Seven Past & Present Manufactured Housing Executives’ Books Available on Amazon.com
Blog Posting # 611 @ 6 Nov 2020; Copyright 2020: Educatemhc.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’
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INTRODUCTION: Have been wanting to share this information with you for some time now. We have some talented writers in our industry and realty asset class, and you should be (in my opinion) reading their published works. Here’s that information in Part I. And, Part II, shows yet another of our industry’s national advocates keeping pressure on the federal government bureaucracy, to better serve our financial (lending) needs! Part III announces a professional property management position available with one of the 500 land lease community portfolio firms.
I.
Seven Past & Present Manufactured Housing Executives’ Books Available on Amazon.com
Yes, you read that rightly. More and more manufactured housing and land lease community businessmen and association executives’ books are available for purchase via Amazon.com Here’s a summary of the ones found there today.
Four of the authors – one of whom is deceased, have their autobiographies available to purchase and read. Jim Clayton and Samuel Zell are the most widely known of these folk. Jim’s First a Dream was penned some time ago and is in its’ second edition. (There’s an interesting, albeit humorous story, that takes place between Jim and me, as he moves from the first to the second edition. Remind me to tell you about it someday.) And Sam Zell’s book, Am I Being Too Subtle? is classic Zell. In my opinion, probably one of the best non-fiction ‘stories’ in the entire mix.
Then there’re Mike Conlon’s Unconventional Wealth treatise – as much a HOW TO (get rich) text as partial autobiography. (And there’s an incident in these pages few know about today.). Why partial autobiography? When Mike penned this manuscript he was a young man, certainly in his 30s or 40s; so, room for more tale-telling down the road. The late George Goldman, unknown to most ‘newbies’ of the past couple decades, did a credible job with his autobiography, titled, The Road Less Traveled. While I Knew George, and his wife Judy, I still learned quite a bit about their land lease community business history, as well as their Woodall’s ‘mobile home park directory’ ownership for a time.
Rick Robinson and Charles Irion break the mold of MH non-fiction. I’ve known Chuck for most of my 40 year career, initially as a ‘mobile home park broker’ and limited partner in deals. But, more than that, I appreciate his skills as a mystery/thriller author. His books on Amazon.com? Murder on Kilimanjaro, Murder on Aconcagua; and recently, Murdered by Gods. Chuck also has a few ‘off the wall’ titles, one of which being, Roadkill Cooking for Campers. And finally, he’s an artist of sorts; unsure what to call the colorful representations I’ve seen to date.
Back to Rick Robinson. Most folk reading this know him from his years with the Manufactured Housing Institute; and of late, manufacturedhomes.com – where he’s vice president for industry relations. That aside, he’s a prolific author of mystery/thrillers, with these titles: Opposition Research (most recent book), The Advance Man, Alligator Alley, The Maximum Contribution, Sniper Bid, Manifest Destiny, Writ of Mandamus, Killing the Curse, The Promise of Cedar Key, Washing Cars to Hollywood Stars, and Strange Bedfellow. WOW! What production! Me? I’ve read the first three of the books listed.
I also feel fortunate to have my books available, not only via Educatemhc.com, but at Amazon.com These include new editions of the Chapbook of Business Management & Wisdom, as well as the Chapbook of Prayer, and Collection of Figurative Language & Figures of Speech – ‘A Tool of Writers & Readers’. ‘Closer to home’, so to speak, are these manufactured housing and land lease community-related titles: Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (8th edition of Manufactured Housing Manager certification text, and most comprehensive land lease community management text ever published!); also, SWAN SONG, the combined ‘MHShipment Totals from 1955 to date’ & personal, semi-autobiography within our industry and realty asset class. Also on Amazon.com, as ‘used texts’ are the two J. Wiley & Sons classic tomes: Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities (1994) and How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community (1996) – both long out of print but still popular as references, nonetheless.
Now, there are other interesting titles, and places to get them. For example, the RV/MH Hall of Fame stocks and sells above-referenced books by Jim Clayton, George Goldman, and some by George Allen; also an autobiography, The Trailer Twins, by the late Darrell & Harrell Cohron. Then, there’s Al Schrader’s autobiography, No Respect At All – A Path to Million$. The most recent addition to titles available via RV/MH, is Leap of Faith by Jim, Ralph, & Jeff Scoular.
Well, there you have it. Some really great reading in most of the books authored by manufactured housing executives and businessmen. Heck; maybe there’s a story you need to be telling! If so, contact me via email (gfa7156@aol.com) and ask for a FREE copy of the booklet, ‘Who Will Preserve Your Legacy?’ This little gem contains not only excerpts from the ten MH autobiographies penned to date, but describes five HOW TO ‘legacy pen’ steps along the way.
II.
MHI Keeps Pressure on FHFA & GSEs!
This from Manufactured Housing Institute’s ‘News & Updates’ newsletter of 28 October 2020:
“MHI…to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’) emphasizing the critical importance of access to secondary markets for manufactured home loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs), under their statutory Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) manufactured housing. In the letter, MHI acknowledged the progress the GSEs have made in increasing volume of land-home loans and creating new financing options for the industry’s new CrossMod™ homes, but called for more progress in the development of a secondary market for chattel lending. MHI also discussed the GSE’s financing for land-lease communities for Duty to Serve Credit.”
“MHI comment letter follows remarks by MHI CEO Lesli Gooch before the FHFA, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, during its’ recent Listening Session about the GSE’s Duty to Serve manufactured housing, and a recent MHI meeting with FHFA Director Mark Calabria on the subject.”
It is so important the national advocates for manufactured housing and land lease communities continue to apply pressure to the FHFA and GSEs relative to their DTS responsibilities!
III.
Regional PM Position Open
One of the 500 land lease community portfolio owners/operators is seeking a regional property manager for the Southeast U.S. If qualified, experienced, and interested, let me know via email: gfa7156@aol.com Attach resume and I’ll forward your message and attachment to this firm.
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George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC.com