By Jeremy Hill | Bloomberg
-
U.S. shipments of the units have been on the rise since 2009
-
Dealers aiming for buyers priced out of mainstream home market
While others walked away from manufactured homes, Don Glisson Jr. stuck around.
He’s seen the industry’s ups and downs in his 36 years working at Triad Financial Services, the third-biggest lender to buyers of factory-made houses in the U.S. The rock-bottom was in the early 2000s, when rival firms were getting fat on subprime loans.
“I knew that would lead to disaster,” said Glisson, chief executive officer of Jacksonville, Florida-based Triad. When sales of the homes plummeted and his competitors fled, Glisson booked profits by keeping his focus on borrowers with high credit scores. His discipline paid off: He once was satisfied if his company made $1 million in loans in a month. Now it does that amount in half a day.
