Recently I’ve had a couple of emails from modular home
factory sales reps telling me about some of the prospective builders that
wanted to go modular. Every sales rep I’ve met has similar stories but here are
just a few of my favorites.
A rep from a PA factory got a lead from his sales manager
and told to get in touch with the builder and sign him up. A few calls and
emails later, everything was place for a face to face meeting with the builder
in
arrived at the address where he thought the builder lived and where he wanted
to meet, he was escorted into the townhouse and out the back door and into a
garage.
He met the builder who was sitting on a huge barrel of
driveway coating surrounded by gallons upon gallons of paint and roofing tar.
Turns out the ‘builder’ is a painter that wants to build a home for his cousin
Hector. He thought that he could save a bundle buying directly from the
factory. He had already talked to three other factory reps and just wants the
lowest price. It was a long 4 hour drive back.
Learning that a builder in VA wanted to talk to someone from
an east coast modular factory about selling him all the homes for his 34 lot
subdivision, both the sales rep and the factory owner made the trip. Since the
factory owner was the one that had been talking with the builder, the rep saw
no reason to question the trip. Once there, they learned that indeed there was
a ready to build in subdivision but the builder only had a $1,000 deposit on
the project and thought the factory would love to put the model home including
all site and land costs in exchange for exclusive rights to sell all the
houses. The development was bank owned. I was told the owner only said a couple of words the entire way home. It was never mentioned again.
My favorite so far is the rep that had an appointment to
meet the builder at their model home located two states from the factory. He
looked up the builder’s website and saw the model and a picture of the woman
that owned the company. Everything looked good. Upon arriving at the model, he
walked into a completely barren first floor of a cape cod. The only thing he
saw was a cell phone on the breakfast bar and a couple of counter stools. It was
empty or so he thought.
Deciding to go upstairs he noticed that it was unfinished
except for a blanket hung at one end. He walked over and found a middle aged woman
sound asleep on a bed. She was in unflattering PJ’s. It was 10:00 AM. He quietly
went downstairs and found one of the builder’s business cards next to the
phone. Walking out the front door he saw a 7-11 a couple doors down and went
over to see if anyone knew what was going on with the model home.
Turns out the lady upstairs was the builder. She had lost
her home to foreclosure and moved into the vacant model home another builder
had used before he went out of business. She was squatting there. He drove back
to his factory and when he got there the owner called him into his office and
demanded to know why he didn’t meet with the builder. He told his boss the
story of the sleeping woman and was told to go back because she called and was
pissed. He was also told he would only be getting expenses for one round trip, not two. The rep
quit and went to work the next week for a competing factory.
