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

Blog Posting # 600 @ 31 August 2020; Copyright 2020. 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, & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone 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: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!

INTRODUCTION. Most of the quotes in Part II of this blog (#600) have been lightly edited to ensure consistency in terminology and descriptions. GFA

I.

ACHIEVEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

This is George Allen’s 600th Weekly Blog Posting Since 2008!

Twelve years of pretty much ‘shooting from the hip’, where manufactured housing & land lease community reporting of statistics, identifying challenges, and documenting emerging trends are concerned. When industry & realty asset class NEWS could not wait until the next Allen Letter – recently renamed The Allen Confidential! was penned and published, this blog led the way, informing inquisitive and thoughtful decision-makers what was taking place around them nationwide! And those timely NEWS perspectives continue today, as we look closely at Manufactured Housing’s (latest) Conundrum!

Trust you will continue to follow this blog’s NEWS through to the 700th posting two years from now. And along the way, know I want to hear from you, with NEWS tips and leads, via gfa7156@aol.com
GFA

II.

Manufactured Housing’s Conundrum:

“Is COVID-19 really the culprit for manufactured housing ills these days, or simply being used as cover for other troublesome realities?”

We asked this timely question of 60 manufactured housing & land lease community ‘insiders’ from every segment of the industry and realty asset class, during mid-August. Since then we’ve received a dozen written responses, mostly via email and telephone, expressing a wide range of views, but with this common theme: one way or another, the coronavirus pandemic has affected all aspects of manufactured housing production & land lease community operations!

This is what representatives from two HUD-Code housing manufacturer penned:

• “Over the past month, we saw our largest (price) jump in lumber and OSB (‘oriented strand board’) ever. The demand for building products – from shingles to doors to 2X4s to OSB have gone up and up. The OSB mills (staffing) have been reduced and shut down for COVID.” Another respondent: “The (building) materials have gone crazy over the past few weeks, e.g. July 24th & 31st, OSB went up 25-30%.”

• Freight cost factors: Fuel prices, road construction and municipal detours forcing longer routes. And, once again, “…there’s a shortage of truck and escort drivers.”

• ‘Improvements in materials’ (e.g. window wrap, upgraded furnaces, Ecobee thermostats, etc.) have contributed to product price increases.

• From a land lease community owner: “…in CA, at the ________ plant, 35% of employees are off work, and the product coming off line has major problems, and there is no one available to fix the problems.”

Zeroing in on the lumber supply shortage. Here’s what MHI recently wrote on the subject:

• ‘The random Lengths Framing Composite Price topped $600 per 1,000 board feet at the end of July – marking the first time that prices have topped the $600 level. Framing lumber prices have soared roughly 80% since mid-April while the price of OSB is up well over 100% from a year ago.”

• And something you might not know: “…housing demand has remained steady across the country, and there was also an unexpected surge in demand from do-it-yourselfers and big box retailers during the pandemic.” Plus, “…tariffs on lumber imports from Canada continue to average more than 20%.”

Underscoring what you just read, here’s a summary quoted from the 19-25 August issue of The Epoch Times – the weekly newspaper I now read instead of The New York Times and The Washington Post.

• “Supply shortages of framing lumber and OSB are harming the U.S. economic recovery and its burgeoning housing market – according to the National Association of Home Builders (‘NAHB’).”

• NAHB suggests the White House urge “…domestic lumber producers to ramp up production to ease growing shortages.”

How are land lease communities handling these increased manufactured housing costs?

• ‘Over the last few years we have (been) filling rental homesites with new homes we sell at cost, if need be. All we really care about is having established the market rent for that space; that is where the true value of these communities lies.”

• “…while I’m selling new homes at cost, I have come to require the homes to remain in the (land lease) community for at least four years. Other communities use ‘secret shoppers’ to buy my homes, only to move them out. In our sales contract, I require the home remain in the community a minimum of four years, and if they move it beforehand, they are required to pay the pro-rated amount of site rent that remains. Doing this, puts the home price where a street dealer is disincentivized from purchasing my discounted homes.”

• “As you are aware, in CA, we have no new land lease communities, so have been changing out lots of pre-1980s homes with newer, high end manufactured homes.”

