[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's Around the House! Hey guys, it's Eric G. In today's episode, I sit down with the members of the Oregon Manufacturing Housing Association. These are the manufactured home people that are building homes out across the United States. So it's not just Oregon, it's really everywhere. But in my state, the governor had not included them in the affordable housing conversation.

[00:00:33] Eric Goranson: Now we're following up with a great interview from all these different manufacturers. They're competitors, but they're sitting down with us. to discuss affordable housing and how manufactured housing can be a great way to do it. Why not listen about a factory home that's built inside versus outside. Now let's get to the show.

[00:00:52] Eric Goranson: When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to

[00:00:59] Eric Goranson: know. [00:01:00] But we've got you covered. This is Around the House. Welcome to the Around the House show. This is where we help you. Get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us. We have a very fun episode today. I got a bunch of friends in the room here. We are going to be talking manufactured housing and how this is a really great solution for a house that you want to put on the land, but more importantly, we've been really talking today about trying to get in and let it become the real answer for affordable housing out there.

[00:01:32] Eric Goranson: Cause it's something that I believe in. I got a room full of people here. So we're going to take a tour and run through here today. Let's just go around the room, introduce so people can hear your name and your voice.

[00:01:42] Kevin McShane: Thanks Eric. My name is Kevin McShane. I'm the plant general manager for Fleetwood homes.

[00:01:47] Kevin McShane: We're located in Woodburn, Oregon, uh, plants been there about 50 years. And, uh, we're happy to be here today.

[00:01:53] Eric Goranson: That is great.

[00:01:55] Ben Roche: Ben, Eric, this is a Ben Roach. Um, I work at Palm Harbor homes in Millersburg. I'm a [00:02:00] district sales manager there and, uh, have about 30 years in the manufactured housing industry and experience from building to selling today.

[00:02:07] Ben Roche: So we're just excited to share affordable housing with Oregonians.

[00:02:10] Eric Goranson: Nice. Here we go, Tim.

[00:02:13] Tim Schweitzer: Thank you. Uh, Tim Schweitzer, uh, Clayton Holmes down in Albany, Oregon, uh, sales manager down there. So, uh, still, he's been there originated as Golden West, uh, late 60s. So it's been there quite a long time. Uh, myself in an industry for about 20 years.

[00:02:28] Eric Goranson: Sounds good. Thanks, Tim. Appreciate it.

[00:02:31] Brent Heckman: I'm Brent Heckman, sales and marketing manager for Skyline Homes in McMinnville, Oregon. Uh, we've been out in McMinnville since 1969 building the American dream. Yeah.

[00:02:41] Eric Goranson: Thanks, Brent. He's a, he's a great sponsor of my TV shows, so appreciate all the support you've given us over on the TV side of things, my friend.

[00:02:49] Eric Goranson: Appreciate you too, Eric. Thanks. All right, guys. So let's talk about some of the challenges and Tim, we're going to make sure that you're a part of this year too. But... Let's talk about some of the challenges we're having out there, because [00:03:00] to me, I think there's this misconception with homeowners out there and especially government officials.

[00:03:06] Eric Goranson: It seems and I'm not throwing anybody into the bus, but I think it's pretty widely known that so many people think of a factory built house and they go back to their grandma's 1977. Single wide or double wide and think that's what's being built today. And it's the farthest from the truth. What do you guys take on that?

[00:03:26] Brent Heckman: Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Uh, we, we've got a negative stigma from, uh, years gone by. Um, I don't think people really recognize what we do today and, and, uh, the quality and level of construction and how many people we employ and, and how they're all put together.

[00:03:40] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I mean, you think about it, uh, just how RVs were done back in those days, right?

[00:03:45] Eric Goranson: They were not really well, that well put together. And now you've got RVs out there that are the king of the roads out there that you can be living like you're in a luxury mansion out there. And all of these industries have elevated in those homes over the years. [00:04:00] What do you guys see out? There's other challenges that we have that we kind of need to get over as far as communities and things like that.

[00:04:06] Eric Goranson: Because. To me, what I see is a really affordable house. It's better built than quite frankly, a lot of these entry level stick building companies, these national builders out there that I walk into and go, you're calling that a house. Okay. They're now kind of the lowest common denominator on construction out there.

[00:04:27] Eric Goranson: And you guys have actually, I think, in my opinion, suppressed them. Well,

[00:04:31] Ben Roche: there's two things that, uh, you know, you mentioned on is the, you know, cousin Eddie's trailer in the trailer park, right? And, uh, those exist out there. And the fact is, there's actually 50 percent of the housing stock that's out there in manufactured home communities is older than our building code.

[00:04:45] Ben Roche: Our building code was started in the late 70s, and now we're building to the manufactured housing construction and safety standards. And those standards are newer manufactured, safer manufactured homes that are built in a factory today. But the other thing you touched on is the durability and the energy [00:05:00] efficiency of new manufactured homes and how they're built today.

[00:05:02] Ben Roche: We build with dry lumber and we build in Oregon and today is one of those days where the wind's blowing sideways and the rain's coming down and when you build indoors with dry lumber. You end up with a better box, a safer box, a sturdier construction, and you don't have the swelling and contraction you'd have with wet lumber.

[00:05:17] Ben Roche: So there's a better quality component of doing it indoors. And that's something else we want to bring to market so people recognize the durability and the quality that comes out of our factories.

[00:05:25] Eric Goranson: It's a much healthier home. I mean, a great example is I've got 30 years of construction in my background. I remember measuring cabinets at this house up in Seattle that I was, it was actually in Bellevue, but it doesn't really matter.

