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

August 26, 2017

The Most Important Blog Posting Ever, from George Allen, CPM & MHM

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 4:39 am

Blog # 461; Copyright 27 August 2017; at community-investor.com/blog

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities’, previously manufactured home communities, & ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’

This blog posting is the sole national advocate, voice, official ombudsman, historian, research report, & online communication media for all North American LLCommunities.

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! Goal of its’ print & online media =
to not only inform & opine, but to transform & improve MHBusiness performance!

_____________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION. Some will say I saved the Best for Last. You decide…

Part I should be important to YOU! Act NOW if you desire to continue receiving this weekly BEBA (Blast Email Blog Alert) & its’ imbedded website blog posting.

Part II announces distribution of the COBA7 letter & questionnaire used to research, compile and pen the annual (29th year!) ALLEN REPORT in early 2018.

Part III is a summary of progress re COBA7s’ Four Part Legacy during 2017!

Part IV, a Networking Roundtable update re Challenge Coins, SWAN SONG text, & most important, National MHIndustry Input Day – the third of four opportunities during 2017!

Part V. The ‘word is now out’! Two national manufactured housing advocacy entities face an ACID TEST of their respective effectiveness, representing & lobbying in behalf of the beleaguered manufactured housing industry & its’ land lease community realty asset class! What is this ACID TEST? Read, find out, & encourage them to perform now!

I.

Winnowing BEBA at Community-Investor.com

We’re scouring the ‘Blast Email Blog Alert’ list of 1,000+/-, removing casual & occasional readers, to better serve businessmen, women & association executives with ‘skin in the games’ of manufactured housing, land lease community ownership/operations, & state/national advocacy leadership!

Unlike another website blog, self-obsessed with boasts of unconfirmed mega-audience claims, community-investor.com is redoubling efforts to focus on high quality posted material & a serious readership – not salacious (‘impure’) news & exaggerated bragging of influence penned vaingloriously. So, how will this winnowing (‘weeding out’) of the BEBA list occur?

Present recipients of this BEBA (again, ‘Blast Email Blog Alert’) and its’ imbedded link to weekly blog postings at community-investor.com, must email their Request to Continue Receipt of same beyond 10 September 2017. Use gfa7156@aol.com Following the initial call for such confirmation, in blog posting # 460, dozens of manufactured housing, land lease community folk, and trade advocacy leaders have already requested to remain on the BEBA list! Are YOU interested likewise, and have you expressed your desire to stay informed? Don’t Delay; Do So Today!

II.

It’s That Time of Year Again!

Watch your USPS (United States Postal Service) mail during September! Why? Because the annual letter & questionnaire used to research, compile, pen, print & distribute – in this case – the 29th annual ALLEN REPORT, will soon be coming your way, if you’re one of 500+/- land lease community portfolio owners/operators domiciled throughout North America!

This is, by far, the most difficult (i.e. Chasing & documenting benchmark statistics), yet rewarding research project COBA7 engages in year after year after year. The often 12 page ALLEN REPORT is purchased (via Option II affiliation @ $544.95/year with COBA7), read, and publicly referenced by hundreds, if not thousands, of investors and property managers, in the U.S. & Canada, engaged in land lease community ownership and or operations. Key parts of the report include: COBA7 national advocacy update, Year to Date Retrospective, Statistical Primer, LLCommunity portfolio data (e.g. occupancy, OER%s, # rental & contract sale units, & national site rent survey), list of all participating property portfolios, REIT growth chart from 1994 to present day by site counts; # of LLCommunities per state); and major $ sponsors – with contact information – of most recent Networking Roundtable. Where else and from whom can you, if owning/operating one or more land lease communities, can you obtain such valuable information? Nowhere! To order your copy of the 29th ALLEN REPORT, a.k.a. ‘Who’s Who Among Land Lease Community Portfolio Owners/operators’, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

ANNOUNCEMENT. It’s already general, common knowledge I’m looking to at least semi-retire in the near future, to concentrate on authoring books long awaiting my attention (e.g. Letters Home from Vietnam, 1968 & 69; also, a new edition of Chapbook of Business & Management Wisdom – used copies are presently sold on Amazon.com for $85.00. We used to charge $24.95 postpaid.) Anyway, if you’re research & writer capable, industry & asset class experienced, and highly motivated to serve your peers in the manufactured housing industry and this unique income-producing property type; and would like to discuss partnering on this major annual project, reach me via gfa7156@aol.com or (317) 346-7156. Better yet, make your desire known to me, 6-8 September, in Indianapolis, IN., at the 26th annual International Networking Roundtable. Details in the BEBA introducing this blog posting.

