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

March 26, 2020

FORBEARANCE (‘a refraining from the enforcement of a debt, etc.’)

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 5:31 am

Blog # 578 @ 26 March 2020; Copyright 2020; www.educatemhc.com

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

EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource, and communication media, for all land lease communities in North America!

To input this blog &/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE serve U!’ Goal: Promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. main source of affordable attainable housing! Attend an MHM class!

INTRODUCTION: Forbearance trumps foreclosure, in my opinion, any day! But is the price one has to pay (i.e. no eviction proceedings), in this instance, really worth not being able to collect one’s site rent? And how have you been enduring the past few weeks of the coronavirus hiatus? I’m certain there are many interesting tales that’ll come out of this massive national experience once it has passed. Professional property management is not talked about nearly enough in land lease community circles. Bottom line? If you’ve not been trained and certified in one of the three national programs presently available to land lease community owners/operators, you are selling yourself (as sole proprietor) or your firm (as salaried PM exec) far short of your professional property management potential! GFA

I.

FORBEARANCE
(‘a refraining from the enforcement of a debt, etc.’)

“To support multifamily property owners during this national emergency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’) announced Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac will offer multifamily property owners mortgage forbearance with the condition they suspend all evictions for renters unable to pay rent due to the impact of COVID-19.” Institute of Real Estate Management press release dated 23 March 2020.

II.

& What Have You Been Doing While Hunkered Down?

First off; maybe you haven’t been ‘hunkered down’ during the past week or soon two. Rather, you’re one who’s still able to go to work, enjoyed Spring Break at the beach, or as a prepper – go off the grid somewhere, until the coronavirus threat diminishes and disappears. Good for you – as long as you stay healthy!

Since Carolyn and I are in our mid-70s, our adult kids haven’t given us any choice: ‘Stay home, stay healthy, and enjoy – from afar, the benefits of being grandparents and great grandparents!’ Well, that’s what we’ve been doing since Sunday morning, 15 March. We’ve cultivated a pleasant daily routine together: arising in the AM to enjoy breakfast and some ‘daily quiet time’; followed, in my case, with some relaxing piano playing. Then it’s onto whatever activities we have at hand, ending the afternoons together, working on a complicated 1,000 piece jig saw puzzle of Noah’s ark and many many very small animals.

The unexpected consequence of being ‘shut in’ these past six, almost 11 days now, probably 14 by the time you read this blog posting, has been getting a leg up on several personal/professional writing projects.

First project was to revise and expand a ‘Writing for Publication, Profit, and Personal Satisfaction’ teaching outline I use with novice writers and friends/acquaintances who want to have some, or much, of their musings published. The outline is now ready for the one day Writers’ Conference I’m hosting on 3 August 2020, either at the RV/MH Hall of Fame, or a nearby hotel, in Elkhart, IN. Yes, that’s same day this year’s Class of 2020 (i.e. 10 RV & 10 MH pioneers) will be inducted into the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s prestigious Hall of Fame. For tickets to the banquet, phone (6574) 293-2344. For more information about the Writers’ Conference, phone me via (317) 346-7156 or gfa7156@aol.com

Next project was to prepare a new (3rd) edition of Collection of Figurative Language & Figures of Speech – a writer’s guide, first penned in 2011, as a tribute to my late mother. As I perused new collected material, deciding what to include or not, came across some examples of lexophile creativity (Lexophiles are lovers of words and word games – synonymous with what author Richard Lederer labels as verbivores). Here they are:

You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish
To write with a broken pencil is pointless
No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery
I’m reading a book about antigravity. I just can’t put it down.
When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble
When chemists die, they barium
England has no kidney bank, but does have a Liverpool
A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months
With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
A bicycle can’t stand alone; it’s just two tired.
And the list goes on and on, but surely you get the drift of the humor and word play. The new edition will likely be ready for distribution at the aforementioned Writers’ Conference.