[00:05:36] Eric Goranson: I was up there in that market and I go into measure on a day like today, it was a downpour and they're framing this house up. I'm going to measure the cabinets cause I was a cabinet designer for these guys. So I walk into this builder's home and there is so much rain coming down in this framed house that the second floor balcony has a sheet of water coming off it.

[00:05:56] Eric Goranson: It is about a half inch thick that looks like a water [00:06:00] feature in this thing. And of course, all the two by fours are around. So all the electrical cords are underwater on the first floor because all the, they haven't cut doorway openings and stuff yet. And there's one guy standing out there pushing the reset button on the GFCI at the pole out there on the temporary pole because it kept sending it off when the air compressor would kick on.

[00:06:19] Eric Goranson: And I walked in. I'm like, I'm not going to die today. You guys have a good day. I'll come back later. Funny story, but let's talk about that is a healthy home, right? How are they going to dry that out? They're not right.

[00:06:33] Brent Heckman: Well, and let's not uh, Forget the the footprint on the ground too. Uh, you know, you look at construction On site and the scrap and the waste, uh, we recycle and control all that within a enclosed environment

[00:06:45] Eric Goranson: Yeah.

[00:06:45] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And that's, I think that's one of the things too, that we should talk about here and we'll get more into that because waste is a big thing on a job site. I mean, how many dumpsters get hauled out during that? And all you guys as manufacturers, you know, that, that cuts on the bottom [00:07:00] line. So you now, of course, you're getting what materials brought in that are the right size of what you need versus, I don't know how many sheets of plywood I see get hauled off out of a job site that I've got a little corner taken out of them, but.

[00:07:12] Eric Goranson: Guess what? They're in the dumpster and that's costing that homeowner twice. Cause once they got to pay for the materials and two, they're paying a good money to haul it off. And I think that's one of the green building things that I see about your industry. And let's talk about that. I think that's an important one that on worker safety.

[00:07:30] Eric Goranson: I think these are all things that are really important to your industry and housing out there. What are you

[00:07:38] Kevin McShane: seeing? Well, you touched on worker safety. We've spent more money on safety and safety improvements in the last five years, probably than we have in the previous 30 I was in the industry. Uh, honestly, the, the, the industry, I believe had a, uh, a pretty high accident rate prior to that.

[00:07:57] Kevin McShane: And we've brought that down. [00:08:00] Significantly, um, just I know our company, it's, uh, your Ben's with the same, same parent, uh, parent ownership. It's all safety, safety, safety. So what we're doing for the worker, both in terms of, um, safety and then, uh, frankly, wages benefits. So these are, uh, I'm kind of. Segway here into another another facet of the industry, but we provide, uh, good living wage jobs to, uh, quite a few Oregonians with good benefits and safe working conditions.

[00:08:32] Kevin McShane: And also, it's a business that, uh, people grow in people grow quite a bit. And I can't tell you how well I started. I'm a plant general manager. I started, uh, uh, in a roofing department. Longer, longer ago than I like to admit. Um, but, uh, so there's that part of the industry that I've always really enjoyed is that we, we bring, we give people an opportunity to do something maybe they hadn't done or to maybe grow beyond what they knew they were capable of [00:09:00] growing.

[00:09:00] Kevin McShane: So yeah, those, I'm just kind of rambling here, but that's kind of one thing I like about the industry. Yeah.

[00:09:06] Eric Goranson: I mean, that's, that's important. And, and quite frankly, I don't know of anybody in construction out there that wouldn't probably this time of year. In the fall here in the Pacific Northwest go, boy, I sure wish I was working indoors today.

[00:09:18] Eric Goranson: Yeah. It's a

[00:09:19] Kevin McShane: heated environment besides being enclosed from the rain. It's yeah. Heated environment for the workers this time of the year. Uh, well lit, um, you know, all of those things that you just don't get working out on a job

[00:09:31] Brent Heckman: site. Well, your job site is at the same place every day. You know, you're not having to drive an hour for three months to Florence or whatever.

[00:09:39] Brent Heckman: Exactly. Yeah. You got a stable place.

[00:09:41] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And the roofers are not working out in the sun. Yep. They're not up there when it's, you know, 110 degree heat inside there. There might be a little warm in the building, but it's sure not like sitting on top of the roof and full sun. No, that's important. I want to ask Tim here, let's get Tim here in the conversation a little bit more because, uh, he's in here as well.

[00:09:59] Eric Goranson: What are [00:10:00] you seeing out there, man? What are you seeing out in the industry that, uh, that, uh, should change a little bit or perceptions that we, we could change out there. Sure, I

[00:10:10] Tim Schweitzer: mean, the perceptions of the eye opening thing here coming to Salem is, um, just the misunderstanding or the education, educational aspect of our of our industry.

[00:10:20] Tim Schweitzer: And actually, a look on folks faces when they walked in our homes today, as far as what we can provide, what we do, um, from the, from the tall ceilings to the hardwood cabinets to the front porches to, uh, Siding so on and so forth. So, but still going back to the misconceptions of way back when and stuff, but, uh, you know, touching on touching on some of these things to, from our perspective, safety with our, with our team members, uh, um, the, the environment, everything is, is, is, is in top consideration for us at our facility.

[00:10:52] Tim Schweitzer: Safety is 1, 2, 3 priority. And, uh, we're moving. Uh, we're about 1 year [00:11:00] now without a loss. Uh, time accident, uh, which is coming up on a, on a all time record for our facility. So it's a big deal. We, we, uh, we, we go a long way. So

[00:11:13] Eric Goranson: no, I mean, that's in construction's a dangerous field. I mean, let's, let's be honest that there is, there is anything that can happen.

