News & Notes Archive - April 2009
Unauthorized use of Grissim Guides construction rating offers insight into how the number is determined, and how it may vary in markets such as California. Advice to the consumer.
Recently a two-page flyer advertising Silvercrest Homes surfaced in the San Francisco Bay Area with the headline GRISSIM FACTS. The ad cherry-picked positive comments found in the Silvercrest listing in The Grissim Ratings Guide to Manufactured Homes and prominently displayed Silvercrest’s construction rating of 9, topping three other builders with an 8 rating: Skyline, Karsten and Palm Harbor.
The flyer was a no-no–the use of the Grissim name and/or construction ratings without expressed permission is unauthorized. I contacted the owner of the offending retailer (part of a 14-store chain owned by Champion Enterprises) who promptly pulled the flyer from circulation and assured me he would seek permission for any future uses.
Instances like this happen periodically and in one sense reflect the Grissim guides’ national acceptance as trusted resources. I understand retailers wanting to tout the Grissim construction rating if their homes receive a high number, but I am very careful in granting permission because information selectively chosen from a listing can be misleading and thus unfair to both consumers and competing brands. The Silvercrest flyer is a good example.
For the record, I don’t charge a penny for authorizing (or licensing) the use of the Grissim name or ratings, because doing so would create a conflict of interest that would undermine the credibility of the Ratings Guide. And credibility and trust is everything.
Interestingly, the flyer incident shed light on a fierce competition that exists between two California dealer chains, one selling Silvercrest and the other Skyline and Karsten Homes. Both enterprises principally sell to homebuyers moving into mobile home parks (a.k.a., manufactured home land-lease communities), not a few of which are resident-owned or structured as condominiums (which to my mind is a terrific arrangement because the resident-owners control their own rent/maintenance costs).
If my experience consulting to a number of homebuyers who moved into these parks is any indication, they tend to be solvent, upscale, and desiring a high-end home with top-of-the-line options such as granite countertops and many upgrades. Typically these homes are in the $165,000-$180,000 range (sales tax included).
Put another way, in this scenario, one can be pretty assured that any home model with this upgrade package, be it Silvercrest, Skyline, Karsten or Palm Harbor will have a Grissim construction rating of 9.
As I explain in the Ratings Guide, a homebuyer can easily improve a home’s construction rating by choosing a number of upgrades, such as 2x6” exterior walls, higher roof pitch, longer-lasting shingles, better quality carpets and appliances and Energy Star certification.
In short, the construction rating number is meant only as a guideline, a rough indication of the builder’s general quality across the spectrum of its models.
But, you might ask, doesn’t Silvercrest’s 9 rating still give it the edge of Skyline with its 8 rating? The answer, in this case involving the California market, not necessarily.
Here’s why: Silvercrest, while owned by national builder Champion Enterprises, is a small regional builder with two plants in California, and markets largely to CA, NV, AZ, OR and WA. It’s principal products are in the high-end range. Skyline Homes is a much larger national builder with 11 plants around the U.S. and a much broader line, ranging from the low-medium to high end. As I describe in the Ratings Guide, my determination of each builder’s construction rating was based on a model I considered as best representing the principal market niche to which that builder sells. In Skyline’s case, the model selected for construction quality evaluation, was a click below the equivalent model chosen to represent Silvercrest. Hence the slightly lower rating.
So, my advice to home shoppers is, Don’t regard a manufacturer’s construction rating as carved in stone. If you go to the three-page Construction Features & Specifications table found in both books, you can quickly evaluate any home model you’re looking at by plugging into the table the model’s various features and seeing what their construction rating is on a 1-to-10 scale. The average quality of those individual features will provide you the construction rating for that model. Chances are by the time to you so, you’ll likely know more about that home model than the sales associate who shows it to you.
Good luck!