My perennial project has been an autobiography. Started this more than a year ago, and am pleased the first DRAFT copy has been penned/typed and awaits initial edit. Seven chapters. Boyhood memories; Eastern, Carolyn & Susan; USMC & RVN Years; From Combat Leadership to Business Management (1970-79); A Career in Property Management (1980-2000); Bringing it Together as Writer, Author, Consultant (2000-2020); and, A Personal Swan Song. Still some decisions to make. Have a lot of material to work with (e.g. 350 color photographs from 1968 & 69 in Vietnam), plus business experiences described in 30+ years of newsletter publishing. For now, I’ll be satisfied to effect the initial audit and effect changes to the manuscript. Estimated publication date? Have no idea. Year 2020 would be timely; but 2023 commemorates the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam – making the book all the more marketable; and during 2026, Carolyn and I will, hopefully, be celebrating 60 years of marriage –the common thread through all but one of the chapters in the autobiography. A word of encouragement to you. Like me, you have a story – personal and or corporate – to tell. For help, request a FREE copy of the booklet Who Will Preserve Your Legacy? Answer: You! Not only is this an engaging read (contains excerpts from all ten autobiographies penned by manufactured housing pioneers during the past 70 years), it gives you an outline as to how to proceed with your personal or corporate story! Again, phone or email me today!

In closing this part of blog # 578, here’s a ditty I found in my file:

The demanding person runs into resistance.
The defeated person runs into indifference.
The dedicated person runs in to help!
Author unknown

III.

WARNING!

Be careful what you read, and by whom, about management of land lease communities!

I’ve noticed a spike recently, in one or another of the few print and online trade publications serving manufactured housing and land lease communities. Feature articles are being penned by individuals on the hunt for fee-management contracts of individual properties or entire portfolios. In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with doing so as a marketing ploy. However, know there are far fewer fee-management firms afoot in the land lease community market – compared to conventional garden style apartments, given the average size of such properties is less than 100 rental homesites apiece. This is generally not enough to support a logical percentage fee, unless it’s a turnaround project effected for a set amount during a set timeframe.

The ‘rub’ for me, is the lack of professional property management training and credentials evident among these johnny-come-lately, self-proclaimed fee-management specialists. To put the matter simply: we go to doctors for our medical needs, patronize CPAs for their accounting expertise, and frankly, should be putting our multimillion dollar real estate investments into the hands of individuals formally trained and vetted, by their peers, as bona fide professional property managers, e.g. Certified Property Manager™ (‘CPM’) members of the Institute of Real Estate Management (There are about 125 who claim affinity for our realty asset class nationwide today), Accredited Community Managers™ (‘ACM’) designated by the Manufactured Housing Educational Institute (‘MHEI’), and/or one of the nearly 1,500 Manufactured Housing Managers™ (‘MHM’) trained and certified by EducateMHC.

To learn more about these three professional property management programs, along with their schedules of training classes, access: IREM.org, MHI.org, & EducateMHC.com

March 20, 2020

C.S. Lewis & the Threat of Coronavirus

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 1:50 pm

Blog # 577 @ 20 March 2020; Copyright 2020; www.educatemhc.com

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

EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource, and communication media, for all land lease communities in North America!’’

To input this blog &/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: Promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. main source of affordable attainable housing! Attend an MHM™ class

INTRODUCTION: In 1981, perennial author of thrillers, Dean Koontz, authored The Eyes of Darkness. Today, readers believe the lab-produced, ‘deadly biological weapon called Wuhan-400’, in the novel, predicts the COVID-19 threat we experience today, 39 years later! When I attempted to buy the novel, I found it was selling for $650.00/case bound copy. Was able to chase down a paperback edition, and will review it for you when read. Part II. Thinking about going into the land lease community business in California? Think again – after reading Part II of blog posting #577. Maybe not a good idea. And Part III? Something for our public companies to consider….GFA

I.

C.S. Lewis & the Threat of Coronavirus

My guess is many of you, reading this blog posting, know C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), as the British writer (‘Chronicles of Narnia’) and lay theologian (‘Screwtape Letters’) who taught at Oxford and Cambridge Universities during the last century. Well, his writings are legend and enduring, making him one of the most influential writers of his, of all time.

The following excerpt is from his essay ‘On Living in an Atomic Age’, written in 1948. His is a voice of sanity and wisdom in a world that seems to be losing both. And though Lewis’s essay addresses fears of a different kind than we face today, his observations about how to live life in the midst of crises, real and perceived, resonate during this time of coronavirus.

‘In one way, we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply, ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut our throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’

‘In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented; and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors – anesthetics, but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.’