• “I no longer consider investing in land lease communities in soft markets because I simply don’t know where the product pricing will be, to fill vacant rental homesites.”

Talk about a two-edged sword dilemma. Here it is:

• “…the stimulus checks and added unemployment benefits have helped some of our perpetually late residents get caught up on their rent balances.” (&)

• “…we pay our employees a ‘COVID Bonus’ for continuing to work fulltime during the pandemic”, to offset the ‘more $ to not work’ compensation they receive from government sources.

Two bottom lines, of sorts, for this week’s blog: Through June 2020, HUD-Code housing shipments have slipped by 200 units from June a year ago – and continue to fall. And, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’), housing prices, nationwide, are up 5.4 percent from a year ago, year to date. So, fewer manufactured homes available, even as conventional housing prices continue to rise.

Well, that’s our conundrum summary to date. If you’d like to add your comments to this mix, simply email me via gfa7156@aol.com

POSTSCRIPT. Lest you think the coronavirus is affecting just our industry, where shortages are concerned, here’s an observation from a recent issue of the Washington Examiner magazine: ‘Timber, coin, and gun shortages attributed to the coronavirus.’

III.

Revisiting the T-Shirt Collection

If you enjoyed last week’s blog describing my T-Shirt collection, the one about to be donated to the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., and have MH-related corporate T-Shirt(s) you’d like to add to the collection, simply box them up and send to George Allen c/o 170 Commerce Dr., Franklin, IN. 46131.

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George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 599 @ 21 August 2020; Copyright 2020. 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, & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone 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: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!

INTRODUCTION: Two weeks ago, I sent dozens of MHInsiders (all major HUD-Code housing manufacturers, many property portfolio owners/operators, and other industry/asset class leaders) a lengthy email message with this SUBJECT line:

“Is COVID-19 really the culprit for manufactured housing ills these days, or simply being used as cover for other troublesome realities?’

Then talked about rapidly increasing wholesale housing prices, escalating delivery costs, and shipment backlogs extending into mid-2021. Requested input from recipients, and boy did I ever receive it – a dozen thoughtful, helpful replies to date! Will likely address these timely and troubling topics in next week’s blog posting (i.e. historic #600), but wanted to give ‘blog floggers’ (YOU) this opportunity to provide additional input. Send to GFA c/o gfa7156@aol.com. Won’t use your name unless you make it clear it’s OK to do so.

Now for the lead-off to Part I of this week’s blog. The following dozen or more T-shirts in my collection, described here, were presumed ‘lost’ for the several years. Found them this past weekend as I was cleaning out my Franklin office. Now sharing some of their rich history with you!

I.

A Potpourri of MH T-shirts,
&
How We Can Share Them With Future Generations!

But first, this IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. ‘Manufactured housing-related collections (i.e. books, T-shirts, coffee mugs, challenge coins and more) must find a home soon, or be lost to our industry forever!’ It’s our business legacy we’re talking about here! More on this a little later in this blog posting. GFA

Two dozen white, black and colored T-shirts trace manufactured housing history from 1936 to the present day. As I close down our corporate office – to work from home, I must ‘find a home’ for at least four collections accumulated since 1978. Carolyn has already said ‘no’ to turning our home into another manufactured housing museum.

So, what are the messages on these T-shirts? Well, just a taste here, as I’ll likely elaborate, maybe even photograph them, for a future Allen Legacy column in MHInsider, magazine, or feature in The Allen Confidential! business newsletter. But no photos here in this blog posting.

‘Visit the NATIONAL TRAILER SHOW, September 10-15, 1937, at 71st Armory in New York City’. So reads the message on oldest T-shirt, provided by the publishers of defunct Lost Highways magazine. To read more about that short-lived firm, and its’ colorful tales of ‘trailer life of yore’, watch for coverage in a future Allen Legacy column in MHInsider – one tracing manufactured housing history via its’ trade publications over seven decades.

