At Oak Creek, we DON’T watch our Weight

June 13, 2016By American HomestarFeatured, Retail

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.

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What Does High Resale Value REALLY Mean?

June 1, 2016By American HomestarFeatured, Retail

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.

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American Homestar Corporation Celebrates 45th Anniversary

May 17, 2016By American HomestarFeatured, Retail
Factory-built manufactured and modular homes have evolved over the company’s forty-five year history but affordability and quality continues to be the common denominator.

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.

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What Does It Take to Be an Oak Creek Sales Pro?

April 26, 2016By American HomestarFeatured, Retail

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.

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72 Hour Sale is next weekend!

April 18, 2016By American HomestarFeatured, Retail

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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