Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, realty asset class historian, trend spotter, education resource & textbook source for land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 888-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!
INTRODUCTION: Thanks for your input of late, helping me decide how to pen future postings of this blog. More suggestions and ideas? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com
I.
2022 TO APE 2021 OR BE BETTER?
Were you one of hundreds to recently receive my ‘Expression of Appreciation & Look Forward into Year 2022’? If not, you’ll want to read the following four paragraphs to learn how our industry appears to have ended year 2021; what 2022 ‘looks like already’; and, why I’m not bullish on the land lease community real estate asset class. Here goes….
“How will year 2021 end relative to new HUD-Code housing shipments? Even though we shipped fewer new HUD-Code homes during November 2021 @ 9,069 compared to previous month of October @ 9,254*1. To date (i.e. end of November), we’ve already shipped more new homes @ 97,758 than during previous 15 years, going back to 2006 @ 117,510. But will December’s shipment total be enough to eclipse the 2006 year-end number? At this point we need only 19,752 homes shipped to do so! Hence, the speculative answer is ‘yes’! In any event, we’ll be back above the 100,000/year target total. BUT, how long will we enjoy that momentum – or will we grow – or slip backwards again?”
“2022? While we’re ‘on a roll’ shipment-wise right now, future performance depends on resolution of alleged supply chain issues, controlling arbitrary price increases by housing manufacturers, and if/when we finally bring reason and resolution to our perennial chattel capital (i.e. home-only) financing challenges. After all, it’s been 13+/- years since we lost easy access to this type financing, e.g. 1998 = 372,943 new homes shipped, compared to 2009 and only 48,789 new homes shipped during the latter year – our industry’s nadir year.”
“I want to be bullish about the land lease community sector of the manufactured housing industry, but am not! Why? In my opinion, ‘consolidation’ of sole proprietor-owned communities into one or another of 500+/- property portfolios has generally run amuck. Property sale prices, for the most part, are driven by greed (on the part of ‘sellers’), and willingness, on the part of ‘buyers’ to greatly increase site rents following ‘closing’. At the very least, we’ve seen the rise of tenant activism on a near national scale; something we’ve not dealt with before. And how are we going to convince prospective homebuyers/site lessees to buy new homes within land lease communities when site rent is no longer a third, but fully half the amount – or more, they’d pay for a conventional, non-subsidized 3BR2B apartment unit in the same local housing market? I fear we may well see a ‘shaking out’ among hedge fund investors who’ve entered the realty asset class during the past five years.”
“So, where do we go from here? Again personally, I yearn for far more effective national advocacy than we suffer now! At the very least, a salaried executive at the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and its’ National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division should be solely-tasked with day to day administration and representation of land lease communities nationwide – just like it used to be, from January 1996 to pre-2010. In addition, endorse professional property management among on-site and regional managers by insisting on ‘education & certification’ in a meaningful manner! This by dint of Accredited Resident Manager (‘ARM’) and Certified Property Manager (‘CPM’) member programs via the Institute of Real Estate Management (‘IREM’), OR some other credible in-person (NOT online) training program! This obvious professional property management shortfall continues to be the Achilles’ heel of land lease community management and ownership nationwide.”*2
End Notes.
1. The new HUD-Code housing shipment totals as reported by the Institute of Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), HUD, MHARR, and EducateMHC.
2. You serious about providing the property management tools on-site and regional managers need to do their jobs right? Every property should have a copy of ‘Community Operations in the Manufactured Housing Industry’ – available via www.educatemhc.com
DID YOU KNOW?
Biloxi Manufactured Housing Show to be held from Monday, 28 March, through Thursday, 31 March, at the IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi, Mississippi. This trade show is successor to the popular Tunica, Mississippi MHShow. For more information: www.biloxihomeshow.com
MHI’s Congress & Expo is scheduled for Monday, 11 April thru Thursday, 14 April, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. For more information: www.manufacturedhousing.org
Stephen Braun, co-CEO, has retired from Hometown America. For corporate contacts, email either Ken Kravenas via KKKRavenas@HometownAmerica.net for operations-related matters; or Greg Lynch via GLynch@HometownAmerica.net for all other matters. Stephen’s leaving has been so quiet, it reminds me of when Barry McCabe, another Hometown alum, faded from the scene a decade ago. Hometown America was founded by Randy Rowe (presently head of Green Courte Partners) in 1997, and today owns 66 land lease communities in a dozen states – including the well-known SaddleBrook Farms in Grayslake, IL.
You a fan of the popular TV show series NCIS? I am, and one of my Christmas stocking presents from Carolyn was a copy of the magazine GIBBS FOREVER. Best part? Finally, I have a complete list of what show fans know as Gibbs’ Rules. There’re 34 of them in all. A few gems appear to apply to the business world: #3 Never be unreachable. #5 You don’t waste good. #11 When the job is done, walk away. #15 Always work as a team. #18 It’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission. #28 When you need help, ask. #51 Sometimes you’re wrong. And a personal favorite = #23. Never mess with a Marine’s coffee if you want to live!
I’m old enough to remember the influence and death of social and political activist Saul Alinsky in mid-1972. He authored ‘Rules for Radicals, Reveille for Radicals’ – a simplification of Vladimir Lenin’s original scheme for world conquest by communism, under Russian rule. He wrote there are eight levels of control that must be achieved before one is able to create a (new) social state. They are:
1. Healthcare. Control healthcare and you control the people (Pandemic anyone?)
2. Poverty. Increase the poverty level as high as possible; poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live (Think illegal immigrants)
3. Debt. Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way one is able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty. (Present national debt level sustainable?)
4. Gun Control. Remove the ability of citizens to defend themselves from the Government. That way one is able to create a police state. (Gotta love the second amendment!)
5. Welfare. Take control of every aspect of citizens’ lives (Food, Housing, & Income)
6. Education. Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school. (Errant social media platforms, Critical Race Theory, etc.)
7. Religion. Remove belief in God from the government and schools. (No prayer in schools)
8. Class Warfare. Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to tax the wealthy with the support of the poor.
Well, there you have it, a veritable blueprint on how to convert a democracy (republic) into a totalitarian state. Now that you know how it’s done, do your part to prevent it from happening!
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!’
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: This week’s blog materialized as I replied to the usual daily collection of email messages from friends and business associates throughout the manufactured housing industry and among land lease communities. Decided it might be interesting to you to read about what’s been going on around here for the past week or so. So….
I.
NEW YEARS EVE MUSINGS
First off, a sincere Thank You to many ‘friends in the MHBusiness’ who sent Carolyn and me holiday gift packages of fresh Florida citrus fruit, genuine Lebanese ‘extra virgin’ olive oil – and other Mediterranean treats, an equally genuine YETI – insulated travel flask, and such a variety of fudge, sausage, cheese, and other goodies!
Especially appreciated the manufactured housing-themed greeting cards from MHI and Monroe & Giordano. And the family photographs of the DeMarco families at Security Mortgage in NY.
I exhibited symptoms of Covid-19 on Saturday, 18 December, so checked-in to a local hospital, where the diagnosis was confirmed. Kept me there most of the day, until they infused me with the same pharmaceutical administered to President Trump awhile back. Told me I’d feel like new in 12 hours – and I did. But have been quarantined at home with Carolyn until 28 December, when I tested ‘negative’ for the virus. This meant we canceled a large family dinner Christmas Eve, and spent the holiday alone at home – our 58th Christmas together, except for my year in Vietnam.
Sad news. Learned from Rick Robinson of Bill Matchneer’s untimely death on Christmas day. Many of you will remember him from his days as head of HUD’s manufactured housing division. Sorry, but have no further details.
Have you seen the list of manufactured housing industry notables who comprise the Class of 2022 Inductees into the prestigious RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN.? They are Eugene Landy of real estate investment trust UMH Properties in NJ; Tim Williams of 21st Mortgage in TN; Harry Karsten of Karsten Homes in CA; Raylen Gritton a MHRetailer in CA; and David Carter from FL. The Class of 2022 will be officially inducted at the annual Hall of Fame banquet on Monday, 15 August 2022. For more information, phone (574) 293-2344. Plan now to attend; anyone who’s anyone in MH will be present for the festivities!
II.
THE B-ATTITUDES OF JOURNALISM
John W. Fountain is an award-winning columnist, journalist, and author, working out of Chicago, IL. In 2006 he delivered the Samuel E. Cornish memorial Lecture at the World Journalism Institute in Atlanta, GA. The lecture was titled ‘Mightier Than the Sword’
Within the presentation Fountain introduces his B-Attitudes of Journalism. While somewhat reminiscent of my personal ‘writing bromide’, the ABC3 Rule of Good Communication, Fountain digs much deeper.
First, the ABC3 Rule of Good Communication. Be Accurate, Be Brief, Be Clear, Concise & Complete! – when communicating in person and in print!
Now onto Fountain’s B-Attitudes of Journalism.
Be accurate. A journalist never sacrifices fact for details.
Be honest.. To the craft, to the reader, to your editors.
Be professional. Be on time; do quality work.
Build on good mechanics. Master the fundamentals of journalism.
Be consistent and diligent with writing and reporting. Regularly practice the craft. Diligently work in school to learn how to do good journalism.
Be a reader. Good writers are Good readers.
Be thick-skinned. Learn to take criticism and grow.
Be confident. As a journalist, there are hills and valleys. Don’t judge your worth by a difficult valley experience.
Build a network of support. Editors, colleagues, non-journalist friends and family can lend perspective and balance.
Be patient. Write and rewrite, understanding that good writing is a process.
Bring your perspective. Your uniqueness will generate unique stories and enable you to tell a story as only you can.
Be excellent. One can’t argue with excellence!
Believe. In the story, in the power of journalism, in your ability to make a difference.
BE. Rather than talking who you are, just BE who you are.
I can think of many a journalist who should be reading and practicing those Be Attitudes!
George Allen, CPM, MHM
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’ comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.eduatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: As we enter this holiday season and prepare to begin a new year, be vigilant of those influences helpful to your line of work within manufactured housing and land lease communities. Here’s just two matters for you to read and ponder: Why do some folk insist on pontificating info they know little about; and, are you EMP-prepared? George Allen
I.
BEWARE FALSE FACTS!
It’s happening already; businessmen and women who should know better, are trafficking in false information! Just this past week on FACEBOOK, in a list of five questions purporting to explain ‘Why land lease communities are disappearing’ (Actually, the writer used a past term for the realty asset class, compounding the false information problem), the bold but inaccurate statement was put forth: ‘estimate only ten land lease communities have been developed during the past two decades’. Nothing could be further from the truth! There have been dozens of new communities developed throughout the U.S., during the past decade. Just ask landscape architect consultant Don Westphal, in MI, for a list of just his developments and expansions. And talk to the REITs (real estate investment trusts) about communities they’re developing in TX, FL, and elsewhere. Ask Ed Zeman and Jamie Dougherty about their communities in MI.
To me, this sudden appearance of false information belies a credibility problem besetting the manufactured housing industry and land lease community real estate asset class. With so many industry and property veterans retiring this past year, the internet is ripe for exploitation by individuals, many of whom are new to MH and communities, to seize the moment and put forth their theories and thoughts as to what what’s happening in their realms of experience and investment.
So, be alert to what you read and believe.
II.
ARE YOU EMP-PREPARED?
For a moment, stop and consider the dire consequences of being totally without electric power to light and heat one’s home, operate vehicles, and communicate via telephone, radio, TV and otherwise! Frankly, I’d not given the matter any thought until I read a novel recommended by a junior executive friend at the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington, DC. The book? ONE SECOND AFTER, by William R. Forstchen (Available for $10 from Amazon.com). There are two sequels in the EMP-centered triad of novels.
Here’s what I learned. Complete chaos will reign following an electromagnetic pulse, until individuals grasp what is going on and work to ameliorate the severe consequences of no longer having power to do anything beyond lighting a campfire, drinking water from a stream, and gathering together for warmth and protection. That’s the message, clearly set forth in the novel – which follows the lives of individuals in a small college town in western North Carolina. What replaces dollars and coinage as valuable legal tender? Bullets! Bullets needed to hunt local wildlife; and eventually, protect lives.
I’d allowed this ‘wakeup call’ message to fade somewhat from memory during ensuing years – until I read a recent email message from stormrecovery@srp24.com earlier this month. Here’s an edited portion of a paragraph labeled ‘Electromagnetic Pulse’:
“Israel and Iran are preparing for war. China is planning to annex Taiwan. Russia is amassing troops to annex the rest of Ukraine. China and Russia are working in cooperation and will likely strike simultaneously. To prevent the U.S. from aiding each of its’ allies, it is likely China will encourage North Korea to deorbit two satellites down to an altitude of 140 km above the earth. The President’s EMP Commission states that both satellites are likely carrying nuclear weapons. By detonating the nuclear weapons at that altitude, the gamma rays from the nuclear explosion will interact with the edge of the atmosphere and generate a very strong electromagnetic pulse (‘EMP’). The pulse is about 5,000 times stronger than a cell tower. It encompasses the AM and FM radio bands and travels at the speed of light. An EMP can cause a voltage spike of 50,000 volts or more in power lines and metal cables, and generate several thousand amps of current. The spike is a thousand times faster than lightning. Conventional lightning surge arrestors are too slow to stop it. Any electronic equipment that is not EMP-protected, including backup generators and vehicles, will no longer function. An EMP could cause a grid outage lasting a year of more.”
Is that scary enough for you? Is your home and business, as well as personal and corporate vehicles EMP-protected? Probably not. Even though some military vehicles are, many are not. Now is time to begin preparing for the consequences of an EMP strike in the atmosphere above our nation!
But what to do? Suggest you google ‘EMP-preparedness’. There you’ll find many resources containing information as to steps to take to be better prepared for such an emergency if/when it occurs. You decide what to do now and what to consider later.
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOHTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WWE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: This week, the most important ‘industry message’ appears as Part II, ‘Revisit DOE Proposal Crisis!’ – a continuation of last week’s warning from MHARR relative to MHs ‘twin crises’. As you read it, keep in mind: ‘If you’re not part of the solution, you’re surely part of the problem!’ So, get on the ball and work with MHARR, MHI, and others to fight DOE’s proposed rule relative to energy conservation mandates for manufactured housing! Part I? Well if you’re getting to be ‘long in the tooth’ (i.e. older, elderly) here’s human potential encouragement!
I.
YOU OLD? READ THIS!
Here’s clear evidence human potential does not cease at some arbitrary age. Following paragraph is quoted from the Handbook to God’s Promises, by Kenneth Boa & William Kruidenier. The 707 pages book was published during year 2020 via reflections.org.
“Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), also known as Stradivarius, fashioned two of his most famous violins, the ‘Habeneck’ and the ‘Muntz’, in his early 90s. Noah Webster (1758-1843) published his two-volume American Dictionary of the English Language, at age 70. Galileo (1564-1642) published his masterpiece, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, at age 74. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) designed the Guggenheim Museum in New York City at age 91. At age 84, Agatha Christie (1890-1976) oversaw production of the movie Murder on the Orient Express, based on her novel of the same name. Golda Meir (1898-1978) served as prime minister of Israel from age 70 to age 76. Peter F. Drucker (1909-2003) wrote Managing in Turbulent Times at age 71 and Management Challenges for the 21st Century, at age 89.” P.302
Know what? That sage observation tells me I was right to pen my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven, last year, my 75th year. Hmm. Wonder what project to take on before I reach 80?*1
How ‘bout you? Getting along in years? If so, NOW is time to begin penning short memoirs describing personal experiences over past years. Then collect and meld them into your autobiography to share with family members, friends, and business acquaintances.
And, to help you along – if you don’t already have a copy, let me know you’d like a FREE booklet titled, Who Will Preserve Your Legacy. Answer: You! Reach me via gfa7156@aol.com
Be sure to include your preferred postal mailing address.
II.
REVISIT DOE PROPOSAL CRISIS!
Last week’s blog posting introduced you to ‘MH’s Twin Crises’ as viewed by the Manufactured Housing Association of Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’). Well, I was so motivated by Mark Weiss’s description of this thinly veiled attempt to KILL the manufactured housing industry as affordable housing, that I prepared – and will soon be sending letters to 11 state attorneys general and ten state MH association directors identified in the MHARR communique of 9 December 2021. Suggest you read what I’ve penned – following, and consider doing the same!
TO: Appropriate party
FROM: George Allen, CPM, MHM, author of SWAN SONG, a history of land lease communities & Official Record of Manufactured Housing Shipments since 1955.*1
SUBJ: DOE proposed rule relative to energy conservation mandates for manufactured housing
HUD-Code manufactured homes, since 1976, have been fabricated to incur energy costs lower
than site-built on a whole-home basis; at the same time ensuring purchase price affordability
for home buyers at all income levels! Hence, the Department of Energy (‘DOE’) proposed rule
relative to energy conservation mandates for manufactured homes is redundant.
Furthermore, the DOE proposed rule stresses speculative ‘life-cycle’ energy cost savings,
ignoring the high purchase price impact said rule would have on prospective homebuyers’
purchase (price) of mainstream manufactured homes!
Key points? HUD-Code manufactured homes are already more energy efficient than stick-built
homes. And spreading the cost of DOE rule implementation in new manufactured homes out
over years is moot if it causes the home buying market to be unable to afford heretofore ‘most
affordable housing alternative in the U.S.’
So please withdraw your support of DOE’s unnecessary and ill-conceived proposed new energy
standard for manufactured housing.
End Note.
1. Both books available for purchase at www.educatemhc.com Maybe even purchase and give copies as holiday gifts this month!
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: According to MHARR the manufactured housing industry is faced, today, with twin crises. And some might add ‘a third’ in light of the fact our industry appears to be incapable of reporting a consistent number of new HUD-Code homes shipped monthly.
I.
MH’s TWIN CRISES
As observed and described by the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform in its’ November 2021 communique; actually a Q&A discussion between president & CEO Mark Weiss and an online trade publication.
Did you even know manufactured housing is faced with twin crises? Well here they are:
CRISIS # 1. The energy matter. Department of Energy (‘DOE’) proposed rule for manufactured housing was once blocked, but then revived in 2014, only to be withdrawn near the end of the Obama administration. Since then there’s been back-and-forth legal maneuverings, culminating in a requirement to publish a proposed standard in 2021, to be adopted as a final standard in 2022. Other related factors? ‘Climate change’ interest on the part of the current administration; failure of the two GSEs to implement their ‘Duty to Serve’ (‘DTS’) plans relative to chattel loans; and, GNMA’s ’10-10’ rule that’s collapsed FHA Title I lending. Result? “…a devastating impact on mainstream manufactured housing….” MW
CRISIS # 2. No post-production trade advocate. “…the industry does not have an independent national post-production representative organization to fight for, advance, and implement full and equal inclusion of manufactured homes in federal government housing largess.” (lightly edited) About which MHAARR continues: “MHARR is not – and will not become – a post-production association.” Understood. But it does bring to mind proverbial truism: ‘If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem!’ And I do understand MHARR’s frustration about this matter, but from a different perspective. On 26 October 1993, during a meeting in Dallas, TX. land lease community portfolio owners/operators drafted a Mission Statement and Strategic Objectives for what they hoped would be a ‘post-production association’. Well, long story short, these 19 executives and the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) launched the National Communities Council (‘NCC”) on 1 January 1996. While it got off to an enthusiastic start, under the leadership of Jim Ayotte, CAE, it didn’t take long for cronyism and political upmanship to prevail. And while the NCC is a division within MHI today, it has not – in my opinion – come anywhere near being the post-production association envisioned and needed today.*1
So, where to go from here? That depends on how serious you feel these twin crises are for the manufactured housing industry and land lease communities nationwide. In the first instance, do as I did in years past, make it a point to attend and participate in DOE public hearings on the proposed rules. Second; well, that depends on how content you are with attending one well-attended Leadership Forum, sponsored by the NCC each year, or whether you too believe there should be a salaried MHI executive actively leading the division in advocating for professional property management, fair treatment of homeowners/site lessees, and more.