Then there’s the iconic Manufactured Home Communities, Inc. (one of the earliest real estate investment trusts or REITs), WORLD TOUR T-shirt (1993) ‘Reshaping the Perception about Manufactured Housing Communities.’ Yes, this is the one with a caricature of (presumably) Sam Zell on the back shaking an accountant by the neck, saying: “For the last time pencil neck, it’s not called a trailer.” And, almost a decade later, MHC, Inc. (IL) came out with another white T-shirt, this one proclaiming: ‘Times Change. KEEP UP. Leading manufactured housing into the new millennium.’

What other T-shirts are in this eclectic collection? Here’re brief descriptions with a minimum of humorous and enlightening messages contained thereon. Details, and maybe photographs, will be published in one or another of the future trade publications mentioned earlier.

Chateau Communities, (MI & CO) another of the original REITs, later sold to Hometown America in 2003, distributed a variety of T-shirts over the years. One even promoting resident relations and ancillary income in their land lease communities.

ARC, a short-lived REIT (2004 & 2005), known at different times as Affordable Residential Communities and American Residential Communities (If my memory is right), designed a T-shirt featuring their corporate logo on the front and mission on the back. The corporate history of this firm, as brief as it was, deserves description someday, i.e. from its’ ‘ARC Way’ formula for turning around troubled communities, to the simultaneous auction of all its’ properties, in a huge hotel ballroom outside Chicago. Hint. The auction was so large; the firm’s stock price fluctuated throughout the day, as properties were bid for and sold – only to have all transactions nullified later, because sale prices did not meet the stated reserves.

Then there’s Community Housing Management Services (CA). The only non-profit public benefit portfolio owner/operator, that I’m aware of, to serve Senior citizens and others.

The Choice Group (MI) broke this T-shirt pattern by handing out dark blue button-top golf shirts to employees, residents, and clients.

The final portfolio firm to market itself in this unique fashion was/is Follett Investment Properties. This one debuted during year 2000, at a training conference in San Diego, CA. For that matter, I still wear, during spring and fall, a good quality windbreaker jacket also bearing the FollettUSA logo.

Oops! Almost forgot one. A jet black T-shirt from the Carlyle Group (Can’t tell you which one of the two firms that go by that name) features a really fearsome animal graphic on the back. You have to see it to believe it. Hence a future article, hopefully, with photographs.

Now for a plethora of miscellaneous non-corporate T-shirts, all of which have stories not told here. Ever heard of the Trailer Park Troubadours? Well, they’re for real-real. Their slogan? ‘I’ve been trailer hoppin’.’ I met the duo at a MH show at the Grand Ol Opry Hotel outside Nashville, TN. decades ago. Another of my corporate mementoes is a framed and signed glossy photo of the TPT guys performing their land lease community-focused country songs.

Then there’s the Bropfs (independent – street – MHRetailers in St. Charles, MO., with their yellow T-shirts featuring ‘doublewides’ and unit pricing; and white ones for ‘singlewides’ and unit pricing. The founder of this firm, now retired long-retired Bob Bropf, was known for attending semi-formal state association banquets wearing a long sleeved T-shirt that mimicked a tuxedo, tie, and cummerbund.

Now, this one was sold at a high-end big box retail store in the Mall of America in MN. An off-color brown, the front features a rendering of an old singlesection ‘mobile home’, with this caption above: ‘I STILL LIVE AT HOME!’

Ever heard of The Kings? It’s a social group of businessmen (i.e. land lease community owners/operators from throughout the Southeast U.S.). Their gray, long sleeve T-shirt features this slogan: “You mess with me…you mess with the whole trailer park!’ And, come to think of it, FollettUSA also has a red T-shirt, out and about, with the same slogan on it.

OK, there’s still a half dozen or more T-shirts I haven’t described here, so watch future issues of MHInsider and TAC! for ‘the rest of the story’ and hopefully, photos as well.

Recalling the opening paragraph of this blog posting, this T-shirt collection – and a few other historical collections, need a home! This is where you come in. Some reading this blog, have the wherewithal to fund part or all the manufactured housing hall and displays at the RV/MH Heritage Foundation Hall of Fame, museum, and library, in Elkhart, IN. The RV industry already enjoys a massive presence at the facility, and funding is all that’s holding up manufactured housing. Please give the matter some thought, then phone (574) 293-2344 and ask to talk to Darryl Searer, director.

