George Allen, CPM, MHM - MASTER
Certified Property Manager© Emeritus, Institute of Real Estate Management
Manufactured Housing Manager – Master, EducateMHC
Member, RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame
Member Emeritus, Manufactured Housing Institute
Lieutenant Colonel, USMCR (Retired), decorated Vietnam combat veteran
George Allen, since 1970, has worked in factory-built housing, initially as an in-plant & operations manager for two wall panel & roof truss manufacturers; then in 1978 as a regional property manager over four (then) mobile home parks in two states. In 1980, he & his wife founded GFA Management, Inc., to fee manage income-producing properties in the Midwest.
In 1988, George self-published his first book, Mobile Home Park Management; today in its’ seventh edition & titled, Land Lease Community Management. To date, he has trained and certified nearly 1,500 Manufactured Housing Managers (‘MHM’) using that text! In 1994, he co-authored Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities with David Alley & Edward Hicks. In 1996 he edited How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community. Both texts published by J. Wiley & Sons in New York City. Since then, George has authored and edited an additional dozen books, the most recent being Swan Song, first history of the land lease community asset class, & official record of new manufactured housing shipments since 1955.
In 1989, George researched and published the first, of 30, annual ALLEN REPORTs: ‘Who’s Who Among Land Lease Community Portfolio Owners/operators Located Throughout North America!’ A couple years later, Carolyn & George hosted the first of 27 International Networking Roundtables; and began publishing the Allen Letter, a monthly business newsletter, later joined by the Allen CONFIDENTIAL!; and most recently, 500+ weekly blog postings.
In 1993, at the behest of a dozen property portfolio owners, George facilitated a strategic planning meeting, to enhance national advocacy for the realty asset class; that in 1996, led to the launch of MHI’s National Communities Council division. And in early 2014, to ensure continued availability of products and services to land lease community owners/operators nationwide, and in Canada, the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance began its work. Since then, EducateMHC has absorbed and converted COBA7 into a digital platform.
George Allen’s notable achievements include the evolution of trade terminology, e.g. from mobile home park to manufactured home community, to today, land lease community. And in 2009, organized a national meeting at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., where the Community Series Home concept was birthed. Plus, his Industry Standard Chart of Accounts & related operations expense ratios, continue to be land lease community benchmarks to this day.