It's Here!
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We began looking for a mobile home the first week of July. We had some
limitations as far as size limit and price limit. Our market was 'used' mobile
homes.

We looked at the mobile home places in Georgetown, and also Seward
Junction. We saw a few in Georgetown that were within our price range but
they didn't include such things as 'setup'. We found a really nice one in
Seward Junction that included everything that I believe should be included
in 'setup' but it was a little over what I could afford to spend but I was
seriously thinking about it and trying to figure out how to manage the deal.
The assured me that the mobile home could be delivered within 3 days of
the purchase date (excluding weekends and holidays).

To me, 'setup' is important and includes delivery, leveling, tie down, tying
into the electric, plumbing, and sewer and underpinning.

Most mobile home dealers offer setup. This is why I chose to go with a
puchase from a company rather than an individual.

We had pretty much decided to go with the mobile home at Seward Junction
when we happened to stop in at a 'wholesale' mobile home place in Burnet
on July 12th. There were no customers at the establishment when we
stopped but the owner of the place was apparently busy with some
paperwork and it took him about 10 minutes to come out and offer his
assistance.

I told him what I was looking for and he told me in no uncertain terms that
he didn't have anything in our price range and went on to let us know that
everything he had was under current market prices. I told him that the
Georgetown and Austin market had his prices beat by a small margin. He
wasn't very happy to hear that and didn't believe it in any case. We went on
down the road and happened to see Hill Country Mobile Homes large sign.
It looked like they had some used mobile homes.

The sales staff ( Michael and Michael ) at Hill Country Mobile Homes were very helpful. Michael (Doc) listened as I told him what we were looking for,
checked his list and told us about only the ones that were within our price
range.

Neither of the mobile homes that were within our price range were on the lot
at the time. One was in Killeen and the other in Holland. Michael Neely
offered to take us to see the one in Killeen if we were interested in it- we
were. So, we planned to go see it the next day.

We did a quick walk through. It was a typical used mobile home, needed
new carpet, perhaps some flooring, some dings in the walls and such. I
tried to focus mostly on the structural aspects- was the floor good and tight,
looked for any signs of leaking from the roof, evidence of bad plugs outlets
and such. I didn't spend a whole lot of time inside.

We needed something with three bedrooms and it had them. It also had two
bathrooms, a nice size den and kitchen plus space for a washer and dryer
so it fit what we needed pretty well.

I took a good look at the outside looking for any signs of structural problems-
top of roof, edges of the roof, outside walls, base and underneath where it
was possible to see and all looked to be in good shape. I decided to think
about it overnight. It didn't look great on the inside and there was kind of a
urine smell throughout but a change of carpet would remedy that.

We came home and talked it over- my 11 year old twins didn't much like
it because the bedrooms were so small but I knew that with our spending
limitations we weren't going to have a lot of options as far as floor space
goes.

I decided that night that we'd take that one if the carpet and some other
things could be fixed and emailed Michael about my decision and told him
that we'd be in the next day to complete the purchase.

We sealed the deal with Hill Country Homes of Burnet the next day. The
price went down a little bit rather than up although 'setup' which initially
included just about everything varied a bit by the end of the deal. By the
end of the deal it seemed to include delivery, balancing, tie down and
hooking up whatever services are really easy and quick. ( Like we'd all like
our jobs to be ) However, that's reasonable enough.

The initial 60 day warranty on all the homes they sell wavered between a 60
day warranty on all of the homes they sell to no warranty on the homes they
sell. I'm not sure at this point if there is actually a warranty on the homes
they sell or not- or what if any warranty we actually have.

Still, I liked working with these folks and my general feeling about the
purchase is a good one.

The mobile home's anticipated delivery date is July 28 or 29 'ish'.

Hill Country Homes of Burnet also did a really nice thing for us. They offered
us some furniture that was in a trailer they purchased that they didn't need.
We gladly accepted the offer and went down and picked it up Monday,
July 19th.

Thursday, July 22 - I took part of the front fence down so when it does arrive,
we're all set to go on this end. I have the plumber, electrician, and AC
installer all on high alert so when it does arrive it can be be made habitable
quickly.

Monday, July 27 - I spoke with Michael Neely today and received an update.
The repairs to the mobile home have been completed, the carpet has been
replaced and he will be inspecting it to make sure it's ready for us and up
to snuff. It will be arriving any day now!