![]() ![]() ![]() Clayton even builds the homes with materials - such as paint and carpeting - supplied by other Berkshire subsidiaries. ![]() It also sells property insurance on them and repossesses them when borrowers fail to pay.īerkshire extracts value at every stage of the process. It finances more mobile home purchases than any other lender by a factor of six. Today, Clayton is a many-headed hydra with companies operating under at least 18 names, constructing nearly half of the industry’s new homes and selling them through its own retailers. Daniel Wagner/Center for Public Integrityīerkshire Hathaway, the investment conglomerate Buffett leads, bought Clayton in 2003 and spent billions building it into the mobile home industry’s biggest manufacturer and lender. Denise Pitts said Clayton’s collectors told her to forego paying her husband’s medical bills after he was diagnosed with cancer, so that she could afford her house payments. Kirk and Denise Pitts in their home in Knoxville, Tennessee. But Clayton relies on predatory sales practices, exorbitant fees, and interest rates that can exceed 15 percent, trapping many buyers in loans they can’t afford and in homes that are almost impossible to sell or refinance, an investigation by The Center for Public Integrity and The Seattle Times has found. Yet the disastrous loans that threaten them with homelessness or the loss of family land stem from a single company: Clayton Homes, the nation’s biggest homebuilder, which is controlled by its second-richest man - Warren Buffett.īuffett’s mobile home empire promises low-income Americans the dream of homeownership. The families’ dealers and lenders went by different names - Luv Homes, Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt, 21st Mortgage. ![]() They went ahead because they had spent $11,000, most of their savings, to dig a foundation.Īnd near Bug Tussle, Alabama, Carol Carroll has been paying down her home for more than a decade but still owes nearly 90 percent of the sale price - and more than twice what the home is worth. Her marriage wasn’t over, but her husband was battling cancer and, Pitts said, her mortgage company told her the only way to keep a roof over his head would be to sell everything else.Īcross the country in Ephrata, Washington, Kirk and Patricia Ackley sat down to close on a new mobile home, only to learn that the annual interest on their loan would be 12.5 percent rather than the 7 percent they said they had been promised. Former dealers said Clayton Homes encouraged them to steer buyers to finance with Clayton’s own high-interest lenders.ĭenise Pitts walked into the pawn shop not far from where she bought her mobile home in Knoxville, Tennessee, and offered up her wedding rings for $100.Clayton customers report deceptive and predatory deals including loan terms that changed abruptly, surprise fees and pressure to take on excessive payments.Warren Buffett’s Clayton Homes lends at interest rates that can top 15 percent, and often adds thousands in fees to borrowers’ loans.Warren Buffett’s Clayton Homes operates under at least 18 names, leading many buyers to think they’re shopping around.Clayton Homes, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, makes more mobile home loans than any competitor by a factor of six. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |