Personalities
Art Burger
Manufactured Housing Legend
It was December 2004 when we had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Art Berger, a true legend in the manufactured housing industry. Art is the founder of Valley Quality Homes and Valley Manufactured Housing. He has always had a reputation for building some of the best, and most energy efficient homes on the market! In fact, Valley Manufactured Housing has won a number of awards for energy efficient home building, including several from the National Association of Home Builders. We wanted to get a little background on Art and the fabulous company that he built. So we asked him a few questions...
Hey Art! Give us a little background on you. Where did you go to school? I graduated from Marquette High School, right here in Yakima, Washington. I went on to attend Yakima Junior College where I lettered in football and baseball. I also did a little boxing in those days!
Boxing? Wow! That probably toughened you up for the business world! Speaking of that, how did you get into the manufactured housing business? Well, I did a lot of things before I got into manufactured housing & owned a meat locker business, and even had a car dealership. In fact, I was retired in 1976 when Totem Mobil Homes asked me to come to work for them and build a sales organization. Soon, thereafter, my brother and I formed a partnership and purchased the business. I eventually bought my brother out and started Valley Quality Homes in 1979. In those days, we represented other manufacturer's homes.
When and why did you decide to manufacture your own homes? Well, it was back in 1989 that we started Valley Manufactured Housing. Our customers desired a higher quality product than was available in the manufactured housing market at that time. We decided that if we were going to stay in this line of work, that we better respond to our customer's requests and build our own homes. That's how we got started!
What is it about manufactured housing that keeps you engaged in the business? Home ownership is the "American Dream". Due to the method with which we build our houses...they're the best quality...and affordable. There's a lot of reward in providing folks with their piece of the "American Dream!"
What do you like to do when you're not heading-up "one of the best home builders" in the biz? Well, I enjoy being around my family. I've got three kids...one daughter and two sons. My daughter, her husband, and one of my sons work for our business. I've also got six grand kids. I really enjoy playing Santa for the entire brood on Christmas Eve!!
That's great Art! Why don't we end this with bit of knowledge from the founder himself! How about a quote? "Building a home to be energy efficient is certainly necessary if you intend to provide "value-received" to your customer."