[00:11:20] Eric Goranson: Heck just doing my TV show. I've gotten hurt now a couple of times, just me by myself, you know? And so that's one of those things that I, that I really struggle with with. Then you put weather on top of it, or you put any of those things that outside that, you know, they're out in the outside environment.

[00:11:37] Eric Goranson: Maybe it's a little bit of ice on the roof or something like that. We're inside and, and I see here, and especially in the Pacific Northwest, you guys in the, in the Southwest or listen to us or down South that you don't really run into this as much as we do up here. But I don't want to buy a house to be honest up in this area here.

[00:11:53] Eric Goranson: That has been stick built that spent 45 days out soaking up water and. Yeah. [00:12:00] You know, I can't tell you how many mixed use buildings I'll run around in this time of year when they're starting to build in Portland. And I can see the plywood on the side of the building on the 1st floor because they're building 5 or 6 floors out of out of lumber out there.

[00:12:12] Eric Goranson: It's black, you know, guess what? That's not healthy. Yeah. And nobody does anything. There's nothing in building code. There's nothing that says that anybody should be doing anything different there. And I think that's 1 of the things with. Yeah. With framing in our area here and on the West Coast, that that's very important that now people are dealing with health hazards down the road where that's just impossible to happen in your guys's environment, you know, and it leads for a healthier home and, you know, today was really cool to be watching, you know, all of you guys as, as direct competitors, you guys are out there fighting for the same business, but I thought it was really cool to watch your industry today.

[00:12:54] Eric Goranson: Thank you. You know, hold hands basically and go, Hey, we're here to help a lot of people. [00:13:00] And it was really cool to see that kind of camaraderie and to watch, you know, legislators come in here and go, Oh, wow. There was a lot of, Oh, wow. I was today that were not faked that were, you could see the light bulbs turn on and go, Oh.

[00:13:16] Eric Goranson: That's what we're talking about. And I think there's got to be a lot more of that to get people to really pay attention. But that was a good start today, guys.

[00:13:24] Brent Heckman: I appreciate that. I think all of us, it's a, it's a huge industry, but a pretty small family. Most all of us have known each other, uh, one way or another through the years.

[00:13:32] Brent Heckman: And it was a, a, a great come together. Thanks to OMHA. Oregon Manufactured Housing Association and our lobbies putting this together. So I think it was a fantastic win for the industry today and we'll look forward to tomorrow as well.

[00:13:46] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I mean, that's, that's important. One thing I want to talk about here, and I know it's something that has to affect every one of you is.

[00:13:53] Eric Goranson: The lack of skilled people in the trades out there. There's so many great programs out there and there's [00:14:00] so many schools out there that are completely void of any programs out there. You guys do a great job because you have a way to bring people in and okay, they've got some general handy skills and you can train, train them.

[00:14:14] Eric Goranson: But general construction, we don't see too much of that. You're either a framer or you're a roofer and those companies are trying to do things on their own. What do you guys see in as far as the labor market? Is that a challenge for you guys? It has been

[00:14:28] Ben Roche: a challenge, but we've been, you know, taking on that challenge and overcoming that we've done some educational videos that speak to that.

[00:14:34] Ben Roche: Um, but what I'd like to just, you know, listeners to understand is our industry is a training environment for building homes. Um, I came into the industry with no construction experience 30 years ago. Um, I was a short order cook and I was flipping burgers. And pretty soon I was working on a roof build, throwing trusses.

[00:14:49] Ben Roche: Nice. And, um, it was much, not much different than the assembly line on a shorter cook. There's a process, you have a recipe and you build a home. And I came out of that environment of production, learning how to show up [00:15:00] on time, how to follow direction and be coachable, um, how to work in a team and, uh, how to build homes.

[00:15:06] Ben Roche: And it's a prideful, you know, job to realize that you're not just making a commodity that gets thrown away and recycled. You're building someone's home that lasts for, for decades. And so when I was able to start recognizing the homes that we produced and drive down the street and say, Hey, I built that.

[00:15:21] Ben Roche: Yeah, I was proud of my job. And so growing in the industry and learning from the industry, it moved me on from being in a position of manufacturing and leadership to being in sales and marketing and then pitching and selling our homes and telling her why I believe in what I believe in and buying affordable home ownership being primary need for Americans today.

[00:15:40] Eric Goranson: Yeah, great point, Ben. Thank

[00:15:42] Tim Schweitzer: you.

[00:15:42] Brent Heckman: Well, um, we're working on other, uh, educational training things for outside of the factory as well. Um, there's going to be a need for transportation. Um, those that, you know, transport these modules down the road to get to their insight, uh, as well as set up crews to, um, some of us are part [00:16:00] of the Washington state, the Northwest housing, uh, as well.

[00:16:03] Brent Heckman: And we've, we've started to try to figure out a way that we could put some education to it. Cause there's so many people that don't know. Yeah. You know, you can go to truck driving school, but it's a little different when you're pulling something as big as house down the road. So yeah, yeah, it's, it's, we're trying to get the word out.

[00:16:18] Eric Goranson: Yeah. That's important. Important. Tim, what do you see? And a good

[00:16:21] Tim Schweitzer: touch on that was far as, uh, what Brent's saying is transport, uh, one of the, one of our largest, uh, transporters here, uh, who's, uh, they talked about those that aren't on the bench as far as this goes. So. You know, the educational videos of the things to get it out.

[00:16:36] Tim Schweitzer: There are critical for for our industry. Only that with but set up set up crews. Um, those that service our houses as well. So, um, as we try to continue to educate folks, but we're trying to bring together, uh. Groups and, and, and getting feedback and then trying to put it together. And again, to put out our own educational type of video or instructions, you know, to, to get more folks [00:17:00] involved in the industry.