So, if you don’t want this (blog) to be the last word on historic T-shirts, or books for that matter – recalling parts I & II of Allen Legacy columns in recent MHInsider magazines, contact the Hall of Fame to learn how much $ it’ll take to ensure manufactured housing’s presence there! In the meantime, know that Carolyn and I donate every year, and have for decades, but we cannot do this alone. Remember, the number is (574) 293-2344, and visit their website online. Better yet, plan to attend the Class of 2020 Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on 3 December 2020, to see for yourself what an impressive facility this is. See you there!

Blog Posting # 598 @ 14 August 2020; Copyright 2020. 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, & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!

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

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing& land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!

INTRODUCTION: There’s nothing new in this blog posting. I’ve been teaching and writing about these ‘tools of the trade’ for a long time. However, between attrition and new hires, I know we need to keep this near-proprietary information out and about, for your benefit and education. So, read and enjoy; be sure those you work with in land lease communities know these techniques as well. GFA

I.

Once & For All, Here It Is!

How to know the ‘affordable housing payment amount’ in any local housing market, and ‘how much house’ any prospective homebuyer can afford to buy!

As many of you, who know me and read this blog and EducateMHC’s The Allen Confidential! newsletter, I have long maintained that ‘low income housing folk’, a.k.a. ‘housers’ hijacked the concept and reality of affordable housing. A recent article (‘The Changing Face of Affordable Housing’) in the Institute of Real Estate Management’s (‘IREM’) Journal of Property Management magazine, contained this telling paragraph:

“Doing more with less has been the mantra for affordable housing for many years. Program compliance, which is typically not consistent between (sic) the four or five funding sources, means managers are completing multiple reports. This reduces available time to connect with residents.” P.41…and limits the scope of affordable housing to low income, and very low income, housing users! GFA

That has little-to-nothing to do with what makes a local housing market, or prospective homebuyer’s search for a home, in either case, AFFORDABLE! What really and truly does peg the dollar amount of affordability? Here’re the answers:
The local housing market, whether there’s a home-selling presence there now, or contemplating launching such a business presence, here’s how to peg affordability:

1. Identify the postal zip code for said local housing market and visit zipwho.com to ascertain the Area Median Income (‘AMI’) of the populace who live there, e.g. $50,000.

2. Multiply the AMI by widely-accepted Housing Expense Factor (‘HEF’), to identify the $ amount needed, for a prospective homebuyer to rent a conventional apartment or buy a home in that local housing market; e.g. $50,000 X .3 = $15,000 or $1,250 per month.

3. A caveat applies here, as well as in the next scenario. When the $15,000 pays PITI alone (principal, interest, taxes, insurance), the transaction is ‘risky’, requiring the homeowner to pay more each month (i.e. utility bills) for his/her home. When the $15,000 covers PITI & annual housing expenses (i.e. utilities), the transaction is truly ‘affordable’ – but also means the homebuyer buys less home than via the ‘risky’ route.

4. Which way will you sell and finance your home buying customers?

The prospective homebuyer, or in the case of a land lease community – homebuyer/site lessee, the process is pretty much the same, but for the inclusion of monthly rental homesite fee in the 30% Housing Expense Factor set aside to pay PITI & utilities each month – or not.

1. Identify prospective homebuyer’s Annual Gross Income or AGI (equivalent to AMI in previous scenario; amount will vary from person/family to person/family), e.g. $50,000.

2. Multiply the AGI by widely-accepted 30% Housing Expense Factor (‘HEF’), to identify the amount needed by prospective homebuyer to buy a home in the local housing market or live in a land lease community, e.g. $50,000 X .3 = $15,000 or $1,250 per month.

3. The caveat here is the same as described above, relative to ‘risky’ vs. ‘affordable’ transactions, plus this twist. When living in a land lease community, the monthly fee for a rental homesite must be accounted for in the $15,000; covering PITI, annual utilities – or not, and definitely, rental homesite fee.