‘This is the first point to be made, and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes, find us doing sensible and human things – praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but the need not dominate our minds.’

As I read and reread those inspirational paragraphs my memory drifted back to early 1969. I was a Marine lieutenant in the Republic of Vietnam at the time, and along with several other junior officers, volunteered for Atomic Demolition Munition training (‘ADM’), and possibly action. ADM placement was U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s ‘worst case scenario’ counterattack plan; to send us behind enemy lines with soccer ball-sized nuclear devices strapped to our chests, to destroy (in my case, a large steel bridge on the outskirts of Hanoi) enemy facilities in North Vietnam. This didn’t happen, but the potential gruesome results of such an action did give me pause, to consider consequences to self and countless faceless multitudes.

Now today, like you, I ponder the coronavirus threat. Yes, I’m elderly, no denying that. Our adult children are quick to admonish Carolyn and me to ‘stay home’! Hmm. For me, that means writing, reading, and putting together the latest jigsaw puzzle. In any event, I refuse to become unduly troubled or depressed by this vague cum maybe lethal specter. And you?

II.

Just How Difficult Can Land Lease Community Operations Become in California?

The following paragraph was recently emailed to me by a 40 year land lease community portfolio owners/operator domiciled in California. Hard for me to believe all this is true:

“George. If you have not heard, the California legislature is proposing at least seven new legislative bills that can kill our industry for years! The major ones are 1) statewide rent control with 2) no vacancy decontrol – 3) no going out of business by changing the current zoning – 4) no long term leases – 5) no recovery of legal fees – 6) require at least 18 hours of yearly (continuing) education for all responsible parties – (&) 7) long term leases that extend beyond year 2025 are voidable.” (Lightly edited, with numbers added. GFA)

Yes, it can be a long journey between the proposal of new legislation and actually turning it into law and regulations. But this is certainly a discouraging anti-business agenda for the state of California. Did you know? It’s a long known ‘peculiar secret’ that California is home to more owners of land lease communities than any other state in the union, but these owners/operators, for the most part, own and manage more such communities outside the state than within!

III.

Time for REIT & Public Manufacturer Email Newsletters?

As you likely know, EducateMHC, started, with January 2020 shipment and public market statistics, reporting on the four public HUD-Code housing manufacturers and three real estate investment trusts (‘REITs’) owning land lease communities. I wasn’t surprised about how well this new ‘first ever’ performance record was received, but I was surprised at the volume of requests for copies, and coverage going forward. So, watch for the early April MHShipment ‘#s & $s’ Report (&) Manufacturer/REIT Market Data report.

In the meantime, the suggestion was made by a few respondents, about how they’d like to receive some sort of Investor Relations Email Newsletter from one or more of these seven public companies on a regular periodic bases. Frankly, I hadn’t thought of that before now. Rather than a flurry of Press Releases, it seems investors are looking for consolidated releases providing ‘an interesting array of non-financial contextual information on industry dynamics and key internal value drivers, such as innovation, customer relationships, and human resources.’

What do you think? Enough information ‘out there’ about your manufacturer and REIT of choice, or would you prefer to learn more from such a newsletter, as well as our new report?
GFA7156@aol.com
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George Allen, CPM, MHM c/o EducateMHC

March 13, 2020

Making a Year 2020 Case for Rental Manufactured Homes on Rental Homesites Within Land Lease Communities

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 1:21 pm

Blog # 576 @ 13 March 2020; Copyright 2020; www.educatemhc.com

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

EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource, and communication media, for all land lease communities in North America!’

To input this blog &/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aaol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: Promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. main source of affordable attainable housing! Attend an MHM™Class

INTRODUCTION: Two things this time around. Part I, when you get right down to it, contains not only some unrecorded 1970s & 80s’ history of mobile home & mobile home park rentals, but also ‘splains’ how we got back into the business of selling and leasing new HUD-Code homes on-site in land lease communities, circa 2000-2010 & beyond! AND, how the REITs execute this business model well. Part II contains timely loan origination information, provided by Art Tuverson of Berkadia Commercial, in the event you need acquisition financing or refinancing of existing land lease community debt. By the way, the 22nd annual National Registry of ALL Lenders, one of 12 special Resource Documents available only from EducateMHC, will be distributed next week with the premier March issue of The Allen Confidential business newsletter. Frankly, if you’re one of the 25 realty-secured banks and loan brokers listed therein (along with their contacts and contact information), you will want this document, as it among other things, clearly describes the lending market during 2019 and moving forward into 2020 – supplied by originators at Wells Fargo. To get a copy, visit www.educatemhc.com or phone me via Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

I.

Making a Year 2020 Case for Rental Manufactured Homes on Rental Homesites Within Land Lease Communities

Funny how sometimes ‘history repeats itself’, i.e. the leasing of manufactured homes on-site within land lease communities – surprising ‘old timers’ that anyone would ‘do that again’. At the same time, new ‘players’ to the land lease community investment and management scene might well view said leasing of new homes to otherwise-qualified-but-cash- shy ‘prospective residents’ as one smart business move! How’d all this come about in the past, and what’s today’s stake in this still emerging trend in the national rental housing market?

First a little history. During the mid-1970s, when the infamous HUD-Code building code regs appeared on our business scene, amidst the most aggressive development of raw land into ‘mobile home parks’ in our history, an abrupt disruption of new home shipments (Plummeting from 579,940 new mobile homes in 1973 to only 246,120 during year 1976!), saw tens of thousands of vacant rental homesites begging for homes! One strategy? Go out and buy as many used (resale) mobile homes as possible, move them on-site, and rent them to anyone who could fog a mirror!

Did this strategy work? Sure, for a while; and as well or poorly as property management policies and procedures, put in place to control tenant screening, rent collection, rules enforcement, and resident relations, were enforced. My first property portfolio was comprised of four (then) mobile home parks in the Midwest, having 1200 rental homesites with 350 reconditioned rental mobile homes in place, with half of these configured as duplex units – yes, two families living in the same 14X70 manufactured home. As I took over responsibility for the properties, chaos reigned. Only after I replaced all four on-site managers, tightened tenant screening, and changed from monthly to weekly rent collection (where rental units were concerned), did operational turnaround occur, resulting in vastly improved rent collection efficiency, taking the properties, altogether, from a net loss position to positive cash flow!*1

Now, between 1980 and the REIT wavelet of 1994 & 1995 (including the Resolution Trust Corporation or RTC era of 1989-1995), it was common practice to convert rentals (i.e. park-owned homes) into contract sales, before marketing land lease communities ‘for sale’.*2 As a result, there were far fewer rental units, per se, to be found on-site then, and through the first decade of the new millennium.

However, by the time year 2009 arrived, new manufactured homes shipments again plummeted, this time from 372,943+/- in 1998, to an historic nadir of only 49,789+/- new manufactured homes! This time it was the loss of easy access to chattel capital for home-only loans that crippled new manufactured home production and shipments. What happened to address this serious matter? At least three things:

• 2/28/2009 at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. 100+ HUD-Code manufacturers and land lease community owners/operators convened, and agreed on a new home design favorable to rental homesite installation, and featuring durability-enhancing cabinetry and plumbing, to speed ‘make ready’ between renters and contract purchasers. Hence the Community Series Home, as consultant Don Westphal labeled it later that year.

• Given the lack of even reasonable access to chattel capital for home-only loans, land lease community owners/operators toyed with a variety of home finance measures (e.g. contract sale, lease option, ‘captive finance’ and more) to sell and seller-finance new homes on-site (given disappearance of 10,000+/- independent-street-MHRetailers). However, these finance measures were oft offset by unexpected appearance of the S.A.F.E. Act, then Consumer Finance Protection Bureau or CFPB regulations.

• Return of rental homes to rental homesites within land lease communities – only this time around, with an emphasis on new manufactured homes instead of used units. YES! Communities was one of the first major property portfolio firms to embrace this old-but-new strategy; and for a time – maybe even to this day, enjoyed success as long as they carefully screened prospective home renters, and visited said rentals on a regular basis, under the guise of changing filters and exterminating vermin.