End Note.
1. For more information on this subject, read The First 20 Years, penned by the late Bruce Savage, former communications executive of MHI. Available via www.educatemhc.com
II.
9,254 VERSUS 9,247
Well, I guess this leopard will not, or cannot, change its’ spots – as the bromide goes. The first of the two numbers shown above, ‘9,254’ is how many new HUD-Code homes the Institute for Business Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’) says were shipped during the month of October 2021. IBTS is HUD’s official contractor for ‘keeping score’ of new HUD-Code homes shipped monthly. The second number, ‘9,247’ is a different number of new HUD-Code homes shipped, as reported by the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’).
What’s significant about this difference in ‘the number of new HUD-Code homes shipped’ is that during the previous two months, August & September, ALL reporting entities: IBTS, HUD, MHARR, MHI, & EducateMHC announced the very same shipment totals! But now MHI has reverted back to adjusting the industry’s official total by the number of Destination Pending units recorded by IBTS. Go figure.
George Allen, CPM, MHM
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog, and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: We’ve all heard the idiom (‘a form of expression’) to ‘not know any better’. Which is to say, someone does ‘not have the knowledge…to make an informed decision.’ Well, this is where today’s blog posting begins and ends. In summary, while HUD-Code manufactured housing IS the Solution to the Middle Housing Market Crisis in the U.S. today, home builders and realty developers are generally unaware how to bring this ready resource (housing) and need (shortage) together in a working, ongoing, positive fashion! Read on…
I.
SOLUTION TO MIDDLE HOUSING MARKET CRISIS
Manufactured Housing has been, and continues to be, The Solution to the affordable housing supply crisis in the U.S. today; a crisis a.k.a. (also known as) ‘the right kind of middle housing market solution’, i.e. affordable factory-built housing sited within land lease communities on rental homesites, and or on privately-owned scattered building sites within and outside platted subdivisions!*1
What are we talking about here? Well, during late November, almost simultaneously, two real estate investment-related trade publications (neither with any connection whatsoever to manufactured housing and land lease communities) published informative and insightful articles on this timely housing topic; titled:
‘Is Single-Family Build-to-Rent a True Missing Middle (housing market) Solution?’ Subtitled: ‘The model quickly delivers the right kind of housing….’ P.24 of Multifamily Executive magazine.
&
‘Housing Market Trends Fuel Single-family Home Rentals’, i.e. “…the star of the real estate show today (2021-2022) is the build-to-rent space.’ Alex Veiga writing for the Associated Press.
Well, as manufactured housing executives and land lease community owners/operators well know, the industry and realty asset class, ‘for decades’ has been active, in and out of the single-family home rental business! Rental manufactured homes were commonplace in (then) manufactured home communities in the 1970s, until consolidation prevailed and it became easier to sell a ‘community’ occupied by tenant-owned homes, not rental units. And, it’s also well known that manufactured homes have oft been purchased for placement on privately-owned realty (e.g. farms), to be rented out to family members and transient labor. Today or more accurately since year 2010 +/-, manufactured housing is back in the rental home business, with new HUD-Code homes routinely sold into land lease communities and used as rental units. Here, think Sun Communities, RHP Properties, YES! Communities and others. For that matter, quoting from the 32nd (& final) ALLEN REPORT, circa 2021, “26 of 92 respondents (to this survey) confirm the presence of 26,528 rental homes on-site in their communities, for an average of 1,020 rental homes per (reporting) portfolio.”
Here’s the enigma (‘riddle, anything puzzling’): Given the widely recognized need for affordable single-family housing throughout the U.S. today, and the seeming solution being new rental units (a.k.a. ‘build to rent homes’), why are developers of new housing tracts not flocking to factory-built housing in general, HUD-Code manufactured housing in particular, especially the relatively recent CrossMod™ design?
Before I proffer an answer to that tripartite question, let’s take a look at what non-manufactured housing real estate observers and pundits are writing and saying on the matter.
Today, only 5.4 percent of the single-family rental housing national market is cornered by REITs and investors (not Mom & Pop investors – who account for an even larger market share of ‘rentals’) who’re focused on renting single-family homes they’ve acquired. They are now (maybe) being joined by builders eyeing this entry market to affordable housing, having built 47,000 new homes during the past four quarters.
Here’re some miscellaneous points from the aforementioned trade publication articles:
“The missing middle – defined here as households who earn between 80% & 120% of the area median income (‘AMI’), occupies a difficult position in the housing market. In many areas, households at this level do not qualify for subsidized housing, cannot afford the housing options in a given (local housing) market, and have very little in the way of smaller-scale housing options from which to choose.” P.24. This comment relates to the first article title quoted earlier.
What’s causing this inability of prospective homebuyers and renters to find affordable housing? “…a perfect storm of causes, among them high land prices, building material prices, and regulatory considerations that drive builders toward larger and more elaborate homes in order to justify the cost of a purchase.” P.24.
So, “…single-family build-to-rent has emerged as an asset class that delivers precisely what this (middle) group wants. Scalable built-to-rent models provide what developers are rarely incentivized to build – small-scale housing, attached or detached, with lower barriers to access than the single-family for-sale market.” P.24. And who routinely designs and fabricates small-scale housing to a preemptive national building code? HUD-Code manufactured housing!
OK, back to ‘an answer to that question’ about developers not flocking to purchase and use HUD-Code manufactured housing as single-family rental housing. What follows is my opinion, honed during 40+ years as an observer of manufactured housing and land lease community owner/operator:
• To begin with, developers simply do not know who we are, nor do they understand how and why HUD-Code manufactured housing is so affordable, and how it answers today’s housing needs – especially in the middle market.
• The business mindsets characteristic of site-built housing and manufactured housing pros are different, as different as learning to fly a single engine airplane versus a commercial airliner. Manufactured housing execs are hyper-sensitive to every cost factor that increases product cost. Site-builders, on the other hand, oft seem happy to include cost increase factors, often faddish, that lead to ‘bigger box = bigger bucks’ home sale prices.
• Then there are the conceptual and practical differences between building custom homes stick-by-stick, by dint of employing cost saving principles of inventory control, mass production, in—plant climate control, and use of skilled but casual labor, throughout the building process.
Bottom line? We have never been very good, as an industry or realty asset class, at marketing ourselves across housing and community types and lines. Folk simply do not know about us; and when they do, they certainly do not understand what makes us tick. Until that changes, we will remain, sad to say, ‘dead in the water’ as a comprehensive housing provider, especially to the underserved middle market!
Consequence? Again, there’s a major need for our housing type and communities on the national scene these days, and it will continue to be unmet until we, including our national advocates, educate site-builders and developers as to why our product perfectly fills their need for affordable, single-family rental housing!
End Notes.
1. Right up front, let’s agree on the official definition of affordable housing. “Housing is Affordable when an individual or household’s Annual Gross Income (‘AGI’), or local housing market’s Area Median Income (‘AMI’) – identified by postal zip code and available online via zipho.com, can lease a conventional apartment and or buy a home in this local housing market, using no more than 30 percent of said AGI, or AMI, for shelter and related household (utility) expenses. For example; a $50,000 AGI/AMI X .3 Housing Expense Factor or HEF =$15,000/year or $1,250/month, available for rent or mortgage PITI (principal, interest, taxes, insurance) and household expenses.” Note. Not all lenders include household expenses in this calculation.” Quoted from EducateMHC’s Resource Document titled: ‘Solving Our Nation’s (Lack of) Affordable Housing Crisis, with Factory-built Housing & Land Lease Communities’, by George Allen, CPM, and MHM.
George Allen, CPM™Emeritus, MHM™Master
EducateMHC
Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 881-3815 & gfa7156@aol.com
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: History, Conundrum, and Books are topics of Parts I, II & III in this weekly blog posting. Bet you didn’t know this about the early days of MHI (when it was MHMA). Or that HUD-Code housing manufacturers appear to be thriving during these difficult mid-pandemic times. And Part III can help you with your holiday gift giving during December.
I.
DANNY D. GHORBANI
During fall 1967, Danny was contacted by a ‘head hunter’ who wanted to talk to him about the possibility of a position with an organization representing the mobile home industry. His initial reaction? Danny “… didn’t know the Mobile Oil Company was involved with housing.” He was that naïve about the industry that came to appreciate him as their ‘Watchdog of manufactured housing’ in Washington, DC. And there’s more to that story.
In ‘The History of the (Iowa) Manufactured Housing Association 50th anniversary book’ of memories, Danny goes on to describe how the manufactured housing’ industry was booming at the time and attempting to shed its’ mobile home image. Specifically,
“Production had grown from more than 90,000 homes in 1961 to almost a quarter million homes in 1967. The industry’s only marketing firm (i.e. Elrick & Lavidge, Inc.) predicted the growth would continue at a rapid rate, reaching 600,000 homes per year by the early 70s. They were right on target. Growth reached 560,000 homes in 1973.” P.36 The actual total was 579,940 new ‘mobile homes’ shipped.
Danny, in the article titled ‘Industry Veteran Looks at the Early Years’, goes on to tell us:
“The industry’s unprecedented, if not almost unbelievable growth, was brought about, in large part, by a succession of industry giants such as F.L. Cappaert, James Redman, Edward Hussey, Sr., and Arthur J. Decio, (the latter) took the helm as chairman of MHMA (Mobile Homes Manufacturers Association).” P.36. FYI: Cappaert was inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame in 1975, James Redman in 1991, Ed Hussey, Sr. in 1995, and Art Decio in 1975.
Furthermore, and due to architectural and engineering firms having little interest in land development projects, which to them, represented an extension of ‘the trailer industry’,
“…the national association created its’ own in-house team of professional engineers and architects to prepare a turnkey operation which included, among other things, site planning, zoning, market and feasibility studies, design and engineering packets, and related cost-estimates which were provided to potential developers…at cost. With MHMA providing this service, all the developer had to do now, if he/she so chose, was to hire his or her own contractor to build the community and a local engineer to supervise the work.” P. 37
Danny Ghorbani was…”hired to serve as the assistant to Herbert Behrend, who headed this operation at MHMA. With an in-house staff of 12 people and on-call group of more than 20 professional consultants, our operation quickly was utilized by developers for more than 200,000 (rental home) sites in four years. The operation became so successful that regular architectural and engineering firms began getting heavily involved with mobile home community development, thus enabling the MHMA, after it achieved its’ goal, to dissolve the operation in 1971.” P.37. Interestingly, Danny was not inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame until 2004; and the late Herbert Behrend, his boss at MHMA, continues to await selection and induction – showing our industry’s system of honoring its’ pioneers is not yet perfect!
In my opinion, this early segment is an important part of manufactured housing and land lease community history. However, and for the most part, it’s already been lost to businessmen and women who’ve come aboard the industry and realty asset class since the turn of this century! So yes, there was a time in our history when housing manufacturers realized, to grow their businesses, they had to help ensure plenty of locations (i.e. communities) in which to install their product. Hence the heyday of (then) mobile home park development across the U.S.
And this ‘begs the question’; ‘Is there more that HUD-Code housing manufacturers should be, could be, doing today (like they did during the 1960s & 70s), to encourage raw land development into land lease communities containing rental homesites?
II.
WHEN COST & PRICE INCREASES = HIGHER STOCK PRICES
According to EducateMHC’s ‘MHShipment Volume for September & Stock Market Report for 3 November 2021’, the manufactured housing & land lease community Composite Stock Index or CSI, hit a new record high of $812.23; up from $762.97 the month before.
Recent communiques from one or another of the Big 3-C HUD-Code housing manufacturers informs customers (i.e. land lease communities, independent – street – MHRetailers, & possibly, ‘company stores’), how lumber, resin-based goods, steel and other metals, and imported products (delayed by supply chain issues enroute),lead to “base prices will be increasing in the December pricing period.”
The aforementioned CSI is comprised of the following corporate stock prices on 3 November, and other factors.
Skyline Champion @ $72.42
Cavco Industries @ $258.89
Legacy Housing Corporation @ $18.88
Nobility Homes @ $32.38
Berkshire Hathaway
Equity Lifestyle (REIT) @ $85.24
Sun Communities (REIT) @ $196.26
UMH Properties (REIT) @ $24.26
Flagship Communities @ $20.65
Manufactured Housing Properties @ $3.25
So post production sectors of the manufactured housing industry are stuck in the middle of a conundrum (i.e. ‘hard question’); that is, having to pay more for product (e.g. new HUD-Code homes), suffer long delivery waiting times, but not participate in increased profitability evidently enjoyed by housing manufacturers.
III.
Looking for Christmas gifts for colleagues and or on-site property managers in land lease communities? Purchase and send them either SWAN SONG (‘History of LLCommunities & Official List of Annual Shipment Totals from 1955 to present day’) or my autobiography, ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’. Order via www.educatemhc.com
George Allen, CPM™Emeritus, MHM™Master
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EduateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Get Ready for a Grand Thanksgiving Holiday with Friends & Family. If you’re talkative people you might want to get the described eBook ASAP, to prepare for those conversations! And, ever look back to ‘predictions of the future’, prepared and shared by folk who should know? Well Part II of this blog posting does that big time. Enjoy!
Hey, guess who’s buying copies of my autobiography, ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’? Real estate brokers, for clients to whom they just brokered a land lease community. And, folk using the book as Christmas presents. Just saying….www.educatemhc.com
I.
GET READY!
Don’t let your Thanksgiving dinner table conversations be shattered by angry political conversations. The Leadership Institute provides political communications training for conservatives. And now there’s an eBook with practical instructions for everyone:
https://secured.leadershipinstitute.org/holiday-conversations-ebook
First section of the eBook discusses the foundational mindset necessary to have fruitful conversations.
Second section considers how to prepare for a political discussion with family members who disagree with you.
Third section deals with the practical elements of a good argument and discusses some relevant examples.
I’ve already read the nine pages eBook and wish I’d had it in my possession ‘years ago’.
Happy Thanksgiving!
II.
THE FUTURE THAT IS NOW!
Ever look back at a formal ‘prediction of the future’ to see how it materialized over decades?
Well, on 23 November 1997 – that’s nearly 25 years ago, Walter R. Young, Jr., President & CEO of (then) Champion Enterprises, as well as MHI, delivered a speech to members of the Iowa MH Association celebrating their 50th anniversary. The talk was titled:
‘The Future of the Manufactured Housing Industry’. This speech was recorded for prosperity within the pages of the association’s 50th anniversary historical record. What follows here are direct quotes from Walter Young, followed by editorial comments penned in accords with contemporary (Year 2021) perspective.
“…since 1990, our industry has grown to the tune of 93 percent! The site-built industry…has grown just 30 percent. Today, our homes constitute 32 percent of the single-family housing market. Just seven years ago we held only 26 percent of the market. We are now a $23 billion industry.” P.65
*Yes, in 1990 we shipped 188,172+/- new HUD-Code homes; in 1997 we shipped 353,377+/- homes. We were ‘on a roll, but it didn’t last long.*1
“When I walked into Champion in 1990, they were filling out their Chapter 11 paperwork. They had lost $30 million in five years. Suppliers wouldn’t ship to us; banks wouldn’t talk to us. Our stock was overpriced at 50 cents a share.” P.66
*On 3 November 2021, Skyline Champion Corporation (SKY) stock price was $72.42 per share!
“It took a while for our industry to recognize customers simply wanted homes that looked like homes – not homes that looked like trailers. Our customers wanted the same creature comforts and the same level of quality site-built homes had to offer.” P.66
*As it turned out, our industry designed and shipped many Developer Series homes (a.k.a. ‘big box = big bucks’) homes during 1997 & 98; until ‘easy access to chattel capital’ ended at the turn of the century. And it took until 2018 before the CrossMod design was ready for market.
“At Champion, our customers are not (sic) longer limited to the two extremes of either ‘Generation X’ or the ‘AARP set.” P.66 (Which is to say ‘newly wed & nearly dead’).
*Generation Y (‘Gen Y’) ‘millennials’ are our customers now, during 2021. They’ll soon be followed by Generation Z (‘GenZ’) ‘zoomers’ – the children of Generation X folk from way back in Walt Young’s day. Hmm. Ever wonder what comes after Gen X, Y, & Z?
“Manufacturers have also changed. Although the industry has doubled in size, the number of manufacturers has decreased. In fact, at the end of 1995, the top four manufacturers in our industry held 50 percent of the (national) market.” P.67
*Today’s manufactured housing industry is less than one third the size it was in 1997 (i.e. 1997 = 353,377+/- & 2020 = 94,390 new homes shipped), with the top three (or Big 3-C) HUD-Code housing manufacturers (i.e. Clayton, Cavco, Skyline/Champion) garnering a whopping 82+ percent of national market share – upon the acquisition of Commodore Homes by Cavco Industries during 2021. Pareto’s Law: 80% of production from 20% of the participants.
“We’ve seen Centex purchase Cavco. Pulte has been using manufactured housing in several of its developments, and just recently, opened a retail center. And, Zaring has begun retailing.” P.67
*Three of these four firms have passed from the HUD-Code housing scene….More to follow?
“We’ve seen community ownership change hands from ‘Mom & Pop’ parks to corporations and real estate investment trusts or REITs. Four REITs continue to grow in size through aggressive acquisition and consolidation. Chateau Communities, for example, now manages 43,000 spaces! All four REITs manage over 100,000 spaces.” P.67
*Nope. Chateau Communities is long gone, having sold out to Hometown America in 2003. And yes, the four REITs continue to grow in size, from the 88,450 rental homesites owned/operated in 1994, to 300,566 rental homesites today during year 2020. Unfortunately, no more ALLEN REPORTs ‘keeping score’ from year to year.
“Let’s do some crystal ball gazing….” P.67 Here’s what Walt predicted in 1997.
“In 10 years I see factory-built housing supplying 50 percent of our nation’s new housing. If we do our job, we can improve America’s home ownership from 65% to 70% in 10 years.” P.68
*Not without financing! Today we’re lucky if we’re supplying five percent of U.S.housing starts.
“Our homes will continue to evolve dramatically. Multi-sections may grow to over two-thirds of our mix.” P.68
*Nope! Constant vacillation balances between 45 & 55 %es; singlesection & multisection.
“The financing and zoning issues that plagued us in the past will become faint memories. Fannie Me and Freddie Mac will be common names in the industry.” P.68
*No & Yes! Financing and zoning issues continue to plague our industry. And yes, the two GSEs have become commonplace, of sorts, but have not delivered chattel $ via their Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) plans. But ‘affordability’ is rumored to be a much higher priority during year 2022.
