During the second week in December 1998, we flew down to Houston from our home in Cleveland, Ohio to find a place to live. At first we were going to rent an apartment because we thought that might be the only thing quick enough. We decided to stop in at Nationwide in Spring, Texas to ask if they knew
about any used mobile homes.instead Mike Lewis, our salesman, showed us some new homes. We also mentioned that we were wondering how much time it would take to get into a site-built home should we decide to go that route. Mike immediately discouraged us, saying site-built homes were
very expensive in the Houston area and we couldnt possibly find anything for less than $100,000. Being new to the area and on an extremely tight schedule, we took his word for it. He told us that our total payments, home and land, would run about $600 a month. He said that the house we were interested in was a larger, heavier home, so they would provide concrete runners to put our home
on. Mike and another salesman (Matt Tatum) also told us that if we bought a home from them, they would completely cover our moving expenses. We went back to our motel to think about it. The next day we told them that we wanted the home, but were worried that it wouldnt be ready in time.
Mike and Matt both assured us that the house would be built and sitting on our land when we arrived January 3rd. Chris said, Are you sure? Weve got Christmas and New Years coming up. They insisted that despite the impending holidays, the house would still be ready in time. That promise, coupled with the promise of being reimbursed for our moving expenses, was our main
reason for deciding to take the home.
We said we didnt know where to put it, and they said there was land in New Caney to put it on, and that it was a nice subdivision. We were not told about any other places we could live.
After we returned home, we called regularly to check on the progress of our home. We kept being assured not to worry, that our house would still be ready on schedule. When we arrived on January 3rd, we showed up at Nationwide with our moving van and four kids in tow. We were informed
That our house hadnt even been built yet! Chris made a fuss and got the General Manager (Dan Roberson) to agree to put us up in a motel temporarily. We also needed a place to put our belongings, as the cost of the down payment and moving had broke us and we couldnt afford to store it, so Dan told us we could put the stuff into one of their homes. He had Chris sign a waiver saying they werent
Responsible for anything happening to our stuff, and Chris signed it, having no reason to believe that the home wouldnt be locked up. After we unloaded the truck, Chris tried to close the door and discovered that it wouldnt close. Naturally, if he had known that the door wouldnt close, he would never have signed that waiver. Nearly 200 cds, 2 cordless phones (one less than a month old), a caller ID unit and some articles of clothing were stolen. More would have been stolen if we hadnt taken all of our electronic items and stuck them in the back of our van with a blanket over them. We saved everything that we could fit in there.
Nationwide put us up in a run-down motel with roaches in Cleveland, Texas. Eating out at least twice a day was killing us, so Chris managed to talk Dan into paying $30 a day in food. The only way hed pay our food, however, was if we ate at the motels restaurant. The food was so unbelievably bad (it was all flavorless, like they were running a special restaurant for diabetics) that we ended up eating out more than half the time at other places and using our own funds.
Since we didnt know how long wed be in the motel, I decided my two middle children would be better off living with their father for the remainder of the school year. My reasoning was that I couldnt very well enroll them in school with a motel as our address, and that would also make it easier on us financially, as feeding 6 people in restaurants every day was too expensive. My two sons had been raised entirely by myself after their father had left, so this was very traumatic for them. I also had to listen to my 2-year-old daughter cry heartbrokenly for her brothers as she watched them board the plane (my husband works for an airline, so it wasn't hard to pay for $10 plane tickets).
After nearly a month in the motel, we were told our home was finally ready. We went to Nationwide to look at it and discovered it had a great deal of damage. We were told this would be fixed once it was on our property. My husband inquired as to when the runners would be poured so
we could get our house on the land, and our salesman exclaimed, What are you talking about? Theres no room in the deal for runners! Since we had been promised runners, an argument ensued. Seeing that they werent going to budge, my husband finally had to agree to refinance the
House for a higher amount to allow for the cost of the runners. When he went in to sign the papers, they had added $4,000 to the price. My husband wanted a break-down of the cost, but it seemed like they werent sure of the exact amount. Apparently they hadnt looked into the cost and were just guessing.
