MAKE MANUFACTURED HOUSING GREAT AGAIN!
Blog # 487; Copyright @ 10 June 2018; community-investor.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, & ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
This blog posting is the sole national advocate, voice, official ombudsman, historian, research report & online communication media for all North American LLCommunities.
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 to transform & improve MHBusiness performance!
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INTRODUCTION: (I) ‘Make Manufactured Housing Great Again! – revisited. (II) New Home Sales & Financing & Rental Homesite Leasing in Communities Seminar, (III) New Tool for Estimating Compensation of On-site Property Managers, (IV) Your Legacy Preservation Tool is Here & Available for Purchase!
I.
MAKE MANUFACTURED HOUSING GREAT AGAIN
‘Touched Nerves With This rallying cry, theme, goal, last week!’
Thanks for encouraging phone calls and email messages relative to last week’s blog posting introducing MAKE MANUFACTURED HOUSING GREAT AGAIN! Sole regret? HUD-Code housing manufacturers, who also received this blog posting – and should be supporting an industry wide rallying cry, theme, goal – did not reply. Maybe this time around….If not; well, that in itself sends the rest of us a clear message!
Especially appreciated Ross Kinzler’s ‘take’ on the idea of embracing a rallying cry, theme, goal, for the manufactured housing industry going forward, relative to shipping 100,000 new HUD-Code homes by year end 2018, and 200,000 by year end 2022. Here’s what he penned on the subject (Can you pick out his two recommended theme variants?):
“Can I take a contrarian view? Which is better, looking back or looking forward? What was so great in the past other than shipments? If the industry was starting from scratch, what would it want from regulators? I contend it has it all, just some tweaks needed. So instead, how about: MH to the Rescue! The pitch should be ‘The housing answer is right here, right now, Just Say YES!”
Actually, all three shibboleths (‘slogans’) are not far apart in focus and message. What say you?
Then there’s this related tangent, sent from ‘our industry’s unofficial, but always building bridges with academia, liaison’, Rick Roethke of Barrington Investments (in IN & CA).
“I had dinner recently, in Palm Beach, with the chief economist and economic strategist for (one of the GSEs), and we had a stimulating conversation (about) manufactured housing. I believe the (federal) government still has a distaste for manufactured housing; however, they realize its’ competitive price advantage over stick-built. The challenges remain: land use issues, chattel financing, and perhaps more detrimental than people think – the image of manufactured housing and its’ trailer park stigma. I offered (him) a concept model for transforming obsolete communities, making them modern and desirable, thereby beginning a fundamental transformation of the industry – a huge challenge!” (lightly edited)
As a related sidebar, and with Rick’s assistance, COBA7, as a service to affiliates, has assembled a new Signature Series Resource Document titled: ‘Academics Involved in &/or Interested in Manufactured Housing &/or Land Lease Communities’. It contains the names and contact information for no fewer than a dozen academics. If you’re an affiliate in good standing with COBA7, and would like a FREE copy of this new SSRD, simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 and request it. Furthermore, if you’re reading this, and are an academic – or a businessperson who knows such individuals interested in our industry or real estate asset class, have them get in direct touch with me, so Rick can vet (‘examine thoroughly’) them before placement on this long-awaited and valuable list of august personalities.
OK, so now where does MAKE MANUFACTURED HOUSING GREAT AGAIN! stand today? That’s pretty much up to us! As I told you before, it’ll be on the agenda at the MHAlive! ‘think tank’, the morning of 6 August at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. You’re Welcome to participate, for only $20.00/person, payable at the door, but RSVP is a MUST before 31 July 2018. Phone (317) 346-7156.
Next. MAKE MANUFACTURED HOUSING GREAT AGAIN! is now the theme of the 27th annual International Networking Roundtable, 5-7 September, at the Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis. Go to www.GetMeRegistered.com/COBA7NRT2018 to register ASAP (Attendance limited to 200 & we’re already rapidly approaching that number!). For info, give me a call.
And, I’ve suggested to the SECO Conference in the South folk adopt the MAKE MANUFACTURED HOUSING GREAT AGAIN! theme for their 9-11 October annual gathering in Atlanta, GA. For info, contact genevieve@secoconference.com
Will national manufactured housing advocates MHI & MHARR adopt this powerful rallying cry, theme, goal for their respective meetings this Fall? Watch and see! In my opinion, whether they do or not, will be a prime indicator as to whether they’re on board to MAKE MANUFACTURED HOUSING GREAT AGAIN! Or, perhaps they’ll unite and come up with their own exciting telling variant. As I said, ‘Let’s Watch & see!
II.
Available for the First Time Ever!
21st Century ‘New Home Sales & Financing, &
Rental Homesite Leasing, in Land Lease Communities’
This is a half or full day manufactured housing sales and site leasing training program available to land lease community owners/operators unable to attend the biennial Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars conducted at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. The gist of the sales/financing/leasing program is contained in Figure L, featured in both editions of SWAN SONG, ‘George Allen’s History of the Land Lease Community Real Estate Asset Class’ (1970 to present day). Seminar cost? $1,000.00 plus travel-related expenses. Best suited for state manufactured housing, or portfolio firm hosting. For more information, phone the aforementioned Official MHIndustry HOTLINE. And if you’d like to order the new, second edition of the book for $24.95 (includes S&H) before 1 August 2018; $34.95 thereafter. Do so, using the same phone number or (317) 346-7156.
III.
On-site Property Manager Compensation
Finally, a formula for estimating compensation of PMs in any local housing market!
Yes, this has been a multi year project. Last year at the Networking Roundtable, Frank Bowman, executive director of the Illinois Manufactured housing Association, ‘broke fertile ground’ with land lease community owners/operators as he reviewed and summarized On-site Property Management Compensation, laying the foundation for new information to come.
Well it’s here! Maybe not the whole panacea of PM compensation, but the new concept is, in this industry observer’s opinion, the first big step in the right direction in more than 40 years of paying salaried employees what their job is worth.
How to learn this new material (formulae)? Be present at the 27th annual International Networking Roundtable when Frank ‘holds forth’ on this seminal topic, then opens the floor for discussion. As a land lease community owners/operator responsible for this task, you’ll want to be ‘in the room’ on 6 September in Indianapolis, IN. Again, visit www.GetMeRegistered.com/COBA7NRT2018.
IV.
It’s Here!
‘Who’ll Preserve Our Legacy as a Manufactured Housing or Community Businessperson? Answer: You!’
The 24 page booklet bearing this provocative title is ‘hot off the press’! It profiles all 10 manufactured housing & land lease community owner/operator autobiographers, and quotes from their respective books. The booklet also contains a Five Step Process for Preserving Your Personal & Corporate Legacy, as well as recommendations for self-publishing and book marketing guidance..
How could you not want a copy? They’ll first be available at the informal writers’ seminar at the RV/MH Hall of Fame on 6 August, 1-3PM, for $20.00 – includes other pithy handout material as well. RESVP for the seminar is a MUST, before 31 July 2018, via (317) 346-7156. Or, if you don’t want to wait until then, simply mail a check in the amount of $25.00 ($20 for booklet & handout material, plus $5.00 for postage and handling) to COBA7 c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247.
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George Allen, CPM, MHM
COBA7, a div. of GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing
Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 346-7156.