordable housing at a time when the job market and economy were really bad.”

The market in the southwest soon began a gradual recovery that accelerated quickly through the decade of the 90’s. During this period of rapid growth the company entered the manufacturing segment through mergers and acquisitions and soon had a presence in 28 states with fourteen plants, one hundred thirty five company home centers, eighty five franchise outlets and a large number of independently owned and operated home centers.

In 1995 the company formed 21st Mortgage a joint venture manufactured home financing initiative with a partnership that included Clayton Homes and several former management team members of their Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance operation. It also entered the manufactured housing transportation business through an interest in Roadmasters Transit, one of the leading transporters in the country.

With the growth and expansion activities during the decade of the 90’s the company became fully vertically integrated through manufacturing, retailing, finance, insurance and transportation and grew to be one of the largest manufactured housing companies in the U.S.

In the 1998-99 timeframe the manufactured housing industry was severely impacted by its own financing melt down as subprime loans made by many lenders went into default. This caused the mortgage backed security market for manufactured home loans to all but disappear. With no secondary market for loans, the lack of affordable financing for entry level home-buyers created a dramatic drop in demand and caused the company to retrench back to its core southwest and south central markets with two manufacturing plants, twenty five company owned Oak Creek Home Centers, Western Insurance and American Homestar Mortgage.

In 2008 the company acquired a third manufacturing operation in Lynn, Alabama, Platinum Homes. It expanded its product offering by entering the modular home building and commercial structures markets and offering the industries first 7-year home protection plan.

Following Hurricane Katrina the company was called upon to assist in providing temporary disaster housing to hundreds of families. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike provided the company additional opportunities to provide permanent affordable factory built replacement homes across Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. For families with low to moderate income impacted by Hurricanes Rita and Ike in Texas, American Homestar Corporation is currently building replacement homes under a program funded by Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

According to founder and CEO Teeter, “while the modern energy efficient homes the company builds today bear little resemblance to the homes we built and sold forty-five years ago, one thing remains unchanged; the company’s commitment to quality and affordability.” American Homestar Corporation is primarily employee owned.

The post American Homestar Corporation Celebrates 45th Anniversary appeared first on Oak Creek Homes.

Let’s face it…there are thousands of sales jobs out there.  You can sell vacuum cleaners, cars, sporting goods…the list is virtually endless.  There’s only one way, though, to sell the true American Dream.  That’s by selling HOMES.  In Oak Creek’s case, the houses are manufactured and modular in nature.  What’s the difference?  The main one is cost.  With the rising price of housing, this dream is becoming more and more out of reach for the typical person.  That’s why factory-built housing is becoming a more popular alternative.

Of all the companies out there in this field, why choose Oak Creek?  Because of its commitment to training, development and promotion from within.  When it comes to training, we will start you off with 10 days of hourly online meetings followed by a 3-day class at our manufacturing facilities in Texas.  Then, every week, you’ll receive continued education to keep you up-to-date and any and all product and market changes.  We prepare you to succeed at Oak Creek, and once you do, we do our best to keep you.  Many of our sales pros and managers have been with the company for five, ten, twenty even TWENTY FIVE YEARS.

Right now our biggest (but not only) need is for BILINGUAL salespeople.  One of our fastest growing groups of buyers is Hispanic people and those who speak Spanish will be best prepared to serve them.  If you’d like to learn more about an opportunity with Oak Creek, click HERE and visit our employment page.

The post What Does It Take to Be an Oak Creek Sales Pro? appeared first on Oak Creek Homes.

As you know, our dealerships display stock models so that our customers can get true sense of what are homes are like. Sometimes, pictures or one of our unique 360 degree tours are simply not enough. Because we frequently change our floor plans and decors, we occasionally must change out our inventories and when we do, the consumer is the winner.

Why? Because these homes become heavily discounted for short periods of time.

What’s the catch? There really isn’t one. These houses have full warranties and our 7 year Homeguard protection plan and typically show a minimum of wear. We just need to bring in the newest models and pass on tremendous savings to you to make that happen.

Which houses are included? Across our company, over 30 houses have been discounted for this weekend’s brief yet amazing “72 Hour Sale”. This include single, double and triple section houses as well as homes built to both the HUD and Modular building codes.

Thursday April 28 – Saturday April 30 , put those umbrellas away and come out to Oak Creek Homes for great weather and even greater savings during our once-in-a-lifetime 72 Hour Sale. You’ll be glad you did. Oh, and while you’re there, check out Oak Creek’s new Olympia Home, the most highly anticipated new model we’ve built in years!

MANUFACTURED HOMES TEXAS

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