[00:17:01] Tim Schweitzer: Yeah, that's

[00:17:01] Eric Goranson: smart because, um, it seems like there's some school districts in our area that do a really fine job of building up programs. I mean, you know, we've got the Viking house kids here locally that do some stuff with their stuff. And they're building a house each year, but then you can look in and, uh, you know, up north where I live up in the Portland area.

[00:17:20] Eric Goranson: And there's a lot of school districts out there that. Every single 1 of those trade programs got turned into computer rooms and. Well, that used to be where the wood shop was, and that's used to be where the auto shop was and so. They've really gotten away from that. So anything you guys are doing, I think helps the whole industry as a, as a whole.

[00:17:37] Eric Goranson: And it's a lot of kids out there that might not want to go to college, but can go, you know, create themselves a really great career in construction. And with what you guys do, heck, they can even be inside, which is. Fairly rare out in the middle of the construction world out there. So I really appreciate what you guys are doing on on getting training and going and getting people into this industry because it's an important part of the challenges for [00:18:00] housing as a whole, let alone just for your guys business model

[00:18:04] Tim Schweitzer: as part of that construction to is the engineering aspects of it in the CAD, the drafting.

[00:18:08] Tim Schweitzer: And so, which is, you know, it ends up being a pretty skilled position, but there's a local community college that's come over to our. Okay. Uh, facility bringing in students that are interested in that, in that trade and gets to get to just get to observe as far as that part is, uh, the drafting and engineering of our homes.

[00:18:26] Tim Schweitzer: Yeah, that's

[00:18:26] Eric Goranson: smart. That's smart. What are the challenges you guys seeing out there? I mean, you guys are building beautiful homes and I mean, now it's funny that you can sit there and drive down a street and see in somebody's development and you would not think that that was a house that was built in a factory.

[00:18:43] Eric Goranson: And I think that's something over the last 5 to 10 years has really changed that that textbook look that that that people would see that that's not the case anymore. That's kind of beyond that that you guys can do developments. That looks like any other home builder has put it [00:19:00] together. But it's been built, you know, cleaner, more efficiently and cheaper as well.

[00:19:06] Eric Goranson: What are you guys seeing out there with, with the trends? I mean, uh, are you seeing that, uh, I know that we, I'm not seeing too many developments out there, but I think this is something that is, is right on the cusp of happening as far as. You know, builders and developers coming in and saying, okay, Hey, we're not going to do this stick built thing.

[00:19:24] Eric Goranson: We're going to come in and, and contact with you guys. I think we're kind of right on that edge of that being the next wave of housing.

[00:19:31] Brent Heckman: Well, I can speak from our side of it. I don't know what you guys have witnessed, but over the last year and a half, we've actually had developers who have literally gone and purchased.

[00:19:39] Brent Heckman: Manufacturer factory built housing from retail sides, um, placed it on property, uh, built a garage and turned around and sold it, made a profit buying it from retail to do that. So some of those are recognizing that, Hey, maybe this is a better solution or offers a more affordable, um, you know, one of the developers specifically has gotten into the retail [00:20:00] side of our industry.

[00:20:01] Brent Heckman: And, uh, he builds million dollar custom homes, track subdivisions. Um, literally people would come to him wanting to build one of his plans and can't afford it. Um, and so that's what drove him to the factory built side of things. And so it's, it's, that's a good buzz and

[00:20:18] Tim Schweitzer: degenerate.

[00:20:19] Eric Goranson: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that's the thing that, um, and I've, I talked to a lot of different, you know, people across the country.

[00:20:26] Eric Goranson: And I think. We're just at that beginning phase of the U. S. Figuring out what Europe has figured out a long time ago that maybe stick building on job site is not the way to go, that this is the better way to go. And I think we're at the beginning of that. And, uh, just like a stubborn Americans, we got to figure out how to get over the old times.

[00:20:45] Eric Goranson: But, uh, You know, it's one of those things that's good, but let's go around and talk a little bit about what each, each one of your guys's companies does and, and what makes you guys different than others?

[00:20:56] Kevin McShane: Well, at Fleetwood Homes of Oregon, our kind of market niche [00:21:00] is probably twofold. We're kind of the meat of the market in a, um, uh, in a, an attainable price point, um, energy efficient, um, One thing in general for the industry, I would put it, we didn't touch on is that, um, this is for everybody.

[00:21:17] Kevin McShane: I think is so, you know, we talked about stick builders and entry level subdivisions. You go and if a customer goes into 1 of those, he's, he might look at what 3 or 4 plans. Yeah. And he's going to get it the way the builder says he's going to get it. Whether you like it or not, whether you like it or not, that doesn't happen with us between.

[00:21:36] Kevin McShane: Between the 4 builders in this room, I'll just take a guess. We have 200 floor plans. Every 1 of us will do some degree of customization. That's and even even those of us that do the least customization is going to be far beyond what, um, what that site builder is going to do. 100%. That's, um, that's sort of an industry wide thing, but if Fleetwood, Oregon, yeah, we were kind of the, the, um, [00:22:00] the, the middle of the market.

[00:22:01] Kevin McShane: We pride ourselves on a strong value. You get a lot of a lot of house for your money. We also have built a pretty successful little niche in something called a park model. If any of your listeners are familiar with a park model, which is a. For lack of a better word, it's a tiny home. It's a 399 square feet or under built to a part of the RV code that you would never think was an RV.

[00:22:22] Kevin McShane: And that's been a very successful niche for us. So nice. It's kind of who we are.

[00:22:26] Eric Goranson: Excellent Ben, so

[00:22:28] Ben Roche: I'm in with, I'm with Palm Harbor homes and Palm Harbor homes is a slogan is more home for your money. So we like to say that we build both affordable, but high value. Factory built homes. Um, one of the things that Palm Harbor is known for is our factory tours.

[00:22:44] Ben Roche: We've got a facility right off of I 5. So it's in a pretty easy reach for a lot of people coming south from Portland or, or north from Eugene to come by and take a tour of a factory. Um, we believe seeing is believing and seeing how they're built and that we talked about during this, this conversation about building indoors with dry lumber, [00:23:00] dry materials.

[00:23:01] Ben Roche: Um. One of the things that I'm a big advocate for, and I'd like to work with Palm Harbor because we we try to fit a lot of different use cases for our homes is we have a very diverse and mixed area where our homes go. They might go into small communities for affordable living. They might go in 55 and older retirement type living communities, or they might go on simple fee subdivisions and build a developer type product as Brent had mentioned with the with the homes they build.

[00:23:26] Ben Roche: One of the things that was mentioned today, people touring our homes as they saw photos of homes with a garage on it and says, Oh, I didn't know you could put a garage, you know, and, and have a garage with the home. Well, absolutely. Now, Palm Harbor homes doesn't build the garage. It's not really, um, efficient to build the floor of the garage.

[00:23:41] Ben Roche: You know, it's going to be concrete. So you're going to pour that on place, but absolutely. Our homes are very commonly. built and have an attached garage. Um, and we do things that maybe other builders don't want to dabble in the kind of harder stuff to do. Um, ceramic tile floors or something that's available in our homes.

[00:23:55] Ben Roche: Um, pretty elaborate tile showers, things you might not expect in a factory built home. Um, and we [00:24:00] built a lot of homes that have tall, flat ceilings or steeper roof pitches. So we can, um, use some, uh, comp, you know, combination of in the factory built and then site finished roof systems Um, we refer to as hinged rows, which allow us to build a home with a nice, tall, steep roof pitch.

[00:24:14] Ben Roche: And once that home set up, you'd have no idea it ever came out of the factory.

[00:24:17] Eric Goranson: Yeah. That's a good point. I like it. Tim.

[00:24:22] Tim Schweitzer: Yeah. So I can probably regurgitate a lot of what, uh, Kevin and Ben just said, I mean, uh, amongst, you know, we talk about the industry and stuff and really what's, what's, what's good for the industry and all of these guys in here is, is good for our facility as well.

[00:24:37] Tim Schweitzer: You know, it'll help. What helps them helps us, you know, and stuff. So there's not too many secrets out there as far as, as far as that goes. Um, you know, we, we, we run the gamut as far as what we build, uh, from entry level to what would be considered a little higher end. So, and we, we are bread and butter is in the, in the middle area there.

[00:24:55] Tim Schweitzer: So. Uh, 14 to 1800 square foot homes, uh, is, is, [00:25:00] is mostly what we do. Um, but, uh, but you're looking at, and when I say run the gamut and amongst the amongst all the factories that are here that are represented here, we're, we're running from park models that are under, under 400 square feet to triple wides, four section homes that are, that are beyond 3000 square feet.

[00:25:15] Tim Schweitzer: Wow. And stuff. So it's a, it's a wide range of what's built, um, with that. And along with that, there's, there's different levels of, of homes. You can start from entry level to mid level to high end that more of a packaged home. So, uh, you should be able to meet the most of what the needs are out there for, for folks.

[00:25:33] Tim Schweitzer: But, uh, Clayton homes is, is, uh, is our parent company out of Tennessee. Uh, we actually build. Three brands out of our facility, uh, golden West, which was the, uh, started up that facility, uh, still a brand. And then we have a Carsten brand and then we have our Clayton brand. So, um, sometimes it gets a little bit, a little bit convoluted, you know, and stuff, uh, as, as we have, uh, uh, some of our retail partners are in the same, same market areas and stuff, but, uh, [00:26:00] really the same people building the houses, uh, should get the same, same quality.

[00:26:04] Tim Schweitzer: So, um, but, um, Yeah, I think that's it. You guys pretty much covered what, uh, what, uh, what I could say. So I'll go to, I'll go to Brent. So he's got all right. Sucks to go last.

[00:26:19] Brent Heckman: Well said by all of you. I, I, you know, I can just piggyback on all that. I think all of us buy most all of our components from the same supply. It's just a matter of what we've all put together to deem a standard and what to be optional. I think we all do a really good job and hit a certain niche. All niches quit quite honestly.

[00:26:36] Brent Heckman: Um, I'm part of the skyline champion, uh, company under champion homebuilders. Um, we have over 45 manufacturing facilities across the country. We've got five in Canada. Um, skyline is, is one of many brand names that are under that, uh, umbrella, but yeah, there's not much else I can say. We, we do the tile showers and the courts counters and [00:27:00] those kinds of things.

[00:27:00] Brent Heckman: There's a lot of options you can really make a beautiful home out of.

[00:27:05] Eric Goranson: Awesome. Thanks guys. So my question for you guys next is. If we had our legislators here in Oregon, our elected officials listening, what could we do to help, help them understand that this is such a great option for affordable housing?

[00:27:23] Eric Goranson: What do you think we could do to change their minds? Is there anything that we've we've missed here to get them to to understand? Because it seems like and I and I don't under I haven't been to every meeting. I've been following it. What's going on? But it seems that for some reason. This industry got kind of skipped over for other things and I don't understand why they did that.

[00:27:49] Brent Heckman: I'll jump in on this just to start since I went last last time. I don't know if it's so much that we got shunned away or they don't know. I think it's just the [00:28:00] ignorance that they don't, didn't realize the stigma that we've kind of, the lack of ourselves, putting ourselves out in front of it. Uh, you know, I'm going to take responsibility for some of it.

[00:28:09] Brent Heckman: I, I think this was a huge eyeopening experience. I think, um, I can speak genuinely that everyone that came into, uh, at least our unit that was set up out here was pleasantly surprised, um, and excited to see it. And I know it's going to generate buzz and I know that, uh, there's going to be more people tomorrow.

[00:28:28] Brent Heckman: Uh, this is going to generate some excitement, some talk, and I think we'll be considered for future

[00:28:33] Eric Goranson: opportunities. Well, I just look at it too. And just to piggyback on what you said there, it seems that all of a sudden there was a lot of people that walked in and saw the value sitting there in front of them and went, Oh, what's your guys take?

[00:28:49] Kevin McShane: I think what I would say is that, you know, almost every politician, probably in every state right now has identified housing and affordable housing in particular [00:29:00] as a major issue. Yeah, as that relates to us, um, I think the reason we did this, this particular event is not much more than to say 1, we're here to you.

[00:29:13] Kevin McShane: You have definite the governor has it has a housing starts per year target here. We can be a part of that solution. We're already a part of that solution. We want to be a larger part of the solution. We not we may not be the solution, but we are a part of that solution. And if if they don't pay attention and ignore us, that's probably bad on them.

[00:29:36] Kevin McShane: But but in a bigger picture, we're part of housing. So you say, what would we say? Um, and this anything that's good for housing is is indirectly good for us. So, I don't know that we're asking for anything special now, but, um, we are part of the solution. Don't don't exclude us. Uh, let us have a voice at the table when there's a lot of important decisions being made in the next couple of [00:30:00] years to try to get to the governor's target for housing starts.

[00:30:04] Kevin McShane: We need to be a part of that. That would be my message. Nice.

[00:30:07] Eric Goranson: Well, put. Yeah, absolutely. Ben, what's your take? Well, you know,

[00:30:10] Ben Roche: there's a big goal. Uh, Tina Kotek declared a housing emergency in January, 36, 000 new housing units, um, is a big goal. We can be a part of that. Um, I think what we need to recognize is where are you going to put them?

[00:30:22] Ben Roche: We need, um, land that's available to build on. Um, and any land restrictions that are limiting the ability to build on housing need to be looked at to find out how we balance environmental stewardship and conservation with the need for affordable housing. 1 thing that we didn't really touch on that. I think it needs to be a part of that.

[00:30:40] Ben Roche: And where I think we fit in. is ownership. When someone owns a home, they have equity, they have wealth and they're able to one day pay off that home and live comfortably on their social security check or the retirement income that they've generated and do so comfortably without risk of losing their home, losing their housing.

[00:30:57] Ben Roche: We have a baby boomer generation that's probably [00:31:00] facing homelessness like no other generation. And so how can we afford to not solve the housing process? The housing crisis. Excuse me. Um, so finding ways to find that land, make that land quickly. developable and buildable. Um, and I say quickly very with that emphasis because it can't take five years to have a piece of land go for, I think I want to build on this too.

[00:31:24] Ben Roche: Yes, I can actually open the door and move a family in. We need to expedite the building process. And I think the factory building process, most of our plants can bring, um, homeowners into a new home and half the time and at half the cost of traditional construction. But we need the land to be able to do it.

[00:31:40] Ben Roche: So if that's 1 thing we can get to recognize is that we are a solution. And at the same time, now we need those those that have policy decisions to make. How can they find the places for us to place these homes, whether it's developing new manufactured home parks where people can own the home and lease the land.

[00:31:56] Ben Roche: To developing subdivisions that our homes can be financed for full ownership, [00:32:00] um, to even, um, backyard homes and accessory dwelling units where someone who existingly owns a piece of property who wants to add a second living unit to either be a rental income piece or to take care of a loved one or somebody who's in special needs.

[00:32:12] Ben Roche: There's a lot of opportunities for our housing to be put both in infill, both in development, expansion and both in rural. So I think we've got a solution. We just want to be recognized. Yeah,

[00:32:21] Eric Goranson: smart. Tim, you got something over there?

[00:32:26] Tim Schweitzer: That pretty much covers it. You know, I mean, uh, being, being a, being a part of it, you know, and just having a seat at the table there as far as that goes, you know, I mean, that, um, not any one group is going to, is going to be able to put together, uh, all these new, these new homes that are, that are being, that's being put out there as our, as, as.

[00:32:47] Tim Schweitzer: As what the state wants to achieve. So, uh, I did get a chance to talk to today, a individual that had been a part of, uh, affordable housing committee, uh, belief said for 20 years and, uh, is an [00:33:00] advocate for our industry and, and, uh. Had gone to annual meetings after meetings and, and it opened my eyes. The fact that, and I think Brent alluded to this is what, what have I done to, to really push that, you know, to be able to be a part of that, be put myself or our group into our industry, into that, into those discussions.

[00:33:18] Tim Schweitzer: So, um, that's it. And that's a big part of what we're, what we're doing. We're trying to do here. So, yeah,

[00:33:23] Eric Goranson: absolutely. Now, and this has been such a great event that you guys have put together here. Um, bringing everybody together, setting some homes up right across the street from the capital for people to walk over and say, hey, look at us over here.

[00:33:36] Eric Goranson: And, uh, it definitely led with a great solid foot forward on that with some beautiful homes that. Answer a lot of different questions. It's not like you, I mean, there's so many different flavors to what you guys are doing here, which is what's cool is that. You know, somebody that's looking at a, at a park model, you know, 300 plus square feet.

[00:33:55] Eric Goranson: Wow, that answer was there, but hey, if I want something a little bit bigger, well, that answer [00:34:00] is there and to turn around in a couple of days, have that set up in a parking lot across from the capital is pretty important because it also shows that speed of. Hey, this wasn't here on Friday night, but here we are in the middle of the week and this thing's rocking and rolling and we got lights on and people wonder how the heck you guys got that stuff in there so quick.