“…consolidation may well change the face of the retail business as we know it today. There will be independents out there. But, we predict independents will make up a much smaller piece of the retail mix in even the next three years.” P.68
*Boy, Walt was right on this one! Shortly after the turn of the century, 10,000+/- independent (street) MHRetailers and company stores went out of business when the industry lost its’ easy access to chattel capital. However, that slack was subsequently taken up by the marketing and sale of Community Series Homes (‘CSH’) on-site in land lease communities, beginning in 2009.
“We at MHI are attacking this installation issue head on. With a small group representing all aspects of the industry, we are developing some creative approaches that will economically motivate all of us to solve this consumer issue. We must solve this issue ourselves, for no one else can.” P.69
*13 years after that line was penned and stated by Walt Young, the Frost Free Foundation (‘FFF’) system appeared (2010); a.k.a. ‘Alternative Shallow Frost Protected Foundation Design for Manufactured Homes’. This was a collaborative effort among George Porter, Hayman engineering, and the Systems Building Research Alliance (‘SBRA’). Initially approved by HUD, for use with manufactured homes in land lease communities, only rarely is it mentioned or used. So, in this industry observer’s opinion, the installation issue remains unsolved to this day!
“As we look to the 21st century, all of us need to work to further promote the image of our industry. Together, we need to educate consumers about the evolution of our homes, our quality standards, the many benefits of manufactured housing, and the financing options available.” P.69.
*Well, this is certainly one industry goal articulated, more than two decades ago, that remains valid (unfulfilled) to this day. There is no formal, funded, national image-improvement program in effect now, just as there wasn’t way back in 1997. .
“…we want to establish a secondary market with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for personal property manufactured home loans.” P.70
Yet another 24 – 25 year prediction still awaiting fulfillment!
End Notes.
1. Why the +/- notation after shipment totals? Acknowledgement of the differences in reporting this shipment data by the Institute of Building & Technology Safety (‘IBTS’), HUD, & MHAARR, versus MHI.
Perspective. Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD0HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Difficult to believe this past week could be any more full of MH events than it was – but it was! Part I reviews the hectic schedule. Part II? We have the unique opportunity, right now, to correct a decades-long ‘wrong’, where the reporting of new HUD-Code housing shipments is concerned. We can only hope our salaried and elected national leaders pay attention NOW, and put us, once and for all, on a united path of performance reporting!
Part III. A decade or two ago we didn’t even know what computer ‘hacking’ was; now it’s a concern virtually every one of us has, at home on PCs & laptops, and at work.
I.
MEA CULPA! (MY FAULT!)
Unintentional omission! Last week, in blog #663, I described this past week (8-15 November) as a BONUS WEEK. Why? Because MHI/NCC Leadership Forum would occur in downtown Chicago; the 246th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps would be celebrated on 10 November; Veterans Day on the 11th; Iowa MHAssociation’s Joe Kelly’s retirement celebration on the 14th; and, the IMHA annual meeting in Cedar Rapids on the 15th. So, what did I miss?
Rent Manager’s annual conference for 600+/- of the firm’s clients, at the Cheyenne Mountain Hotel in Colorado Springs, CO. In my opinion, this singular event rivals every other national venue that occurs for the manufactured housing industry and land lease community owners/operators! I’m invited to be a presenter every couple years, and count it a privilege to address their august audience. The Rent Manager event occurs 9-11 November, so certainly fits well within the BONUS WEEK.
Another unintentional oversight had to do with the celebration of Veterans Day. To commemorate that holiday, the November issue of ‘The Allen Confidential’ newsletter featured a firsthand story penned by freelance installation consultant George Porter, describing his Tet experience in Vietnam during 1968. This is a never before published story deserving to be read by everyone in the manufactured housing industry. And you may recall, George was inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame this past August.
II.
LIGHTNING STRIKES THRICE!
For the third month in a row, all major reporting agencies throughout the manufactured housing industry announced the same volume of new HUD-Code homes shipped – this time, during the month of September. The total number shipped? 9,025. So says the IBTS, HUD, MHI, MHARR, & EducateMHC!
Now that’s ‘saying something’, and is what should occur every month of the year without exception. ‘Why’ the same volume reported three months in a row? Because there were none, zero, Destination Pending units reported by HUD-Code factories. When I asked ‘why’, the opinion was that with production so far behind (i.e. six to 12 months out), due to covid and supply chain problems, every home was shipped to a specific destination!
Two parting thoughts:
First. Since we’ve now demonstrated to federal legislators and regulators our industry can indeed be consistent in how we count and report HUD-Code home shipments (i.e. ‘keeping score’), why not make it standard practice going forward? In a word, STOP adjusting the IBTS monthly total, by deducting number of Destination Pending units one month, only to add them back to the total next month. Right now is our unique and historic opportunity to do this right! Let’s not purposely besmirch our credibility going forward, by resuming the Destination Pending (-&+) numbers game!
And then there’s the quietly spoken, but increasing belief, among post production segments of the manufactured housing industry, that ‘record profits’ reported by HUD-Code housing manufacturers are being achieved ‘on the backs’ of wholesale purchasers of new homes, who’re enduring lengthy delivery times, as well as exorbitant, repetitious price increases. Or as one reader put it in a recent email message to me: ‘How many companies are using the supply chain excuse to gouge their customers?” If true, and I hope it isn’t, perhaps time is fast approaching for forensic accounting to ascertain what is really going on these days.
III.
HACK TRACKS!
According to the International Data Group (‘ID’), there are at least 15 signs one has been hacked:
1. You get a ransomware message
2. You get a fake antivirus message
3. You have unwanted browser toolbars
4. Your internet searches are redirected
5. You see frequent, random popups
6. Your friends receive social media invitations from you that you didn’t send
7. Your online password isn’t working
8. You observe unexpected software installs
9. Your mouse moves between programs and makes selections
10. Antimalware, Task Manger or Registry Editor is disabled.
11. Your online account is missing money
12. You’ve been notified by someone you’ve been hacked
13. Confidential data has been leaked
14. Your credentials are in a password dump
15. You observe strange network traffic patterns.
As you read through this lengthy list of signs or hack tracks, it’s difficult to not be discouraged with the whole online communication and social experience. But ‘being forewarned is being forearmed’!
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspectivev.; Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Moto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend an MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Another potpourri of manufactured housing and land lease community-related news, stories, and opportunities! Hopefully I’ll see you at one or another of the events occurring between 8 & 10 November. And I hope you’ll position yourself for an entertaining and interesting ‘read’ during the weeks and months ahead. GFA
I.
BONUS WEEK
Leadership Forum, 246th USMC Birthday, Veterans Day, & Joe Kelly’s Retirement
There’ll be a lot happening between 8 & 15 November! How much will you be involved?
8 – 10 November will see land lease community portfolio owners/operators convening for the National Communities Council division of MHI’s Leadership Forum in downtown Chicago. For more information re: schedule and to register, visit MHI’s website. Seminars and networking sessions are planned throughout the three day NCC program.
In my opinion, what should be covered will not likely even get ‘a mention’. Last week’s blog posting (#662) described the pressing, contemporary need for a ‘National Spokesperson for Land Lease Community Owners’! As you likely know, with my retirement (12 August 2021), there no longer is any individual researching (e.g. ALLEN REPORT, etc.) and publicly speaking out, in print (The Allen Confidential newsletter) and otherwise, in behalf of the real estate asset class – certainly no one with ‘skin in the game’ as a bona fide owner/operator of land lease communities!
If you’re reading this and planning to attend the MHI/NCC Leadership Forum, why not make it a point to ask what individual(s) are willing to take on the public face role as capable, experienced, and motivated Spokesperson? As I see it, there are but two opportunities for this to occur: MHI/NCC to formally designate such a national spokesperson; and/or the SECO planners to do so.
10 November marks the 246th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps! Not of much consequence to non-Marines, but a near hallowed holiday for those who’ve served as U.S. Marines, in and out of combat, during past decades. I already plan to be in touch with Marines with whom I’ve served, between March 1964 when I enlisted, to 1969 in the Ashau Valley in the Republic of Vietnam, to 1991 when in Honduras during Operation Desert Storm. I’ll also be wishing my Marine grandson Travis a ‘Happy Birthday’! Do the same to any U.S. Marines you know!
11 November. Veterans Day, a.k.a. Armistice Day & Remembrance Day (in other countries) will be celebrated promptly at 11AM on 11 November, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA. For anyone who’s not attended this somber ceremony, it is quite ‘moving’ for everyone present. My brother Mark and I’ve attended together, and talk about the experience to this day.
14 November. Retirement Celebration in honor of Joe Kelly, longtime executive director of the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association. Spencer Roane, MHM, and I plan to travel from Atlanta and Indianapolis to participate in that gala send-off. At the very least, mail Joe Kelly a Happy Retirement card. Send it to Andy Conlin c/o IMHA, 1400 Dean Ave., Des Moines, IA. 50316.
Speaking of retired state association execs. Did you hear? The New York Housing Association recently honored former executive, Nancy Geer, by naming their new office building in her honor! Like Ross (WI), Tim (MI), and Betty (KY), Nancy has officially retired. Miss them all!
15 November. Annual meeting of the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association, to be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Interesting program planned. Visit the association’s website for more info. Hope to see you there.
II.
NO LOUISVILLE MH SHOW!
You’ve probably already heard the surprising and sad news. But it makes sense. HUD-Code housing manufacturers are reluctant (i.e. ‘refusing’) to send their labor force to Louisville to be exposed to the coronavirus. And, why display new homes when one’s delivery times are already six to 12 months out, thanks to supply chain breakdown and other reasons. So, while there won’t be a manufactured housing show in KY during year 2022, know there are plans afoot to bring prospective Midwest homebuyers (i.e. independent ‘street’ MHRetailers and land lease community owners/operators) to northern Indiana for factory visits and maybe marketing/sales education at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. As far as we know at present, the Biloxi MHShow is still on track for this spring.
Continue to read this weekly blog posting for further details.
LAST CALL!
Only a few copies of the autobiography, ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’ remain in inventory. Once these are sold and shipped, the five month long marketing window will close. There are no present plans for a subsequent printing. So, if desiring to buy a copy of my Adventures of a Lifetime, visit the website www.educatemhc.com
Explanation of the title? ‘SmittyAlpha6’ was my radio call sign while a USMC company commander in Vietnam during 1968 & 69. ‘MHMaven’ is an Allenism (i.e. poetic license) for ‘manufactured housing maven’ (‘expert’). Book is chockfull of photographs and short stories, in addition to the biographical narrative, describing a formative childhood, 55+ year romance, war stories, and yes, key parts of a 40 year career in professional property management and land lease community ownership.
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: I have long attempted to not make the content of this weekly blog personal in nature. Well, this week’s focus runs counter to that goal. Why? Because, in my opinion, come January 2022, there will no longer be an independent third party Spokesperson holding forth, publicly, in behalf of land lease community owners/operators nationwide! Lest you think I exaggerate, right now name one person who routinely researches and reports on the realty asset class in print, online, and in person? Here’re the details of where we are today….
I.
NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON FOR LAND LEASE COMMUNITY OWNERS?
And who might that be going forward? It really hasn’t been an issue until now. Because, up until the end of December this year, we’ve had folk filling that role via weekly blogs, a monthly subscriber-supported newsletter, national networking roundtables or conferences, the ALLEN REPORT, and op/ed columns in various trade publications, e.g. ‘Manufactured Home Mechandiser’, the ‘Journal’, and now MHInsider magazine. And of course there were occasional communiques from MHI, where land lease communities were concerned, presumably from its’ National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division.
But much of that will soon be changing, albeit ‘going away’! Then ‘who’ will land lease community owners/operators look to for timely news reporting, regulatory concerns, issue resolution, professional property management training & certification, and networking opportunities? Here’re the possibilities as I see them today.
Frankly, first and foremost, spokesperson responsibilities and services should – in my opinion – be coming from NCC leadership, but that’s not the case today. Some illustrations: What salaried MHI staffer routinely functions and speaks in behalf of the realty asset class? No one since Jim Ayotte, CAE, and a couple of his successors, post 1996 founding of the council. And this. During a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing (21 October 2021) titled, ‘How Private Equity Landlords are Changing the Housing Market’, MHI representatives (not the NCC) felt they were successful “…ensuring the conversation was not disparaging to the land-lease community model overall.” OK, but when one reads their Statement for the Record, here’s a sampling of what they told the Senators:
• Land-lease manufactured housing communities, manufactured housing communities, and land-lease communities. These trade terms were used interchangeably throughout the presentation. Confusion anyone? Among journalists today, it’s land lease communities!
• Time and again, ‘research’ and ‘studies’ were cited to buttress claims about ‘rent payment increases’, ’31 percent of new manufactured homes placed in land-lease communities’, and ‘why residents choose professionally managed land-lease manufactured housing communities’, and more – with NO substantiation of claims!
• Much ado is made about professional property management training and certification of community managers, but only MHEI’s ACM program is identified. NO mention of IREM’s Certified Property Manager (‘CPM’) designation, or EducateMHC’s Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) program, or California’s statewide program. Too narrow a focus for a truly effective national spokesperson for the realty asset class.
• At one point MHI commissioned research, representative of 1,000 communities, to cite statistics relative to CapEx spending. Impressive number until one realizes, according to the 32nd annual ALLEN REPORT, just the top three portfolio owners/operators profiled, own and or fee-manage 1,103 communities! So 1,000 communities is not a representative sampling of 55,000+/- such properties nationwide.
Point? Again, logic would suggest MHI and its’ NCC division is/are natural national spokespersons for land-lease communities. But, again – in my opinion – without a salaried staffer heading the NCC, one that ‘knows’ the community business and is capable of communicating it in an appropriate, accurate, and substantiated fashion, they have no business posing as national spokesperson. Perhaps this matter can be addressed at the NCC Leadership Forum in downtown Chicago during early November? Anyone listening out there?
Then there’re the land lease community owners/operators in Georgia who, 11 years ago, launched what today is widely known and respected as the SECO conference. From the very beginning there was but one audience – land lease community owners; initially in the Southeast, but today, nationwide, attracting 500+/- businessmen and women. National spokesperson for the realty asset class? Perhaps, if they hire an executive director, and start communicating regularly and digitally with their audience nationwide.
Now, just about everyone else has their ‘interest in two pockets’: manufactured housing production/sale and land lease communities. Think DATACOMP with its’ MHVillage and MHInsider magazine. Yes, they research MH and community statistics on a routine basis, but to the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a land lease community owner/operators on staff – for handling the finer points and nuances of property ownership and management.
And then there’s manufacturedhomes.com, a fairly new online entry into the fray. It is primarily focused on manufactured housing production/sales – related topics. Any land lease community firsthand influences on their staff?
That brings us to the end of this discussion today. Yes, land lease community owners/operators need and deserve an effective national spokesperson (organization) functioning in their behalf. Looking back almost 30 years, the need for focused national advocacy, via a spokesperson or organization, is why 19 community owners gathered in Indianapolis, IN., on 31 August 1993. Three years later, we had the NCC in place at MHI – with a salaried staffer at the helm. That is not the case today. And given my recent retirement, we will not have an independent third party spokesperson producing a newsletter, networking roundtable, or ALLEN REPORT, in behalf of land lease communities, going into year 2022.
What are we going to do about that?
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Quite a mix of topics today! First, some important and timely information relative to DOE regs that threaten the intrinsic affordability of HUD-code manufactured housing. Then a personal pique relative to how ‘others’ attempt to affect our daily lives. And finally, a personal lamenting of the passing of more than three decades of dedicated work in behalf of land lease community owners/operators nationwide and in Canada.
I.
AGAIN, ‘DOE REGS MUST BE DOA!’
That’s the ‘short title’ to Part I of this week’s blog posting. Here’s the ‘long title’, so to speak, quoting from the Manufactured Housing Institute’s (‘MH’) latest newsletter to members:
“The Department of Energy (‘DOE’) has published a proposed rulemaking on energy standards for manufactured housing which, if finalized, will eliminate manufactured housing as an affordable housing option for hundreds of thousands of potential homebuyers.”
Did you get that? MHI’s communique goes on to say: “The current DOE proposal is fundamentally flawed and must be completely rewritten to ensure manufactured home remain an available option for American families.”
So, YOU on board with ensuring the DOE regs are ‘DEAD ON ARRIVAL (‘DOA’)?’ If so, YOU must contact MHI’s Policy Department via (703) 558-0675 and ask how YOU can participate in their Call to Action program right now! I’ve already done so.
LATE BREAKING NEWS! Deadline has been extended from 25 October to 26 November 2020! That gives YOU and ME more time to submit written comments relative to DOE’s Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (‘SNPR’) concerning manufactured housing energy conservation standards.
II.
YOU WOKE?
What do the following words have in common?
America, Mute, Freshman, Straight, Depressed. War. Policeman. Handicapped parking, Mr & Mrs., You guys. Long time, no see. Rule of thumb. Hold down the fort.
According to FIRE, a.k.a. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, “they’re all included in a list of ‘words to avoid’, compiled by Colorado State University’s Inclusive Communications Task force.” And while not banned, per se, they’re words faculty and students are encouraged to avoid, in favor or words that make everyone feel welcomed and ‘safe’.
Don’t know about you, but I’m increasingly pissed off at the wokeness that seems to be occurring these days, especially where the use of personal pronouns is concerned. While completing an application, for something, recently, I was asked to indicate what pronouns I identified with, not whether I was a male or female.
III.
DO YOU REALIZE?
The date, 1 January 2022, is fast approaching, when there will be no annual update to the ALLEN REPORT. We did not survey the 500+/- known owners/operators of land lease community property portfolios this fall, so I have no statistics to compile and write into what would have been the 33rd annual ALLEN REPORT. What does ‘having no updated ALLEN REPORT’ mean to you and me?
• No historical perspective of contemporary land lease communities. In the 32nd edition we identified the seven types of shelter now commonplace on rental homesites.
• No historical perspective relative to HUD-Code housing shipments during the past 50 years, and how our industry sullies its’ ‘cred’ by reporting two totals each month.
• Overall total of rental homesite counts among reporting portfolios, and number per portfolio; as well as number of land lease communities owned and or fee-managed.
• Volume of rental homes and contract sales per property portfolio.
• Average national physical occupancy among reporting property portfolios.
• Average national Operating Expense Ratio (‘OER’) among reporting portfolios.
• Status of professional property management certification among portfolios.
• Growth in rental homesite count to date (i.e. between 1994 & 2020) among all real estate investment trusts (‘REITs’) during the past 26 years. Who will tell you now?
• And in the 32nd ALLEN REPORT, a list of a dozen Evergreen Issues (i.e. ‘always present, always important!’) re manufactured housing and land lease communities.
That’s pretty much what’s ‘leaving the body of land lease community knowledge and statistics’ researched and faithfully reported during the past 32 years. Hopefully someone will come along, in time, and shoulder the mantle (‘covering’) of this unique income-producing property type and popular real estate asset class.