Today, all three real estate investment trusts, and a host of other property portfolio firms, engage in the rental of new manufactured homes on-site within their land lease communities. Every Fall the ALLEN REPORT surveys 500+/- land lease community portfolio firms, and enjoys a healthy 20 percent return of survey questionnaires. Here’s the definitive statement, about presence of rental units, featured in the 31st annual ALLEN REPORT distributed during January 2020:

“44 of 100 ALLEN REPORT respondents, in 2019, confirmed presence of rental homes on-site within their communities. Unadulterated total of rental units = 47,542 or 1,081 per community. These totals are down from 53,931 and 1,100 reported during 2018. Furthermore, when 25,530 rental units among just three mega portfolios, in 2019, are subtracted out, it leaves an average of 541 rental units in each of the remaining portfolios.” NOTE. It is nigh impossible, given the wide range in property sizes within portfolios, to accurately extrapolate the total number of rental units that might be afield among all 500+/- portfolios nationwide and in Canada. 200,000+ anyone? And the slightly reduced total number of rental units has more to do with which portfolio firms responded with usable data and which ones simply chose not to share information this time around. GFA

So, what are the economics behind a successful rental program? Besides the policy and procedure measures recommended earlier, product selection, financing of new homes as rentals, estimating rental rates, and more, all play important roles. What follows from here are some casual observations and recommendations from portfolio owners/operators ‘all in’ the rental home scene.

• Vacant rental homesites earn $-0-. What’s it cost to install a new singlesection or multisection home, and is it possible to gross a 20% ‘return‘ on that? If so, you should be able to net 10% unleveraged. Finance the home, and one’s ‘return’ depends on interest expense. For example, a $50,000 cost new home, with 80% financeable, will cost $2,800+/- per year. Rent-wise, the home should gross $10,000/year (i.e. $800/month rent) and net $5,000. Subtract out the $2,800+/- interest cost and realize $2,200/year as a return on the value of the rental homesite.

• We recommend rental customers staying three years or less, rent our homes. This increases occupancy for us, by making it easier for them to qualify and move into the community, and it makes it easier for them to leave when the time comes, because they don’t have to worry about reselling the house.

• Renting simplifies matters greatly for us. A resident needs but one month rent, plus one month security deposit or $1,600, as opposed to homebuyers/site lessees who need 10% down payment plus one month rent, generally about $8,000. The difficulty getting prospects financed these days, results in us renting eight homes for every one we sell. And we maintain 95% rental home occupancy! Our total maintenance cost for a rental unit is only $600+/- per unit per year.

So, are rental units in land lease communities ‘here to stay’? Your guess is as good as mine. They’re certainly filling the affordable housing need right now, especially in the face of tightened financial regulations and lack of reasonable access to chattel capital for home-only loans. But, like the last decade or two of the 20th century, unforeseen circumstances might, once again, make it advantageous to convert rental units into contract sales – especially before marketing land lease communities ‘for sale’.

End Notes.

1. For the complete story of this saga, and how it played out a decade later, read the short story ‘An Error to Die For’ in SWAN SONG, available via www.educatemhc.com

2. Why convert rental units to contract sales during the period 1980 thru 2009? Reconditioned manufactured homes used as rental units were an expensive proposition, where basic repairs and ‘make ready’ maintenance were concerned. Furthermore, land lease community ‘buyers’ oft aggressively negotiated the value of rental units ‘down’ from their capitalized income value to minimal replacement values. And, at the time, most lenders, as well as the GSEs until they dropped out of the manufactured housing market, eschewed financing and guaranteeing ‘park-owned’ home loans.

Part II.

$ Market Updates for Land Lease & RV Communities…

Record Low: US Treasury rates dropped to record lows, with the entire yield curve below 1% for the first time in history; and the 10-year US Treasury hit a record low of 0.32% on March 9.

Record Flow: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are being inundated with new loan requests, submissions are at $9 billion a week for each lender, triple their normal pace! (Expect GSEs to be cautious about guaranteeing loans with firms who might plan to greatly increase rental homesite rents soon after deal ‘closings’, adding to discontent already fanning the flames of landlord-tenant legislation. GFA)

Agency Response. Agencies continue to provide loan quotes injecting liquidity into the market during times of high volatility; and their response to record inflows and the low Treasury rates has been to increase spreads and institute tight floor rates – currently financing rates around 3.0%.

Agency Forecast: If new submissions maintain at the current pace, expect spreads to increase and credit tighten throughout the year, as agency lenders manage their 2020 volume caps.