III.

COBA7’s Four Part Legacy During Year 2017

Earlier in the year, this blog described COBA7’s Four Part Legacy, as being

• Design, minting, & distribution of the first ever COBA7 Challenge Coin! This has been accomplished, and COBA7 affiliates are encouraged to bring theirs to the Networking Roundtable for an opportunity to select free copies of George Allen’s books and other surprises. Like a secret handshake, the COBA7 Challenge Coin has become a tangible symbol of solidarity & motivation among land lease community owners/operators, small to large in size. Have yours? If not; affiliate!

• Design, print, and distribute the manufactured housing industry’s first ever Pocket Glossary & Lexicon of MHIndustry & LLCommunity trade terms! This too has been accomplished. Do you have a copy? If not; affiliate with COBA7 soon.

• Author, print and bind the land lease community property type’s first ever Official history (1970 to present day) of the realty asset class! That too will be accomplished when FREE copies of Swan Song are distributed to attendees at the aforementioned Networking Roundtable. No fewer than 112 past and present pioneers and leaders in manufactured housing and land lease community ownership and management are identified in this text – along with an Autograph page on which to collect same, from those present at the annual networking event.

• 29th ALLEN REPORT, a.k.a. The ‘Who’s Who Among Land Lease Community Portfolio Owners/operators Throughout North America!’ will soon be in the research stage, compiled during November, and distributed during January 2018. Again; available to Option II & III affiliates of COBA7. Have you ever asked yourself? Where would we be today, as land lease community owners/operators, without this annual compendium of realty asset class valuable knowledge? And who will continue this important service into the future? No other national manufactured housing advocacy body has shown any interest in serving land lease community businessmen and women in this fashion. Think about it. Suggestions?

While that’s been a full plate for COBA7 during 2017, plans are already afoot for next year. No new Challenge Coin, no more Pocket Glossary & Lexicon; and no more new books, for the time being. However, there is one project, first debuted during the Spring of 2016, that will likely recur during the Spring of 2018, hopefully under the joint leadership and planning of IMHA/RVIC (Indiana) and COBA7. This is the popular ‘Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales/Financing Seminars’, likely held again at the RV/MH Hall of Fame museum & library in Elkhart, IN. If you’d like to help with this project, or simply put your name on an ‘advance notice list’, contact Ron Breymier via (317) 247-6258.

IV.

Networking Roundtable Update

So much to tell you to get ready for, if attending, it’s impossible to describe it all here; so just a couple highlights to keep in mind:

• If a COBA7 affiliate, bring your COBA7 Challenge Coin! Doing so, will reward you with an opportunity to ‘pick a prize’, and there are many of them!

• Be prepared for in interesting, educational, albeit fun ‘read’ as you work your way through Swan Song. You’ll recognize much of what is described; but then again, there are tales shared that have become classics in the manufactured housing industry, and stories which have never before been published, e.g. Saddlebrook Farms, Florida Communities, and more! Also 112+ individuals named.

• 3rd national Manufactured Housing Input Day! This will be the third of four regional opportunities to make your views, on issues & matters, known! First it was in Chicago, then in Elkhart, now in Indianapolis, and finally, in mid-October, in Atlanta, GA. So, come prepared to vent, and know your input will go into a White Paper to be prepared later this year, for submission to all three national advocates for manufactured housing and land lease communities

• A new unique feature! The Networking Roundtable is long famous for 1) its’ 45 minute ‘stand & introduce yourself’ networking jump start at the beginning of every annual event; 2) everyone standing & pledging allegiance to the American flag; 3) an informal prayer meeting Friday morning ever since infamous 9/11 (2001); and, 4) ongoing, tangible support of the RV/MH Hall of Fame, and MHGives! – the manufactured housing industry’s official charity! Well, this year we’re adding this feature: RV/MH Hall of Fame inductees, present at the roundtable, are encouraged to wear their distinctive green blazer, &/or gold RV/MH ring, to the Thursday evening reception. to highlight that land lease communities have ‘come into their own’ as regular Hall of Fame inductees!

NO, it’s not too late to register for the Networking Roundtable! Simply review the attachment to the BEBA introducing this blog, then left click on the imbedded registration information contained within said BEBA. Or, phone us via (317) 346-7156. And remember, attendance is capped at 200, and we’re close to that number!