After the refinancing, we thought they would get right on the runners. After all, they were paying for our motel and food costs. However, we were wrong. They were too involved in finding more victims to buy their homes, and they would have forgotten all about us if we hadnt kept pestering
Them. Everytime wed call to find out if the runners were about to be poured, there was always some excuse why it wasnt going to happen. The guys were busy on another job, the guys truck broke down, they had to wait for the ground to dry out, etc. Some days we were told they would be out to pour the runners. I would go out there, but there was nobody there. Finally a day came where they really did show up. They sunk their bobcat twice (even though it hadnt rained in a while by that time) and declared that the land would never be fit to pour the runners. An electrician that happened to be out in the area at the same time told me that everytime he had to install an electric pole in that subdivision, he would dig about a foot and a half down and the hole would fill up with water. He was required to dig four feet down for the pole, so he would continue digging through solid water til he reached the required depth, then stick the pole in and fill the watery hole with concrete. Afraid that our house would eventually sink on this land that Nationwide had pushed on us, we asked the seller to allow us out of the deal. We got lucky; he didnt fight us about it.
We found another piece of land to put our home on. The seller of the land told us he could do the runners for us for $3,500. We gave him the go-ahead to do it, then contacted Nationwide to tell them that Steve Sullivan would be arranging for the runners and we wouldnt need their guys for the job. All of a sudden, the amount allowed for the runners dropped to $2,500. Since the guy had torn up our original paperwork when my husband signed the papers to refinance, we had no proof that the amount was supposed to be higher, so we had to absorb the cost.
Shortly after this, Dan Roberson informed us that there was no more money to put us up, and wed have to be on our own. It had already been very hard to not have a home and be stuck in a motel, but now we had no idea of where to go or how we would afford it. We felt like our lives were
Completely out of our control, having no stability for ourselves or our children, and it was a terrible feeling. Still being very new to the area, we had no idea where to look to find decent rates. We drove down the highway, pulled off at the Humble exit and went to a cheap-looking motel. Since the motel wasnt a nice one, the $40 a night pricetag shocked us. The next day we searched the phone book and found a cheap motel for that night. When we found it, we realized why it was cheap: it was in a very bad part of town. Again we had to search for a place for the following night. We finally found a decent place to stay that gave us a discount if we paid by the week.
Finally, the day came to deliver the house. We thought our ordeal was almost over.By this time, we felt like we were at our wits end in that tiny motel room. When we got out to our land, we saw our house in the middle of the street. Joe, the owner of Joes Mobile Home Pullers, told us that the house was in such bad shape that he had told Nationwide that he didnt want to transport it, but they had insisted. Now the house was literally falling apart,
Starting to split down the middle. Chris said we didnt want the house in that condition, and that they would have to take it back. American Homestar had sent a representative out, Jim Hansen, who kept insisting that it would be fixed once it was on the land. My husband asked him if they would tear the walls down in order to inspect the wiring and the plumbing, to make sure there was no internal damage. Jim said, Of course not. Chris
said, Then we dont want it. Jim got Charlie on the phone (head of American Homestar, builder of the mobile home), and Chris talked him into taking the house back. Charlie insisted that Chris give him another chance to show that
They could build a quality house. We lived in a motel for a total of 3 1/2 months while waiting for these two homes to be built. When the second one was finally ready, it was
close to the middle of April. There was a laundry list of things that were wrong with the second house, the one that we moved into. We complained repeatedly, but they would not fix the many things that were wrong. After nearly a year of paying loyally on a complete piece of garbage, and after we exhausted all means we could think of (talking repeatedly to our bank, consumer advocates, HUD (who is supposed to monitor the quality of these homes to make sure they meet certain standards), the BBB and the FTC, we realized that we werent going to get the long list of problems on the house fixed. We hated to have to ruin our credit, but we saw no way out but to give the house back. They resold the home and put a deficiency judgment of nearly $20,000 on our credit report, so we had to go
Bankrupt. We lost our down payment, the money we paid for upgrades before the house was built, the money we wasted on motels and meals out and, worst of all, our good credit. Since this happened, I've met many more people that have said they made the mistake of their lives when they bought a mobile home. Hopefully, there will be people reading this who were thinking about buying a mobile home that will now change their minds.
Christopher
Channelview, Texas
U.S.A.
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