‘All You Wanted to Know but Didn’t Know Who to Ask!’
Blog # 414 Copyright 2016 COBA7® @ 18 September 2016; community-investor.com
Perspective. ‘Land-lease-lifestyle Communities, a.k.a. manufactured home communities and ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
This blog posting is the sole national advocacy voice, official ombudsman & historian, research report & online communication media for North American LLLCommunities.
To input this blog&/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, a.k.a. COBA7®, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764
COBA7® Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal of its’ print/online media – to ‘Not only inform & opine, but transform & improve MHBusiness Model Performance!’
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INTRODUCTION:
I. 25th Networking Roundtable Summary of content & contact information
II. Tough Perennial Issues Relative to Manufactured Housing & Communities
III. ‘Ah, some more Afterglow’ from the Networking Roundtable…
IV. Responses received to date re blog posting # 412.
I.
What Did You Miss, or What Did You Experience?
25th anniversary International Networking Roundtable exceeds expectations!
Marcus & Millichap’s ‘Manufactured Housing Research’ paper, distributed during their Community Investors’ Symposium at the Roundtable, is chock full of salient statistics and emerging trends relative to the land-lease-lifestyle community realty asset class! To request a copy, telephone Michael Glass via (216) 264-2050.
If you’d like a copy of the Guidebook for Selling & Seller-financing New Manufactured Homes On-site in LLLCommunities, distributed to everyone attending this year’s Roundtable, a limited number is available for purchase at $29.95 post paid. Simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE listed in the introduction to this blog posting.
If you’d like a copy of LLLCommunity owner Alvan L. Schrader’s autobiography, ‘No Respect at All’ – A PATH TO MILLION$, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE. This case bound text is a $49.95 value for $24.95 post paid – with $20.00 of the purchase price donated to the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. You truly missed an exciting tale, as Al described the challenges his companies faced and surmounted over the years. Hopefully some state MHAssociations, even the MHCongress in Las Vegas, will invite him to share his highly interesting story with their members.
Speaking of exciting presentations, Ken Corbin filled in at the last minute, to cover on-site sale of new homes in LLLCommunities. You’ll likely hear more about him in months to come, maybe where the Louisville Show is concerned, and various state venues. In the meantime, phone him via (740) 487-1544.
If you’d like a copy of Dave Butt’s timely book, With One Cry, ‘Renewed Challenge to Pray for America’, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE. Price? $9.95 post paid. This one was distributed to 17 participants, during the informal prayer meeting for our nation & its’ leaders, early Friday morning.
No question about it anymore! Keith Anderson’s Champion Home Builders consider LLLCommunities to be a significant emerging market for their HUD-Code manufactured homes in general, Community Series Homes (‘CSH Models’) in particular1 If you’re unfamiliar with their homes and unique (durability enhancing) features, phone Byron Stroud via (702) 756-2600.
As you likely know, this year’s Roundtable took on an additional emphasis: the 2016 Chattel Capital Summit! Well, Tim Williams of 21st Mortgage, as a keynote presenter, set just the right tone for several messages to follow re ‘traditional ways of financing home only transactions (e.g. C.A.S.H. Program via Ryan Howerton @ (800) 955-0021); emergence of a hybrid means to financing ‘home only’ mortgages (Paul Bradley of ROC USA via (603) 513-2818; and other unique alternatives described by GSEs present (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac), and others, e.g. Scott MacFarlane of HAS Capital, LLC, via (501) 246-3688. One of the most popular $ presentations had to do with Spencer Roane, MHM® covering the basics and fine points of lease-option methodology. Reach him via (678) 428-0212 – or attend the 5th SECO Summit in the South, in Atlanta, GA., on 26 & 27 October. And the Chattel Capital Summit at the roundtable would no have been complete without a nod to compliance issues via Ken Rishel @ (217) 971-3968.
During the Thursday luncheon, Katie Hauck, MHM®, updated the audience as to MHGives, and the work it’s accomplished in Haiti during the past year. MHGives has pretty much emerged as an official charity of the manufactured housing industry. For more information, reach Ken & Katie Hauck via (815) 201-2000.
Who hasn’t heard Don Westphal ‘hold forth’ on designing and rehabilitating LLLCommunities? Well, this time was different. As Don said earlier, here’s the BEST of what I’ve Learned during the past 40+ years in this business! And boy, did he deliver. Reach Don via (248) 651-5518.
Friday morning is always a special time at Networking Roundtables. Why? Because the Lenders’ Panel, this year comprised of 10 national real estate-secured loan originators, held the attention of LLLCommunity owners/operators for an entire hour – getting into the details of acquisition and refinance matters. If you’d like a copy of the 18th National Registry of ALL Lenders, simply phone the MHIndustry HOTLINE!
And, for the third year in a row, representatives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (at the last minute the Federal Housing Finance Agency rep could not attend), helped this audience become more comfortable with how the GSEs interact with our realty asset class!
Was this all that was covered? Nope. We also had stimulating presentations on internet marketing (Darren Krolewski @ MHVillage), Using SmartMH on-site to sell more manufactured homes (Chris Nicely @ Next Step Homes); contractor fraud (Pat Ford @ Stanford Insurance); and water sub metering/retrofitting old systems (Fred Rice @ Spectrum Utilities).
One resource everyone present treasures? The comprehensive attendee directory they receive – identifying all the Sponsors of the event, as well as ‘everyone’s’ contact information. Has long enjoyed the reputation as the best ‘event directory’ produced anywhere, anytime, by anyone!
See you next year? GFA
II.
Networking Roundtable Not All Education, Networking & Deal-making!
If there’s a ‘secret sauce’ that ensuring Success at every Networking Roundtable, besides 20+ education sessions, eight networking events, and deal-making opportunities, it has to do with what happens after lunch on the final day of the 2 ½ day program.
By then, attrition has reduced event participation by nearly 50 percent, so there might be 100+/- attendees convening in the major conference room following lunch. And during that time ‘we’ (everyone present) get pretty darn serious about the issues and matters facing the MHIndustry and its’ unique income-producing property type.
This year was no different. Here’re the topics put forward by the audience:
• Conjecture regarding eventual return of ‘easy access to traditional chattel capital’ for in-community financing of new and resale ‘home only’ mortgages; versus, openness – or not, to some form of new and hybrid financing, where homes are reclassified as ‘real estate’ and no longer ‘titled’ as vehicles. There are strong and entrenched opinions on both sides of this matter. Suggestion was made there be a closed-door meeting, where the merits and shortfalls of both alternatives are finally and summarily compared ‘line by line’, then debated and discussed1 Who will make this happen? MHI, MHARR, & COBA7®, are you reading this? Is anyone prepared to lead?
• By year end 2015, 40+ percent of all new HUD-Code home shipments were delivered directly into land-lease-lifestyle communities nationwide! It is believed the majority of these homes are being purchased and resold by dozens, if not more, of the 500+/- known portfolio owners/operators of LLLCommunities in the U.S. & Canada. What isn’t happening, on a large scale, is purchasing and reselling of new HUD-Code homes by smaller ‘Mom & Pop’-sized communities, i.e. 85 percent of 50,000+/- LLLCommunities nationwide1 The challenge here is: ‘How to identify these property owners, teach them how to buy, sell, and seller-finance new homes onto vacant rental homesites within their respective properties. Again; MHI, MHARR, & COBA7®, are you reading this? Who will seize the initiative to boost annual MH shipments back to the 100,000 level?