V.

Saving the Best – or Worst, for Last.

The ‘word is out’ all over the manufactured housing industry! The ACID TEST, of whether manufactured housing ‘survives & thrives’ OR ‘shrivels & dies’, lies with ‘Who’s administering HUD’s manufactured housing program’! There’s no other way to describe this timely matter clearly and succinctly.

&

There’s more, much more! A long standing, but only recently emerging public corollary (‘a proposition proved incidentally in proving another’), has to do with whether ‘big business’ (i.e. certain housing manufacturers & third party chattel capital finance firms) by dint of their dominance of national advocacy policy & efforts, precipitates the latter course (‘shrivels & dies’) OR former one (survives & thrives’) to occur, given their pervasive institutional and political clout; and how or whether, they deliver for the ‘prosperity of their few’ OR the ‘good of the many’ – meaning me & YOU!. One pundit (‘learned man’) suggests one national advocate is inclined to effect the former via regulatory reform; while another is inclined to the latter, to increase their national market shares.

Enough said for now. But ‘stay tuned’ here, to learn how Word & Action, pursuant to this ACID TEST, unfolds during the days, weeks, & months ahead. Another good reason YOU need to take steps NOW to continue receiving BEBAs like this in the future!

***

George Allen, CPM & MHM
Box # 47024
Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 346-7156.

August 18, 2017

Manufactured Housing Conspiracy revisited; Networkng Roundtable; &, PROSPERITY NOW

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 6:40 am

Blog # 460; Copyright 20 August 2017; at community-investor.com/blog

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities’, previously manufactured home communities, & ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.

This blog posting is the sole national advocate, voice, official ombudsman, historian, research report, & online communication media for all North American LLCommunities.

To input this blog &/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, a.k.a. COBNA\7, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764

COBA7 Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal of its’ print & online media =
to not only inform & opine, but to transform & improve MHBusiness performance!
______________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION: Reader response to last week’s blog posting re ‘manufactured housing conspiracy’ has been nearly overwhelming and supportive. Enough so, we’ll dig a little deeper in paragraphs to follow. Are YOU registered to attend the 26th annual Networking Roundtable yet? (317) 346-7156 or via gfa7156@aol.com. And ‘Prosperity Now’, is the new name a misnomer or sending a subtle intentional message? You decide….

I.

Revisiting the ‘Manufactured Housing Conspiracy’

Have you thought any further on this heady, hapless (‘unfortunate’) matter? If not, you should. Why? Because, frankly, the immediate & distant future(s) of HUD-Code manufactured housing ‘hangs in the balance’, depending on the answer to this question:

‘WHO is going to pay for often unnecessary rental homesite foundation retrofits in land lease communities, by dint of HUD’s dictating new HUD-Code home installation standards, supposedly better than Installation Manual guidance prepared by manufacturers who engineer, fabricate and ship every new manufactured home?’

The choice among answers, as I see them, include:

1. Manufacturers of new HUD-Code homes?

2. Land lease community owners/operators?

3. ‘No one’, if HUD’s overreach is stopped in its’ tracks & SOON.

Why is this a critical, and necessary exercise in judgment and decision making?

1. In the first instance, often unnecessary but ‘required by regulation’ foundation retrofits cost at least $5,000.00 per rental homesite, an anti-affordable housing expense likely to be added to the price of every new, otherwise ‘affordable’ HUD-Code manufactured home going into a land lease community!

2. And, in the second instance, as installation consultant George Porter, and the Frost Free Foundation (‘FFF’) engineers who researched and described, in already published, and initially approved by HUD, effective methodology, ‘below the frost line’ foundations are not necessary in instances of properly drained rental homesites under manufactured homes fully and properly skirted!

Back to the pivotal question. If HUD is not ‘stopped in its’ tracks’ SOON, WHO will be paying for foundation retrofits going forward? Here’re three sobering (conspirational?) thoughts to ponder:

1. We have two national advocacy entities (Read ‘lobbyists’) in Washington, DC., both of which are primarily, if not wholly, funded by HUD-Code housing manufacturers. Their primary interest and focus is obvious.

2. At the same time, there is no Washington, DC – based national advocacy (Again, read ‘lobbyist’) entity exclusively fighting legislative and regulatory battles in behalf of land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities) nationwide! So, no primary champion, in my opinion, in Washington, DC., despite protestations to the contrary, and the occasional initiative (Thinking here of MHI & MHARR letters to HUD this past week) in our behalf.

3. There isn’t even, among all three national advocacy entities (i.e. MHI, MHARR & COBA7) one who has an executive working fulltime (e.g. lobbying) in behalf of land lease communities nationwide! How can 50,000 land lease communities nationwide be anything but a fulltime job?

So, with those present day realities in mind; again, WHO will wind up paying for foundation retrofits? It’s high time for fulltime land lease community representation, relative to political and regulatory matters, in Washington, DC.! The likely alternatives?

1) MHI’s continued reliance on part time staffing of its’ National Communities Council division, i.e. No change to the status quo! In my opinion, this is marginal representation at best. And representation will continue unchanging and unchangeable until proxy voting is permitted during NCC (election) meetings!

2) MHARR’s suggestion a new national trade entity be founded, funded by and working exclusively for, post-production segments of the manufactured housing industry in general, land lease communities in particular. A controversial idea for sure, but maybe the only way to ratchet up all post-production representation.

3) COBA7 stepping up to this challenge via, a) in partnership with MHI & its’ NCC division = unlikely; b) as nucleus of new post-production representation in Washington; or c) continuing to grow in size and influence, primarily representing land lease communities in the Midwest and elsewhere. New leadership is already materializing in IN, IL, MI, GA, & CA….

The problem is, ‘time is of the essence’. We are fortunate to have a president who’s Making America Great Again, by reducing federal government intrusion in all walks of life and commerce, but continues to battle overt and covert resistance, even offensives, from the ‘deep state’, comprised of holdovers from the previous administration and career bureaucrats in fear of being drained from the swamp of Washington, DC. politics.

So, if we (You & Me) don’t speak up forcefully and now, we deserve what is foisted upon us ( a la MHConspiracy) in the form of new home installation regulation overreach at $5,000.00 per site, likely paid for by land lease community owners/operators like thee and me!

What to do? For starters, be present at the 26th International Networking Roundtable, for land lease community owners/operators, 6-8 September, in Indianapolis (MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. This is the third Official Input Opportunity to make your views known relative to industry/asset class matters and issues! See you there?

If not; don’t complain when the manufactured housing conspiracy turns against you!

Your fourth and final Official Input Opportunity this year, will occur the SECO Conference, in Atlanta, GA., 11 & 12 October. Visit secoconference.com

Now, here’s a telling question for you, for all of us. Will this loosely described ‘manufactured housing conspiracy’, be specifically described and discussed, relative to shortfall(s) in land lease community representation, at MHI’s annual meeting in Orlando, FL., 18 & 19 September? Call & ask: (703) 558-0400.

II.

Speaking of the 26th Networking Roundtable, an Update…

Registrations continue to arrive strongly. However, The Alexander Hotel block of rooms for this event expires tomorrow, on Monday 21 August. So, if coming to Indianapolis, phone (855) 200-3002 and make your reservation today! Identify yourself as ’26th Anniversary International Networking Roundtable’, to get our special rack rate.

Coming to the Networking Roundtable as a COBA7 affiliate? Bring your COBA7 Challenge Coin! Maybe a pleasant surprise or two in store for you…

MOBILE HOME PARK MANAGEMENT was the first book I authored, way back in 1988, for this industry and realty asset class. SWAN SONG will likely be my last. Accordingly, I have built some new and progressive features into this ‘history of the land lease community asset class; 1970 to present day; and, first Official History of MHShipments, from 1955 to present day. Such as? A metaphorical title, as you’ll see when you’re handed your FREE copy at the beginning of the event. Of course you already know this is the ‘first history ever’ of our unique, income-producing property type. More than 100 notables named in the text. I’m working on a ‘name & page # index to ease one’s names search, so you can collect autographs and bon mots while at the Roundtable! And those never-before-published stories, that grace each of the five chapters, will make for an interesting and engaging ‘read’.

III.

Prosperity Now

You’ve already read about this recent name change, from CFED*1 (‘Corporation for Enterprise Development’) to PROSPERITY NOW, in press releases, the Allen Letter professional journal and elsewhere.

