Clayton Homes

When I met the rep, Morgan, she was very kind. I said to her, “Just go step by step with me because I'll get overwhelmed.” I'm a police dispatcher, and my days are just crazy. She told me exactly step by step what I needed to do. I told her, “Okay, what's the step after that?” That was the only time she gave it to me in advance, was when I said to her, “Okay, I got that.” She also hooked me up with everybody that I needed to be hooked up with like the bank. She went way over and beyond. She was just a great person to work with.

We bought land in July. Right before we bought the land, we went into Clayton and said, “How does this process work if we wanted to buy our own land and have a home put on it?” We told her what we were looking at. She told me I just have to go from there and to get a closing done on that, to get the property, get the closing done, and then get all the paperwork over to them. She just took it from there.

She went a little further. There was a well that was supposed to be on the property that we bought, but we never found it. And we didn't want a well. We wanted to get public water and there weren't any lines. It was never lived on. It was just completely open land. Nobody wanted to take responsibility for it, whether it be the city or the county. She went way over and beyond. She got in touch with the county, and said, “These people just bought this and they're gonna live on it. You're messing with our livelihood. Somebody has to take responsibility for this piece of land and put the pipes down.” They did it with no charge. They ate about $5,000. There was no charge because it was just such a process. They didn't understand who was gonna take it and who was gonna be responsible for it. She went to bat for us.

She gave us choices and options of what we wanted. When we went to look, she gave us an open court of what we wanted. She let us go through each one of them and didn't pressure us into anything. Just told us to take our time and think about what we wanted. If we had picked something that was out of our upbringing, she gave us options for something different. We told her what we had wanted and she stayed in that area.

They had a floor plan, and that was the most fun part out of it. Going in and picking out all the colors. It was great. It turned out exactly the way that I wanted it. When we were doing that, she said to me, “If there's something in here that clashes, we have professional people, and we'll just let you know that might not go together.“ But that never happened. Everything was just the way we wanted it to be.

It started in July and we were all moved in by the end of December. That was all it took and that was during COVID time. So, that was during the time that we didn't know if we were going to get our cabinets. We didn’t know if we were gonna get our appliances. Anything that came from Mexico, we didn't know if we were gonna get it on time. We didn't know how long it was gonna take and she kept on it. She made it work. We were in there a week before Christmas. She’s a top-notch woman. We couldn't thank her enough.

Clayton in Rogersville has went way far and beyond to help us. They are excellent. They've always tried to work with us really well with anything that we wanted to change. Any problems we've ever had, they've always been right there and helped us. We had the construction loan. We both learned a lot in between the construction loan. They worked with the Eastman Credit Union. There was no communication about anything with the escrow place that they went through to do it. We didn't like that part. That did not have anything to do with Clayton. When we got our closing cost, it ended up to being 2,000 more than we thought because they got the surveyor and they didn't let us choose a surveyor. They didn't communicate with us to say, "This has went up. The surveyor is a lot more. Your closing cost is gonna be a lot more." When it happened, it was a surprise.

Neither one also didn't tell us that there will be a fee to do the conversion over what converted from the mortgage loan conversion from the construction loan to the mortgage loan. They didn't tell us that equating it was an $1,800 charge. We had put $1,000 down and they were like $800 short. Instead of making us pay that because it wasn't our fault, Clayton let that go.

I love Dylan. We still call each other. There are a few stuff that they're getting ready to do. What happened was, we have the decks build in. We didn't have the gate put on the back. So, I called him and I asked him how much would it cost for him to build me just the gate for the back like I got on the front. He said, "Oh, don't worry about it. We'll get that." So, he's having the guy that does the decks build us a gate. They're gonna kind of put it on.

I talked to Bobby this morning and he's waiting on the guys to bring the gate to come and do it all at once. One of my blinds broke and he ordered me another blind for my sliding glass door, and they're going to come and put that on. We had rocks put on our driveway that was in our construction loan and we didn't have enough to go all the way up our driveway. When I was gonna get this guy to do it and they told me they would get Chris to come out here and put me some more rocks, and they did. I loved that they surprised me and they did it for me. I would very highly recommend all of them. They've all been really good with us.

Then, we paid our down payment so they would get started and it took them a while to make our home. It was on my birthday, in May, that it arrived to the store for us to go look at it. So the process started from the end of November all the way to May. But that was understandable with the COVID virus slowing everything down. Then for Christmas, they closed for two weeks, which we knew about beforehand. So the process took a little longer than we thought but our expectations may not have been realistic given today's circumstances with the virus.

So we went and looked at the home that they made in May, then it was June 1st that it was delivered on our property. After that, it was end September when we moved in and a lot of that was due to a lot of rain we were having, so it was hard to get things quickly. There were also a few times when I felt like the communication with Clayton's reps could have been better. But as a new person doing something like that, I was just a little insecure.

So far, we're very happy with the home and it feels like a solid one. We've been through one really bad storm, the effects of that last hurricane, and we were nervous because it was our first storm in it. Fortunately, the home's out in the field and the woods are backed off from us, so we didn't have to worry about trees falling on us. But we were nervous because the winds got pretty hard for Georgia. Still, we didn't feel like we needed to leave and go get somewhere safer. The home held up really good and there was no damage to it at all. The air conditioning and the heat seem to be really efficient, too. I'm happy with our electric bill. It went up a little this past month, but that's because it's been so cold. But the home seems to be very comfortable and a cozy place. It’s such a pretty home and it has the little built-in front porch on it with the stones on the column. We get a lot of compliments on it.

My husband was working in Nashville and he was driving by a Clayton place and saw The Abigail. He pulled in and looked. It was about 80% of what we had drawn over the years. So, he told me about it but Panama City didn't have one at the time. So, we drove all the way across to Georgia. The woman up there was one of the rudest people I've ever talked to but I gave a brief look anyway. Then, I waited a few months until they got one in Panama. I went and looked at it, and when I started questioning about adding extra windows, doing different things, so on and so forth, is when D.C., the rep, told me that they could do anything we wanted. So, I was hooked. We went to Jasper, Alabama and looked at the factory, which was when I was set on it and when I wanted it.

With the problem now, I called DC, who is the lot manager in Panama City. He was the first one we spoke to. I kept calling until they got that home in over there and then, Stephanie called and let us know it was in but not together. So, I called D.C. I told him that I wanted to look at it and that I don’t need it together. I just need to see the front half of the house. He said that he would get the stairs and we would go in it.

We have carpet in the house and we have that linoleum we paid top dollar for. It’s supposed to last for 25 years. They didn't sand down the floors like they were supposed to and they also didn't make sure that the things were sealed before they put it in. We've only had our home a few months and because of the COVID, the young man, Boris, couldn't come back out and do a lot of fixing. The whole floor has got to be replaced. I've got some places where it’s 4 to 6 inches, and there’s no way I’m gonna let them pack it when I gave $12,000 for it. I’m gonna have to get a lawyer to fight it to make sure it's done.

Also, there are humps. If you throw an area rug down and one of your kid’s balls or a toy gets under, you can feel it. So, that is the biggest issue that I have with our house. I don’t call DC and complain to him about it because there's nothing he can do. There's no need to complain to Jeremy either but I have talked to a young lady up at Clayton in Jasper, Alabama. I was a contractor and I used to build homes from ground up so I know what the process is. They didn’t sand the floor and they didn’t put the board that was supposed to be put underneath this. It's supposed to be a seamless, airtight floor so that the floor was supposed to be sucked down to the existing floor, and they didn't do that.

The construction of it is fine but I’m a detailed person. My center island is off three quarters of an inch. So, instead of it being 3 foot from counter to counter all the way down on each side, it’s not. It wasn’t put in right either. The way that they built this home was they were behind. They were pushing out a lot of homes for the hurricane victims. I get it but what I don’t get is sloppy work. I even had to screw everything up when I came to the house. Even my siding is popping off the house. It’s not cut right. Every time I've had somebody call me and ask me if I would recommend Clayton, I would say yes, all the way across the board. But if I ask if I could talk to them about the factor, they would say no.

