It is the good, the bad and the ugly

I been waiting to give a full review on using Home Nation as our builder. For those who don't know we built a house this past year. We decided to go with a modular build because we were on a tight time frame, as our landlord was having to sell the house we were renting. We had also decided to go modular to save money as a modular build is so much cheaper than a stick built home on site the savings can be 20% or more. Modular homes appreciate like stick built homes do so for us it made sense. Before we decided who to use as a builder I did research. A lot of it, and compared the prices of all the modular prices through all the builders. In my research I found the most popular modular builder in the United States Clayton Homes sells the same homes under a different name to Home Nation for a fraction of the cost. Our home cost without the site work (site work cost vary ours was more then the house) with delivery was just over $40K (though our model has gone up since we built ours) The same house through other modular sales companies the same model but under the Clayton Home Name was selling for $72K for just the house without the site work and without delivery. Overall the price was great and I have no regrets on what we paid for the house.

This is the home we ordered but ours is without the dormer

From the home nation website

This is the home we got after I chose the shutters and siding colors

The Good

The great thing about Home Nation versus the competition is their upfront pricing, you can put your zipcode in and get prices for the homes in your area with shipping. You can even add options and see what the price will be with those options. (there is a downside to the options I will address that in the bad) The sales people are really friendly when you contact them, and the prices they sell these homes for are really great prices. Our home is well insulated and so far it has stayed warm in the cold weather and cool in the warm weather with our heat and air running.

The Bad

The first bad thing was after they got us under contract, the friendly customer service seem to go out the window. Some of the options Home Nation is selling are bogus options. As one of the options we wanted was traditional house doors and not cheap manufactured doors and upgraded windows. We got neither of them and I found out later that Clayton Homes only offers one type of door and window. They don't offer upgraded windows and doors. I threw a fit about the doors being wrong and I do have to give it to Home Nation even though I had to throw a fit they did replace both of our doors, But lied to me and told me we had upgraded windows. When we do not, the bank took care of that issue. The sad part about it though is for the price point they don't have to lie about anything to sell these homes.

The other bad thing is they try to get the home owner to act as the General Contractor and that doesn't work well you need a GC and they don't want to be your GC. So fine we hired a GC for the job and took care of the site work. Which is okay but Home Nation should have had different plans that our GC had a hard time tracking down which slowed down some of the work. We insisted the Home Nation use their crews to finish the house because we figured it would be smart since they do these homes all the time. Wrong, if you decide to use Home Nation, I highly suggest you find someone to finish it out on your own, or have your GC do it. Cause Home Nation doesn't have in place the people they claim to have when they are selling their homes. They hired contractors with no experience to come finish homes and they only have one person working for them that finishes the homes and does the warranty work that knows what he is doing. They send this poor man all over the country fixing their shotty contractors work.

The Ugly

The owner of this company is not a nice man. We are not 100% sure because he isn't from America he is from another English speaking country and I know some English words can be lost in translation so to speak as not all English words mean the same thing as they do here, but we think he told us he is embezzling money. He told not only me but my husband too in a different conversation that his company puts all the money in a pot and when bills are due they pay out the money. Wait what... That isn't how it is suppose to happen. My loan money is suppose to go into a escrow account and it is only suppose to pay my bills on the build we are building not someone else's build or anything else. You get your profit when you are done to do what you want with. We are still waiting on an accounting of our build and I am reporting it to the Attorney general. I might be wrong and he might have been trying to say that but couldn't think of the word escrow but if he is embezzling eventually someone will be left screwed and I don't want that to happen to anyone.

The owner caused many issues and if I didn't have to deal with him, I think it would have gone more smoothly. As we were given 4 different dates our house was suppose to be here, and each date went by without our home arriving. The last date I had been told a few days before it had left the factory and was on the way. So when it didn't arrive, I called and nicely I demanded they call the trucking company to find out where our house was. The owner told me "Fuck you call my attorney" I was like WTF, I was about to dial my own attorney after that phone call when the owner's son was calling me up apologizing and making excuses for his dad's rude behavior. He contacted the trucking company and found out our house had been delayed in Ohio but was on it's way.

Trucking company didn't know they were picking up a house for Home Nation. Apparently the trucking company that delivered my house won't do business with Home Nation because of how the owner treats people. They thought they were delivering a home for Evergreen Homes, which they had no clue till our delivery was one and the same company. I was told that the owner is so rude to customers that this trucking company refuses to do business with Home Nation and now they won't do business with Evergreen Homes again either. Home Nation pulled the permits for the house move, and didn't pull them correctly so half our house was impounded. The trucking company felt bad for us and stole the other half of the house back from the state police, and paid a fine for doing it, because they didn't want us to have another delay after dealing with Home Nation.

After the house was delivered

The first crews they sent out didn't do it right and then it took them 3 months to send someone out to finish my house. I was pissed livid as that can't be good for a house not to be finished off right and winter had hit. But finally once they sent their one guy who knows what he is doing, things started getting fixed. We got our upgraded doors, and slowly everything has been addressed, but not without fighting, yelling and lots of threats of suing. Finally it was holding off signing the final draw paperwork that got our job finished. All in all even with all the troubles we had, we were in our mostly finished house in less than 6 months and after 11 months our house is finished.

Would I do it again with Home Nation

Even with all the crap, Yes I would do it again, but with my eyes wide open, knowing the owner is a dick rude man. I would avoid dealing with the owner and deal with the other employees. I am cheap and $30K savings is worth dealing with a rude asshole person for me. I also did the impossible or what I was told would be impossible. I had a house built and on my land in under 6 months. That in and of itself is an accomplishment. But Buyer beware, there is some bait and switching going on, Clayton home doesn't offer upgraded doors. So you will have to have them upgraded aftermarket, but upgrade them for that extra $250 cause those doors run more than $250 and if they sold them to you, they have to give them to you. Press the issue if you have upgraded the doors the sad part is that many don't know they got screwed.

Final ranking

Sales 3 out of 5 stars for the bait and switch sales tactics
Price 5 out of 5 stars for the price it is a great deal
Quality of home 4 out of 5 stars I can't get it 5 stars because in our bathroom we have no floor in our sink boxes and there was no shelving in the bottom cabinets in the kitchen but for the price point it is fine
Promise 2 our of 5 stars as too many promises were broken
Overall I would give Home Nation 3 out of 5 stars

For those who just found this blog

You can read about my adventure building a house by scrolling back to the end of August 2017 if you are interested of additional details. I wrote about everything as it was happening but didn't say what builder I was using. I didn't want to sway one way or another till we were done and I could give a detailed review of my thoughts.
If you are interested in checking out the homes available at Home Nation you can find their complete listing of homes they sell at homenation.com