Well, from the very beginning, something bothered me about the new moniker for this financial coaching national non-profit entity. Finally identified the irritant, and here it is….
In my opinion, PROSPERTIY NOW would have been better named PROSPERTIY EARNED. Think about it. In the former instance, the new name smacks of entitlement mentality and our increasingly welfare culture. It’s a demand on society for support, not a challenge to individuals to excel and earn one’s prosperity! Another way of saying it is, wealth equity is earned, not given, nor should it be taken away and or redistributed by fiat (‘decree’).

But the die is cast, and I don’t expect to see any further changes soon. But I do think there’s a quiet, albeit hidden social message, in PROSPERITY NOW. How ’bout you?

As is oft said, ‘Forewarned is forearmed!’ when Prosperity ‘Now’, not ‘earned’, comes a-calling.

End note *1. CFED cum PROSPERITY NOW based in Washington, DC., is “…dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families.

George Allen, CPM & MHM c/o Box # 47024, Indpls, IN. 46247 (317) 346-7156

August 11, 2017

MHConspiracy; MHShipment ‘#s & $s Report; & Sam Zell’s new autobiography

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 5:04 am

Blog # 459; Copyright @ 13 August 2017; at community-investor.com/blog

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities’, previously manufactured home communities, & ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.

This blog posting is the sole national advocate, voice, official ombudsman, historian, research report, & online communication media for all North American LLCommunities.

To input this blog &/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, a.k.a. aCOBA7, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

COBA7 Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal of its’ print & online media =
to not only inform & opine, but to transform & improve MHBusiness performance!
_____________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION: a manufactured housing conspiracy, MHAlive! Think Tank a success, Official MH Shipment ‘#s & $s’ Report for June, and new autobiography by Sam Zell: AM I BEING TOO SUBTLE? Can’t fit any more than that into one weekly blog!

I.

Is a Manufactured Housing Conspiracy Theory Afoot?

Maybe. Lead feature in the August issue of the Allen Letter professional journal presents a profoundly disturbing view of ‘What’s Going On – or Not’, within the Manufactured Housing Program at HUD & MHI, as a result of:

‘The Fruit of Voluntary & Involuntary Consolidation in Factory-built Housing, Appears to be Peer Domination, & Possibly, Duplicity’

Note to the reader. That’s all we’re going to pen at this point in time. The manufactured housing industry and its’ real estate segment, land lease communities nationwide, are at a critical juncture in the history of the interrelated business models.

The Question of the Day? WHO is going to pay for rental homesite foundation replacements, oft required by dint of regulatory overreach per HUD’s manufactured housing program and administrator:

1. Manufacturers of HUD-Code homes

2. Land lease community owners/operators, or

3. ‘No one’, if overreach is stopped in its’ tracks & SOON.

Don’t be deceived! That’s what the hullabaloo in Washington is about these days; nothing more, nothing less! Who pays? We’ll be writing nothing more about this manufactured housing conspiracy (theory), unless it becomes Reality .Then we’ll tell all.

II.

MHAlive! Think Tank, a Success!

Details to follow, likely in an upcoming Allen Letter professional journal feature. But for the time being, know 15 land lease community owners/operators (including representatives from one REIT); three manufactured housing association executives – one each from two national MH advocacy entities, and a Midwest state trade entity, met from 9AM until Noon, identifying, articulating, discussing, and recording what to them are major industry and realty asset class matters and issues.

This was the second of four national manufactured housing input sessions. The first being in Chicago during May; this one in Elkhart, next in Indianapolis during the Networking Roundtable, 6-8 September (You registered yet?); and finally, during the SECO Conference in Atlanta during October. YOU should be able to input at one of these rare sessions to make your views known and recorded for action and resolution!

Later the same day, at the RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Banquet, the Class of 2017 was inducted. As you know, this included Mike Sullivan, CPM, of Newport Pacific; Spencer Roane, MHM, of Pentagon Properties; Christine Lindsey, MHM-Master, of UMH Properties; and, David Gorin, RV guru par excellence.

Plan now to participate in the third MHAlive! Think Tank session the first workday in August 2018! Our industry and realty asset class are long overdue for opportunities to identify matters and issues of concern to businessmen and women, to then ‘kick them upstairs’ to elected and salaried leaders at the three national advocacy entities.

III.

COBA7’s Official MH Shipment ‘#s & $s’ Report, June 2017

This seminal report is attached to the BEBA (Blast Email Blog Alert) introducing this week’s blog posting. If you haven’t seen and read any past reports, know this is the most comprehensive one published by any of the three national advocacy entities to date! How so?