There are other high dollar issues. I told them when I first got the home that the toilet rocks left to right and it’s due to the fact that the floor is not level. So, the floor wasn't locked down properly. There were no head bolts put in the floor to hold it so that the toilet wouldn't do that. If you don't put it on the beam you put it on the edge of the beam, it's gonna work its way down so it's always going up and down. You have beams that go across the floor, that's what the board connects to. So if it's not there, and it's over on the side of the beam, then the floor is gonna go up and down. They have stated that they had to go underneath the house and do things, which means that they got to cut my insulation. It’s a repeated problem.

I bought an extended five-year warranty but at the same time, I'm not gonna claim any of this on my homeowners insurance because I'm not gonna let my homeowners insurance go up because the factory chose to do a shoddy job. Also, they put the dryer vents four inches from the wall and it is six inches, so you've got a 10 inch gap between the wall and the back of your dryer, which has my dryer six inches in front of my return air. So I have to move the dryer, unhook the dryer, pull it out, to drop the returned air to take the filter out. It was slap it together and get out of here because they were behind schedule. At the same time this was going on was when they fired that one factory manager and hired somebody else, and put in another one.

It finally snapped and came to me. My lender said we were ready to close but Clayton Homes couldn't get their numbers right. They were trying to charge separately for a lot of different things that were included in the package of when you buy a Clayton home. That was why I switched and went to the Georgetown, Indiana office. When I cancelled that home office and called them, I said, “I gave you all $1,000 deposit and I really didn't have to." It was like an earnest deposit. I was told by the home center’s manager that I was not getting that back. They did this and that. I told them they didn't do anything. The head corporate contacted them and let them know they owed me that refund because they did not use my money to do anything for nothing.

But when I transitioned and started using the Georgetown, Indiana home office, they got everything moving on the ball way better instead of me being in limbo and waiting. I called and asked if they could give me a simple answer. From there, they were honest and very helpful. They got the numbers right for the prices of everything to submit to the lender so we could go ahead, do the final closing and get everything done out of the way so I can move into my home. I'm still grateful to this day because I was living in hotels and I paid storage for a whole year.

The home is beautiful. I love my kitchen. I've always wanted a kitchen the way my kitchen is. As far as cost, it may have been the same if I would've had a house built. It’s got almost the same quality to me. But I'm satisfied with the house. I definitely would recommend anyone to go to the Georgetown, Indiana home office to get their Clayton home done.

We got in the house and it literally looked like it was slapped together super fast with no care in the world as to how it looked. To get something where there was drywall splattered everywhere, and the mirror was splotchy everywhere, we could see every nail hole. They didn't paint evenly throughout the house at all. They did the corners and then didn't paint over the center part again. All my walls were outlined. The trim on the outside was yellow before we even moved in, and they didn't even paint it, ‘cause our house was gray and white. The back was completely yellow too. The cabinets had weathering, like they had water damage. The paint was chipping off and peeling off, and there was water damage to one side.

I like the house layout itself that’s why we picked it. But the workmanship is really lazy. We can see the fingermarks. It looks gross. I don’t know how they got away with doing this. For me, as a consumer, this is my home. We bought this because this is where we're gonna raise our children. It’s expensive. This is supposed to be brand new. Clayton has been trying to call to get it fixed. But they had to fire two different people in the time that we’ve been in our home. I just got the perfect storm and had a lot of bad things happen all at the same time.

I would not recommend Clayton Homes to anyone. I am not pleased with them. When we moved in, I asked that the rocks be moved out of our yard. They said that's not in the contract so they were not going to do it. We ended up paying to have the rocks moved. The shower that we asked that was supposed to be the most wonderful shower in the world was put in by somebody they pulled off the street. There are spots where the tiles are pushed in. There are spots where there's no grout. There are spots that won’t take grout. Around the bottom edge of the pan, it was grouted instead of caulked. I'm going to have to take the grout out and recaulk it myself. They also left grout on the tiles.

I called them for close to a month and I finally got someone to answer the phone. She said to me, “You have to go back to Clayton Homes.” I went back to Clayton Homes and was told, “There's nothing we're gonna do about it.” Somebody called me from Clayton Homes before and they said that they would have somebody from the factory call me. I asked to talk to the manager, Mike, but he never called me. I'm still waiting for him to call.