After all, and to date, the ALLEN REPORT opened the door to annual Networking Roundtables, two monthly subscriber-supported newsletters, a weekly blog, the Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) professional property management training and certification program, as well as a host of Resource Documents such as the National Registry of ALL Lenders, and directories of freelance consultants, MH factories, national and state trade associations, as well as GSE & NGO organizations influencing manufactured housing and the asset class.
GFA
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘u Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Just realized I’ve been penning this weekly blog posting for nearly 13 years! It started back in the latter days of the ‘Manufactured Home Merchandiser’ magazine (2008), the year before manufactured housing shipments hit rock bottom, the nadir year being 2009. Anyway, here’s the news of today (Part I), tomorrow (Part II), and maybe/maybe not another book for you to read sometime in the future. GFA
I
NEW LEASE REQUIREMENTS FOR
LAND LEASE COMMUNITIES
On September 13, 2021, Freddie Mac issued a Press Release pertaining to its’ financing of land lease community purchases. Per that Press Release, the GSE is implementing eight tenant protections as a condition on all future transactions involving the GSE.
1. Lease length & Ability to Not Renew. One year renewable lease term, unless there is ‘good cause’ for non-renewal.
2. Rental Increase Notice Period. 30 day written notice of rent increases.
3. Grace Period for Rental Payments. Five-day grace period for rent payments and the right to cure defaults on rent payments.
4. Tenant’s Sale of Home Without Relocation. Right to sell home to a buyer that qualifies as a new tenant in community, without having to first relocate it out of the community.
5. Tenant’s Sale of Home after Eviction. Right to sell home in place within 30 days after eviction by the community owner.
6. Tenant’s Right to Sublease. Right to sublease, or assign the site lease, for the unexpired term to the new buyer of the tenant’s home without any unreasonable restraint, so long as buyer/sublessee qualifies as a tenant within the community.
7. Tenant ‘For Sale’ Signs. Right to post home ‘For Sale’ signs that comply with community rules and regulations.
8. Notice of Planned Community Sales. Right to receive at least 60-days notice of planned sale or closure of the community.
Of course these eight tenant protections will be required only when a land lease community mortgage is being guaranteed by this GSE.
II.
Four Ways Runaway Housing Prices Might Affect the U.S. Economy
In a communique from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, Don Layton writes of an “astounding increase of 19.2 percent” in the Housing Index during the past 12 months, leading him to observe these have become nothing less than ‘runaway home prices’. Then he asks, more than rhetorically, is the impact such runaway home prices will likely have on our national economy. He cites four; the first one positive, the next three not so much so.
1. Helping GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to grow. “Household consumption is the biggest source of GDP, and is influenced not just by the wages and other income of the typical family but by the household’s net worth. This is known as the wealth effect….” Given the meteoric rise in the Housing Index, this translates into more than $50,000 per household – increasing their willingness and capability to spend more if they wish to do so.
2. Making income inequality noticeably worse. Especially between the homeowner population, as the Housing Index continues to increase, and the35 percent of American families who rent their residences and do not enjoy the residual benefits of this rise in wealth. “Thus, ‘have’ and ‘have not’ is increasingly becoming synonymous whether a family owns their home or not.”
3. Pushing down the homeownership rate. “…a family looking to buy their first home is suffering a major decline in purchasing power.” This has much to do with the 22.5 percent increase in house prices since the pandemic began (offset somewhat by lower mortgage rates), leading to a net increase of more than 10 percent. This will especially impact the first time would be homebuyers.
4. Inadvertently causing reports of inflation to be misleadingly low. This is a complicated, difficult to explain, phenomenon – having to do with the manner in which the federal government computes inflation rate, along with the aforementioned increasing Housing Index coupled with decreasing mortgage interest rates. Suffice it to say here that the present five percent inflation rate (per U.S. government) may or may not come down if/when the supply chain issues are resolved.
It behooves each and every one of us to be alert to news and accounting reports that address one or more of the preceding four potential impacts on our national economy and lifestyle.
III.
‘SMITTYALPHA6’, A NOT SO SMALL TALE
By now, most of my friends – in and out of business environs, and family, are familiar with the book title: ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’. Writing that collection of memoirs (i.e. ‘short stories’) into my autobiography was a project decades in the making. And if I have a single thing to be grateful for, where the pandemic is concerned, it’s having 400 days of self-quarantine with Carolyn, during which we read books, did jigsaw puzzles together, and I finally put pen to paper. Now I’m trying to self-motivate to begin reading through, by coincidence, 400 letters I penned and sent to Carolyn during years 1968 & 69. I know there are more ‘SmittyAlpha6’ (i.e. my radio call sign while a company commander in Vietnam) tales contained in there to, once again, share with family and friends. But I also fear some of the memories they might stimulate….Guess I’ll have to wait and see.
Point in telling you all this? If reading this 200 page non-fiction book interests you, make it a point to order it soon. Only a few dozen copies remain from the initial printing and there are no plans, at this point, to do a second printing. So, to order, visit www.educatemhc.com
George Allen, CPM, MHM
Educatemhc
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: This week’s blog posting was exciting (Part I), disturbing (Part II), and nostalgic (Part III) to pen. You’ll see ‘why’ as you read on through. GFA
I.
LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE!
Institute for Building Safety & Technology (‘IBTS’), along with HUD, MHI, MHARR, and EducateMHC, all reported – as they had in July, the same HUD-Code new home shipment total for the month of August, when there were no ‘Destination Pending’ units to ‘muddy the statistical waters’, as has usually been the case for decades.
This is noteworthy, being a second lightning strike – so to speak, because the manufactured housing industry’s long standing penchant for reporting ‘two different new home shipment totals every month’ (due to presence of ‘Destination Pending’ units at reporting plants) has done nothing to improve its ‘cred’ (i.e. credibility) among Washington policy makers, business regulators, and other influential parties.
Bottom line? How nice it would be to continue, from this point on, to boldly publicize ‘one new MH shipment total’ every month of the year! Will this occur? Let’s wait and see. Sorry to say; but I, for one, am not holding my breath.
II.
DOE ENERGY REGS MUST BE DOA!
Did you know? Quoting here from MHI’s newsletter dated 1 October 2-021:
“The Department of Energy (‘DOE’) has published a proposed rulemaking on energy standards for manufactured housing which, if finalized, will eliminate manufactured housing as an affordable housing option for hundreds of thousands of potential homebuyers. The current DOE proposal is fundamentally flawed and must be completely rewritten to ensure manufactured homes remain an available option for American families.”
You read a similar, albeit much longer similar condemnation of proposed DOE energy regs, here last week, penned by Mark Weiss in behalf of the MHARR.
MHI has already launched a Call to Action about this important matter. Member or not, reach out to MHI, via their website, and offer to send a letter opposing the DOE rule. I’ve already done so! The DOE rule must be DOA (‘Dead on Arrival’) where manufactured housing is concerned.
And hey, there’s more to come. When given an opportunity to make further public comment, and or attend a hearing on this matter, in Washington, DC. do so. I did last time around, in 2014, and consider the experience a top personal learning experience during my career.
III.
‘CHANGING OF THE GUARD’
It happens slowly and quietly, as matters about personal and professional retirement usually do. As I look back, it kinda began – this time around, with the slow-paced retirement (i.e. extending over a year period of time) of Danny Ghorbani, 1985 founder and decades long leader of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’). Today, Mark Weiss fills the Washington Watchdog’s shoes.
Yes, there is an ongoing, perennial, ‘changing of the guard’, so to speak, taking place these days. And the names that follow just ‘scratch the surface’ of who should be listed.
Then came Gary McDaniel, intrepid leader of ROC Properties (No, not ‘resident owned communities’!), REIT – Chateau Communities, and finally, YES! Communities. (I may have got Properties & Communities labels reversed; could never keep them straight – and I believe there was a firm in there between Chateau & YES!). In any event, Gary’s pretty much disappeared from the MH scene, in much the same fashion as Barry McCabe, former Hometown America property management executive, a decade or so earlier.
While I just know I’m going to unintentionally miss a few – or many, recent retirees during this recitation; how can I be faulted when so many go so quietly. Examples. Greg Johnloz, CPM, out of AZ; Win Moses, community owner, Indiana state legislator, and mayor of Ft. Wayne, IN; William Carr, consultant and husband of the late Judy Carr in Iowa.
Then there’s a raft of men and women who tell you they’re retired, but continue to show up at MH industry events, etc. (Like me). Here thinking of Lou Vela, the $ guy; Joe Stegmayer of AZ and former chairman of MHI, the RV/MH Hall of Fame, and Cavco Industries. Betty Whittaker of KMHI was a surprise retiree – to me anyway, so now I follow her on Facebook. And early this year, we learned of Cary Monroe and John Jacobs, both community loan originators, taking down their shingles. And George Porter, recent RV/MH Hall of Fame inductee, will likely disagree with me listing him as a recent retiree. But as a veteran combat pilot from the Vietnam era, he outa be retired! Maybe someday, with his permission, I’ll share his exciting short story, ‘My Tet Offensive, January 1968’ here or in MHInsider magazine.
A couple local ‘friends in the business’, Sharon Niccum (multi-community owner and appraiser), and Ron Farren, both in Indiana, have reduced their business footprint of late – though Ron has acquired a community or two ‘for fun’ (My comment, not his). And now we learn of Joe Kelley, executive of the Iowa MH Association retiring during November 2021 – that’s next month! Spencer Roane, MHM, and I plan to attend his send-off, to ensure he receives the praise and accolades he deserves after all these years in the saddle. And I’m unsure what to pen about Adriane DeRose, MHM, also here in Indiana. She recently sold her family’s land lease community. If she retires, it will mark the end of an era started many decades ago by ‘mobile home’ manufacturer, the late Robert DeRose (He was inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame in 1988).
OK, I know, there are many more individuals out there who deserve their due in this week’s blog posting. And I’m sorry I overlooked you. Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com
I’ll close this out with some musings from Greg Johnloz, CPM, mentioned earlier. “Semi-retirement is fun, you get to pick and choose what you want to do with a minimum of actual responsibility. You will find you are just as busy as you ever were, but enjoying it more.”
And that’s pretty much how I’ve found retirement to be. Plus, in my case, I got to author my autobiography, ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’. Most of the first printing are in readers’ hands, but if you’d like a copy – and I’m told it is a Good Read, visit www.educatemhc
Uh Oh! I haven’t even posted this blog and already I’m thinking of friends not included. Like Ross Kinzler of WI, now AZ; former community owner Jim Reitzner, also of WI; and the most visionary guy I’ve known in MH and land lease communities, Chuck Fanaro of SaddleBrook Farms and HI-Tech Housing reknown. Now my subconscious will start kicking in….
George Allen, CPM, MHM EducateMHC
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Today’s blog is chockfull of timely and interesting information. Are you following what’s going on in Washington, DC. about DOE’s proposed energy standards for manufactured housing? How ‘bout the extremely high prices being paid these days for institution investment grade land lease communities? And finally, an advance look at the happenings at SECO21. Enjoy!
I.
WASHINGTON WATCHDOG BARKS AGAIN!
New DOE Regs Sacrifice Housing Affordability on the Altar of Climate Change.
That title and subtitle tell us, as manufactured housing businessmen and women, a lot!
First off; the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’) in its’ 15 September 2021 letter to the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (‘MHCC’), once again, faithfully informs ‘everyone’ of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (‘DOE’) rulemaking relative to ‘Energy Conservation Standards for Manufactured Housing’. That’s what a ‘watchdog’ does! But more on that a little later….
AND, while jumping a bit ahead of myself here, this line – about ‘sacrifice housing affordability’ was taken from a short article penned by Judge Block, in the City-Journal (Iowa) on 14 September 2021. It puts this timely matter into clear perspective: “New (energy) regulations sacrifice housing affordability on the altar of climate change.” (I.e. More expensive energy-sophisticated houses = far fewer buyers!) So, how’s this all come together to this end? Starting with Mark Weiss, writing in the aforementioned ‘letter’, recommends the MHCC…
“…reject DOE’s proposed manufactured housing energy standards rule, in its’ current form, as a baseless, unnecessary attack on the availability and affordability of manufactured housing, which will…exclude vast numbers of lower and moderate-income Americans from the American Dream of homeownership in order to satisfy the ideological predilections of ‘climate’ extremists.” Why?
“…HUD-regulated manufactured homes, under existing HUD manufactured housing standards for energy and energy-related functions, already offer occupants lower monthly energy costs than other types of homes….” (And all sorts of energy savings examples are cited following)
AND, the new DOE regs would all but price manufactured housing out of the affordable housing market. How so? “An NAHB analysis presented…in 2014, demonstrated that for every $1,000.00 increase in the purchase price of a single-section manufactured home, 347,901 households (would be) excluded from the market.” A $1,000.00 increase in a multisection manufactured home would see 315,385 households excluded from the market. And these margins become much worse when extrapolating these stats under the full, unmodified 2021 energy savings proposal. To which Judge Block comments: “This amounts to pulling out the rung at the very bottom of the housing market.”
But that isn’t all! Judge Block, rehearsing some of the same arguments just cited, drives right to this point: “Furthermore, the poor tend to have a much greater need for money today than for money tomorrow; energy savings accruing decades from now are of no use if you go bankrupt this year.”
So there you have it. A ‘bark’ from our ‘watchdog’, and colorful concurrence from Judge Block.
A personal recollection. I attended the last go-round with DOE on their proposed energy standards. Know what (negatively) impressed me the most? How there were no businessmen and women (except yours truly) in the room at the time. In other words, once again, bureaucrats were planning the fate (‘eventual demise’?) of our industry. Hardly anyone in the room had profit motive in mind; rather were espousing social activist (i.e. energy conservation) goals and mandates at any cost! And here we go again – or so it seems.
II.
HOTTEST SELLER’S MARKET IN LLCOMMUNITY HISTORY!
“Investment Property Group has acquired Skandia Mobile Country Club for $58,000,000 from the Coulter Family Trust. On 17 acres in Huntington Beach, CA., the property has 167 mobile home units.”
Hmm. That pencils out to a whopping $347,305 value per rental homesite in the land lease community. Remember a scant few years ago when a similarly –sized land lease community in Eugene, OR, sold for $100,000 per rental homesite – and everyone was aghast?
And the average monthly rent, in this property’s county, according to Yardi, is $2,164.00
So, what happens now? Since longtime, experienced owners/operators have acquired this land lease community – hopefully, little to no immediate changes. However, if the ‘buyer’ had been one of the notorious ‘outside the industry’ investment groups plaguing the realty asset class of late, residents could expect immediate and substantial site rent increases, sub metering of utilities (if not already in place), reduction of amenities, and introduction of new fees; predatory landlord features designed to boost the property’s cash flow in order to pay cumbersome debt and cover operating expenses.
III.
SECO21
Have you been participating in the 11th annual SECO conference this week? If so, you know how very well it’s been going.
Spencer Roane, MHM, interviewed me for 45 minutes Tuesday afternoon. Boy, did we cover a variety of timely, sometimes Evergreen, topics, e.g. industry and realty asset class consolidation, chattel capital for home-only loans, and much more. At the end of our session I offered everyone a ‘free’ copy of a speech outline I’d prepared, containing some of what Spencer and I discussed, but many additional subjects as well. So far, more than a dozen attendees have requested a copy. Do you want one? Simply ask via email: gfa7156@aol.com
We also talked about my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven. While this was authored as a summary of my Adventures of a Lifetime, it also contains helpful and interesting information about manufactured housing and land lease communities. If interested in learning more, and possibly ordering a copy (There really aren’t too many copies remaining in inventory), visit www.educatemhc.com
Wednesday afternoon (which hasn’t occurred as I pen these lines) will find me interviewing Sam Landy of UMH Properties (‘REIT’). Can hardly wait! Why? Because Sam, unlike the CEOs of other large land lease community property portfolios, has promised to share his firm’s proven operations formula for keeping their more than 24,000 rental homesites occupied and his homeowner/site lessees happy! So, hope you tuned in at 5PM Wednesday to hear Sam.
George Allen, CPM, MHM @ EducateMHC
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Follow up to last week’s blog message: CALL TO ACTION! Surprised by strong positive response, so here we go again! AND, since we’re talking about change these days, for the first time in public, here’re the changes I recommended, upon requests from peers, earlier this year.
I.
CALL TO ACTION – AGAIN!
Wow! More folk read, and now respond, to this weekly blog posting than ever before. So I’ll revisit the subject again this week.
What triggered responses to the CALL TO ACTION blog posting? Best I could tell, ‘reading between the lines’, so to speak, was this short paragraph from blog # 656:
“…I think the time has come for our national advocates; specifically, the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and its’ National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division; along with others, to once-and-for-all, address troublesome matters foisted on land lease communities by real estate investors (a.k.a. consolidators) from outside (& within) our realty asset class. There are at least two upcoming events, one virtual, and the other in-person (so far), where these matters would make for appropriate and timely topics for group presentation and discussion.”
Then I went on to describe the soon SECO 21 Conference, 27 September – 1 October. This annual ‘by owners for owners’ event, in its’ 11th year, expects to draw 600 attendees. For more info, visit secoconference2021.
To this I’ll simply add: I’m scheduled to present the annual State of the MHIndustry & LLCommunity Asset Class around Noon that day. Will do my best to leave time then to address this timely and critical matter if SECO attendees express their desire to do so.
Then I described how, “…from 8-10 November, MHI’s NCC division will host its annual Leadership Forum, billed as ‘The only strategic executive level event of the year.’ To be held in downtown Chicago. For more info, visit manufacturedhousing.org/events.” But don’t expect to find me there, as I have not been invited to be a presenter on any land lease community topic.
OK, I’ve now done what several of you (‘responders’) asked me to do; to revisit this CALL TO ACTION! And as I penned before; will be interesting to see/hear if our elected and salaried national leaders rise to this challenge of addressing contemporary and evergreen issues in our behalf. Doing so will send one message; not doing so will send just the opposite. Which will it be?
II.
AN MHI/NCC MAKEOVER
Very early this year, when I made my plans to retire known, I was approached by several executives from the manufacturing and community segments of our industry. They asked me to draft ‘Suggestions to Improve Manufactured Housing & Land Lease Community Matters at the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’)’ I did so, and here, for the first time in public, are those suggestions in three parts: Overall, Manufacturers Division, & NCC Division.
OVERALL
Debate and effect needed changes to manufacturer and NCC divisions with the goal of ensuring ‘equal voice (votes) and representation’ among all MHIndustry segments at MHI meetings.
Decide whether to expand focus of MHI from ‘just lobbying’ to include research and distribution of business-related statistics, and several specialized directories re: manufacturers, land lease community owners/operators, lenders. (Note. This statement is a precursor to the anticipated demise of the ALLEN REPORT and a dozen Resource Documents at the end of year 2021)
Make MHI Membership Directory (online) accessible to all inquirers.
MANUFACTURERS DIVISION
Divide manufacturers division into two distinct groups; one comprised of largest firms (e.g. Big 3-C firms), and other comprised of smaller, regional firms – with both groups having equal say and voting power.
Floor fee distribution. Perhaps less $ to MHI and more to state MH associations if/when they actively promote manufactured housing, e.g. as in the state of Michigan, and SECO Conference.
