‘Not Trailers Anymore’ A Hot Market For Manufactured Homes Has Led To A High Concentration Of Dealerships In Spokane Valley

Curt Chumbly began his career hauling metal monsters.

He’d drive them to dam construction sites in the 1950s, looking for the laborers’ temporary trailer parks. Then, the young mobile home salesman would plop himself down and wait.

“I’d hook the trailer up and stay until I sold it,” the long-time Valley salesman said.

He loved the business, and watched with amazement as his skinny metal monsters developed over the years into homes with shingle roofs, vaulted ceilings, bay windows and jacuzzi tubs.

The product has improved beyond his dreams. But so has the competition.

The Spokane Valley is now one of the most concentrated manufactured home dealership markets in the state, according to officials with the Washington Manufactured Housing Association.

Nearly 20 home lots now operate in the Valley, most along East Sprague and East Broadway avenues. More than one-third have sprung up within the last year.

Many of the newcomers are owned by manufacturers: companies that build, retail and in some cases even offer financing for buyers.

It’s part of a trend seen throughout the Northwest in the last three to four years, said Joan Brown, who heads the manufactured housing association.

Large, national corporations are developing and competing with the smaller independent businesses that once were the norm.

The growth in dealerships has brought mixed results for consumers. They now have even more choice and more chances for deals. If a problem develops, they may have just one entity to deal with, Brown said.

Of course, she added, that entity may be a large corporation, with a large bureaucracy to wade through.

Dealers have mixed opinions on the influx of lots. Some believe the more lots the better. A mecca draws customers.

Others, especially independents, say the market is oversaturated already, and can’t support so many businesses.

Doug Womach, vice-president of Womach’s Home Sales on East Sprague, remembers when he was the only manufactured home dealer in Greenacres. That was just five years ago.

Today, the 54-year-old family business, started by Womach’s grandfather, father and uncle, is one of eight Greenacres dealerships. The majority of its competitors are manufacturer-owned. Most opened last year.

A ninth dealership, Valley Quality Homes, will open next month, just across the street from Womach’s.

It will have 25 display homes on seven acres. The homes will come from Sunnyside, where the manufacturing plant produces two to three finished products each day.

The president, Art Berger, said he’s had his eye on the Spokane Valley for years. He hopes to draw customers from as far as Montana, a state where more than 50 percent of new single family homes are manufactured homes, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.

About 20 percent of new homes in Idaho, and 15 percent in Washington, are manufactured. Newcomers such as Berger see the Valley as a great centralized location for customers from all three states.

It has been. But that also is changing.

Like many of his fellow independents, Womach is seeing fewer customers from far-off places. The majority of last year’s customers came less than 75 miles to buy their home.

Besides coming to the Valley, corporate-backed businesses are popping up in small, outlying towns, taking additional business away from retail centers such as the Valley.

“Competition has become heated,” said David Boyce, manager of the 27-year-old Thrifty Homes on East Sprague.

The pie is getting smaller, and it’s being shared by many more dealers, he said.

According to Statistical Surveys Inc., a company that tracks manufactured home sales data nationwide, the Spokane Valley’s independent dealers are selling less than half as many homes as five years ago.

Decreasing business has led at least one independent dealer to sell his Valley business and find a new niche elsewhere.

Last spring, Chumbly sold the 62-year-old Dye Hawley Homes to a national corporation. He now owns and operates a smaller used-home lot in Airway Heights.

Corporations have an advantage in a crowded market. Their lots can survive for years even if they aren’t doing much business, Brown said. “If you’re one center of 2,000 in a New York Stock Exchange company, you can keep a seller in Moses Lake for a long time,” she said.

The change in the Valley atmosphere has in turn changed customers. They really shop, Womach said. They’re picky, and with the competition here, they can be. Few - less than 15 percent - want a singlewide home, the staple of Womach’s early years.

Last year, Womach sold homes for up to $170,000. Most were double or triple wide, with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. “They’re not trailers anymore,” said Rick Nelson, one of the few independents to open in the Valley recently.

Unlike many of the old-timers, Nelson is highly optimistic. He opened 5th Avenue Homes on East Broadway last month, and already has sold eight homes.

He attributes the sales, in part, to his nearby competitors.

“I hope someone else moves in next door,” the salesman said. “It doesn’t bother me a bit.”

Then again, he’s not ignoring the competition. In this market, the stock car enthusiast knows you must stand out.

“I bought 20 NASCAR trips,” Nelson said, smiling. “Purchase the home - you get one.”