New MH Team: Home Manufacturers & Communities

COBA7® via community-investor.com Blog # 341 Copyright @ 22 March 2015

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 a national advocacy voice, official ombudsman (press), research reporter, & online communication media, for all LLLCommunities in North America!

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!’, and Goal of its’ three print & online publications is, ‘Not only to share information & opinions, but to transform & improve!’

I.

HUD Code Home Manufacturers &
Communities Finally Really Together!

Yes, You Can Be Part of Manufactured Housing Industry History Making at 24th Networking Roundtable in San Diego on 9/10/15!

Couldn’t tell you this before today. The two hour Keynote Session, during the morning of 10 September 2015, at this year’s 24th annual Networking Roundtable, features ALL major HUD-Code home manufacturers pitching their Community Series Home product lines to more than 200 land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators gathered from throughout the U.S. and Canada! And after they’ve done so, the convention floor will be opened for audience questions, comments, and discussion.

This unique pairing has happened once before during the 70 year history of the manufactured housing industry; and that was to get us, HUD-Code home manufacturers & community owners, started down a new path together, that we continue to be on to this day!. And this reunion of sorts, is intended to encourage both parties to aspire to a new and more productive level of home shipments in the present and near future. How can you not want to be present on this exciting occasion?

But first a little history, describing What has brought us to this auspicious (‘well-omened’ & ‘betokening success’ Selling More New Homes into Communities) opportunity, and Who the keynote presenters will likely be that day.

This six year evolution began at the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., with the 27 February 2009 National State of the Asset Class (‘NSAC’) caucus of 100 HUD-Code home manufacturers and community owners. While we didn’t realize it then, this caucus moved our industry away from exclusive reliance on independent (street) MHRetailers to fill vacant rental homesites in communities, to far more in-community home placements by the owners/operators of those income-producing properties. It was at this caucus, home manufacturers agreed to design, build and market a new line of HUD-Code homes that, by years end, would be referred to as Community Series Homes, or CSH models. That year, 2009, 25 percent of the annual shipment total of 49,789 new HUD-Code homes went into (then) manufactured home communities, for a total of 12,450 homes.

The Community Series Home? Generally, a singlesection home or modest-sized multisection home with one or more exterior &/or interior WOW! Factors, plus an array of durability-enhancing features, intended to ease the ‘make ready’ between tenants and or homebuyers. CSH Models are often marketed by Business Development Managers, or BDMs, selected and trained by the various HUD-Code home manufacturers. A FREE list of CSH Model features, and BDM contact information, is available by phoning the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. And every October, COBA7® affiliates receive an updated list of ALL the HUD-Code home manufacturers in the U.S., along with their contact information.

By year end 2013, the percentage of new HUD-Code homes shipped directly into (now) land-lease-lifestyle communities rose to 30 percent of 60,228 homes shipped, with 18,100 of these going directly into communities; and that percentage is expected to rise further, when 2014 U.S. Census Bureau statistics are available. It was also during year 2013, a new trade term, describing LLLCommunities in general, debuted: the New Breed of MHRetailer & Lender!

Furthermore, year 2014, in part due to this markedly increased participation by communities, in the new home marketing and buying/selling/financing process, was labeled the ‘NEW ERA for LLLCommunities’ nationwide! And this new role, to a large extent supplanting traditional independent (street) MHRetailers, required more research, resources, communication, camaraderie, professional property management, even national advocacy (e.g. ombudsman/press services), than before. So, to meet that increased and broadened need, the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance® or COBA7® was launched in Indianapolis, IN., as a division of GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing.

Now we’re well into year 2015, and headed for this historic event in September, where HUD-Code home manufacturers and community owners/operators will ‘Meet & Talk As One’. Who’re the HUD-Code home manufacturers on board at this time?

• Keith O. Holdbrooks, president of Clayton Manufacturing, Clayton Homes in Maryville, TN.

• Joe Stegmayer, Chairman & CEO of Cavco Industries, Inc., in Phoenix, AZ.

• The new CEO, or a senior vice president, from Champion Home Builders in Troy, MI.

• Terry Decio, of Skyline Corporation in Elkhart, IN.

• Wally Comer, of Adventure Homes, LLC, in Garrett, IN.

• And, one or two firms yet to be named; members of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’). We hope to announce ‘who’ following this weeks MHShow in Tunica, Mississippi.

All the participating home manufacturers have been asked to cover four key points in their brief presentations:

1. ‘Why should LLLCommunity owners buy their CSH Models?’

2. What marketing & sales training support is available to communities selling new homes on-site?

3. Is the Frost Free Foundation® or FFF® an approved installation procedure for their firm’s homes? What guidance is provided the community owner?

4. How to ascertain the most marketable home line(s) per local housing market, and how’re affordable home buying price points calculated?

This event, given your participation, can and will be precedent-setting, and impetus for community owners becoming more comfortable filling the estimated 250,000 vacant rental homesites nationwide, with new HUD-Code Community Series Homes!

To ensure YOU receive an invitation to attend, as a LLLCommunity owner/operator, or vendor of needed products, $ and services, phone the aforementioned HOTLINE, and consider affiliating with COBA7®, to receive the monthly Allen Letter professional journal, even the 26th annual ALLEN REPORT, a.k.a. ‘Who’s Who Among LLLCommunity Portfolio Owners/operators Throughout North America!’

See YOU in San Diego, 9-11 September 2015, at the Hilton Resort Hotel on Mission Bay! Let’s make manufactured housing history together!

II.

Pulling Out All the Stops!

Here’s where to be, if you’re a true ‘player’ in either or both the manufactured housing scene & land-lease-lifestyle communities!

It’s as simple as this. There are select places to go to be seen; other places where you go to learn ‘what’s really going on’ relative to sensitive and strategic matters; and, places where manufactured housing & LLLCommunity history will be made! Here’re a few tips, about such places, for you to consider:

• 25 March in Albany, NY. Pam Danner, esquire, from HUD; Bruce Savage from AHA; & I, will be addressing attendees from 11 NE-USA states. In my case, I’ll be delivering the ‘State of the MHIndustry & LLLCommunity Asset Class’ talk I share monthly with MHAssociations and companies throughout the U.S.. Plus, ‘What YOU Need to Know About Today’s ‘Asset Aggregation Wave’, a.k.a. LLLCommunity property consolidation trend, that no one else will tell you!. And, the first public presentation of ‘Frost Free Foundations® & the LLLCommunity owner/operator!’ Where else in the U.S. can YOU go to receive that triple dose of needed info in one sitting? Nowhere else! Phone (518) 867-3242 on Monday, 3/23 to register. Tell ‘em, ‘George sent me!’

• 31 March in Dixon, IL. If you own/operate one or more land-lease-lifestyle communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities), YOU owe it to yourself, and your on-site or regional managers, to receive professional property management training and certification! The Manufactured Housing Manager®, or MHM® program is a one day, no test affair, costing only $250.00 per person. This class presently has 15 registered, but can handle 10 more. To register, phone (317) 346-7156 this coming week. See YOU in Dixon next Monday? Hope so!

• 15 April in Las Vegas, NV. Yes, I’ll be at the MHCongress this year – mainly at the request of many COBA7® affiliates! Looking forward to the networking. BUT more important, and I can’t yet share the details with you here, there’ll be a very Special Event occurring during the afternoon for LLLCommunity owners & operators. I’ll be actively participating in it, and will share details with you here, when available. For now, let’s just say, it’ll be – like this year’s Networking Roundtable in San Diego (9-11 September), a truly historic ‘happening’, one YOU won’t want to miss!

*****

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