Demonstrate unity with IBST, HUD, MHARR & EducateMHC by reporting monthly MH shipment statistics in the same manner. (Note. This should be the easiest of all changes to effect)
NATIONAL COMMUNITIES COUNCIL (‘NCC’) DIVISION
Divide NCC division into two distinct groups; one comprised of property portfolio firms (i.e. minimum size of 500 rental homesites in one or more properties), the other comprised of sole proprietor and corporate owners with fewer than 500 rental homesites in one or more properties.
Overtly promote professional property management via training and certification, e.g. CPM, ACM, & MHM programs. (Note. Still my belief all on-site property managers should be MHMs; all regional and executive managers should be ACMs, and top executives should be Certified Property Managers under the auspices of IREM – and their firms designated as AMOs (Approved Management Organizations), again, by IREM).
Allow proxy voting during division’s annual meeting and election of officers.
Write NCC Code of Ethics into NCC bylaws and enforce same, especially where predatory landlord practices are concerned. (Note. Mimic how IREM handles violations of their Code of Ethics via committee and public mention in their trade publication).
Assign an MHI staffer with the primary responsibility of serving NCC members needs – like it used to be between years 1996 and 2009. (Note. To not do so demonstrates we have accomplished little since years 1993 and 1996)
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
CALL TO ACTION!
Late last week (9 & 10 September), tenant activist group MHAction (That’s short for ‘Manufactured Housing Action’), along with Americans for Financial Reform (‘AFR’), released an online video titled ‘Manufacturing Trouble’, Private Equity & Mobile Homes. This was their attempt to demonstrate, to local and national decision makers, ‘What it’s like to live in a land lease community’ owned by one or another of our nation’s 500+/- property portfolio owners/operators.
In my opinion, the substance of this video left much to be desired (i.e. accuracy), and clearly demonstrated naiveté of the folk who put it together. Specifically, the accompanying Press Release errantly mixes ‘manufactured housing’ & ‘mobile home’ terminology. This simply confuses video viewers. And, the property portfolio profiled in the video, is renowned for being ‘one of the best in the business’ when it comes to fostering good resident relations, attractive curb appeal, and desirable living environments. That error played in our favor.
So then, why a CALL TO ACTION? Well, rent hikes, safety matters, and maintenance (or lack thereof) issues alluded to in the Press Release have become commonplace in some land lease communities today – resulting in negative local press, calls for landlord-tenant legislation (i.e. rent control), and other business-restricting measures. It’s reasonable to expect additional, possibly more accurate, videos to appear in the not too distant future. The challenges identified, are not going away. Hence, the Best Defense is a Good Offence is where to begin!
Therefore, I think the time has come for our national advocates; specifically, the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and its’ National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division; along with others, to once-and-for-all, address troublesome matters foisted on land lease communities by real estate investors (a.k.a. consolidators) from outside (& inside) our realty asset class. There are at least two upcoming events, one virtual, and the other in-person (so far), where these matters would make for appropriate and timely topics for group presentation and discussion.
The SECO 21 Conference occurs 27 September – 1 October. This annual ‘by owners for owners’ event, in its’ 11th year, expects to draw 600 attendees. For more information, visit seco conference 2021
And from 8-10 November, MHI’s NCC division will host its annual Leadership Forum, billed as ‘The only strategic executive level event of the year.’ It will be held in downtown Chicago, IL. For more information, visit manufacturedhousing.org/events
Yes, I’ll be participating in the SECO 2021 Conference as a presenter (i.e. ‘State of the Manufactured Housing Industry & Land Lease Community Real Estate Asset Class’), as well as interviewing Sam Landy of UMH Properties, late afternoon on 29 September.
I likely won’t be participating in the NCC Leadership Forum. Though I’m a founding NCC board member (circa 1996), I haven’t been invited to presenter during the past decade or so. But no matter, this event is ripe to show owners/operators the NCC can be a viable national advocate.
Know what? There’s historic precedent for this CALL TO ACTION! On 26 October 1993, the Industry Steering Committee (‘ISC’), founded by 19 community owners two months earlier on 31 August 1993 (& predecessor to the aforementioned NCC), published a Mission Statement, seven Strategic Objectives, and 17 Issues of Note. Here are some of the appropriate wordings:
From the Mission Statement. “The manufactured home community industry… (has a) goal of providing affordable housing and a quality lifestyle.”
From the Strategic Objectives. “Improve industry image and encourage professionalism among peers.” & “Provide affordable land lease homesites.” & “Promote the manufactured home community lifestyle.”
From the 17 Issues of Note. “Improving management/resident relations” & “Avoiding and combating rent control and landlord/tenant legislation”
These guidelines were published with the intent of guiding present (1993) and future (2021) business operations of ‘manufactured home communities’, now ‘land lease communities’, relative to homeowners/site lessees. Now is time to become a positive national presence!
Again, the question: Whether to continue functioning nationally with a ‘business as usual mindset’, OR finally, come together for the common cause of countering negative property management practices (a.k.a. predatory land-lording), and take practical public steps to improve our industry image and community lifestyle!
Do I have corrective measures in mind? Sure. Some (following) I don’t mind airing via a public platform like this; others I’m reluctant to so disclose. In the first instance: Everyone to agree on a nationwide goal to support Certified Property Manger™ training and designation (‘CPM’) of all executive and regional property managers. And, at the property level, require all on-site managers to be trained and certified as Accredited Community Managers (‘ACM’) via MHEI, or EducateMHC’s Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) program. And, just as important, widely publicize the NCC’s Code of Ethics, enforcing the provisions contained therein!
Here’s one of my ‘reluctant corrective measures’. During past decades of community consolidation, it has bothered me how bona fide owners of communities, upon acquisition of their property(ies), are routinely replaced with salaried operations executives who do not have ‘skin (personal equity) in the game’. And I wonder whether this new type operator has, as we often say, ‘manufactured housing in their blood’? Specifically; do they have serious concern for the welfare of individuals and families living within their land lease communities, or not? In my experience, the sole exception to this aberration occurs only when professional property management (training & certification) prevails, from top down in property portfolios. Are all your property managers trained and certified as professional property managers?
In any event, it will be interesting to see if our salaried and volunteer national industry and realty asset class leaders embrace and publicly engage in this CALL TO ACTION! I, for one, hope they do!
How do you feel about these matters? CALL TO ACTION, training and certification of property managers, and more. Reach me via gfa7156@aol.com
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aoal.com & visit www.eduatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’. Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. #1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: An historic occasion & sobering statistics!
I.
AN HISTORIC OCCASION, UNLIKELY TO BE REPEATED!
Some will say this is ‘much ado about nothing’; others will opine ‘this is the way it should be’!
What are we talking about here? Well, the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), HUD’s official ‘scorekeeper’, reported 7,564 new HUD-Code manufactured housing shipments for the month of July 2021. This was remarkable for several reasons:
• This was the first time in contemporary industry history when ALL reporting entities (i.e. IBTS, HUD, MHI, MHARR, & EducateMHC) published the same number of new homes shipped – unaffected by adjustments for Destination Pending (‘DP’) units – as there were none! That’s the historic part.
• Quoting from MHI’s ‘Monthly Economic Report’, 7,564 homes shipped is “…a decrease of 1,870 homes, or 19.8 percent, compared to June 2021” (the previous month), and an increase of 74 homes or 1.0 percent compared to July 2020.”
• Furthermore. “…compared with the same month last year, single-section homes were down 9.2 percent, while multi-section homes were up 9.3 percent.” MHI
And there’s more. What does the total shipment picture look like come the end of year 2021?
“The seasonally adjusted annual rate (‘SAAR’) of shipments was 105,224 in July 2021, down 3.4 percent compared to the adjusted rate of 108,885 in June 2021.” What this means is that, given present day shipment levels, we might exceed the 94,390 total realized year end 2020. What do you think?
But the conundrum continues. How can HUD-Code housing manufacturers complain of building material shortages and high prices on one hand, and be boasting record profits on the other?
II.
CASUALTIES (# DEATHS) DURING SEVEN CONFLICTS
Have you ever wondered how the number of combatant deaths, among seven major conflicts, compare? I did, so engaged in a little research via the Congressional Research Service’s ‘American War & Military Operations Casualties’ website. Here’s what I learned:
Civil War, with 3,212,363 combatants, experienced 364,511 deaths; 2 percent of all who served
World War I, with 4,734,991 combatants, suffered 116,516 deaths; 2 percent of all who served
World War II, with 16,112,566 combatants, endured 405,399 deaths; 3 percent of who served
Korean War, with 5,720,000 combatants, tallied 36,574 deaths; one percent of all who served
Vietnam War, with 8,744,000 combatants, had 58,220 deaths; one percent of all who served
Afghanistan, Iraq, Persian Gulf War inconclusive to date, but more than 7,000 deaths to date
This is why it’s widely agreed: ‘War is hell!’ It’s also why some recall the sobering but true words of author George Orwell, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf!”
Had occasion to speak before a group of veterans last night at Warriors Hope 15th anniversary celebration. I shared how, on Christmas Eve 2005, I met a woman manager – my age, in a local pharmacy. And how she told me she marched in Vietnam protest marches at a nearby university and believed tales of us (combatants) being baby killers and worse! Nothing changed her mind for 40 years – until her son joined the U.S. Air Force. When she saw him graduate from basic training, she was convicted of her misplaced hatred, and decided to find a veteran – not to ‘thank him’, but ask forgiveness for what she did all those years ago! As three short sentences, in the ‘Making Amends’ short story I later wrote, say: “We talked. I cried. She atoned.” And, “I reflected on fallen friends who’d never hear these words but through me.”
I try not to think along these lines often. But when I do, I always walk away from the experience reminded of sentiments I’ve lived with for 52 – years, since last in combat; those being, I’m proud to be an American and having served my country. Very grateful to be alive and healthy. And how I now enjoy my family into the fourth generation. But God forbid I forget my friends who did not make it back to live out their lives like me.
Much the same can be said as we recall lives lost 20 years ago on 9/11/2001 or ‘911’. Did you realize? Children in school today, from kindergarten through 12th grade, were not alive on that tragic, historic day?
George Allen
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (88) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. @ 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Yes, another potpourri of housing-related information and statistics. Enjoy!
I.
HOUSE PRICES RISE 17.4 PERCENT
Yes, you read that right! Quoting from the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (‘FHFA’) August 31st Press Release: “U.S. House Prices Rise 17.4 Percent over the Last Year; Up 4.9 Percent from the First Quarter.”
And a few Significant Findings, in the same Press Release:
• House prices have risen for 40 consecutive quarters, or since September 2011.
• House prices rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between the second quarters of 2020 and 2021. Five states with highest annual appreciation rates? Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Montana, and Rhode Island (All in excess of 25 percent!)
• House prices rose in all the top 100 largest metropolitan areas over the last four quarters.
So, if that isn’t dismal enough news for those of us in the housing arena, what the Department of Energy (‘DOE’) is proposing to do to manufactured housing, with its’ new energy mandate standards, is ‘over the top’. How so? Read on….
II.
$7,958.00 PRICE INCREASE TO SINGLESECTION MANUFACTURED HOMES
Yes, once again, you read that right! Quoting from the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform’s (‘MHARR’) August 30th Press Release: “…proposed DOE (‘Department of Energy’) standards would impose extreme and costly new energy mandates on manufactured homes…without input from the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry….” Just how bad would these price increases be? Well the above title leads the assault, followed by these additional estimates of price increases:
• “The 2021 IECC standards would result in a minimum $12,908.00 retail level structural price increase for a double-section (sic) ‘multisection’ manufactured home.”
• “Cost increases of this magnitude would exclude 6,816,883 (prospective homebuyer) households from the manufactured housing market, based on NAHB metrics developed in connection with DOE’s 2016 proposed energy standards rule for manufactured housing”
• These figures do not include additional costs for testing, enforcement, and regulatory compliance….
If you truly care about the present and future of HUD-Code manufactured housing, and its’ land lease community sector, then you’ll be present if/when given the opportunity to participate in public hearing(s) about ‘proposed DOE standards’ and their probable consequences to our ability to deliver affordable housing to this nation’s would be homebuyers!
III.
THE QUESTION ON EVERYONE’S MIND:
HUD-Code housing manufacturers having a profitable year or do they continue to suffer financial loss due to raw material price increases, OEM inventory issues, and transportation costs?
On one hand, Wall Street analyst reporting paints a generally rosy picture of manufactured housing profitability.*1 Yet communiques from some of these same firms (Think the Big 3-C companies) paint a dismal state of business affairs, e.g. “…we have concerns (as to) viability to continue to maintain price protection.” (&) “This is resulting in the production of hundreds of units at significant losses.”
Who and what to believe?
Your input on this confusing but important matter? Gfa7156@aol.com
End Note.
1. For examples of said stock market performance among HUD-Code manufacturers and land lease community real estate investment trusts (‘REITs’), read the monthly ‘Manufactured Housing Production & Stock Market Report’ that’s an integral part of every issue of The Allen Confidential newsletter. Visit www.educatemhc.com
IV.
HOW ‘BOUT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR?
Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’) will, on 14 September 2021, host a Public Listening Session about ‘Using Accessory Dwelling Units (‘ADUs’) to Increase Housing Supply.’ This session will occur between 1 & 4PM EDT. Contact FHFA directly for more information.
FHFA goes on to say it “…is interested in learning more about the potential of accessory dwelling units (‘ADU’) to address housing supply and affordability challenges in communities across the U.S., including how FHFA and its’ regulated entities, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac could support this housing type.”
A few personal observations about this emerging ADU matter:
First, I’m encouraged to hear a federal agency declare ADUs are indeed a ‘housing type’.
Second; Use of Tiny Houses (in my opinion, a type of ADU) are already approved for siting on larger building sites, in California, on which already sit larger stick-built or manufactured homes.
Third. In my opinion, ADUs (whether they be Tiny Houses or customized sheds with built-in sanitary facilities and kitchens), when allowed by local housing authorities, make for ideal siting on functionally obsolete rental homesites in land lease communities.
I plan to sit in, and possibly comment, during this Listening Session. How ‘bout you?
George Allen, CPM, MHM c/o EducateMHC
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINES: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aaol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: This week’s blog is truly a potpourri of real estate, government, REITs, property management, and resource topics. I hope you enjoy and learn from them!
I.
COST-BURDENED RENTERS
This from latest Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (‘JCHS’) report: “Housing affordability has been a challenge for the lo9west-income renters since pre-pandemic. According to the report, more than 80 percent of renters earning less than $25,000 were cost burdened – spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs – in 2019; and the majority spent over half their income on housing.” Affordable Housing Finance magazine.
II.
BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW THIS…
“The U.S. government is about to wage war against a new, booming class of cryptocurrency called STABLECOINS.” These are what governments fear and will fiercely fight.
“…stablecoins are tethered to real assets, such as the dollar or gold…meaning they can easily be used for everyday commercial transactions as well as long-term contracts.”*1
“…stablecoins cut out the middlemen. For instance, credit card transactions typically cost merchants 2 percent to 3 percent in fees. With stablecoins, those fees will go out the window.”
“Regulators are waking up to the fact that stablecoins threaten not only existing payment systems but also, and more fundamentally, the very monopoly that governments have on issuing currency. Governments want no challenges to that monopoly.”
End Note. #1. All quotes from ‘Why Washington Detests This Cryptocurrency’ column in August/September issue of FORBES magazine, page #15.
III.
LLCOMMUNITY REITS #3 OUT OF 13!
According to HOYA Capital’s ‘REIT Same-Store NOI Growth by Property Sector, the misnomered Manufactured Housing REIT ranks # 3 (out of 13 sectors) in performance at 18 percent; only behind Shopping Centers (not malls) & Self-Storage sectors.*1
If interested in following our real estate asset class REIT performance, month to month, do so via The Allen Confidential newsletter, which contains the Official MH Shipment & Stock Market Reports (i.e. five REITs & four publicly-traded HUD-Code housing manufacturers). Visit www.educatemhc.com
End Note. #1. Misnomer because ‘manufactured housing’ describes the producers of this type factory-built housing; whereas land lease community REIT – or alternatively, manufactured housing REITs, are appropriate monikers for the unique, income-producing property type.
IV.
CONTROL YOUR DESTINY AS A PM!
Are you an on-site property manager (‘PM’) or regional property manager of one or more land lease communities? Are you trained and certified as a PM? If you just answered ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to those two questions, here’s an opportunity for you to control your destiny as a professional property manager!
How so? Best way is to identify friends planning to attend the LouisvilleMHShow, 19-21 January 2022; or even a group of PMs from your property portfolio, then reach out to the instructors of the Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) program via email: educatemhc@gmail.com – expressing your interest in participating in the one day ‘no test’ program.
Nearly 1,500 land lease community owners/operators and property managers are already MHMs in the U.S. and throughout Canada. It is by far, the most popular training and certification program for this real estate asset class. Now is the time to act! Start the ball rolling today.
V.
HERE’S HOW TO ORDER MY BOOK!
If you attended the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration on 12 August in Nashville, TN., you received, among other special gifts, a copy of FROM SMITTYALPHA6 TO MHMAVEN, the 200 pages autobiography I authored during last year’s pandemic.
This tome describes my Adventures of a Lifetime, from childhood thru college to the jungles of Vietnam. And how, along the way, Carolyn and I met, raised a family, and started GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing, to serve manufactured housing & land lease community owners/operators from 1980 thru this year. Plenty of photographs too.
To order, visit www.educatemhc.com and insert the book title into the SEARCH block. You’ll be glad you did. The initial print run was 250 copies, and already 2/3rds are in the hands of readers.
***
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. @ 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION:
I.
NO ONE ELSE WILL ASK YOU THIS…
Did you attend the RV/MH Hall of Fame Banquet, on 16 August, honoring the combined classes of 2020 and 2021 inductees? If so, you were part of an attendance record-setting event (More than 640 guests), first time honoring of military veterans in the audience, and several heart-stirring acceptance speeches by inductees or family members. And the food was great as well.
But that wasn’t all you missed. Most event guests made it a point to take a walking tour of the huge, recently-completed manufactured housing exhibit hall; something many of us have awaited for decades! A few even made it upstairs to the reorganized, spruced-up library, where the industry and asset class library of George Allen, and his writings, are now on public display.
But a lesser known event occurred Monday afternoon, when second generation Hall of Fame member Jim Scoular met with several other industry/asset class executives. Purpose of the meeting? To share ideas on how to best organize displays and furnish the exhibit hall with examples of mobile and manufactured housing, and land lease community memorabilia. I’d like to share some of the ideas expressed, but it’d be premature to do so. But it does bring us to THE QUESTION: ‘How do you think the museum hall should be configured to demonstrate history and progress of our type factory-built housing and varieties of community lifestyle? Address your remarks to me via gfa7156@aol.com I’ll collect them to pass onto the committee chairman and members.
I can tell you this much though; all segments of the manufactured housing industry will, in some fashion, be represented. Some examples:
Manufactured housing exhibits will likely include a covered wagon, 9, 10, 12, & 14’ wide singlesection units, a new singlesection 16X80, and mulitsection 28X48. Also, outdoors, a modular home – maybe equipped as a Smart House. Also interactive displays, perhaps showing HUD-Code houses being fabricated in plants and transported to building sites.