1) Everyone tells members the monthly HUD-Code housing shipment volume as reported by the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’) – except one, who deducts DESTINATION PENDING units from the month total being reported, adding it to the IBTS shipment total on the next monthly report.

2) Only the COBA7 report, this one, reports the ‘production value’ of HUD-Code homes shipped during the month being reported. This is provided ‘per month’ and ‘year to date’. Some pretty interesting data if you haven’t been exposed to it in the past.

3) And while COBA7 methodology differs slightly from other reports, the Top Ten shipping states are reported, showing their respective total for the month, and how that relates to the previous monthly total.

4) Finally; what percentage of the reported month’s total HUD-Code home shipments, are from the aforementioned Top Ten states? Usually around 60 percent, month in, month out.

Would you like to receive this ‘#s & $s’ report each month? Then read the Allen Letter professional journal, as an affiliate of COBA7.

IV.

There’s a New Autobiography in Town!

AM I BEING TOO SUBTLE?

‘Straight Talk From A Business Rebel’

by Sam Zell

“Some of my most interesting and lucrative investments seemed counterintuitive when I made them – such as buying rail cars when the industry was crumbling, or investing in manufactured home communities when other investors wouldn’t touch them.” p.6

Later, on pages 120 thru 123, Sam describes, in detail, how “We debuted our real estate holdings on the New York Stock Exchange with Manufactured Home Communities (MHC), now known as Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS), and its forty-seven manufactured home communities. It was one of the early companies to list as a REIT in the modern commercial real estate era.”
As the land lease community asset class’ historian, I’ll tell you it is not always easy to identify and describe the genesis of an emerging trend in (any) business class. But here, on pages # 122 & 123, Sam Zell describes how his team “…discovered RV parks had the same fundamental characteristics as manufactured home communities. They are smaller versions of the same business model – we’d own the land while tenants would own the structures, and there was low turnover. The sectors also had similar tenant demographics, the same types of sites, and the same cash flow characteristics. So, ELS became the first company to combine and institutionalize the blended asset classes.” Editorial note. According to the 28th annual ALLEN REPORT, 50+/-% ELS’ property portfolio is comprised of manufactured housing rental homesites, and 50+/-% RV sites.*1

And this new (2017) autobiography is nothing short of being colorful. It’s probably the ‘most fun’ business text I’ve read to date. How so? Know about Zell’s Angels? (p.32); “We invented business casual.” (p.62); “…my nickname, the Grave Dancer.” (p.76); and, “I am a professional opportunist.” (99). And by the time I finish reading the book, I’m sure I’ll have identified more examples….

Especially like what Sam had to say about Wall Street analysts. If you were around during the mid to late 1990s, and beyond, you know the grief they caused for many REIT operations. Here’s Sam: “…a lot of people who get burned by depending on Wall Street analysts…discover quickly the advice they’re getting isn’t coming from a committed owner – it’s coming from a professional who is collecting a fee.” P. 95.

AM I BEING TOO SUBTLE joins seven other autobiographies authored by businessmen (No business women so far, though I know one veteran land lease community owner who’s working on hers….) active in manufactured housing or our unique, income-producing property type. ENJOY.

***

George Allen, CPM & MHM
COBA7, a division of GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing
Box # 47024
Indianapolis, IN. 46247

August 3, 2017

A MUST READ Manufactured Housing Potpourri!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 5:38 pm

Blog # 458; Copyright @ 6 August 2017; at community-investor.com/blog

Perspective. ‘Land leases communities’, previously manufactured home communities, & ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.

This blog posting is the sole national advocate, voice, official ombudsman, historian, research report, & online communication media for all North American LLCommunities

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! Goal of its’ print & online media =
to not only inform & opine, but to transform 7 improve MHBusiness performance!
_______________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION: ‘Hold onto your seat’, so to speak. This is going to be one ‘fast & furious’ run through four important matters, best shared NOW, rather than later….

A Manufactured Housing Potpourri
(‘a mixture or medley of….)

I.

SWAN SONG, besides being ‘George Allen’s History of Land Lease Communities, 1970-2017, & Official Manufactured Housing Shipments Report, 1955-2016, is also:

A BOLD EXPERIMENT IN SELF-PUBLISHING BOOK DESIGN

How so? Three ways. First, it’s a print run limited to 300 books! Available only at the 26th Networking Roundtable and until stock is depleted.

Second. It will be distributed FREE at the Roundtable, giving community owners & operators their first comprehensive history ever, courtesy of COBA7!

