June is National Home Ownership Month

Home ownership is the American Dream. Let DeTray’s Custom Housing help you celebrate this achievement every June in the future, by starting today!  

Home ownership is the most important financial decision most people make. While rent prices go up every year, your mortgage payment remains the same for 30 years. Your income grows, and the payment becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of your expenses.

Each monthly payment acts as a kind of forced savings. As you pay down principle, your equity (the amount of your home you actually own) grows.

It’s smart to build equity and financial stability while you enjoy your beautiful home. The equity in your home can eventually become liquid cash that you can access, either by selling your home, or borrowing against it. When you own a home, it is more than just a place to live; it’s also a financial asset.

History shows that overall, homes become more valuable. Think of what your parents paid for their home, and how much it is worth today!

What is the leading wealth producer for average Americans? Home Ownership!

DeTray’s has helped hundreds of families celebrate the thrill of this great achievement. Our experienced team has guided the process of designing, delivering, and finishing, beautiful custom homes at our location at 149th and Meridian in Puyallup for nearly 30 years. Let us help you have the joy and satisfaction of home ownership.

Lora Whitemarsh

Lora Whitemarsh
DeTray’s Housing Consultant

Home for the Holidays

During this busy holiday season of family, friends, and endless hours of house cleaning, I wanted to remind you that at DeTray’s Custom Housing, we put the “home” in “Home for the for the Holidays”. Welcoming family over for the holidays is one of the most important parts of the year and having a home to welcome them is one of the most important accomplishments of our lives.

The importance of having a home that you can be proud of can’t be overstated and at DeTray’s Custom Housing, we’ve spent the last half century of doing business, focused not only on the home, but also the homeowner. Whether it’s your dream home or a Christmas wish granted, no two homes are the same and certainly no two homeowners are the same. We treat each customer as an individual with their own unique vision and help guide them through the entire process. Imagine a home full of family and friends.

Usually, everyone’s favorite gathering place is the kitchen. Now imagine the kitchen of your dreams, in the home of your dreams, while having the holiday of your dreams. During this time of year, we see a lot of homes being built with special focus on the kitchen. There are kitchen packages available with Lazy Susans, Spice Racks, Cookie Sheet Storage, and Roll Out Trash Cans built-in to the solid wood cabinets. Also available is a stunning Frigidaire 21’ Frost Free Refrigerator with Icemaker and double ovens for all those Christmas cookies!

Another great feature is the wood/gas burning fireplace to hang your stockings on. We welcome you to come tour our model homes and turn your holiday wishes into reality.

Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season!

Jason Lockhart
Housing & Design Consultant


Vacation Explained

Please join us @ the Seattle RV Show Feb 7-10th and the Seattle Home Show Feb 16-24th…You may just find your new “stay-cation” home- Hurry come see us soon!

 

 

Webster’s New World Dictionary defines Vacation as “a period of rest from work or study”. My wife and I just returned from a sunny climate for a week. It is amazing how good it feels leaving routine behind, and at the same time excited to return to the comfortable surroundings we call home. Although we were gone only a short time, I missed the same old routine. Don’t get me wrong the beautiful weather, sightseeing, laying around the pool, going out to dinner, and experiencing a totally different environment is always fun, but getting “home” is great too. So if that is the better of two worlds I’m in favor of combining these two into one perfectly beautiful place.

Let’s call it a “Stay-cation”. It would be like paradise at your fingertips. A place to go to anytime of the year. A gathering place with family and friends, a place to heal or find solitude and surrender, or possibly enrich relationships with those closest to you. I like this place, I love the concept, and how can I get one? Well it isn’t all that difficult. Here at DeTrays Custom Housing we understand the relationship of working hard to enjoy life’s vacations. One simply needs to commit to the fact vacations are really important, and you want to have that get-away sooner rather than later. Here is how.

We place our vacation homes anywhere in the great Northwest. We arrange the pre- planning of the custom design of the home, arrange to obtain all necessary feasibility issues to place your vacation home on your lot, and build the home package to your specifications including options, colors, and furnishings. A “Stay-cation” experience is completely unbelievable as it is your home away from home. DeTrays Custom Housing has three builders, Skyline Homes, Kit Homebuilders, and Karsten Homes. Can you imagine leaving home to go on a vacation, leaving that routine behind, going to warm comfortable surroundings where you can meet family and friends in the comfort of your vacation home? Perfectly beautiful!

We are showing one of our hand crafted Custom Vacation Homes soon at The Seattle RV Show, February 7-10th. I want to extend an invitation to please come out to see how inexpensive and remarkably easy it is to obtain this affordable lifestyle. We hope you can relax and enjoy our little piece of paradise, it can be yours, and we are here to help make it happen. For more information on these homes and all of our other 270+ designs, please go to our web site www.detrayscustomhousing.com I hope to see you soon, check out TheSeattleRV Show.com for ticketing options and all other related show information. Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully Submitted,

Dana DeTray, GM

Happy Holidays Open House

Year End, Holidays, Short Days, Family, & Reflection:

 

It is that time of year that we wake up and realize there is less time to get shopping, travel plans, and decorating completed. I love this time of year though, now more than ever. It wasn’t long ago that I would get stressed out and feel there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things that was required to do, and to do everything that everyone demands get done. How do you balance the chaos? I found the simple solution: Just let life happen. Here at DeTrays Custom Housing, we will be hosting a Holiday Open House. It will be December 1st & 2nd. We have our new 2013 models completed, furnished with décor. We worked hard to get this together for everyone’s review and hope many of you will stop to tour the new models. These new manufactured homes can be built to manufactured home specifications or modular code, whatever is best for the customer. Please see our website for more details www.detrayscustomhousing.com

 

This is also the time of year we review our projections for 2012. I was recently provided with several interesting statistics regarding sales and service. I always have a personal goal to be number 1 in both sales and service, but now we really get to see where we stack up. DeTrays Custom Housing closed enough homes this year to currently be ranked the fifth overall manufactured home dealer in the state. With over a month to go, I feel we met our goals, as we increased sales over the last five years, year after year. At the same time, our overall service reports; or Customer Satisfaction Index, shows the level of performance increasing year after year. Last month we were offered a marketing venture by the Better Business Bureau to be on  BBB TV advertising, honoring DeTrays Custom Housing with their “A+” rating. One of our home builders also rates us as the “top performing service partner” outperforming other dealers in the Northwest.

 

This is great stuff, but let’s all remember why we do this: Family, friends and a warm place to call home is the real goal. Many of our customers over this last year had terrible tragedies in their life, which in turn brought them to our place of business. We replaced several homes due to fire losses, and a couple from wind storm losses. Some folks lost a loved one or family member, resulting in the need to move into a smaller home. Economics circumstances played into many families’ lives over the last couple years, creating housing issues that made it necessary to change. The stories we are told by our customers sometimes break your heart, but when their new home is complete, and their lives return to some form of “normal”, we get to see and feel the gratitude of recovery. It makes you appreciate the fact we are providing a “home” and not just a place to live, and the “numbers” really aren’t that important any longer.

Happy Holidays and hope to see you soon.

Dana DeTray

A Season for Giving

When one reflects over the last year, it is easy to find many reasons to be Thankful. My priorities are like most, I value good health, family, and striving for balance each and every day, juggling both mental and physical activities, to stay in tune with my ever-changing world. What a world in 2012 we have evolved to! Many of my fellow citizen’s marvel at all the changes in global economics, technology, climate changes, scientific and medical advancements, social changes, and all brought immediately to us almost instantaneously by way of social interaction devices. What would our grandparents have thought? One can be left behind very quickly and feel quite dumb if you don’t possess a “smart” device. Personally, I’m slow to react to all this, and have taken a wait-see attitude, but like most have eventually been persuaded to concede to the inevitable.  Through these means, I’ve also been convinced to utilize these mediums to communicate to all of you via my Blog. Bear with me, as this is all new but fairly entertaining. I’ve been getting plenty of encouragement and tips as well.

 

Here at DeTrays Custom Housing, we discussed how can we reach out and participate to help our community. We contacted our local food bank, and have set up a food drive to help feed the hungry in our community. We are encouraging our customers to bring in canned goods from November 15th through December 15th at which time we will donate all our collected items. We are also having an “open house” to feature our newest model home, here at our sales display located at 10209 149th St. E. Puyallup, Washington where you can drop off your donations as well. It is with great joy and determination that our staff is involved with this endeavor to help our community, so please come by and help out. We look forward to seeing you. As a company, we also wanted to share with you that DeTrays Custom Housing donated funds to a charitable organization to benefit victims of the Super Storm Sandy. We feel it’s important to do what you can, even if it is a little bit, as doing something is better than doing nothing. Should the situation be reversed, one wants to feel it would come back, if we pass it forward, right? I personally had that right in my face during the East Coast tragedy. Most of here in the West Coast watched Sandy obliterate the North East, but on Oct. 28th we came close to an equally devastating disaster when we had a 7.7 earthquake just north of us in the Queen Charlottes. I received word from my daughter in Hawaii that NOAA immediately issued a tsunami warning, shut down major utilities, and set up disaster relief centers in the event of a crisis which was looming. This did not happen, in fact virtually no one even heard about this, but until you feel the panic and helplessness one feels about not being able to help your loved ones, it isn’t all that important.

Please don’t forget to give, it brings good Karma.

Is 50 a big deal?

Is 50 a big deal?

Well I guess it is when you share the date with the likes of the Space Needle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Rolling Stones, and N.A.S.A.’s John Glenn orbited the earth. It makes my family’s business venture which began in 1962, no big deal. It is “Golden” of course, and very special to make this milestone. When I think back to our roots, my folks were just trying to make a living, and follow a dream. Serving those through adhering to what they were taught by their parents, the “Golden Rule of treating others with respect and the way you want to be treated” has always served our business philosophy as its base mission statement.

My wife and I aquired the business 10 years ago, and continue treating all of our customers, business associates, and employees in this fashion. I enjoy doing what I do as much today as when I started in this business in 1977. We enrich people’s lives, and affect so many in a constructive positive way; it truly is gratifying to help other achieve life goals and dreams. This part of the business has never changed for me and my wife. Helping others is a blessing, and we don’t take the task lightly. We put our heart and soul into listening, and understanding what our customers need, and do our part to fulfill this to the best of our ability.

In this respect, I guess what we do is a big deal; one only needs to ask our customers how their experience was in working through the details of completing the business venture of building a custom home. It is what we enjoy doing for others, and doing it so well, they will entrust sending friends or family as a referral to work with as well. This is what it is all about for us, exceeding expectations one customer at a time. Please see our web site at www.detrayscustomhousing.com for more information, ideas, and specials.

Thank you for your time,

Dana DeTray

General Managing Partner