Land lease communities? What type lifestyle to display? Smaller ‘starter’ homes characteristic of young families, or larger multisection homes often found in all-adult or retirement communities in and out of Sunbelt regions? One idea would be to showcase a new community, highlighting its’ new development and completed phases with a video, photos, and layout.
Suppliers, lenders, transporters, insurers, installers, and other segments of the industry will be included in the displays.
One aspect of the planning meeting ‘conversation’ had to do with trade terminology; i.e. ‘What to use when describing industry segments in the new exhibit hall?
Manufactured housing and homes has been in place since 1976, and likely will not change here, though the terms intermediate & affordable housing pop up from time to time. Your opinion?
Trailer & mobile home parks; manufactured housing & home communities; land lease & lifestyle communities. What term should be used in this new museum setting?
And then there’re the folk who market and sell manufactured housing? You comfortable with ‘dealer’, or prefer to use the contemporary term, ‘independent (street) MHRetailer’?
So, there you have it. Some thoughts in play relative to the new manufactured housing exhibit hall at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. Make your thoughts known via gfa7156@aol.com
No guarantee though, that your suggestions will prevail.
II.
THANKS TO ALL!
Last week’s blog posting featured my ‘good-bye talk’ presented at the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration, on 12 August, in Nashville, TN. Well, that gala event (i.e. First national manufactured housing-related public event in 1 ½ years!) went off without a hitch. Close to 150 registered, but 20 or so fewer attended, mainly due to testing positive for covid, flight cancelations, etc..
A dozen vendors of products and services germane to land lease community operations featured wares and abilities during the first half the day. Then Scott Roberts of Roberts Communities kept the audience on the edge of their seats with his audio-visual supported description of land lease communities he’s been developing and enlarging during the past few years.
Following a group photograph of everyone present, and a cocktail party sponsored by Skyline-Champion, everyone enjoyed (especially me) a retirement celebration dinner. The highlight there was the presentation of a large shadow box crafted by Travis McCarty, my grandson, for the occasion. It featured the corporate logos of all the sponsoring firms, along with a dozen or so individuals who contributed to the legacy occasion.
Everyone present at the event received a copy of FROM SMITTYALPHA6 TO MHMAVEN, the autobiography I authored during the pandemic. It was ‘hot off the press’ just before the Networking Roundtable began. Copies will be mailed to individuals registered to attend, but unable to do so. Additional copies are available for $39.95 plus shipping & handling, via www.educatemhc.com or phone me via (317) 881-3815
So, many Thanks to everyone who made this rare event possible, especially my business partners, Susan McCarty, MHM, and Erin Smith, MHM, of EducateMHC. Carolyn and I especially enjoyed the less stressful time for us, planning and hosting this 30th and final Networking Roundtable!
George Allen, CPM, MHM
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: ‘What You Missed’ at the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration; ‘What to Expect In Days Ahead’; and, White Supremacy – a description, are three informative and thought-provoking topics for you in this week’s blog posting. Enjoy!
I.
WHAT YOU MISSED!
Well, I can’t tell you everything you missed, because I’m penning this week’s blog before the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration begins. But there are two things I know for sure (assuming we all make it to Nashville, TN. Intact on the 12th of August. Ha!):
The first is that everyone in attendance received a copy of my autobiography, released just this week! It’s titled ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’. The two hundred page book shares My Adventure of a Lifetime, from childhood, through romance with Carolyn, to a 13 month combat tour in Vietnam, into and through a 50 year business career. Chock full, too, of interesting photographs, of family, locations, and in two instances – examples of the destructive capability of the soccer ball-sized Atomic Demolitions Munition (‘ADM’) I was trained to carry into North Vietnam.
The other certainty is the ‘kinda farewell’ talk I shared during the evening banquet, where more than a half dozen RV/MH Hall of Fame members wore their bright green blazers. Titled, ‘Its’ Been A Very Good Run…’ it follows here:
IT’S BEEN A VERY GOOD RUN…
Last time I gave an impromptu ‘Good-bye talk’ was to my lumberyard outdoor truck loading crew at Ridge Homes in Conshohocken, PA., more than 50 years ago.
20 or so guys escorted me into our tool shed, where a case of beer and soul food waited. Soul food that had been heating all day while sitting atop fork lift engine blocks.
My remarks were brief as I was uncomfortable, as boss, having a case of beer on company property at quitting time. But boy was that soul food ever good!
Central to my remarks was the observation that, as their leader, I’d never had to severely discipline, or even get into an overt verbal or physical altercation with anyone on my crew.
Everyone laughed. I was perplexed and asked, why? The shop steward responded: “Hell Allen, given your rep and the blade you carry, no one’s gonna mess with you!”
Well, we all carried large jack knives in holsters on our belts, to cut the many ropes we used to secure truck loads. But this ‘rep’ (‘reputation’) thing made no sense to me.
So I asked, “What rep?” to which the steward said, “Frankie told us how he saw you ‘off’ (‘kill’) a gook with a bayonet in Vietnam, so no one’s gonna mess with you! You’re blooded!”
Well, the story wasn’t true, but Frankie had created it to bolster his rep, by association, so I didn’t say anything. Read the whole story, ‘Got Rep?’ in ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’.
What’s unique about tonight’s Good-bye’? Well, 150 friends, business associates and family members are here, and I have something to say to each one!
Let’s begin with me telling you how it’s been a ‘very good run in manufactured housing and land lease communities’ these past 40+ years!
Most of you don’t know I started off, in 1970, in factory-bu8ilt housing fabrication, as a wall panel and roof truss plants, and mill shop supervisor in Southport, IN.
And my first taste of property management didn’t come until 1978, when I oversaw six garden style apartment communities located throughout Indiana.
My boss, at year end, reassigned me from the apartment portfolio to four large and ailing ‘trailer parks’, three in Indianapolis and one outside Louisville, KY.
I was not at all pleased and thought about quitting! But gave myself 30 days to do a major attitude change or look for a new job. It only took a week for me to realize:
If I could learn the ‘mobile home’ business as well as I did apartments (there were no books or training back then), maybe there’d be a career opportunity – to create those resources!
Two years later, after turning those four communities around, they were sold. I briefly went with the new firm. Read ‘An Adventure to Die For’ in aforementioned book and in SWAN SONG.
In 1980, Carolyn and I founded GFA Management, Inc., to fee manage, as Carolyn was known to say, ‘Anything that didn’t move!’ – apartments, houses, shopping centers, MHCommunities.
In 1982 we bought our first of two land lease communities. And since then, I’ve also realized my goal of creating property management resources I didn’t have all those years ago.
Now it’s time to bow out. We sold our last community to Susan and Erin, and they now handle most of what our PMN Publishing did in the past, via EducateMHC.
Going forward, I plan to continue blogging, writing for MHInsider magazine, and occasionally traveling to Cape May, NJ, with Spencer Roane, to drink beer, feast on raw oysters, and visit my younger brother Mark.
In the meantime, Carolyn and I are proud parents of Susan and Adam – and their spouses Drew & Kim, six grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. So there’s plenty there to keep me/us busy and happy for years to come.
In closing, I like what Alan Jackson sings in his album ‘Good Time’, describing the life of a small town southern man: “He bowed his knee to Jesus and stood for Uncle Sam” & “ His greatest contribution will be the ones he leaves behind.” Now that’s the way I want to go out!
Postscript.
I have received many letters, cards, and a gift or two (e.g. large bottle of Don Perignon champagne) these past few weeks, from well-wishers throughout the U.S. Two of my local ‘friends in the MHBusiness’ have taken me out to lunch, where we talked for hours about individuals we’ve known over the decades. And now, we’re here, doing the same thing! So much to be grateful for tonight; so, a sincere Thanks to all!
II.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN DAYS AHEAD…
You’ll want to read the next several – and final, issues of The Allen Confidential business newsletter! Why?
Well, in the September issue I plan to share my reformatted State of the Manufactured Housing Industry & Land Lease Community Realty Asset Class’ – now an overview of the ‘Past, Present, & Future Statistics & Trends Among Land Lease Communities in the U.S.! Preparing this was a stiff challenge for me, as to what to include and what to omit. My hope is that some of you, hearing it on 12 August, and reading about it in September, will save the message and refer to it from time to time during the months, even years, ahead.
And I plan to share my notes – or those of Scott Roberts, relative to his keynote presentation on the ‘Development of Raw Land into Land Lease (& RV) Communities’ – and Lessons Learned in the process. That too should be a Keeper for many land lease community owners/operators!
Finally, I plan to share The 30 Year Networking Roundtable Legacy’ that was distributed during the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration, as a handout or takeaway.
So, at least three Good Reasons to be sure to read the September issue of The Allen Confidential!
And what will we do in the October issue of the newsletter? I’m working on that already. Using our industry’s dozen known Evergreen (i.e. always relevant, always present) Issues as a baseline, I plan to communicate ‘My Thoughts Regarding the Future of Manufactured Housing & Land Lease Communities!’ – pulling no punches along the way. What does that mean? It means, in so far as possible, I’ll be skewering sacred cows, exposing trade secrets, and ‘telling it like it is’, where this industry and realty asset class are concerned. Not an easy challenge for me. As you likely know, I have little respect for the yellow journalism that’s been an undercurrent staple for more than a decade. I won’t stoop to ‘calling names’, exaggerating claims, and avoiding conspiracy theorizing. It will be up to you, upon reading that issue of The Allen Confidential, to secede whether I accomplish this end – giving you a practical template for years to come.
If you’re not a subscriber to the newsletter, reach out to Erin Smith, MHM, of EducateMHC and inquire as to how to obtain copies through the end of year 2021. Erin.smith@spotlight-strategies.com
III.
WHITE SPREMACY
Talk about ‘changing gears’ in conversation; here’s a rather extreme example to ponder.
Has anyone accused you of ‘white supremacy’ of late? Well, I found myself wondering what that as all about, until I read an ebook titled CRITICAL RACE THEORY by Dr. James Lindsay.
In it, he makes these statements: “…things like ‘getting the right answer in math class is an aspect of white supremacy culture’, and ‘believing that math can be done in an individualist sense rather than as a collectivist sense is white supremacy culture.’ Furthermore, “things like loyalty, punctuality, hard work, and achievement by your merits – these are all considered aspects of shite supremacy culture, according to Critical Race theory.”
Lindsay goes on to say, “this is not just a theory, it’s not even just a movement, it is a way of thinking about the world” – in essence a worldview.
***
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WWE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. #1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTIOND: When will the manufactured housing industry FINALLY get together and meet face-to-face? Weill the very first such opportunity occurs 12 August 2021. Read about…
WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO MISS…
If not present at the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration on 12 August 2021 at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN.
From 10AM until 1PM, there’ll be a dozen or more vendors of products and services of interest to land lease community owners/operators, displaying their wares and explaining their unique offerings. When was the last time you got to do that? At the Louisville MHShow during January of 2020, more than 1 ½ years ago! This opportunity is well worth the trip to Nashville!
When the Networking Roundtable begins at 1PM, I’ll be Welcoming everyone to the 30th anniversary of this manufactured housing and communities event! Part of the Welcome is the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag. Why? Several reasons, but mainly it’s been a tradition, started when the 9/11 Roundtable was postponed in 2001, and has become our industry’s way of showing patriotic support of our great nation! Then, everyone in the main seminar room gets an opportunity to introduce themselves to the large audience – what a great way to begin one’s interpersonal networking at this event! And, in the Directory you receive while checking-in, mark the names of individuals you want to meet as they introduce themselves.
During the next hour I’ll be sharing what’s widely known as my take on the ‘State of the Manufactured Housing Industry & Land Lease Community Real Estate Asset Class’. Two things: this is a unique presentation, as it covers both major segments of our industry, home manufacturing statistics and trends, as well as community statistics and trends. No one else does this today! Second; this year’s presentation will be unlike any other I’ve delivered to date. How? What I decided to do was identify and expound on eight highly significant improvements, trends, and happenstances (‘fortuitous circumstances’) that have occurred during the past 50 years. And these are? Well, you need to be in the roundtable audience to learn them firsthand!
The keynote address will be Scott Roberts sharing his experiences and Lessons Learned while developing raw land into land lease (&RV) communities throughout the U.S.. Unlike others who ‘talk about land development’ on podcasts, etc., these days, Scott is hands-on and actually putting pipes in the ground and filling vacant rental homesites with new manufactured homes! If land development is in your future as a business venture, then you need to be present to hear this knowledge firsthand.
It’s no big secret, the International Networking Roundtable phenomenon Carolyn and I launched way back in the early 1990s, is – with this event in Nashville, TN. – coming to an end. So, I’ve written a ’30 Year Networking Roundtable Legacy’ history that’ll be distributed to all attendees when they arrive on the 12th. Plus, there’s an additional surprise gift for everyone in attendance. Care to guess what it is?
Next on the agenda is a Fireside Chat type audience participation conversation and discussion of any topic(s) desired. During recent networking roundtables this time of open expression has proven to be very popular and productive. No topic is off limits. Everyone knows our industry and asset class has at least a dozen Evergreen (i.e. ‘always present’) issues ready for debate and brainstorming. This ‘hour or so’ is your opportunity to so engage!
When we clear the seminar room at 5PM (to ready it for the evening banquet), we’ll attempt the usual annual photograph of everyone present. Then enjoy an hour or so of cocktails together. At the banquet that evening, it’s been requested all RV/MH Hall of Fame members present (know of at least six registered so far), wear their bright green RV/MH Hall of Fame blazers – to show support of the sole entity entrusted with the perpetuation of our industry and asset class legacies! Sometime during the evening I’ll share some parting thoughts on my pending retirement; titled, ‘It’s Been A Very Good Run’.
Friday morning(8/13) at 8AM, another roundtable tradition (also started post 9/11), an informal prayer meeting will be held in a private meeting room. Usually, a dozen or more folk participate in this opportunity to pray for the leaders of our nation and our military at home and abroad. Everyone is welcome to attend and participate.
So, that’s ‘What You’re About to Miss’ if not at the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration on 12 August at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN. Still not too late to register; visit www.educatemhc.com or phone Erin Smith, MHM via (317) 738-3434.
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. #1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: OK, hold onto your seats. This will be a whirlwind trip through today’s ‘community owners’ lament’; possible consequence of CONSOLIDATION; some findings from the JCHS @ Harvard; and finally, a reminder to register to attend the final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration.
I.
The Community Owner’s Lament
“20 – 25 percent price increases in one year; delivery dates a year out; price increases between order and delivery; and two plus months wait to address warranty issues. It isn’t fun being in the manufactured housing sales business anymore!”
It pains me to read email messages like this. They’re generally from land lease community owner/operator friends who only got into the manufactured housing sales business because so many independent (street) MHRetailers were going out of business due to lack of easy access to chattel capital.
So, where do we go from here? That’s a pretty complicated question. So many considerations. Pricing and availability of lumber, and other OEM products. Whether large property portfolio owners/operators have more purchase power with HUD-Code housing manufacturers, than small one or two property owners. Availability, or not, of personal property finance, a.k.a. home-only loans or chattel capital. Lack of meaningful support from the FHFA and two GSEs, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.
And, you know what else is complicating this entire Evergreen Issue (i.e. ever present)? Read Part II following here….
II.
CONSOLIDATION CONTINUES…
Do you know, or have you read the following news headline this past week?
‘CAVCO INDUSTRIES ANNOUNCES PLANNED ACQUISITION OF MANUFACTURED AND MODULAR HOME BUILDER, THE COMMODORE CORPORAATION’
Well, that’s all fine and good. Two well known, longtime ‘players’ in the HUD-Code manufactured housing business merging.
BUT, did you pick up on this statement within the first paragraph of the Press Release?
“Commodore is the largest independent builder of manufactured and modular housing in the United States.”
Whoa! Did I just read that the ‘largest independent builder of manufactured housing’ is going out of business (i.e. being absorbed by CAVCO)? Yes, I sure did. And what does that mean?
To begin with, it means the 70+ market share commanded by the Big Three C firms: Clayton Homes, Cavco Industries, and Champion Home Builders grows LARGER while the market share of independent builders grows SMALLER!
So, where does CONSOLIDATION end? When the Big Three C firms command 90 – 95 percent of the national manufactured housing production market?
Here’s the pithy question for you. Do you see the day to day pricing, delivery, and warranty issues cited in Part I above, ameliorating or getting worse?
Know what? A similar case can be made about the CONSOLIDATION of thousands of sole proprietor developed and owned land lease communities being absorbed by the 500+/- known portfolio owners/operators present today.
III.
MAJOR FINDINGS IN THE 2021 STATE OF THE NATION’S HOUSING REPORT
The following information was published recently by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. And what were those major finding?
1. Inventories of Homes for Sale Fell to a Record Low in Early 2021
2. With Inventories at Record Lows, High Homebuyer Demand is Pushing Up Home Prices Rapidly.
3. Rents in Several High-Cost Markets Were Down Substantially as of Early 2021
4. Households of Color and Renters Are More Likely to Have Fallen Behind on Monthly Housing Payments.
5. The Number of People Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness Climbed Again in 2021
I offered this information without comment, to let you reflect on your own. The key question, in my opinion, is how do one or more of these observations affect manufactured housing shipments and land lease community operations?
IV.
REMINDER
If you haven’t already registered to attend the upcoming final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration, 12 August 2021, at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN., do so very soon via www.educatemhc.com
Scott Roberts will be sharing proprietary information as to his firm’s ‘development of raw land into land lease communities and the expansion of existing properties’. If you don’t already know this, raw land development in this fashion is the reemerging trend afoot in HUD-Code housing today! Don Westphal, landscape consultant, will be present, as will be real estate-secured mortgage originators active in this business model.
And, thinking back over Parts I, II, & III of this blog posting; ask yourself: ‘Where else can I go in the manufactured housing industry and find receptive ears, and opportunity to communicate, about these and other timely and impactful issues? Answer? There is no other opportunity except for the annual Networking Roundtable. So be there to participate! GFA
George Allen, CPM, MHM EducateMHC
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. #1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM Class!
INTRODUCTION: OK, as promised, here’s ‘the rest of the story’ relative to last week’s virtual Listening Session hosted by the FHFA and GSEs. These observations are from my notes, not recordings; so, if any errors, I apologize beforehand – and please let me know! Also, there’s soon to be a new manufactured housing and land lease community-related book available, initially at the upcoming final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration on 12 August in Nashville, TN. PLUS, if you haven’t already done so, plan to be present at the RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on 16 August 2021 at the RV/MH Hall of Fame facility in Elkhart, IN.
I.
REST OF THE (LISTENING SESSION) STORY
First a summary of some, but not all, that was presented by participants in the recent virtual Listening Session. Then, in my opinion, the ‘ bottom line’ of the entire experience – from manufactured housing and land lease community $ perspectives.
As I mentioned in last week’s blog posting (#647), Dr. Esther Sullivan of the University of Colorado, and author of Manufactured Insecurity, led off with an impassioned activist plea, among other things, for an end to the predatory (my word, not hers) property management practices of land lease community portfolio firms like Havenpark Capital. Fortunately – and thanks to the revelation of such offenses at the previous Listening Session, GSEs no longer guarantee real estate-secured mortgages for this property type unless tenant lease protections are in place.
