George Allen / EducateMHC Blog Mobile Home & Land Lease Community Advocate & Expert

December 13, 2014

Use ‘FFF’ = Save $, & COBA7 Ombudsman (press)

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 10:23 am

COBA7® via community-investor.com Blog # 327 Copyright @ 14 December 2014

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 the primary national advocacy voice, official ombudsman, 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.

Introduction to this week’s COBA7® blog posting at community-investor.com website:

I.

Lightening is striking twice, where the manufactured housing industry is concerned; first, $ overregulation by the CFPB, now renewed focus on Frost Free Foundations by HUD! Brings new impetus to yon truism, ‘You can run but you cannot hide – for long!’

II.

Are high new home shipment freight costs discouraging you from ordering the new HUD-Code home, or homes, you planned to install on-site and sell on speculation? Well, let’s hope the MH manufacturers read this week’s blog and pass on gas savings to you!

I

A ‘Frost Free Foundation’ in Your Future?

What We’ve Learned Since Last Week’s Blog Posting # 326. Read it first!

Before we bring you up to date on this subject, here’s one of several responses, to blog posting # 326, received from blog floggers (readers) since last Sunday’s posting:

“Good post today George! Excellent recommendations on FFF. ‘Installation’ is one of those areas where ‘mayhem’ can unfortunately, bite us in the butt years after a MH is sold, reinforcing feelings about our industry being ‘cheap, disposable, or short-term’. We had a similar problem with excessive pier settling because of poor soil load bearing – until we tested the soil and increased the number of piers. Thanks for all you do!” SP

So, we are dealing with a real business world matter here. Hopefully you now realize why personal and corporate knowledge of the Frost Free Foundation® or FFF design is important to your livelihood. Now here’s what we’ve learned since last week’s posting….

Permission to reprint Frost Free Foundation® for manufactured homes was denied!

But FFF is already on the internet. Google Frost Free Foundation® and scroll thru FFF descriptions to two labeled as PDFs. There you’ll find the 11 page design document.

And here’s how the Systems Building Research Alliance (SBRA), in its’ literature, describes how to get permission to use FFF for new home installation, i.e. “Any company or individual wishing to use the FFF design should contact the manufacturer of the home for information obtaining the rights to use the design.” Which HUD-Code home firms are listed? Clayton Homes, Champion Home Builders, Inc., Hi-Tech Housing, Homebuilders Northwest, Liberty Homes, Inc., Palm Harbor Homes, and Pine grove Homes, Inc. If you need assistance getting in touch with any of these firms, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 and ask for help. COBA7® affiliates; simply refer to the Signature Series Resource Document (SSRD) titled: ‘Major Factory-built Housing Manufacturers, to include HUD-Code Homes, Modulars, & ‘RV Park Models’.

How ‘bout ‘community owners/operators’? Contact the manufacturers listed above – or if buying from a manufacturer not listed, have them contact SBRA directly to get access to FFF. Even community owners/operators “…can license the FFF design for use with existing homes” by requesting the ‘Frost Free Foundation® Design: Application for Community Owners, Existing Homes’. Complete it and submit to SBRA. Individuals too can access FFF via SBRA. In all instances, simply phone (212) 496-0900X10

When the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (‘MHCC’) met last week they were briefed on HUD’s efforts to develop an installation regimen for approximately 16 states currently without programs. HUD expects to launch a pilot installation program in two states by March 2015, anticipating full implementation sometime in 2017. That schedule is what’s ‘turned the heat up’ on accessibility to the Frost Free Foundation® design protocol among land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators in the U.S..

COBA7® reminds everyone planning to use the Frost Free Foundation® design, within or outside land-lease-lifestyle communities, to seriously consider incorporating the six bullet points articulated by a Midwest state MHAssociation executive, into their FFF plan. Simply scroll back to blog posting # 326 at the community-investor.com website.

As there are further developments on this important and timely topic, we’ll let you know here, in the Allen Letter professional journal, and the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! business newsletter. All three MHIndustry & LLLCommunity communication and trade media resources are brought to you by the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance® or COBA7®. If you’re not already an affiliate, a.k.a. ‘MHInsider’, simply phone the aforementioned Official MHIndustry HOTLINE to do so. 200 of your peers affiliated during 2014; expecting 400 ‘MHInsiders’ to be on board by end of year 2015.

II.

Ombudsman (press) Gets Mail from You

Recent correspondence from a land-lease-lifestyle community owner/operator observed:

“Hey George, what’s with the HUD-Code home manufacturers? Every time the price of crude oil goes UP, so do their freight charges! Yet now, as the price of crude oil plummets DOWN, where are the decreases in freight charges – and how soon will we see them? When asked, the home manufacturers from whom we buy new homes, avoid the issue at every turn. Maybe a little open publicity will prod them into cutting this onerous cost addition to their product.” FR

Recent cursory research online shows June 2014 gasoline prices, at the pump, to have been $3.68/gallon, when crude oil was at $106.53/bbl. And earlier this month (12/3), gas prices dropped to $2.73/gallon, as crude oil priced down to $67.25/bbl. And here we are at December mid-month, and gasoline prices at the pump continue to decline further.

Executives at the Big 3-C, HUD-Code home manufacturers (Controlling 80+/-% national MH market share) receive this weekly blog posting, via BEBA (Blast Email Blog Alert), as do many smaller, regional home manufacturers. How ‘bout if we give them grace to the end of December to make freight price adjustments. After all, lowering this onerous expense only helps promote additional new home sales and shipments ‘in the dead of Winter’. Remind me to revisit the matter during early January 2015.

Ombudsman (press)? Some reading this likely wondered what that was all about, as you read the title to Part II of this week’s blog posting. Several months ago, a few COBA7® ‘MHInsiders’ suggested we activate the seventh part of the alliance’s business model – that being ‘national advocacy when need be’, by publicly offering to do what we’ve long done privately, i.e. receive your concerns and complaints regarding various aspects of manufactured housing and LLLCommunities, then ‘put the right parties together’ to resolve matters, seek solutions, and move us ahead together. Well, we’ve been doing that, and this matter of ‘too high new home shipment freight prices’ is simply the latest issue addressed, and the first in a public (press) fashion. So, do you have a matter appropriate to ombudsman attention? Simply phone the aforementioned Official MHIndustry HOTLINE. After all, ‘ombudsman (press)’ services underscore the COBA7® motto of ‘U Support Us & We Serve U!’

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