Other Lenders. Life companies actively quoting financing rates in the low 3.05 range, and conduit lenders on ‘standby’ until the market provides price clarity.

Thanks, again, to Art Tuverson for supplying the gist of this information for blog floggers (readers). And, no kidding, YOU DO WANT your personal copy of the 22nd annual National Registry of ALL Lenders Serving Land Lease Communities & the Manufactured Housing Industry!

George Allen, CPM™Emeritus, MHM™Master
EducateMHC

Postscript. I rarely do postscripts, but in the event YOU are interested in writing MH & LLCommunity trade-related articles for one or more of three trade publications, know I’m planning a day long Writers’ Seminar at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., on 3 August, roughly from 9AM-3PM (lunch together). Attendance must be limited, so if seriously interested, respond NOW to this invitation, via email: gfa7156@aol.com or the phone number listed above. Minimum fee to cover handouts and necessary meeting expenses.

Also know, EducateMHC, the same day is hosting its day long, and very popular, Manufactured Housing Manager professional property management training & certification program at the RV/MH Hall of Fame. Today, nearly 1,500 MHMs own/operate land lease communities throughout North America! To register, visit www.educatemhc.com

March 9, 2020

Something New, or ‘Not So New’, is a-Coming Your Way!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 10:11 am

Blog # 575 @ 9 March 2020; Copyright 2020; www.educatemhc.com

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

EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource, and communication media, for all land lease communities in North America!

To input this blog &/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com

Moto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: Promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. main source of affordable attainable housing! Attend an MHM class!

INTRODUCTION: Only one blog topic this week, the newly combined MH Shipment ‘#s & $s’ Report for 1/2020; &, 3/3/20 ‘Manufacturer/REIT Market Data’ Report. At the risk of overstating the importance, timeliness, and utility of this proprietary information coming your way, know the manufactured housing industry has waited nearly seven decades for these key private and public data sets to be published and shared together industrywide!

I.

Something New, or ‘Not So New’, is a-Coming Your Way!

If you were active in manufactured housing and communities during the mid-1990s, you might recall reading the periodic report I penned, titled: ‘The MHCommunity REIT Report’. It was an exciting, albeit short-lived effort to track REIT stock performance at the time.

Why exciting? Because Wall Street analysts initially viewed REIT IPOs (Initial Public Offerings – of stock) as being Growth Stocks, not the Value Stocks they were! Hence, from the ‘git-go’, REIT execs faced expectations-cum-demands, to increase dividend payments quarter after quarter – a near impossible task given the illiquid real estate assets in REIT portfolios. It was the realty asset class’ first brush with rent control and other forms of landlord-tenant legislation.

Why short-lived? Look at the ‘Rental Homesite Counts Among LLCommunity REITs’ chart within any ALLEN REPORT and that story is clear. Four new REITs were in play between 1994 & 1997; five between 1998 & 2003; six during 2004 & 2005; but then back to the present day three by year 2009, with no change during the past decade. Those chaotic times made it nigh impossible to keep accurate track of who was acquiring whom, how, and why.

So, what’s new coming your way? An expansion of the widely-referenced monthly MH Shipment ‘#s & $s’ Report prepared and distributed by EducationMHC. In brief, monthly HUD-Code housing shipment volume is tallied and reported by the Institute for Building Technology & Safety. IBTS is HUD’s perennial contractor for this valuable service, to national MH advocacy entities like HUD, MHARR, MHI, NAMHCO, & EducateMHC. There’s generally a two month lag time between end of month shipment tallying (e.g. January) and reporting (March)

Starting with the January 2020 report (distributed during early March 2020), a second half has been added: ‘Public Market Side of Manufactured Housing & Land Lease Community Portfolio Investing’. No lag time here! As soon as the first half this report is complete, public market data is gleaned online and reported to readers as four HUD-Code housing manufacturers and three real estate investment trusts, where stock prices are concerned. There will also be corporate ‘news’, market cap ‘value’ comparisons, and a new combined (MH & LLCommunity) stock index.

How to obtain your copy of this new tool, to help you quantify and understand the ‘industry’ and ‘realty asset class’ aspects of manufactured housing and communities? Simple. Subscribe to the Basic edition of The Allen Confidential newsletter, and you’ll receive this valuable resource document digitally every month.

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