Grant Beck of Next Step Network was the first to specifically state that Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) 2022-2024 plans, as they put forth today are woefully inadequate, and encouraged new leadership at FHFA to reverse course and create a better, supportive climate going forward.
Bruce Thelen, head of operations at REIT, Sun Communities, Inc., in my opinion, delivered one of the best statements of the day. He described the lack of new HUD-Code home inventory; lack of new land lease community development; asked for more support for local housing market land use and zoning for affordable housing; and, for more attention to be paid to low income individuals.
Nick Bertino, from Wells Fargo Multifamily Commercial Group, focused on the new lease protections (a.k.a. tenant protections), pointing out practical problems relative to getting lease addendums signed, leases audited. Suggested certified mail as a means of serving notice to homeowners/site lessees about these important matters.
Todd Kopstein, CFO of Cascade Financial was the first to make heartfelt and practical arguments in behalf of getting chattel financing for home-only loans, especially those sited in land lease communities. Also encouraged GSEs to start sharing their research info with finance firms.
Adam Rust of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, was the first of several speakers to ‘carry coals to New Castle’ relative to encouraging more support for facilitating the purchase and financing of resident-owned communities or ROCs.
Mark Weiss of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’) described what his advocacy group views as ‘unfulfilled promises’ to U.S. consumers relative to GSEs Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) plans for 2022-2024. Strongly encouraged the FHFA to reject both GSEs DTS plans as they exist today.
Doug Ryan of Prosperity Now pretty much summarized what had been said before his presentation; that new DTS plans do not go far enough in serving would be homebuyers, and that there’s much more need for home-only (chattel capital) finance.
Paul Baretto of LearnMH encouraged FHFA to stop GSE’s discrimination against single section manufactured homes; commented on manufactured housing valuation, appraisals, and local housing market regulations; and, encouraged GSEs to consult on how to encourage more chattel capital. Paul’s off the cuff remark about a ‘new HUD-Code coming out this week’ stunned everyone. Turns out he was talking about recent HUD-Code updates relative to attached or ‘zero lot line’ manufactured home placement – not a major change to ‘the code’.
Jennifer Hopkins of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund parroted the need to stop discrimination against singlesection manufactured homes by the GSEs, and described her organizations ongoing support of ROCs. By now, given the widespread vocal support of ROCs, it was surprising that ROC USA was not represented at this Listening Session.
Rachel Siegel, researcher for The Pew Charitable Trusts made some challenging remarks relative to manufactured housing titling (‘should be real estate-secured type & no personal property titling’); need for more home-only loan financing; again, tacit support for ROCs; and, need for even more tenant (lease) protections than exist now.
Dr. Lesli Gooch, Manufactured Housing Institute. While there were chattel capital goals in previous DTS plans, there are no purchases anticipated this time around! The GSEs are headed in wrong direction. GSEs must commit and act in favor of personal property financing, especially relative to creation of a secondary market for chattel capital.
A written statement by Tony Kovach was read by a Listening Session staffer. It cited the affordable housing crisis in the U.S. at this time, and how manufactured housing is the most affordable type shelter available today, and how he considers the CrossMod™ home to be ‘seductive’. At that point he went on a rant (my choice of word) lambasting three of the most well known and respected executives in the manufactured housing industry.
The $ bottom line? In MHARR’s presentation, and at least one other, a May 2021 report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (‘CFPB’) was cited as to how GSEs ‘continuing failure and refusal to serve the manufactured home personal property market – harming – “Hispanic, white, black and African-American, and American Indian and Alaska Native borrowers who make up larger shares of chattel loan borrowers than among site-built loan borrowers.’ This directly conflicts with the fundamental policies of the Biden Administration, as set forth in Executive Order 13985 (January 20, 2021). “Affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice and equal opportunity are the responsibility of the whole of government. Because advancing equity requires a systematic approach to embedding fairness in decision-making processes, executive departments and agencies must recognize and work to redress inequities in their policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity.’ So, at this point in time, the GSE’s DTS plans for 2022-2024 are a failure relative to this administration’s standards!
Is anyone out there in the Biden Administration paying attention to what’s ‘not happening’ in the GSEs 2022-2024 Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) plans being reviewed by the FHFA? If so, what’s next?
II.
‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’
This is the title to George Allen’s ‘Adventures of a Lifetime’ autobiography. The book was a major work project during Carolyn and my 400 consecutive days of self-quarantine in our home during 2020.
First, an explanation of the title: ‘SmittyAlpha6’ was my radio call sign while commanding officer of Company C., 3rd Shore Party Battalion, 3rd MARDIV, in Vietnam during 1968 & 69. ‘MHMaven’ is an Allenism abbreviation for Manufactured Housing Maven, coined in 2008.
Quoting the back cover of the book. This “…is the story of how childhood adventures, college years, a 13 month combat tour in RVN as a Marine officer, and working as a business manager for several companies, prepared him for the 40 year career to follow. In 1980, Carolyn and George launched GFA Management, Inc., to fee manage investment real estate for others and themselves. Soon thereafter they self-published George’s first book, followed by a dozen more over the years, and engaged in freelance consulting in the manufactured housing industry and among land lease community owners/operators throughout the U.S. and Canada.”
“Were there unusual and exciting adventures along the way? For sure, mostly military!
Trained as an Atomic Demolition Munitions (‘ADM’) technician to fly alone into North Vietnam
Disarmed a shaped-charge demolition after fuse burned into blasting cap & didn’t detonate
Rigged & helo-lifted two Russian field guns from the Ho Chi Minh Trail, to Dong Ha & the U.S.
Led fully-armed Marine infantry squad into a flooded U.S. city, to restore peace and order
Engaged in many overt and sensitive covert consulting assignments for property owners.”
And there’s more, much more, to this life story and the Lessons Learned while living it.”
The book will not be available for purchase ($39.95 + S&H) until after the final Networking Roundtable and Retirement Celebration, occurring on 12 August 2021, at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN. For more information on that event – and the book, when available for purchase, visit www.educatemhc.com
Need one or more good reasons to attend the seminal event occurring 12 August 2021?
If you agree, ‘the development of raw land into land lease communities’ is the reemerging trend in manufactured housing, then be present to hear Scott Roberts of Roberts Communities describe how his family’s firm has been successfully doing this throughout the U.S.! And, ‘icing on the cake’, so to speak, will be the popular audience interaction ‘Fireside Chat with George Allen’. Why popular (at past Networking Roundtables)? Because this is the ONLY national forum, anywhere in the manufactured housing industry and among land lease community owners/operators, where ‘any topic, issue or matter is fair game’ for the audience and the moderator! Again, for more information and to register, visit www.educatemhc.com
III.
RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Celebration
Where will you be the evening of Monday, 16 August 2021? Hopefully, at the annual RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Celebration banquet in Elkhart, IN. I know I plan to be present – for what’s expected to be the largest such gathering in the nearly 50 year history of the RV/MH Heritage Foundation. At this point, at least 650 RV & MH aficionados will be present to honor 20 inductees from the combined classes of years 2020 and 2021.
And plan to arrive early that afternoon, for several good reasons:
• Tour the truly inspiring and well-archived RV history exhibit hall
• Tour the new, huge, manufactured housing exhibit hall being readied for this event!
• Tour the refurbished RV/MH library, and see the George Allen Library Exhibit, recently donated to the RV/MH Hall of Fame
• Shop in the eclectic RV/MH store, awash with clothing, mementoes, and books by many RV/MH authors
Who’re the ten manufactured housing inductees this year? 2020 class followed by 2021 class.
• Ken Anderson, MHRetailer and state association executive in AZ
• Keith Casenhiser, of Bessire & Casenhiser, land lease community owners/operator in CA
• Charles Lott, Fleetwood Homes executive from GA
• Debra (Dee) Pizer, MHM, longtime operations manager with ZemanMHC in IL.
• Alan Spencer, MHRetailer, SD
• Steve Adler, land lease community owner/operator of MUREX, in FL
• Burt Dickman (deceased) land lease community developer/owner in IN. &a veteran
• Ron Dunlap, former MH association executive in VA., & a veteran
• George Porter of Manufactured Housing Resources in DE. & a veteran
• Jerry Ruggirello, long time land lease community owner/operator in MI.
That list reads like a veritable (‘true, genuine’) ‘Who’s Who’ among manufactured housing and land lease community executives and pioneers, from ten different states!
While not intentional, there’s an emphasis on military veterans this year, i.e. at least three of ten inductees are military veterans. And I know Spencer Roane, MHM, a 2017 Hall of Fame inductee & USN veteran; and I (USMC vet), will be sitting with George Porter -inductee and USA veteran, at his table with his family, during this stellar RV/MH event!
Now interested in attending? Phone (574) 293-2344 for more information and to purchase banquet tickets.
***
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM Class!
INTRODUCTION: Have you registered to attend the first face-to-face manufactured housing industry meeting in 1 ½ years? Still room for more to attend. Read Part I for details. Do you enjoy solving conundrums? If so, you’ll want to read Part II, following here. How ‘bout WARNINGS? Let me be the first to tell you – in Part III. And finally, Part IV. A ‘tease’ if you will, relative to the proceedings at yesterdays (7/14) virtual Listening Session. Really quite an event.
I.
FIRST FACE-TO-FACE MFD. HSNG. MEETING IN 1 ½ YEARS!
Final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration will be held 12 August 2021 at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN. Keynote presentation by Scott Roberts: ‘Developing Raw Land into Land Lease (& RV) Communities’! This, in my opinion, is the reemerging trend for our realty asset class! One real estate-secured mortgage loan originator, who will be present at this event, recently arranged for $150,000,000. to develop a half dozen new land lease communities in Southwest U.S.! How can you not want to be present, to learn how to get in on this ‘once in two decades’ investment opportunity? Visit www.educatemhc.com for more information & to register, or phone Erin Smith, MHM, via (317) 783-3434.
There’ll also be a Fireside Chat audience participation discussion with George Allen, CPM, MHM, on any and all manufactured housing and land lease community matters and issues. Plus, everyone present gets to publicly introduce themselves to all participants, receive a Directory that’s widely recognized as the most accurate and comprehensive list of industry and asset class businessmen and women available anywhere! And there’s rumor of a special gift for everyone in attendance, making a $20.00 or more donation to the RV/MH Hall of Fame.
And, at the retirement celebration banquet that evening (12 August), all RV/MH Hall of Fame members present, are requested to wear their distinctive Kelly green blazers!
Speaking of the RV/MH Hall of Fame, are you aware the huge new manufactured housing exhibit hall in Elkhart, IN., is close to completion – and will be toured on 16 August 2021, as part of that day’s annual Banquet hosting the Induction of Classes 2020 & 2021 into the prestigious RV/MH Hall of Fame? For more information and banquet tickets, phone (574) 293-2344. Hope to see you there! 10 of our MH & land lease community friends will be honored that night!
II.
A NEW MH CONUNDRUM
Here’s our industry and realty asset class’ newest, and very serious conundrum (i.e. ‘a riddle, a hard question’):
‘If we build the new land lease communities encouraged in Part I of this week’s blog posting, where and from whom will be get new HUD-Code homes to fill vacant rental homesites?’
Some, if not many, housing plants are already scheduling deliveries six months to a year out into the future. And now along comes this business chilling announcement from one of the largest firms:
“Unfortunately, we cannot take any of your orders at this current time. Along with most of the industry, (our firm) has shifted to an allocation system in regards to our order process(ing). Due to the issues with material shortages and a high backlog of orders, we had to take a look at our entire customer list to see the volume each customer has ordered. With the low number of orders your location has placed, we do not have any allocation spots for you to place an order at this current time. Once the market and process normalizes I will team (sic) back to you so you can resume placing orders.” (Lightly edited) GFA)
Now, I don’t know this for certain, but it seems the ‘low number of orders your location has placed’ remark, might well be directed at the single land lease community owner/operator, as opposed to one or another of the 500+/- portfolio property firms with an average of 20+/- communities apiece. If that’s the case, such an announcement could become a death knell to small business owners active in the industry, including smaller independent (street) MHRetailers and realty asset class today! Sure hope this isn’t true.
Back to the conundrum. Is new home production and delivery (& pricing) in such dire straits so as to handicap our return to optimum shipment levels approaching 100,000 and 150,000 units per annum? Somebody had better figure this out and ‘pass the word’, positive or negative, so we’ll all know better how to plan our business futures!
III.
A WARNING!
Given the ‘blast of cold water’ announcement featured in Part II of this blog posting, the last thing we need is more bad news – but, unfortunately, here it is:
Beware of proposals, from outsiders, perhaps even within the MHCC (‘Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee), for new or modified standards (to the HUD-Code) that are little more than attempts to ‘legislate’ new or additional demands for products or raw materials that they, or their associates, sell – or want to sell, to the industry.
This is a very real threat, beginning with a renewed Department of Energy (‘DOE’) move towards forced energy-related standards not statutorily required to balance cost versus benefits to manufactured housing product and its’ production. Do you remember? The National Association of Home Builders (‘NAHB’) has already gone on record stating, for every $1,000 increase in the retail level cost of a singlesection manufactured home, 348,000 potential home buyers would be lost; and in the case of multisection manufactured homes, 316,000 potential home buyers would be unable to purchase the home of their dreams. This is why we need to be diligent in our fight against the modification of HUD-Code standards that would add unnecessary cost to our affordable housing product!
Part IV.
LISTENING SESSION
Between 1:30 & 4PM on Wednesday, 14 July 2021, as part of the FHFA – hosted Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) Public Listening Session re Manufactured Housing, 17 individuals voiced opinions and concerns relative to the 2022-2024 Underserved Market Plans prepared by the GSEs. During the height of the 2 ½ hour Listening Session, there were 102 individuals listening in on the proceedings. Not enough space here to summarize what was presented – I’ll do that in next week’s blog posting (#648) – so be sure to read it at that time. Let me titillate you a bit though…
Dr. Esther Sullivan, University of Colorado, author of Manufactured Insecurity was the first presenter, also the first to mention predatory practices of Havenpark Capital, and more.
In my opinion, best presentation was by Bruce Thelen of Sun Communities, Inc., the REIT.
In my opinion, worst presentation was a prepared statement by Tony Kovach, read aloud by a Listening Session support staffer. It came across, in part, as a personal vendetta against three of the most well-known businessmen in the manufactured housing industry.
So much more to tell you. Be sure to read next week’s blog posting….
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM Class!
I.
RAW LAND DEVELOPMENT & MORE….
Scott Roberts of Roberts Resorts & Communities will be keynote speaker at the upcoming, final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration, 12 August 2021, at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN. For more information and to register, visit www.educatemhc.com
The final Networking Roundtable & Retirement Celebration is the first in-person, national manufactured housing-related group meeting to occur in 1 ½ years since the coronavirus pandemic began. Don’t miss this landmark opportunity! And all RV/MH Hall of Fame inductees in attendance are asked to wear their distinctive Kelly green blazers to the evening banquet.
While I haven’t written much about it of late, I am of the firm conviction that the development of raw land into land lease communities, and expansions thereof, are reemerging trends (Dormant since mid-1990s) throughout much of the U.S. Here’s just an inkling of who’s doing so these days:
Roberts Resorts & Communities in AZ, CA,CO, TX & AL
Zeman MHC, and Community Management Group, both with new communities in MI
Four Leaf Properties in TX, FL, MI, & elsewhere
Tunnell family in Lewes, DE
Spartan-Investors in Seattle, WA.
What else will be unique about this year’s networking roundtable event? As with past roundtables, everyone will have an opportunity to introduce themselves during the opening session. Following Scott Roberts’ presentation, we’ll engage in a Fireside Chat type audience interaction, and discussion of any industry and realty asset class topic desired! Some ‘already requested topics’ include:
COVID related matters, issues, changes to business models. How has this affected you?
Real estate-secured and chattel financing. Proceedings from the 14 July FHFA-hosted Listening Session with the two GSEs, as well as input from other sources.
Predatory property management practices by some rapidly-growing land lease community portfolio owners/operators, and the resulting threat of new landlord/tenant legislation.
Eviction Moratorium and its’ effect on your business operations.
Then there’s the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’; specifically, ‘how & who’ will land lease communities owners/operators rely on for communication, networking, statistics-gathering, resources and more, come the end of this year?
Finally. The Directory of participants everyone receives will, as in the past, be the most comprehensive such resource available anywhere in the manufactured housing industry!
Oh, and at least one special surprise is being planned for everyone present for this first national manufactured housing and land lease community event since the coronavirus pandemic!
II.
96 DONORS & $1,820,690 TO DATE!
The names of the 96 donors to the MH Museum Campaign at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., reads like the ‘Who’s Who Among Manufactured Housing & Land Lease Community Realty Asset Class trade associations, board members, community portfolios, financial firms, foundations, and individuals!
Have YOU donated yet? If not, please do so soon. It will take the full $2,000,000 to finish the long-awaited manufactured housing wing of the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame Museum & Library. To do so, simply phone (574) 293-2344 or send your check to RV/MH Hall of Fame c/o 21565 Executive Parkway, Elkhart, IN. 46514.
And to be involved in the perennial ‘icing on the cake’, plan now to attend the two years-combined RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on 16 August 2021. Already expecting more than 650 guests that evening. I’ll certainly be present and hope to see YOU there too!
II.
HAVE YOU NOTICED?
People Write, But Do Not Document or Provide a Means for Feedback!
Before it became so easy to write and publish online, writers and editors of commercial print trade publications took special care to be accurate about what they published, and made it easy for readers to inquire and or respond accordingly. In my opinion, this simply isn’t so, anymore. Here’s just one example:
Recently, Andrew Kern of MULTI HOUSING NEWS, and senior research analyst at Yardi Matrix, published a manufactured housing-related piece titled:
‘Selling MHCs to the People Who Call Them Home’. There’s the first problem! Just what is an MHC? Nowhere is this abbreviation explained. But he is here, based on what follows, referring to land lease communities (a.k.a. ‘manufactured home communities’…hence the confusing MHC label).
Next problem. “For manufactured housing investors, however, a new avenue for exit has opened in the form of resident-owned communities.” This is a common and confusing error characteristic of naïve writers from outside the manufactured housing industry. Perhaps Mr. Kern is unaware of the fact that ‘manufactured housing investors’ are different from land lease community investors – or as he’d likely prefer, ‘MHC investors’. How so? Well, in the first instance, a manufactured housing investor buys resale manufactured homes sited on parcels of realty conveyed fee simple, or places said home(s) accordingly, then rents the units out by the week or month. Land lease community investors, on the other hand, are owners/operators of this unique type of income-producing property. Big big difference!
Next problem. “…the average manufactured home park resident is over 55 years old and will live at that park for an average of 14 years.” Pray tell, where does this writer come up with this data? Might be true of homeowners/site lessees in upscale, all-adult land lease communities in Sunbelt regions of the U.S… He probably does not know that the tongue in cheek description of folk who prefer the land lease community lifestyle is, they’re ‘newly wed or nearly dead’ Point? Writers owe it to readers to validate statistical claims like this, and get their story right.
