In 1978, Paul's Mobile Home Service was started as a service business for Mobile and Manufactured Home owners. As the owner of a mobile home, Paul saw the need for a service business catering to Manufactured Home owners. The business began with one service vehicle (a station wagon) and one employee (owner: Paul McMullen) with a vision of offering quality service at an affordable price for Central Michigan Manufactured Home Owners.

In 1982 Paul took the idea one step further and opened a retail store in Mt. Pleasant. This store was initially started as a retail outlet for Manufactured Home and Recreational Vehicle owners looking for materials to do their own repairs and improvements. The store was run from a rented storefront just off Mission Street. The RV products were dropped after two years due to slow sales and emphasis was placed on Manufactured Home service and supplies.

The years between 1982 and 1987 saw the business grow steadily. Paul added another service vehicle an additional service technician, and a store clerk as well as his wife JoAnn doing some work for the business. The rented store was getting crowded with merchandise and improvements to the store were limited due to the fact that it was rented.

In 1987, the lot where the old store is located was purchased. The house on the lot was moved and sold and an older mobile home acquired to be used as a temporary store while the new building was constructed. The original building was constructed as half showroom/store and the other half storage/workshop.

As the years progressed, the store layout was changed several times. The first major change was finishing the storage/workshop area and converting it to additional store area. A garage was added on the back of the building to make up for the lost storage space. The interior layout of the store was changed many times in an effort to find the best use of the given space. In 1996, things were again getting crowded and an addition was added on to the front of the building to increase the showroom floor area.

As the store sales grew, the service business grew also. At one point there were three service vehicles on the road and a total of six service personnel were employed. The service portion of the business was supplemented in 1995 by the acquisition of a Residential Builders License, which allowed the installation of home improvements such as Patio Rooms and Awnings/Carports on stick built residential homes as well as Manufactured homes. The years between 1995 and 1998 saw continued growth and soon there was another major change.

Sometime in 1998, Paul decided that we should look into selling Manufactured Homes. He thought that we should offer a new home with all of the items as standard that were often replaced or repaired in many homes. His idea was to sell a home that the customer only had to buy once. He did not want to sell a home that would be cheaply made with inferior components and need many repairs and improvements over the life of the mortgage. A big part of this ideal was to locate the proper manufacturer who builds the home to our same standards. Our goal was to locate a manufacturer/builder that shared many of the same ideals with us. We wanted a builder of quality, well constructed homes, that utilized quality components in all of the homes they build not just on their top end homes. We wanted a builder who takes pride in their line and is willing to stand behind it. We wanted a builder that had a very rigid quality control system in place in order to avoid excessive repairs to the home after it is delivered. We did not look for a builder with the biggest incentives or the highest profit margins. We wanted to be able to offer the new homebuyer a home with features that we would include if we were ordering the home for our families to live in. We wanted to offer a home that they will be proud to own and proud to live in from the day they take delivery. We wanted to offer a home that will be energy efficient and low maintenance. With these thoughts in mind, we began our search for a larger piece of property and the manufacturer that met our requirements.

After considering several other properties that were available, we were offered the first chance at the 10 acres that we currently own. This property was a little farther out of town than we wanted but it offered the right exposure and was more reasonably priced. The process of having our parcel and some of the neighboring land rezoned for commercial was begun. After obtaining the rezoning for the land we had plans drawn up for the new lot and building and started to request bids for the various phases. Estimates were received and agreements were soon made with the various contractors. The building was started in early summer of 2000 and was completed and ready for the big move by the first of November 2000.

Our first retail lot model homes were delivered and set up in the summer of 2001. Unfortunately after years of planning and preparation our startup in home sales coincided with the terrorist attacks on America of September 2001 and the ensuing drop off of the economy. Additionally at this time the Manufactured Home industry also suffered a severe decline in new home sales due to dishonesty, poor quality construction and other issues, over the previous years. We held fast and attempted to get our sales lot on its feet but after two years we discontinued the home sales on July 31, 2003. We sold a total of nine new homes during this period as well as several used homes. Our new home customers are all very pleased with their decision to buy from us. The extra money spent on the new homes that they purchased from us was well spent as most homes had no warranty-related problems, and all were very energy efficient.

Since this date we have continued with our service and repair business as well as expanding our Outdoor Improvement Product selection by adding one more manufacturer to the three that we already dealt with. We also added to our existing stock of Manufactured home repair and replacement parts.

With the creation of this new Web Site we hope to increase our awareness on the Web as well as establish and maintain a catalog of retail parts for manufactured home owners to order at reasonable prices.

Please stay tuned, as I will update this page as often as warranted with important changes or additions.

Greg Dean on January 30, 2007