What you read above is the proverbial ‘bottom line’ relative to affordable housing. Sure, low income housing folk will continue to refer to LIHTC (low income housing tax credits) and Section 8 housing, and other programs, as characteristic of affordable housing. But now YOU know the truth of the matter. Affordable housing has directly to do with the AMI of any local housing market identified by postal zip code; and the Annual Gross Income a prospective homebuyer/site lessee ‘brings to the table’ when purchasing his/her new or resale home.

Believe it or not, there’s actually an easy-to-use worksheet available, for FREE, for you to use when working either or both affordable housing scenarios. It’s called the ‘Ah Ha! & Uh Oh! Worksheet’ and is available to you from EducateMHC. Simply request it via gfa7156@aol.com

II.

Once & For All, Here It Is!

Quickly & Easily Estimate the Capitalized Income Value of Full, and Less Than Full, Land Lease Communities, In Average Condition, Using the New Rule of 72!

Prior to 1994 I made a comfortable living, in part, as a review appraiser of (then) manufactured home communities. Two years earlier, while on active duty during Desert Storm, and working in Honduras, I compiled the ‘first ever’ industry standard chart of operating accounts and related operating expense ratios (OERs’), based on the Institute of Real Estate Management’s professional property management Experience Exchange format. This chart and OER data was published in a J. Wiley & Sons case bound text titled: How to Find, Buy, Manage, & Sell a Manufactured Home Community, 1996 & 98. That pretty much ended my review appraiser days, as ‘everyone’ now had access to the chart of accounts and OERs I’d been using for the past decade. *1

A few years later, Susan McCarty (daughter) and I created the Valuation Calculation Worksheet, a.k.a. VCW, using features from all three income-producing realty perspectives: market, income, and replacement values. The goal was to provide a ‘do it yourself’ tool for sole proprietor community owners, so they would not have to rely on estimate produced by itinerant real estate brokers. And the VCW worked well, and continues to do so, but the perennial need was for something even simpler and accurate. Hence the New Rule of 72.

Everyone, it seems, has heard of, and likely used, the original Rule of 72; to wit: At a given percent return on one’s money, how long does it take to double in value? Simple. ’72 divided by the ROI, e.g. 20%. Or, 72 divided by .2 = 3.6 years to double the value.

New Rule of 72 is amazingly simple to use. Drive through an average land lease community and count the number of rentable homesites, both occupied and vacant, e.g. 200. Then ascertain the monthly rental homesite fee, e.g. $200.00. Now, multiply 200 sites by $200 and that total by 72. Result? $2,880,000.00 is what that property would be worth if 100% occupied and everyone paying rent current at $200/month. Per site value = $14,400/site.

Rarely is a land lease community 100% occupied; always something less. So, ascertain the number of occupied and paid current rental homesites with homeowner/site lessees in place (e.g. 180). Multiply 180 sites by $200 and that total by 72. Result? $2,592,000. Per site value = Again, $14,400/occupied site, plus a lesser value for the vacant rental homesites.

Doesn’t get any easier than that! An important thing to remember, however, is the New Rule of 72 applies only to AVERAGE land lease communities. ‘A’ grade communities will be worth more, and ‘C’ or ‘C’ grade communities less than estimated here. How to know? Use the ABClassification Process form available via EducateMHC (www.educatemhc.com).

***
End Note.

1. Prior to 1992, most MAI appraisers, when it came to manufactured home communities, used an average overall OER of 50-55% (Characteristic of conventional apartment communities). Truth of the matter was, and still is, the accurate average overall OER for (now) land lease communities, was and is, 40+/-%! Why the significant difference? Given their higher turnover of tenants, conventional apartment communities must market much more (i.e. staffing & advertising); and upon turnover, must paint units, service utilities and appliances, and clean or replace floor coverings. Bottom line? Valuations of manufactured home communities, back then, were oft – if not always, undervaluing these income-producing property. And frankly, the larger the community, the more the overall OER shrinks in size (e.g. 40 to 20%), as operating expenses remain fairly constant, while income increases with physical and economic occupancy growth.

George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 597 @ 7 August 2020; Copyright 2020. 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, & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and/or affiliate with EducateMHC< telephone 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: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!

I.

Are You Ready?

For the 32nd Annual ALLEN REPORT? During the month of August, if you’re a portfolio owner/operator of land lease communities in North America, expect to receive an electronic letter and input form from EducateMHC, asking you about property portfolio size and composition, along with operations performance statistics. When completed and returned before the September deadline, the information you provide will be culled and written into the 32nd annual ALLEN REPORT, to be distributed during the month of January 2021. If you’re unsure you qualify, or fear you won’t receive this timely opportunity to input the longest running, most referenced statistical compendium in the manufactured housing industry, let us know via gfa7156@aaol.com or phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

For the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (‘FHFA’) Listening Sessions? Pay attention to future announcements about Listening Sessions scheduled to occur from 14 – 16 October, in various locations around the U.S.. Manufactured housing is one of three underserved markets the GSEs (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) are tasked, by Congress, to address with Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) plans each year. And these Listening Sessions are our industry and realty asset class’ unique, in-person opportunities to make our needs and frustrations known to federal agencies that can help with finance and more. This weekly blog posting, and EducateMHC’s The Allen Confidential! business newsletter, are two primary sources for this information going forward. Visit www.educatemhc.com to subscribe.

For a dose of manufactured housing history? If you’re active in MH and or land lease community ownership/operations, and enjoy learning helpful and practical lessons from ‘those who’ve gone before’, you need to be reading every issue of the MHInsider magazine! Why? Because every issue, at the end of general content features, is the Allen Legacy column. To date, here’re the titles you’ve maybe missed – and some yet to come:

• Preserving Your Personal & Corporate Legacy. ‘How to pen your memoir.’
• The Last Decade Has Seen a Profound Paradigm Shift – from MHRetailers to in-community sales and home-only finance.
• Tunica’s History Ties Into Industry (Copy of invoice & check from Elvis Presley for his new manufactured home)
• History of MHI Congress & Expo Leads Back to Gub Mix
• RV/MH Hall of Famers: An Eclectic Mix of Pioneers, Leaders with Vision & Talent
• A Confluence of Community Owners (The SECO story!)
• The Quintessential Family Business (i.e. land lease community ownership)
• Stepping Out of the Manufactured Housing Shadow
• Do You Know MH Lingo? (It is certainly a unique way of communicating!)
• Read a Good Book Lately? If you’re a ‘reader’, you need to see this column!
• Tracing Manufactured Housing & Communities History, Part I: 1955-1990
• Tracing Manufactured Housing & Communities History, Part II: 1990 – 2020
• Print Publications Tell MH Story for 75 Years! This one is a real gem for info!)

The last two stories have yet to be published. But this gives you ‘more than a flavor’ of what to expect from this stellar trade publication. Not receiving copies? Simple. Just email Patrick@datacompusa.com and request to be put on the mailing list.

For the postponed RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Banquet? I am! So many ‘friends in the business’ being inducted this time around. To buy a banquet ticket, phone (574) 293-2344. Responding to popular request and interest, I was planning to host an industry/realty asset class-wide national meeting that day, at the Hall of Fame facility. Goal would have been to seek solutions to our industry’s continuing lagging new HUD-Code housing shipment volume performance. There’s certainly enough interest ‘out there’ to have the meeting. However, have learned a major RV meeting is also scheduled on 3 December, at the RV/MH Hall of Fame facility as well. What to do? Ideas from you?

For Manufactured Home Manager training and certification? If not already an IREM CPM, or MHI ACM, or EducateMHC MHM, you should be! Professional property management continues to be under-represented among land lease communities nationwide. While there’re 50,000 such communities, there’re only 125+/- CPMs, 200+/- ACMs, and nearly 1,500 MHMs at work. All those numbers should be quadrupled, to bring us anywhere near where we should be, compared with conventional apartments, condominiums, office buildings, and shopping centers. To learn more about the popular MHM program, contact EducateMHC vis its’ website: www.educatemhc.com or phone me via the aforementioned Official MHIndustry HOTLINE.
II.

Old News Now; Scary News Earlier…

Jim Clayton narrowly escaped death, earlier this week, in a helicopter crash in TN. His brother Joe died in the accident.

***