Next problem. And here’s how we always know something like this has been penned by someone with only minimal intellectual and experiential grasp of their subject matter: “Park residents aren’t renters….they are homeowners with a ground lease” This 1960s (‘park’) trade lingo is archaic. Should have read: “Land lease community homeowners are rental homesite lessees.” And it gets worse before it gets better (which does not happen), when he writes of ‘manufactured housing parks’.
The latter half this article, as one might expect from the title, describes positive aspects of resident-owned communities or ROCs, e.g. “…average annual rent increase of less than one percent. This is considerably less than the 3.5 percent average annual site rent increase as reported by MHI.” And how it costs more than $5,000 to relocate a manufactured home these days. The ROC positive message is questionably underscored by this writer, when he quotes Frank Rolfe, co-owner of MHP Funds, praising the virtue of “…residents of the park own the land their homes sit on.” That’s all true, but how ‘bout the two classes of homeowner/site lessee (not everyone signs-on when converting to an ROC) – those who are investors in the cooperative and those who are not, and the consequences thereof? And professional property management? Are any of these homeowners/site lessees trained and certified as professional property managers, or is everyone volunteer labor? Visit a few of these ROCs; all is not always rosy. And the list goes on…
While this is admittedly a puff piece extolling the desirability of resident-owned communities, it’s a shame, in my opinion, the writer got so many of the finer points (e.g. terminology) of land lease community ownership/operations wrong. And, adding insult to injury, once again, did not provide a direct means for readers to respond.
But that’s long been the industry’s albatross, outsiders not knowing, understanding or appreciating the inner workings of manufactured housing, and its’ realty sector, land lease communities.
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Gfa7156@aol.com
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
Tin put this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: It seems, whichever way we turn these days, we’re fighting battles in behalf of manufactured housing and land lease communities. Part I describes the perennial battle over contemporary (vs. archaic) trade terminology. Part II describes recent attempts to meddle with the HUD-Code, weakening our performance –based building standards as we know them, opening the door to products and raw materials not otherwise needed during fabrication.
I.
MANUFRACTURED HOUSING
The Industry & Realty Asset Class’ Perennial Puzzlement about Terminology
Recently received a MIDYEAR 2021 report, researched and distributed by a major real estate brokerage firm specializing in land lease community marketing. It’s cover price? $1,500.00
Why am I writing about it? Well, while it does contain some helpful and interesting statistics for the property type, it’s awash with both old and contemporary trade terms, making it at times, as confusing as it would otherwise be useful. I’ve been fighting this terminology battle most of my 40+ year career in manufactured housing and as a land lease community owner/operator.
Here’re some of the anomalies found throughout this otherwise seminal report.
Let’s begin with manufactured home community. Following national surveys by the now defunct Manufactured Home Merchandiser magazine in the early 1990s*1, ‘manufactured home community’ was selected as the official term of record describing what had previously been known as ‘mobile home parks’. This was codified in the J. Wiley & Sons published tome, Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities, in 1992. The only deviant from that term, only on occasion by a few, was ‘manufactured Housing community’. And today, nearly 30 years later, and since 2011 (some say 2012), the contemporary term has become ‘land lease community’, by dint of the seven types of shelter now be found sited on rental homesites in these communiteis.*1 Oh, and within the subject report is found this denigrating term, “…smaller parks….” And so the puzzlement continues into year 2021.
Then there’s the matter of rental homesites (the contemporary trade term). In this report, read just about anything except ‘homesite’. Rather, the terms of choice here include space, lot and unit.
Years, no decades, ago, those of us who served the industry and realty asset class as self-appointed scorekeepers agreed, we were more ‘glass half full’ people rather than ‘glass half empty’. So we opted to refer to Occupancy (e.g. # occupied sites divided by total # of rental homesites), rather than Vacancy (the reciprocal of occupancy), when dealing with this common benchmark statistic. Take a look, you’ll find this is the case in every annual ALLEN REPORT (i.e. 32 to date), J. Wiley & Sons’ How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community (1992), and in the MHIndustry Official Lexicon & Glossary – available via www.educatemhc.com However, in this report, it’s all about ‘vacancy’.
‘Rent control proposals’ are decried early on in the subject report. Agreed. However, informed industry and asset class pundits, again – for decades, have used the euphemism (i.e. make a negative term sound and read more positive) ‘landlord-tenant legislation’ in instances like this.
Oops! At one point the drafter of this report digresses and refers to ‘two star parks’, referring to the Woodall Star System of rating the quality of ‘mobile home parks’ before and up to 1976. Today, knowledgeable investors and value appraisers avail themselves of the ABClassification System, in place almost as long as the National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division at MHI has been operating, i.e. since 1996. And, as noted in the first sentence, the report slips back into ‘parks’ lingo.
I found just two, in my opinion – errors in this report. How would you interpret the last half of the following statement? “Some older communities…are being redeveloped into higher-density properties, cutting supply.” In my experience, older communities are oft functionally obsolete communities, and when redeveloped, two adjoining rental homesites are oft combined into one, reducing rental homesite count and density, not increasing it.*2
Second error? First, read this statement: “Lenders…are opening back up with financing available for quality properties.” I contend ‘they never closed or even slowed!’ Read the 23rd annual National Registry of All Lenders (dated March 2021), to learn real estate-secured mortgage originations total, among 24 lenders/brokers working with land lease communities (& RV park combinations), exceeded that of the previous year! Year 2019 = $7,253,000,000 and year 2020 = $9,766,000,000.*3 That’s a 2 ½ billion $ increase between years 2019 & 2020. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Read the following sentence and tell me what’s missing. “…higher (rental) rates are bolstered by strong demand, facility improvements, and a lack of significant supply growth.” In my opinion, a fourth factor is: “…and predatory property management practices on the part of some new owners of land lease communities.” Do you agree?
Bottom line to all this? Simple. Manufactured housing and land lease communities legacy goes back more than 70 years. With all the shipment turmoil we’ve endured over the decades, it should be – but so far hasn’t been, fairly easy to agree on contemporary trade terminology that enhances the image, attractiveness, and public acceptance for and of the industry and realty asset class. Are you on board with this? Use this article and content as your motivator to begin ‘talking the talk as well as walking the walk’!
End Note.
1. Seven types of shelter: pre-HUD ‘mobile homes’, post-HUD ‘manufactured homes’, modular homes, Park Model RVs, RVs for a season, stick-built homes fabricated on-site to look like manufactured homes (only in FL.), and now ADUs or Accessory Dwelling Units such as Tiny Homes.
2. Functionally obsolete communities are often older properties with rental homsites developed to accommodate 10 & 12 wide X 40’ long ‘mobile homes’ back in the 1960s and before.
3. This Resource Document, like the aforementioned ALLEN REPORT, is also available for purchase via www.educatemhc.com
II.
GEMS FROM MHARR
Remember that quote from famous author George Orwell (e.g. Animal Farm & 1984) describing why Americans should respect their combat veterans?
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
Well, an apt variant of that pithy remark applies to shy manufactured housing professionals (‘you’) should appreciate the regulatory reform work of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform:
‘Manufactured housing businessmen and women enjoy peace of mind only because a watchdog national advocate, like MHARR, stands ready to challenge product statutes and initiatives affecting their industry and livelihood.’
Such was the case recently, when MHARR’s Mark Weiss, in ISSUES & PERSPECTIVES, led with this salient and suggestive headline: ‘INVASION OF THE BUILDING CODE SNATHCERS’. In it, Weiss ‘made the case’ against individuals and organizations seeking changes to HUD-Code standards, based on building codes never intended to apply to manufactured housing.
IN his words: “….there seems to be a growing tendency within the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (‘MHCC’) standard development process, for some members – and others – to seek changes to the HUD Code standards based on standards, concepts, or testing mechanisms (or all three) derived either in whole or in part from other general building codes that are not and have not been developed specifically for manufactured housing under the mandatory criteria and requirement of federal manufactured housing law.”
Why is this a key issue? (It’s actually been ‘around’ for a while). Because other building codes “…are not statutorily required (‘like the HUD-Code’) to balance cost versus benefit, (and) are part of the reason the cost of construction for manufactured homes, per square foot, is roughly half that of site-built homes, according to the most recent annual statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.”
And Mark continues: “….the MHCC must constantly be on guard against proposals for new and modified standards (whether based on other building codes or not), that are little more than an attempt by special interests to ‘legislate’ new or additional demand for products or raw materials they…sell to the industry.” Ah Ha! The movie behind these efforts to change standards!
The Press Release concludes with this summary statement: “…HUD and the MHCC should reject any effort or tendency to infiltrate provisions from other general residential building codes into the HUD standards or enforcement regulations including, most especially (but not limited to) provisions designed to coerce the purchase and utilization of any given supplier – or group of suppliers’ – products.”
So, as stated at the front end of this blog posting, as an industry, we are fortunate to have a ‘watchdog national advocate’ in Washington, DC, supportive of what we do in behalf of
affordable factory-built housing!
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!; Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. #1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: OK, ‘hang onto your hats’, so to speak. We lead off with a continuation of last week’s semi-expose’ of predatory property management practices; this week we take it a step further. And parts II & III contain timely and important networking opportunities for all! GFA
I.
JUST LIKE SHOOTING FISH IN A BARREL
The Sorry State of Landlord -Tenant Relations in Some Land Lease Communities Today
A 2021 update to the year 2000 expose’, ‘UPSIDE DOWN IN A MOBILE HOME PARK!’
You last read of the ‘young couple George & Carolyn, buying their first home’ in year 2000 – that’s 21 years ago! Remember? They were “…both employed, no children or pets, and (owned) two older cars. And there was H. ‘Itch’ Balle, the retail sales center salesman/manager.” What caught this young couple’s attention was the L(.)(.)K-headlined advertising for new manufactured homes ‘for sale’, featuring a $4,000 move-in incentive offer!”
To make this long story shorter here, George & Carolyn wound up buying an $80,000 multisection HUD-Code home, already sited but not landscaped. And the $4,000 incentive covered all but $500 of their deposit, with the balance used to landscape their rental homesite. Financing was a steal! Mr. Balle got them ‘10% over 30 years’ terms, with a variable rate of 9% over 30 years, reducing their monthly loan payment from $733.13 to $672.12/month. Oh, and $285/month site rent was waived for first year – a welcome windfall of $3,420 in that 12 month period.
Yes, that’s how things were back in year 2000. And all was OK until the variable rate mortgage jumped payment to $800/month, plus $300/month site rent (at end of grace period and including a rent increase). Bottom line? George & Carolyn were now in a ‘family way’, with a new car loan payments, and clearly ‘upside down in their mobile home park’ (i.e. old outgo of $672.23/month vs. new out go of $1,100/month).
Somehow George & Carolyn survived – barely. And today, 21 years later, the kids gone, and recently retired, they still live in their not-yet-paid-off $80,000 manufactured home.
Now comes the ‘just like shooting fish in a barrel’ metaphor! But first; to set the scene.
Up until six months ago, George & Carolyn’s monthly site rent had been $400/month (i.e. up from $300/month in year 2000, or an average increase of $9.00 per year). However, a new land lease community portfolio firm acquired the property six months ago and immediately raised the monthly rental homesite rate from $300 to $365/month. Not only that, previously master-metered water was now individually metered, introducing a new monthly expense of between $20 & $40. And a couple months later, an $18/month trash fee was added, besides an $8.00/month admin fee/school tax. So, all told, George & Carolyn’s monthly payment to the property owner, in six or so short months, jumped from $300/month to at least $411/month, or an annual increase of $1,332 for rent, water, trash and admin/school tax charges.*1
Next; what it’s like to be a captive audience, the proverbial fish swimming around in a barrel.
George & Carolyn are within nine years of paying off their 2000 model multisection manufactured home, sited in a land lease community they’ve called ‘home’ these past 11 or so years. And now that they’re retired, their set income, from social security and maybe a small pension or two, only stretches so far. How can they make up this $1,332 annual increase in their housing expense (not including PITI for the home proper)? They can’t unless they ‘unretired’ to get a job! And moving their home elsewhere is little more than wishful thinking. Why? To move a multisection (which one should never dissemble even under good conditions…as the two sides rarely remate as weatherproof as the initial installation) manufactured home, just across town, costs $5,000 – 10,000 to ready the home for transport, transport it, and reassemble it at the new location – If a new location (i.e. land lease community) can be found that will accept a 21 year old home.
Consequence? Deal with the consequences the best way one can do so.
How to maybe ameliorate these serious personal financial challenges in the future? That’s hard to say. But if, way back when, the new manufactured home is purchased and land lease community selected, one used the ‘Ah Ha! & Uh Oh! Worksheet to ‘estimate maximum recommended ‘affordable’ & ‘risky’ purchase prices for new & resale, privately-owned homes of any type…on leased land’, one would buy what one can truly afford, based on a 30 percent Housing Expense Factor and other factors. For a FREE copy of this very handy formula worksheet (i.e. based on Area Median Income or Annual Gross Incomes of $36,000 and $51,229), email your request to gfa7156@aol.com Be sure to include a postal mailing address.
Have no doubt about this. We are living and working, during year 2021, in the hottest land lease community sales market ever; and at the same time, seeing homeowners/site lessees, in some – if not increasing, instances, suffering from one or another type and degree of predatory property management. So, take this message to heart, and ask yourself: ‘Am I guilty of any or all these practices?’ If not – Great! If so, however, correct course now before it’s too late to save our real estate asset class from unwanted landlord-tenant legislation at state and or national levels.
End Note.
1. The dollar figures cited here are based on information published in MHAction’s DISPLACEMENT, INC. report.
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
II.
INDIANA GOVERNOR TO KEYNOTE RV/MH HALL OF FAME BANQUET
Just learned today, 22 June, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb will be a special speaker at this year’s induction ceremony, 16 August 2021, at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. Sure hope I get to see you there! 20 of our manufactured housing & land lease community colleagues will be inducted into the Hall of Fame that evening. For more information and to purchase tickets, phone (574)293-3455. This is a remarkable opportunity to showcase our industry to the highest public officer in the state of Indiana, and honor friends in the business!
III.
FINAL NETWORKING ROUNDTABLE & RETIREMENT CELEBRATION
Now is time to register for this unique ‘once in a lifetime’ event! Once in a lifetime? Have you ever been invited to a national interpersonal networking opportunity including retirees you’ll not likely get to see again in this lifetime? Visit www.educatemhc.com See you in Nashville, TN., on 20 August 2021!
***
]]>Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!
To input this blog and/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aaol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!
INTRODUCTION: Not what I planned to talk about today. But when MHAction’s DISPLACEMENT, INC. report hit my desk, and I read through it twice, I knew the core issue of landlord-tenant relations had to be taken public ASAP for all of you to know.
A REQUEST. If you’re reading this blog and are involved, or have recently been involved, in developing raw land into a new land lease community, please contact me via gfa7156@aol.com
I.
AN HISTORIC DISPLACEMENT
As you read the following subtitle to MHAction’s 34 pages DISPLACEMENT, INC., report, keep in mind this is the first time in manufactured housing and land lease community history, where and when LANDLORD-TENANT ISSUES have taken center stage on the national publicity scene:
‘How Havenpark Capital and Enterprise Community Partners are eroding affordable housing and how residents are fighting back.’ Subtitle to MHAction’s DISPLACEMENT, INC. report.
What follows here are select, out of context quotations from the subject report. Read and ponder them. Then, from your own perspective, whether a land lease community owner or operator, take steps to ensure you don’t implement predatory property management practices within your property or properties,. And talk to MHI’s National Communities Council division about how you can help ameliorate and mitigate these troublesome issues going forward.
“MHAction hears from residents daily about displacement due to rent and fee increases, health issues caused by community neglect, and stress-inducing harassment.” (p.4)
“Their goal is not to make homes and communities more stable, accessible, or affordable. Their goal is to extract easy profit from low-income residents.” (p.7)
“Havenpark has dramatically increased lot rent (the rent residents pay for the land beneath their homes) and other fees, has invested minimally in community maintenance, and has adopted arbitrary and punitive rules.” (p.7)
”Residents are calling on Havenpark, Enterprise Community Partners, state and federal elected officials, the Federal Housing finance Agency (‘FHFA’), and (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to all take action to:
• Keep our homes affordable with gradual, justified rent and fee increases and COVD-related rent relief
• Keep us in our homes with good cause eviction requirements and COVID eviction protections
• Make our communities safe and healthy with community maintenance
• Treat residents decently and fairly
• Save our communities from predatory investors by supporting community ownership by residents, mission-driven nonprofits, and public entities.” (p.8)
“Havenpark and Enterprise Community Partners have claimed that Havenpark’s purchase of manufactured home communities is a strategy to preserve them as affordable housing.” (p.11)
“…Pine Ridge Mobile Homes in Linden, Michigan reports (sic) Havenpark raised the rent from $384 to $420 when they bought…community in 2019, and (sic) added an $18 trash fee, $5 admin fee, $3 school tax, and new water charges through separate meters that cost around $40-$50/month.” (p.12)
“Havenpark claims (sic) the large rent and fee increases are justified by significant investments in community improvements.” However, “Residents report (sic), despite promises of big improvements they have only seen regular maintenance or surface changes by Havenpark, such as repaved roads, landscaping, emergency repairs, and swing sets.” (p.15)
“Residents reported that, rather than investing in community infrastructure, Havenpark has focused on bringing in new homes (sic) they can sell or rent at a higher price.” (p.17)
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac…have provided billions of dollars in GSE-backed multifamily loans for manufactured home community portfolio acquisitions, like the Havenpark ($100 million) purchases financed through Bellwether Enterprise, which have made manufactured home communities unaffordable for long-time residents.” (p.28) As related asides, word of this became known to the GSEs during their Listening Session in St. Louis, MO., during late 2019. Since then the FHFA & GSEs have instituted Tenant Site Lease Protections. And, “In November 2020, the FHFA announced new requirements on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s manufactured home community lending, requiring (sic) half of GSE-backed multifamily loans go to affordable housing and (sic), to be considered affordable, manufactured home communities must be resident-owned cooperatives, be non-profit-owned, or commit to the FHAFs’ Tenant Site Lease Protections.” (p.28)
In conclusion, “Residents of Havenpark-owned communities are…calling on decision-makers to stand up to predatory investors and help protect families and seniors who are being pushed out of their homes and communities.” Via
• “Keep Our Home Affordable
• Keep Us In Our Homes
• Make Our Communities Safe and Healthy
• Treat Residents Decently and Fairly
• Save Our Communities From Predatory Investors” (pp.29-31)
Each of these five bullet points are accompanied by three targeted, involved groups: Enterprise Community Partners and Havenpark; State Policymakers; and, Federal policymakers, FHFA, and the GSEs.
So there you have it; how and why the land lease community real estate asset class, as a whole, has been dragged onto the negative national publicity scene, by a small bevy of portfolio ‘players’ (Havenpark is not the only firm named), a national affordable housing advocate, and a financing subsidiary. This is not the national publicity manufactured housing and communities need at this time. In my opinion, it’s time for our national elected and salaried trade entity and advocacy leaders to step forward and address these landlord-tenant issues in our behalf!
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC