Allendale Pines North Cuts Ribbon on Six Pittsfield Homes
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Allendale Pines North cut the ribbon Thursday on the first of its planned 22 affordable manufactured homes.
These six homes at 395 Cheshire Road are ready to have owners, with listing prices between $189,900 and $204,900. All six have three bedrooms and two bathrooms and and more than 1,200 square feet; the property is set back and borders the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail.
One of the homes, the Monroe Full Porch, has already been sold to a family who will move in Thursday afternoon, and their monthly mortgage will be around $2,200 to $2,300.
"It is incredibly exciting, and it has been a huge team effort. As I said, so much support from downtown and all of our vendors, our contractors are amazing and have done a beautiful job. We received certificate of occupancy [Wednesday]," Director of Sales Val Whaling said.
"The building department has been great to work with. We've just had different challenges that come up with brand-new construction. We got through them. We received CO. We have a beautiful family moving in their closing documents today with First Credit Corp."
The double-wide homes come in three models with rooms and porches in different arrangements: the "Monroe" half-porch model for $189,900, the "Monroe" full-porch model for $194,900, and the "Aspire" models on south-end lots for $204,900. They are heated by propane and forced hot air.
Whaling said buyers need to be able to put down a 5 to 10 percent down payment. Teton Management will work with people through the whole process and help with a variety of chattel lenders.
"One of the things that I would just say is that it's not necessarily the same as buying a stick-built home," said Director of Sales Sarah Pero. "We're there to help people through the whole entire process, whether it's finding financing or getting their docs in order, or moving to the closing table."
She said even if people think it may be out of their range, a mortgage on these homes can be cheaper than renting an apartment: "It doesn't hurt to look."
Teton said it has invested more than $1.2 million with profits reinvested into community infrastructure such as roads, landscaping, and utilities.
The home appliances come with a one-year manufacturer warranty as well as an 8x10-foot shed.
"We try to make it very easy, and once they're set up in our system, they can also submit maintenance requests, or we also introduce them to our manufacturer. They have one-year warranties with the house. So if there's any issues with defective items in the house, we again, we do all of that work up front and start them on day one to succeed," said Whaling.
The structures are manufactured by Titan Homes, and Tim Hodge, a sales zone manager for Titan, said these types of homes have changed since they were first built.
"Manufactured housing has come a long way in the decades that people have been building these they're more strictly regulated nowadays to where they have to be not only built to a federal code, but we also have inspectors that come to make sure we continually, continually improve and build to that code that is expected by the government when you get a manufactured home," he said. "They're regulated by the United States, they're not regulated by the town of Pittsfield."
Jim Fletcher, a former Teton manager, brought the idea of manufactured homes to Teton, Val Whaling said. Teton previously only worked on apartment buildings, and still does.
"It's not a five-star apartment building but it can be a five-star home," Fletcher said to Whaling.
Whaling said they hope to have all 22 homes built within a year and a half.
"From my perspective, it's absolutely amazing to take this from what it was, which is essentially 10 acres of standing forest, reshaping the earth and putting in six beautiful homes, and to have our first closing today, I can tell you, I'm extremely proud," said Teton Management President George Whaling.
The work is still being done on the roads and clearing the area for more homes, but starting this Saturday, open houses will be held from noon to 2 p.m. for people to check the homes out for themselves.
Val Whaling said she can be contacted at 413-770-6296 for a showing or just come on a Saturday afternoon.
"Just come and see, you'll be amazed what the insides look like and the property," George Whaling said.
Tags: affordable housing, Real Estate, ribbon cutting,
