History
Our founder, Jim Ray Sr., graduated from high school in June, 1957. In September he began his college career at Cornell University and started a small used car business in his spare time. The following spring, his father suggested he talk to a family friend who was in the “TRAILER” sales and park business. With the help and advice of his father, he phased out of the used car business and sold his first two “MOBILE HOMES” in the fall of 1958, a 35X10 and a 50X10. When a local park owner required that he pay cash under the table to be able to park one of a new home customer’s purchase in that park, he got a loan from his father to buy the land that is now a 180+ space family home community.
In 1959, sales took off and he married his sweetheart, Patty. It was the beginning of years of up and down business. There were years when he sold over 125 new homes and years when 15 looked good. Over the years, Jim and Patty worked very hard and eventually added three more parks and a subdivision to their list of successes. Jim, Patty, sons Chip and Bruce and daughter Pam are all stockholders of the present operations. They all helped in various ways from very young ages. Many holidays or weekends would find them involved in snowplowing or digging up broken water mains in the parks. Chip says he was put to work in the business at age five. Grandson Adam started working part-time in the business at an early age and officially came on board full time in June of 2006. Jim’s Dad instilled in him that hard work and the best employees offering the best service would go a long way in making the business a success.
With over 65 years of experience, our company strives to offer good quality customer service and will continue to make JIM RAY HOMES the favorite dealer and manufactured community owner in this area.