OXFORD — Jeff Shock is from an entrepreneurial family. He has started up a modular home dealership, Speedway Homes, on Route 26 in Oxford.
His father, Dick Shock, was a guiding light in Oxford County’s modular home industry.
“He designed and built Kaiser Homes,” Jeff Shock said of his father. “He designed and built Oxford Homes for Bob Bahre. A long time ago when Lebanon Homes was out back here, he ran that.”
Shock cut a deal with Skyline Corp. of Elkhart, Ind., to sell its “park model” homes, which are manufactured in Pennsylvania. He has a park model home on his lot, just south of Oxford Plains Speedway.
He also has a small cabin-style home on display, made by the same company.
“I like the fact that we are offering a vacation home that you can plug and play,” Shock said. “It’s all there. You can go from backing it into a campground somewhere and leaving it, because everything (needed) is there to plug it up, or you can back it onto your vacation lot, plug it into your septic and water, and you’re ready to go. You’re in it, living.”
Shock didn’t have to move far to cut the deal with Skyline.
“I do their service work in New England,” Shock said. “We were talking about a sales lot because there isn’t a park sales lot for Skyline in New England. I went down and toured their plant and talked to their manager. I told them I’ve been wanting to do something like this — and here we are.”
Shock said he plans to add single-wide and double-wide U.S. Housing and Urban Development homes for permanent installation in the future.
He has concrete pads to display six modular homes, all of which will be made by Skyline.
“Every one of these models comes with a full-size bathroom and a full-size kitchen, so it’s like an upgrade from an RV, for comparison,” Shock said. “One of them is going to be completely off-grid. We’re having solar panels designed for it right now, and it will have propane refrigerator, stove, water heater and furnace, so you can run off propane and then be off-grid for power because one of the things these houses come with are all-LED lights.”
Shock emphasized the construction quality of the homes he sells.
“They’re built with 2×4 exterior walls, instead of 2×2 walls,” he said. “The cabinets that they use in these park models are the same they use in their HUD homes, so it’s a home-quality cabinet. It’s the same showers, toilets — everything that they use in their larger homes.”
Shock chose a good time to open his manufactured home lot. The Oxford Hills Home Show is April 22-24. Other Oxford dealers open to show attendees this weekend include Schiavi Home Builders, Turn Key Homes and Twin Town Homes.
Norway Savings Bank is a sponsor of the event.
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