Retailer Q&A with Clayton Homes of Victoria

Shari McLellan of Clayton Homes of Victoria collaborated with MHInsider to provide some insight on the retail environment in South Texas.

»1. How has business been

to this point in 2020? Has it fallen shy of, met, or exceeded expectations?

Here at Clayton Homes of Victoria business has exceeded our expectations. We are always trying to create a great customer experience that allows our location to grow. Suzanne Felber with The Lifestylist Brands has done an incredible job staging our homes. Staging our homes gives the customer a visual of what living in the home would look like. By this location utilizing Suzanne’s great eye for staging, we are able to create a better experience for our customers and sell more houses.

»2. What is the product

mix? Manufactured versus mods, single section versus multi-section?

We carry a variety of homes from eight of our factories. SE of Fort Worth, Waco 1, Waco 2, TRU, Savannah, Sulphur Springs, Bonham, NXT of Athens. Many of the manufactured homes that we display can be built as mod homes. We carry many single wides and double wides so that the customer can view a variety of homes.

»3. What are your customers

asking for most regularly in home design? How do you communicate the needs for those features to the manufacturer?

Customers routinely ask for the farmhouse look and a house plan that has an open concept. Our factories also listen to customer needs and are always upgrading and redesigning to keep up with modern times. There are many things that the customer can choose for their house to make it their own. We sit down with the customer and help them pick the upgrades and colors of their new home.

»4. What types of challenges

are most evident selling homes in your state? Is there a solution in the works?

The biggest challenge that we have selling in our state are city restrictions. Our local cities frown on having manufactured housing. We are always willing to comply with city ordinances but more and more cities are opting out of the manufactured homes inside the city limits. A solution that may work would be local citizens going to their city council meetings and trying to prevent the city from restricting manufacture homes.

»5. What about doing business

in your state may surprise folks in other geographies?

We offer affordable housing with an incredible product and still have that “mobile home” stigma. By educating the public we have overcome many obstacles that have been put up and we continue to make a better product year after year. MHV