Blog # 474; Copyright @ 7 January 2018; community-investor.com
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!
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What’s Going On?
Why the erratic blog postings from COBA7 these past few weeks? I could blame the holidays (i.e. shopping, parties, travel); or, just ‘end of the year blahs’ – for me anyway. The truth of the matter is, I’m trying to sort matters out relative to our personal and corporate past, present, and future, relative to the manufactured housing industry and land lease community real estate asset class. And, as of this moment, New Years Day, I’ve not accomplished that end.
You see, I’m in good health; thoroughly enjoy what I do for you, i.e. collect data & research information, repackaging it in statistical reports, two monthly newsletters, several directories, the occasional mini-white paper – and yes, of late, semi-weekly blog postings. Plus, we provide professional property management training and certification (No one else does!), as well as hosting networking and deal making opportunities. But I feel a pressing need for significant and lasting change, during the weeks and months ahead. What form(s) might that change, or changes, take? As you know from blog posting # 473, we listed merger, partnership, sale or transfer, and liquidation, as four alternatives for COBA7, going forward.
And we requested your input – and many of you provided it. For that, we’re very grateful! As a result we’ve expanded those alternatives, in number, from four to five.
• No change to COBA7. Continue growing as ‘the primary national advocate & information resource’ for land lease communities nationwide & in Canada! This will likely necessitate converting to ‘not for profit’ tax status, & retaining services of a Washington, DC – based consultant as lobbyist.
• Meld COBA7 into the rumored new independent national advocacy entity planning to represent and serve all non-manufacturing segments of the industry! This group has met, is surveying your interest, & will likely proceed accordingly.
• Partner COBA7 with MHI, broadening the focus of its’ NCC division, to far better serve information and statistical reporting needs of land lease communities nationwide! An overture has been made to this end. One conversation to date.
• Have COBA7 quit MHI and proceed alone! Why? For starters, MHI, despite repeated invitations, remains unaffiliated with COBA7; continues reporting MH shipment #s different from IBTS, HUD, MHARR & COBA7; engages in meeting location affluence gerrymandering; &, allows no proxy voting at NCC elections.
• Dissolve COBA7 during year 2018, ending a 40 year career in professional property management, & 35+ years providing information and services to 50,000+/- land lease communities nationwide! This is least desirable alternative, but a practical one, relative to ongoing indecision per preceding bullet points.
That new fifth alternative recommendation, ‘Have COBA7 quit MHI and proceed alone!’ took us by surprise. But you make a good case when suggesting it, in light of more than one state manufactured housing association terminating membership with the institute. And we continue to field frustrations expressed, at being ignored, by other single and small portfolio owners/operators of land lease communities.
In the interest of full disclosure, our past and present MHI membership has been, and continues to be, for the time being, in the name of one or another of our for-profit firms, not COBA7 per se..
Well, there you have it. The gist of our efforts, now with your assistance, to sort things out relative to COBA7’s past, present and future, relative to the manufactured housing industry and the land lease community real estate asset class. The last thing we want to see, as first expressed in blog # 473, is a return to the information, resources, communication, PM training & certification, and networking wasteland of 40 years ago (1978), when I took over my first four (then) ‘mobile home parks’. But that’s where we could be headed….
What would you do? Again; I truly would like to know your input! So, respond either via gfa7156@aol.com, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764; or, via a personal note to GFA c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247. And I’m available most afternoons via (317) 346-7156. Many of you have helped get us this far, especially since COBA7s’ founding during early 2014. Thanking you in advance for your latest assistance.
George Allen, CPM, MHM
COBA7, a division of GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing