OXFORD – Schiavi Homes expects to open a model home sales center on Route 26 and Route 2 in Bethel by March 1, managing partner Scott Stone said Wednesday.
Three employees will staff the operation and new “interesting” models will be on display, he said. “(The models) will break the mold of what people expect or think that a modular home is.”
As a businessman, Stone understands that in the public eye, image can be everything.
“Our industry has gone from single-wide mobile homes to really complex and sophisticated modular homes. What hasn’t kept pace,” he said, “is the idea that the home is complete when it’s delivered. People look at our industry and say you can just add water and it makes its own sauce.”
Schiavi Homes of Oxford, with 18 full-time employees, is a general contractor and works with customers from start to finish, finding appropriate subcontractors to handle each aspect of building a home, from excavation to foundation work to plumbing, electrical, and decorating issues.
“The biggest part of our company is not in sales, but in delivering the product. Building the product is the biggest part of our company. That’s a little unique for this industry,” said Stone.
Schiavi builds about 115 homes a year and delivers them within a 75- to 100-mile radius of its heaquarters on Route 26, said Stone.
The company plans to launch a new Web site in early to mid February where people can draw their own floor plans.
“We’re builders, plain and simple. And we have to evolve our business in that direction,” Stone said.
Despite the industry’s outdated image, things do seem to be turning, spurred by retirees who have a comfortable nest egg. Stone said 35 percent of the company’s business now comes from out-of-state people who are retired and building second homes in Maine.
“They’re going to sell the big old colonial and they’re going to build a nice place for themselves somewhere in New England and they’re going to build a nice place for themselves somewhere in Arizona or Florida,” he said.
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