[00:34:20] Eric Goranson: Yeah,

[00:34:23] Eric Goranson: but, you know, I think that's a key part of that.

[00:34:25] Tim Schweitzer: I was just jumping in here because I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our other Clayton facility and, uh, in Hermiston, Oregon that I couldn't all the way out there and stuff. So it's not here today based on distance and stuff. But, uh, uh, we do have that representation.

[00:34:39] Tim Schweitzer: And if you talk about Northeast, Eastern Oregon, uh, Marlatt homes out there. So, okay.

[00:34:43] Eric Goranson: Yep. Absolutely. Familiar with those guys. I think I went through their factory 30 years ago out there. So first time I went looking through one, so yeah. But the other thing too, is I think that's, that, that we, I wanted to touch on before we wrap this up is an important thing is how [00:35:00] green you guys are, you know, and I know that's something that.

[00:35:04] Eric Goranson: That a lot of people see construction and they don't, but I mean, you guys are about as efficient as it gets with building homes. I don't think that there could be much more done. And I think having a green option also keeps the price in point and we talked about a little bit earlier, but I know each 1 of you guys have a facility here that is spending that time to make sure that.

[00:35:26] Eric Goranson: The least amount of waste is going out the back, and it's something that most builders just don't address as far as stick build stuff. And, you know, what do you guys seeing out in the industry out there for what you guys are doing? Feel free to jump in on on, you know, the green initiatives. And I'm not talking about just, you know, we're using this low VOC this, but just throwing stuff away.

[00:35:47] Eric Goranson: That's waste. I mean, it seems very efficient with what you guys are

[00:35:50] Kevin McShane: doing. Yeah, I just think you're Eric, you're just touching on something that frankly has been, it's kind of rooted in the, the, the industry from the beginning. Um, and that [00:36:00] is like, you, if you, if there's a piece of cut off lumber, you figure out where's the other spot to use that cut off lumber, because.

[00:36:08] Kevin McShane: You take, um, like you said, the site builder may not have as much attention on it because he's generally hiring a whole group of subs. And so he doesn't really control the waste. He controls the bid. And if the sub needs to, um, the sub may or may not be as efficient and we may figure that the, the, the general isn't as, um, that he can be, he can bid some waste in the bed.

[00:36:31] Kevin McShane: We're responsible for the whole thing. Everything that goes out, we've got every, every piece of lumber costed. Um, every, every piece of material that goes in there is costed. And anything that ends up in a dumpster is just pure waste. And so it's just, it's been baked in from the beginning. And then you add, add on things like low VOC, um, eliminating things like formaldehyde, all of the things that we've all become more aware of in the last 20 years.

[00:36:56] Kevin McShane: Um, yeah. We, we do all that too, of course, but [00:37:00] again, they, the lack of waste is just cooked into the product. That's just who we are and how we were born. So that's what I would say.

[00:37:06] Eric Goranson: Yeah, great point. Ben, what do you see out there?

[00:37:09] Ben Roche: Well, green building like Kevin mentions is in the DNA of factory built housing, but it's also part of the whole holistic approach of building that we buy from suppliers that take that same thought in mind.

[00:37:20] Ben Roche: Um, one thing that comes to mind is we're using a sustainable forestry product. floor decking in the homes that we build. Um, so it's used out of, uh, you know, reforested trees, small, small, fast growing trees. Um, if that product, the same flooring product that subfloor, um, is a no added urea formaldehyde product, which is something that Kevin mentioned, no formaldehydes.

[00:37:39] Ben Roche: So it's both improving indoor air quality and reducing waste using sustainable forestry practices. One of the things that I like to talk about, and I'm not an expert in this by any means, but forestry forestry science tells us that when you harvest trees and you sequester that carbon into those trees.

[00:37:53] Ben Roche: You're reducing them carbon. That's been going out into the air through rot and through letting those trees rot on the ground. So if we can [00:38:00] harvest Oregon timber, make homes out of it, we can sequester carbon and helps help reduce carbon going in our atmosphere.

[00:38:06] Eric Goranson: And that's 1 thing that our forestry folks do a great job is once they get in there and those trees go right back in the ground again, so they can do it again.

[00:38:12] Eric Goranson: So. That's great. Tim, you got anything for us yet? It's

[00:38:16] Tim Schweitzer: yeah, I mean, it's, it's the same thing again, but it's, uh, um, you know, we, we have, uh, in our company, it's, uh, it's, um, one of our key metrics, uh, that our facility is graded on is, is waste and, and it's tracked track monthly, quarterly. Um, we have one. Uh, a single position, nicely paid position that that's their job is, is, uh, is to communicate, uh, communicate and come up with ideas as far as how to, not to reduce waste to eventually eliminate any waste, you know, so it's, uh, um, so it's, it's, like I said, it's rooted in our industry, it's, it's, uh, um, everything is, is, is, is It's cut to [00:39:00] fit, but, uh, there is a, there are pieces and bits and pieces that we go around and look and look in dumpsters and say, well, we, that can be used somewhere, you know, um, uh, for something, you know, so, uh, but it's, it falls in line with what Ben and Kevin were talking

[00:39:14] Ben Roche: about.

[00:39:15] Ben Roche: Hey, Tim, just quick. I want to jump in. Don't you? Clayton is also doing a zero energy home and I think an E built home. That's something that Palm Harbor is starting to look at for 2024 is going to zero energy and being able to price home. There's zero energy ready for solar. Can you maybe tie that on a little bit of Clayton's?

