(calming music) Hi, my name is Kristina Smallhorn. And about a month ago I put out a video about the five facts of mobile homes, and it was a huge success. But the comment section was riddled with really bad information
that was being given out. And I realized after I started
reading this more and more, that a lot of people believe these things because they've been said for so long, it becomes true in their minds. So I was able to meet with Gary Millet who owns a manufactured home showroom right here on Airline Highway. And he was kind enough in
his super Cajun accent, to explain the five myths, and address each and every one of them. Before we even do that I do want to say, I was not paid by Gary to do this video. I did not pay Gary to
do this video with me. And I know that in the comment
section of the last video they said, "How much is she getting paid to do these kinds of facts?" I'm just doing it to educate the public, and that's all this video's about is to tell you the five biggest lies that are told to you
about manufactured homes, and I'm going to address them right now. All right, why don't you
tell everybody who you are. - I'm Gary Millet Senior, and I'm the owner of a
manufactured housing retail. I am also a commissioner
for the state of Louisiana that regulates manufactured housing. I have been in this
business now for 42 years, so I have learned a lot about
the construction of our homes. There's a lot of myths that
people talk about our product, and they're all false. The very first one is that
mobile homes attract tornadoes. That's a myth, folks. It's the way they are anchored today. There are more anchors
on a manufactured home, this house as heavy as it is, when we put it together, we got two sections we put together, this house will weigh about 70,000 pounds. We put it together and we
anchor the center of the house, we anchor the sides of the house, and we anchor the horizontal anchors, so there's no uplift on this. I promise you this house
will withstand more wind than a house that's build on pillars. - A common theme when it came to the comment section of
the manufactured homes was the fact that the type
of building materials. And I know for myself that I thought a lot of the building
materials were inferior. But the way that Gary explains the type of building materials that are used in manufactured homes, and what guidelines they have to follow in order to get that
manufactured home put on a lot is a little bit more than
a lot of people think. And of course the guidelines
have changed over the years, but like I said Gary explains it best in his way that he can explain it, super passionately. - First off, there's three
categories of manufactured homes. You probably can relate to
what I'm going to tell you better if I do it in auto vehicles, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Mercedes. And materials that are put in those homes are dependent upon which one you pick. You as a customer, if you come up to me and you say, "Listen this is my budget." I'm going to take you in a
home that fits your budget, it might not have the same materials as the Mercedes or the Cadillac, but it's going to have
materials that HUD approves. The other thing about this home, and the lot of them, is the windows are all thermopane windows, just like you would put
on your site build house. You get appliances, and all of these cabinets are real wood. So don't tell me about inferior, there's no such thing in our industry. - When you go back to the comment section of my previous video about mobile homes, a lot of people mentioned the insulation and their utility bills. You had some saying their
utility bills were pretty low, and you had some saying
that they were a nightmare. Well Gary and I went ahead
and discussed that as well. - You're going to have a utility bill the whole time you're living in this home. If you don't add that insulation at the time it's being
built at the factory, you can't put it in folks. That's why we strongly suggest you do it. Like I said, this house has R30, it has R19 insulation because of the two-by-six sidewall, and R22 in the floor. - So people couldn't blow in
insulation after the fact? - No. You can put it in the bottom. - You can put it in the
bottom, but not in the-- - No unless you got a
place to get in the attic, and there's none. - Well there's something I learned today. - Yeah. (laughing) - The comments what it related to the type of people that
own manufactured homes. I want to address this first, and the fact that there are many people that live in manufactured homes. And this hurt me because
people are people, and you never should
judge a book by its cover. I know this sounds super preachy, but for goodness sakes
where a person lives does not make them the
person that they are. And Gary addresses this as well. - Well first off I would never, ever say that a customer of mine was deplorable. Listen I make my living
selling to customers. They can't afford to go out
and buy a site built house, that's why they come to me. And if they ever tell me they want to go buy a site building, I say, "Good luck, go do it. You'll never do it for
the price of my home." My price per square foot, it's probably $100 a square
foot less than you building it. And that's going to
determine how you build it. Because if you build it
the way this home is built, that's why the customer comes to me, because I can help them to get in a home at a much more affordable price. Everybody can't afford a
Cadillac or a Mercedes, they just can't. So if they can't afford that folks, they come in here. This is going to be the biggest investment they make in their life. And I'm telling you that's all a myth about people who buy manufactured
homes are deplorables. No, no. - You just don't want it. I mean cars go down in value, mobile homes go down in value, it's a car you sleep in. I mean that's what you're dealing with. So if you want to rent one, that's fine. - That is totally false. It surely depends on how well
you take care of your home. I mean listen you drive off
the car lot in a Mercedes, and they'll tell you you lost $10,000 just for driving it off the lot. That's not the same thing with our homes. What's the demand? That's what regulates
the price of any home. Because I've seen some site builds that started out at 150 or $200,000. And when it got time to sell them, God it was terrible. - Okay so now we're on lie number five. And this is not true of every single area, and it is true in some other areas. But they say that you'll never gain value on your manufactured home. In some areas they say if
you take off the tongue and you lay it on a foundation, it's considered real property and no longer personal property. Here you can finance a
manufactured home with an RD loan, or an FHA loan and it's easy. In other areas it's not so easy. So make sure you do your research first before you decide to
purchase a manufactured home, and see what the resell
value is in your area. You can always contact
a real estate agent. If you're thinking about
selling your manufactured home, and you do want to gain value, I'm going to make a video in the future covering the best ways you can gain the most money out of
your manufactured home. So be on the lookout for that, so make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss that one. - You know, there's a lot of people that will buy a manufactured home and put it on a piece of property. And it automatically,
automatically increases the value of the home with the property. - Oh, yeah. - And I can tell you for a fact, there's a lot of people that did that, and ended up selling the land and the home for a lot more money than they had in it. So there's your proof. I promise you it's happening all the time. - It's like you can buy a base model car, or you can buy a base model house, you can add upgrades. I just did a video about comparing a house between $200 and $250,000, it all came down to a
little bit of extra size and a lot more extras
when it came to upgrades. This is no different than
any other type of home. And that is the biggest
thing I want to get across. The biggest lie is that
this is not a real house. It 100% is a real home. It is an asset. And it can be resold, if it's taken care of, at a profit. And now for a few bonus tips. This is one that came up not
only in the comment section, but I've heard this for many years, and it was about the type
of glue that they use to put together the manufactured homes. It was told to me that it attracts rodents, and pests, and
especially German cockroaches. But let's go ahead and
hear what Gary has to say about this particular lie. - Again, another myth. Folks, listen. - You mean lie. - There's no question housekeeping
plays a big deal here. I've lived in four
different manufactured homes in my lifetime. And did we have them, did we have roaches? Yes. Guess what we did? We sprayed. I've lived in a house that had them. You can't keep them out, they're coming in. - Especially in Louisiana. - You've got to have some
kind of pest control, or if you do it yourself
just do it regularly. But that's all a myth folks, because remember the same
materials in this house are used to build a site built house. - Oh, you know what I want to talk about? - What? - You mentioned that people oversizing their air conditioning
units for the mobile homes. And the other thing is they not only put the air conditioning on the outside, they end up sticking a window unit in. So tell them why that's a bad idea. - Well first off in a manufactured home, the manufacturer gives us the BTU rating. The BTU rating is the
size that the duct works can take in that house. Now site built houses use 500 BTU's as a guideline for each 500 square feet. And our deal is not that way. Because we put so much instillation, we'll have a 16-by-eight, or this house, this is a 32-by-64, 1,800 square feet. This house will take three turn air. Now if you want a four turn air, I won't sell it to you. Because it's going to void your warranty, you're going to have mold. I'm telling you, it's gonna happen. If you oversize the air conditioner, this is what it does. It turns on, cools the house down quick, and turns off. Let's just say you got
your thermostat set at 68, and the dew point outside is 70. And guess what's going to happen between the walls that you won't see. Just like that glass of ice water, having the condensation
on the outside of it, you'll have condensation in your walls. But you won't see it, because it's in the insulation, it's between the sheet rock, the insulation, the OSB that's on the outside, that's your barrier. And then you got your vinyl siding, or your Hardieplank, whichever one you want
to put on the house. Going to have water I promise you. - Yep. - Thank you for listening to us. - Yeah, I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. - No problem. - Gary Millet is definitely passionate when it comes to manufactured homes. He's been doing it or a long time, and he's quite a character. If you want to know
more about Gary Millet, I will go ahead and put his
information in the description. But if you'd like to know
more about manufactured homes, I will go ahead and put the playlist for manufactured homes right here. If you want to know more
about modular homes, I'll go ahead and put a video right here. But make sure you like,
share, and subscribe so you don't miss any of my information when it comes to any kind of home. My name is Kristina Smallhorn, your real estate whisperer. And I tell you all this
because you matter.
Thank you for this video! It pretty good explains all the misconceptions people have about manufactured homes. Indeed, most of them don't go into details mistakenly think that mobile homes are of bad quality.