The Next Big Decision

Several weeks ago I wrote about our decision to purchase a manufactured home. Last week, Jack and I stopped in at another manufactured home site and found our dream home on their lot. We were just looking as there are about a dozen of these places around here that sell pre-fab homes. It was so fun seeing our future home and walking through the kitchen and living spaces.

The model home on display didn’t have the fireplace in the living room, the sliding glass door off the dining room or French doors into the den like we wanted, but it was the exact layout of what we are planning to buy! You can imagine our excitement when we found out the model home was for sale – available for immediate delivery – at a $14,200 discount. And, the company would throw in the cost of building the foundation the house would sit on- as a bonus.

This has been a lesson on trusting our intuition and listening to the inner voice of God. We immediately went home and began meditating and praying. And we continue to ask God if we are to take the model home or if we are to wait as planned and order our dream home in October.

We have done lots of comparing. If we bought the model home, we would be “settling” on something less than what we wanted. But, we could make a lot of improvements with $14,000. We would also be putting this house up in April – about 6 months ahead of our plan. Although we plan on renting something in the Benton area for weekdays, we don’t really want to have the $1000 rental house bill and a house payment. We figure we would be overpaying rent by $3600 through November but would be able to homestead our house a year faster. If we “ordered” our home, we would be making more decisions about the interior of the home, like deciding on floor, carpet and wall colors. We would have the house built more to our liking - with the fireplace, sliding glass door and den. And of course we knew, some of the changes would involve additional charges.

Next we looked at our two sales reps. Darla is a sweetheart and we totally trust her. She gave us line item costs for everything that needed to take place to get the land ready for the home. She connected us with a contractor that would do most of the ground work if we went with her. We loved the contractor’s honesty and willingness to work with our plan. (Even though he can’t save all the trees.)

Both Jack and I had an uneasy feeling about the person we would be working with if we bought the model home. We didn’t feel like he would be dishonest, but he was already pushing a $15,000 beautification package for getting the home and grounds “installed”. We like the idea of itemized costs rather than a package deal that would contain things we don’t want or need. And he kept saying "bring in your land deed; bring in your land deed"… hmmmm

I am so thankful we don’t have to make the decision over night. As a matter of fact we get the sense that we are to take our time and really understand the benefits of one home over the other. I have to admit, I liked the idea of having our home delivered by April. But I am not going to let my excitement get in the way of what is best. I don’t believe the money is the greatest factor in our decision. So, for the next week or two we will continue to gather the facts and pray for Gods guidance as we make our next big decision.