[00:39:31] Tim Schweitzer: Yeah, actually, here in July, we started putting together an option where we introduced an option called E built and it's zero energy ready to where, um, yeah. What we're looking at, what we're, what we're putting out there is that, uh, saving money, obviously you can save money in the house. People aren't thinking about what saving money may be in, in utility bills and those types of things.

[00:39:54] Tim Schweitzer: So, uh, the, as you go, it, what the idea is, is about a 50 [00:40:00] percent savings in, in, uh, in, in those, in those utility costs, electric costs, those types of things. Uh, but, uh, we are, we are starting our, our starting point is an energy star rated home. Um, Um, and then we also offer a, uh, heat pump, water heater, um, and that goes into the house.

[00:40:18] Tim Schweitzer: Uh, we put, uh, in an e belt, uh, uh, sticker in the house. And then once it gets to site, it does require a heat pump. Um, and it's, it's sized, we size it, we put it together, we get the information sent out and, um, and, uh, we know we, we've got, uh, Uh, we're hoping by 20, sometime in 2024, that every 100 percent of what we build will be, will be zero, zero energy ready.

[00:40:41] Tim Schweitzer: Zers, what we're calling it, uh, E belt. So it's got a couple of different names. So

[00:40:45] Eric Goranson: nice. Nice. That's cool. That's such a important thing. And it's a topic that's been really getting beat, you know, and everybody out there is a, is a need for. moving forward.

[00:40:56] Brent Heckman: Absolutely. I can't really say much [00:41:00] more. Um, I think that was well put together.

[00:41:02] Brent Heckman: Kevin alluded to the, you know, baked in. We've always been very, very mindful of waste and scrap, um, to utilize all of the materials in every fashion we can. Um, Eric, you've been to our facility. You, you saw, I showed you, we try to order specific size lumber to what we need. So we don't have to cut it. We get specific size sheet rock so that we don't have, you know, not just to avoid unwanted seams, but to.

[00:41:24] Brent Heckman: You know, avoid the waste, the scrap

[00:41:26] Eric Goranson: that was that was shocking when I went out and did your tour and I'm sure I'd see the same thing for you guys as places as well. Just how little waste there is. I mean, there's all these homes being built and if that was a development around around the corner here, there'd be 36 dumpsters sitting out there.

[00:41:43] Eric Goranson: And you have one.

[00:41:45] Ben Roche: We also, yeah, we also have the ability because we're in one location. Some of those products can be recycled. We're on a job site and it'd be co mingled and just thrown in a landfill. So, you know, at our facility, we recycle gyprock gypsum, just from waste. Um, you know, we've got some, uh, wood scraps and stuff that go out [00:42:00] and did various uses outside of the landfill.

[00:42:02] Ben Roche: Um, you know, and so of course, common things you'd typically recycle like steel and copper are all recycled. So we're not throwing things away as well that we can't use. We're actually recycling those back into the building industry.

[00:42:12] Eric Goranson: Nice. Nice. Well, guys, we're running out of time. Let's go around the room here and tell people where they can find out more about your guys's stuff and websites and stuff.

[00:42:21] Eric Goranson: So that way the, our audience out there can check you guys out. You

[00:42:25] Tim Schweitzer: can

[00:42:25] Brent Heckman: find a skyline homes at www. skylinehomes. com or Skyline Homes Northwest. Uh, we're in McMinnville proud to be Oregonians, Tim.

[00:42:37] Eric Goranson: Yeah. I'm

[00:42:38] Tim Schweitzer: Clayton. Uh, we've got, uh, as I mentioned, we're down in Albany, so, but, uh, we have a website Clayton homes.

[00:42:44] Tim Schweitzer: com, um, which also goes to a lot of our retail centers, uh, around, uh, you can type in. Type in your, your location, zip code and find out what's local to you. We also have some, some of our brands, golden West. So golden West Albany. com, Karsten Albany. [00:43:00] com. We can get on there and see some of specifically what we, what we build, uh, and offer.

[00:43:06] Tim Schweitzer: So.

[00:43:06] Eric Goranson: Cool. Thanks, Tim.

[00:43:08] Ben Roche: Ben. Well, Palm Harbor Homes is right on I 5 just south of Salem, but if you want to find us online, you can go to palmharbor. com slash Millersburg, and that's where you'll find all of our model homes and our model home locations up and down I 5. Our homes get shipped from the border of Canada all the way down to the middle of California and everywhere in between.

[00:43:26] Ben Roche: Um, The, uh, one thing I will add is that we do encourage factory tours. So reach out to us to come by and take a tour and you can find that information online as well.

[00:43:34] Eric Goranson: There we go. I see Tim's got something to say over

[00:43:36] Tim Schweitzer: here. Can't forget, uh, marlet. com as well. So yes, out of Hermiston. So yeah, they do a good job with their, with their website.

[00:43:44] Tim Schweitzer: So, uh, getting everything on there and it's well done. Nice.

[00:43:48] Kevin McShane: Nice. And we're at, uh, www. fleetwoodhomes. com, uh, find your way to the Oregon, uh, the Oregon facility or if you're somewhere else, we have plants all around the country too. So we're easy to [00:44:00] find. All right,

[00:44:01] Eric Goranson: guys. Hey, thanks for having me out here today.

[00:44:03] Eric Goranson: This has been a lot of fun and, uh, I really wish you guys the best of luck. I think that you guys are on the cutting edge right now of the future. Of homes out there because I think there's a much better way to be doing it. And quite frankly, people are just starting to figure it out that you guys have been doing it for a long time.

[00:44:20] Eric Goranson: Thanks, Eric. Appreciate it. Thank you. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to around the house. Thanks for tuning in!