• There is some movement, via GSEs (i.e. Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac), and private companies (e.g. HAS Capital), towards realizing a secondary market for HUD-Code manufactured housing mortgages. But there has been little to no movement to realize a secondary market for the sale of existing HUD-Code manufactured homes, particularly those sited within LLLCommunities! Neither secondary market will emerge and grow without active leadership. Once again; MHI, MHARR, & COBA7®, are you paying attention to these issues? What will you do in 2017?
• Definition and application thereof, of ‘affordable housing’ continues to plague manufactured housing and LLLCommunity businessmen and women, just as it does folk in the conventional and subsidized apartment arena. It’s past ‘high time’ for us to define this concept, once and for all, ensuring it appears clearly and frequently in trade literature – so individuals and companies will know whether circumstances described as being ‘affordable housing’ are indeed affordable housing! An example. In Bruce Savage’s book, The First 20 Years! he borrows this definition from another text: ‘Housing is affordable when individuals or households ‘…earning less than half the Area Median Income or AMI’, can afford to rent a conventional apartment and or buy a home in their local housing market.” Pp. 105 & 106. To ascertain AMI, via postal zip code, go online to zipwho.com. If AMI is $50,000/year, then individual/household earning that amount should be able to rent an apartment or buy a home, in that local housing market defined by postal zip code, by investing $25,000/year in 12 monthly rental payments, or 12 house payments comprised of PITI (loan principal, interest, RE taxes, & insurance) alone; or, PITI + household utility payments for one year.
• Here’s a new one! Some believe there should be a clear demarcation between – but cooperation among, national entities claiming to be ‘national advocates’ for manufactured housing, and those providing ‘national resources’. For example; since the majority of revenue at MHI comes from HUD-Code manufacturers, and all such monies at MHARR, it makes sense both organizations, given their physical locations, be ‘national advocates’ for the MHIndustry – focused on improving image; regulatory matters; and in time perhaps, national brand marketing of manufactured housing. Since neither organization engages in sustained statistical research, beyond repeating and or massaging data purchased from the Institute for Building Safety & Technology (‘IBST’), or produces a weekly blog or monthly business newsletters, or compile directories (of consultants, RE brokers, HUD-Code home manufacturers, national trade bodies, and more), it would be natural for COBA7® to be officially recognized and encouraged as ‘national resource’ for the MHIndustry & LLLCommunities nationwide. What do you think?
See what one misses when leaving the Networking Roundtable early? None of the preceding are new issues to the manufactured housing industry, but they’re certainly on the active horizon now. Would like to learn of your perspectives on these matters, via email: gfa7156@aol.com, or mail: GFA c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247.
III.
More Afterglow…
Remember the ‘gift binder’ I told you I received from attendees at last week’s Networking Roundtable? Well, here’re a few more of the afterglow gems penned therein:
• ‘George was my inspiration to invest in a wardrobe of Hawaiian shirts.” ZH
• “My kids bought me his big red book (i.e. ‘How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community – as an Investment’) for Christmas, and I learned about operating expense ratios.” DH
• Here’s one I’ll particularly treasure for years to come: “George, you have made a significant impact on our industry over the past three decades. You have pulled together the various industry segments, with your seminars and publications; and in some sense, kept our industry going during bleak times as well as the prosperous times. My hat’s off to you. Thanks a million!” CH
IV.
Responses to Blog Posting # 412 re:
‘The Long View of MH ‘national advocacy’ & LLLCommunity ‘national resources’, 1980-2017’
We just talked about this in Part II, relative to MHIndustry issues & matters. This is just one of several similar responses to blog posting # 412, from two weeks ago:
“Thanks for the post today George. MHI doesn’t affiliate with COBA7® because MHI (erroneously) thinks it needs to provide similar products and services. Isn’t it time for MHI to focus on simply being the (a) national advocate or lobbyist – our eyes and ears at the national level, since our state associations function at the state level? More and more small and midsize community owners are supporting MHI through floor dues, with little-to-no associated benefits in return. Surely we can find a better use for those funds!”
Could share more with you, but this one ‘cuts to the trace’…gfa
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