No One Is Going To Tell You This – & Much Much More!
2019; www.educatemhc.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
This blog posting is sole national advocate, official ombudsman, historian, research reporter, education resource & online communication media for North American land lease communities
To input this blog, &/or affiliate with EduateMHC, formerly Community Owners (7 part) Business Alliance, or COBA7, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Online media goal? Inform, opine, transform & improve manufactured housing & land lease community performance! Visit www.educatemhc.com
INTRODUCTION. OK, the time has come: Nobody Else Will Tell You This! Read Part I following.
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Two reminders: ‘Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars’ occurs June 17 & 18 at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. To register, phone (317) 247-6258×11 And on June 19th, if you desire professional property management training & certification, like the nearly 1,500 MHMs now owning/operating land lease communities throughout the U.S. & Canada, plan to be at the RV/MH Hall of Fame for the day! Only $395 per MHM candidate. No testing! Visit www.educatemhc.com or phone official MHIndustry HOTLINE:(877)MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 for more information.
I.
Nobody Else Will Tell You This!
Enough of the Name Calling, Sensationalist Caterwauling, & Questionable Claims!
Since 2009, manufactured housing’s nadir (‘worst’) year ever, when only 48,789 new HUD-Code homes were shipped nationwide, we’ve collectively and simultaneously endured and experienced:
• The loss of easy access to chattel capital for new home loans in communities
• Two venerable trade magazines ceasing publication (i.e. Manufactured Home Merchandiser and The Journal)
• Two new trade pubs birthed (i.e. MHInsider and Manufactured Housing Review)
• A near continuous online diatribe (‘bitter & abusive denunciation’) of one – but not both, national advocates for manufactured housing (i.e. MHI but not MHARR), one or another state association executive (e.g. WI being latest target), and specific corporate executives (e.g. from Clayton Homes & 21st Mortgage) not aligned with a particular yellow journalist’s views of the manufactured housing industry.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Together, as an industry and realty asset class, we should be; no, we must be, ‘working together’ to eclipse 100,000 new HUD-Code housing shipments during year 2019. Also to offset negative press coming from social activist quarters regarding predatory site rent practices foisted on homeowners/site lessees! But such a coming together will continue to elude us as long as an industry outlier broadcasts speculative contrarian tripe, tearing down manufactured housing and land lease community business models at will!
SOLUTION? Make it a point, henceforth, to support your state manufactured housing association as an active member, as well as one or more of three national advocacy bodies (i.e. MHI, MHARR & now, NAMHCO). Also ensure you’re on the receiving end of MHInsider magazine, Manufactured Housing Review online ezine, the Allen Letter (if a land lease community owner/operator), and the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! business newsletter – if a top housing manufacturer or portfolio executive!
Frankly, that’s ALL YOU NEED TO READ & BELIEVE, to stay cogently, accurately, and timely informed about industry and asset class matters! Resist any temptation to succumb to reading anything by anyone engaged in name calling, sensationalist caterwauling, and questionable claims! JUST DO IT – resist the temptation to muck & muddle your thinking. You’ll be glad you did!
If you need contact information relative to trade entities and publications identified in the previous paragraphs, simply let me know via gfa7156@aol.com or (317) 346-7156. And to subscribe to the Allen Letter and or the Allen Confidential business newsletter, visit www.educatemhc.com
II.
Exciting New Addition to Networking Roundtable
IMPACT Communities, headed by Dave Reynolds, recently shared videos with this industry observer, demonstrating ‘really good work’ being performed on-site by volunteers, at the firm’s land lease communities. Work such as making repairs to homes, cleaning up debris from homesites, and much more. An impressive story! So impressive, steps have already been taken to showcase IMPACT Cares videos of ‘resident relations in action’, during the 28th annual Networking Roundtable, 8-10 September, in Indianapolis, IN.
And that’s not all!
Allen Letter readers are already familiar with the Noble Home Video Contest sponsored by ROC USA. Well, the contest deadline was extended to mid-April, maybe later. Several excellent videos have been received, showing land lease communities in the very best light. The plan is to also showcase these winning videos, ‘in movie premier fashion’, during the Networking Roundtable, 8-10 September, in Indianapolis, IN. Visit www.educatemhc.com for details.
III.
How Important is MH to HUD?
Did you know? HUD occasionally publishes a Manufactured Housing Newsletter
The newsletter, titled, ‘The FACTs’, when published, is distributed by the Office of Manufactured Housing Programs. Now for the big – and ‘telling’ question: ‘When was the last such newsletter published?’ Our records indicate December 2015, while Pamela Danner was still administrator of the Office of Manufactured Housing Programs. Nothing since then! So, three years and four months of ‘silence’ about manufactured housing, and by extension, land lease communities…the affordable housing & lifestyle combination ‘going begging’ for HUD support, while the affordable housing crisis in the U.S. only worsens! Go figure.
To me, ‘The FACTS’ rarely published newsletter has become the bellwether (i.e. ‘leading indicator’) of HUD’s true level of interest in regulating manufactured housing via the HUD-Code, but its’ lack of interest promoting factory-built housing’s quality, energy-efficient, nonsubsidized housing type as a key component to solving this nation’s ongoing and growing affordable housing crisis!
Is anyone at HUD paying attention? Prove it by preparing and sending us, the manufactured housing industry and land lease community realty asset class, an informative, even exciting updated issue of ‘The FACTS’ before Summer arrives! And then communicate with us on a regular basis thereafter.
III.
Webinar Wows – What’s Next?
If you missed the 16 April IREM webinar, there may well be a print sequel!
Dozens of manufactured housing aficionados and land lease community ‘wanna be’ and present day investors listened in on the one hour Institute of Real Estate Management webinar. The session wound up being, likely, the most statistics and trend-filled description of the industry and realty asset class ever broadcast to a true national audience! And the clamor now is ‘for more’!
So, given the copious amount of material researched and packaged for this webinar, plans are afoot to publish same, either as a feature in a future issue of IREM’s Journal of Property Management, the MHInsider magazine, and or the Allen Letter. So watch for it. At the very least, subscribe to the latter two publications, to know for sure, when and where the compendium will be published. For the Allen Letter; visit www.educatemhc.com
George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Box # 47024
Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 346-7156