And? The inclusion and binding of a blank page, or two, labeled AUTOGRAPHS. The plan here, is to create a ‘once in a lifetime or career experience’ for many! Since more than 100 land lease community businessmen and women, as well as notables from other segments of the manufactured housing industry, are identified throughout the manuscript – many of whom will be present at the 26th annual Networking Roundtable; why not ask for and collect their signatures and bon mots, on the AUTOGRAPH page(s), or where their name appears in the book proper? To the best of my knowledge, this has not been done anywhere, anytime before.
Frankly, how can such a FREE takeaway resource be anything but VALUABLE to the book owner, for years and decades to come? I’ll be collecting as many autographs and bon mots, as possible, of friends and associates, during the day event! How ’bout you?

II.

WHITE PAPER “…to research, document, and describe the nature, state, and degree of disunity among manufactured housing national advocates.” So announced, in effect, within concluding paragraph of Part I in last week’s blog posting (#457).

Talk about immediate and substantive feedback! It’s happened! And cited entity shortfalls go well beyond ‘disunity’ and other matters hinted at in the subject paragraph. Plus, it has become apparent to the WHITE PAPER team, there are at least’ two sides to every matter described’, to date, by direct, dues-paying members and former members of all the national manufactured housing advocacy entities.

KEEP LETTERS (GFA c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247) & EMAILS:: gfa7156@aol.com), A-COMING! We need and value your input…

The WHITE PAPER is, and will be for awhile, in research & documentation stages of this long overdue project, germane to every segment of manufactured housing.

III.

MHAlive! THINK TANK, 9-11AM, 7 August, at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. If you haven’t already registered to participate, don’t bother! We have the maximum number of manufactured housing & land lease community owners/operators needed to make this a superb

SECOND OF FOUR OPPORTUNITIES TO INPUT MH MATTERS & ISSUES – entirely different from the national advocacy entity challenges being parsed in Part II.

The initial opportunity occurred at the Illinois Manufactured Housing Association (‘IMHA’) annual meeting on 17 May, in Rosemont, IL.

A third opportunity will occur during the aforesaid 26th Networking Roundtable, 6-8 September, in Indianapolis, IN. Still time to register if sincerely interested in your business future! SECO Summit in the South, during mid October, will be last opportunity

IV.

HUD must back off its’ heavy-handed increased regulation of manufactured housing installation & start promoting it as best type & source of ‘affordable housing’ in the US today! Or what? Read final paragraph of this Part IV and read how HUD can indeed be guilty of stifling the slow rebounding of new HUD-Code home shipments to homebuyer/site lessees throughout the U.S.

How so?

Since year 2009, when annual shipments bottomed out at 48,789+/- new homes, with 25 percent (or 12,000+/- homes) going directly into (then) manufactured home communities, the industry – with help from (now) land lease community owners/operators, selling & seller-financing new Community Series Homes on-site, saw shipment volume increase to 64,331 (Verified volume per unadulterated IBTS monthly data), with an estimated 40 percent (or 26,000+/- homes) going directly into this unique, income-producing property type! And some report, 50+/- percent of year 2015 volume of 70,544 (Verified…IBTS), or 35,000+/- new homes went directly into this real estate asset class nationwide! No like data yet available for year end 2016. The industry’s rebound does not get much clearer than this!

Ah, but it does! Using MHI’s estimated ‘production value’ of $43,126 per new HUD-Code home (Year 2013 as base line), multiply the three annual shipment volumes, cited in previous paragraph, by $43,126, to clearly see how very much manufactured housing contributes to the national economy, as it continues to work itself out of the repression era!

And finally, as pointed out in last week’s blog posting (#457), the three year average (Years 2013 – 2016) increase in annual shipment volume was every bit of an average of 10.4 percent per year (With max @ 15% by year end 2016), more than three times MAGAnomics “…sustained three percent annual economic growth.” target established by the Trump administration! Few industries perform, dollar wise, better than manufactured housing!

Is ANYONE in Washington, DC., listening and paying attention to the plight of manufactured housing, an industry at the very cusp (‘point’) of ‘being BUSTED by its’ federal regulatory agency’; OR, by dint of major change in personnel and policy, BOOSTED by its’ federal regulatory agency’? Let’s hope so and soon!

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George Allen, CPM & MHM; COBA7 c/o Box # 47024, Indpls, IN. 46247

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