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

July 13, 2014

American Dream $ & 14 SSRDs for You!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 4:04 am

COBA7® via community-investor.com Blog # 306 @ 13 July 2014 Copyright 2014

Perspective. ‘Land-lease-lifestyle communities, a.k.a. manufactured home communities and ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’

This blog posting’is a national advocacy voice, ombudsman press*, statistical research reporter, & online communications resource for all LLLCommunities in North America!

To input this blog &/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, a.k.a. COBA7®, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG OR 633-4764.

*ombudsman press. ‘Manufactured housing’s ronin, fielding inquiries, complaints, etc..

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

If you missed the ‘American Dream price tag: USA TODAY analysis shows a family of four needs $130,357 a year’ headline story, on 6 July 2014, try to find and read it; OR, read the adaptation that follows, substituting manufactured housing for a McMansion.

I take SSRDs for granted. I’ve been researching, writing, and distributing them for so long – up to 25 years in one case, I forget that folk new to manufactured housing and the LLLCommunity asset class ‘don’t know what they’re missing’. So here’s your summary.

I.

‘American Dream Price Tag: $130,357/yr’,
When American Median Income is only $51,371/yr!

Did you read this story in the 6 July issue of USA Today? The manner in which 15 categories of essential expenses, extras, and taxes/insurance were calculated and presented was nothing short of being simultaneously instructive, discouraging, and convicting. So much so, the final line of this front page article read: “…it’s clear that though the American dream is still alive, fewer and fewer of us can afford to live it.”

Following here, are the expense categories cited in the article. Read thru them twice; first time to see what’s included in the American Dream Price Tag of $130,357 personal income. Then read thru a second time, to see how much less annual income would be required, if paying the median price for a new HUD-Code manufactured home at $61, 900, instead of $275,000 for the site-built home cited in the article.

ESSENTIAL EXPENSES # I.. Median housing @ $17,062/year (10% down payment; financed @ 30 years at 4%, +1% for annual maintenance). Groceries @ $12,659 for family of four. One 4wheel drive SUV @ $11,039/year. Healthcare premium & expenses @ $9,144. Other purchases & extras (including household utilities) totaled $25,596. And taxes @ $32,357 (30% of income). College savings = $5,000/year for two children. Retirement savings = $17,500. Grand total is $130,357. Note. Article wasn’t clear about how ‘property taxes & homeowner’s insurance’ costs, as in the’ T&I’ of housing PITI (‘principal & interest’) were handled.

ESSENTIAL EXPENSES # II. Median housing @ $3,208/year (same terms as #I above), plus $3,996 for rental homesite rent if $333/month. And for the moment, keep remaining categories of essential expenses the same as in #I above. Grand total is $120,499; nearly $10,000 less income required per year.

But if this $61,900 home is sited on realty conveyed fee simple, or rent free on – a relative’s property, that’d be another ‘savings’ of $3,996/year., bringing the American Dream Price Tag down to $116,503. Also, ‘taxes’ computed at being 30% of the $130,357 income level would be less, as the American Dream Price Tag inched closer to $100,000/yr.

But still, even with the significant adjustment for a truly affordable HUD-Code manufactured home, at $61,900, instead of a $275,000 McMansion, the American Dream Price Tag is still roughly at $100,000/yr income, almost double the Area Median Income, or AMI, during year 2012, of $51,371.00. Not an encouraging picture.

II.

Signature Series Resource Documents or SSRDs

Oldest SSRD will be 26 years in 2015 & two new ones to debut during 2014

When you’re the owner/operator of one or more land-lease-lifestyle communities (A.k.a. manufactured home communities) it’s a fine line between being ‘in the know’ and unaware of the operating statistics and emerging trends that affect one as an income-producing real estate investor and purveyor of HUD-Code manufactured housing. And that ‘fine line’ is comprised of what, until recently, was a dozen Signature Series Resource Documents or SSRDs, available only from GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing; and now the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, or COBA7®.

Have you ever wondered what comprises the full array of 12 cum 14 SSRDs? Well, here you have the complete list, published publicly for the first time:

• ALLEN REPORT, a.k.a. ‘Who’s Who Among Land-lease-lifestyle Community Portfolio Owners/Operators Located Throughout North America!’ This is the ‘granddaddy’, so to speak, of SSRDs, having been published continually for 25years, since 1988/89. The 26th annual ALLEN REPORT will be distributed during January 2015. Research for the report begins with a questionnaire circulated to the 500+/- known portfolio owners/operators, During August 2014.

• ‘Official State of the MHIndustry & LLLCommunity Asset Class’ outline, supplemented with a comprehensive list of ‘issues’ identified by LLLCommunity owners/operators during research (questionnaires) the previous Fall. Now that this two part outline is updated annually, businessmen and women, as well as association executives, have been using it to brief employees, members, politicians, government officials, and other interested parties. Out in February.

• National Registry of Lenders now includes real estate-secured mortgage originators (for LLLCommunities) as well as chattel capital sources and servicers. While the aforementioned ALLEN REPORT is the most sought after SSRD, the National Registry of Lenders runs a close second place. It is distributed during March.

• ‘Who Ya Gonna Call in 201_?!’ This SSRD is the only independently published directory of freelance consultants who serve the MHIndustry & LLLCommunity asset class nationwide. Literally, ‘anyone who’s anybody’ in this ‘double dual industry’ is featured, though not endorsed, in this handy reference that is distributed, like other SSRDs, as a lagniappe in the Allen Letter professional journal – in this case, during April.

• The annual Directory of MHIndustry & LLLCommunity Print & Online Trade Media Resources has become the ‘go to’ reference among association executives, as well as businessmen and women, who need to stay informed about industry and realty asset class matters. A recent addition, in the form of a comprehensive Social Media directory, is included in this special SSRD. Out in May.

• Official Lexicon or Glossary of the MHIndustry & LLLCommunity Asset Class has ‘grown legs of its’ own’ since debuting five years ago. Now often included in the back material of books, guides, and pamphlets, to ‘spread the word’ and lessen misunderstanding of various trade terms and definitions. Updated every June.

• Professional Property Management Training & Certification Programs deserve more emphasis throughout the LLLCommunity realty asset class. This particular SSRD is getting us there, as it describes the various professional property management training and certification programs: CPM®, MHM®, ACM®. Look for it in July’s edition of the Allen Letter professional journal.

• The ‘Industry Briefing Sheet’ & ‘Mobile/Manufactured Housing-related Statistics’ SSRDs have been combined in 2014, as one reference document! Frankly, it contains more and various MHindustry & LLLCommunity statistics, including Canadian, than any other such document in existence today! Look for it in August 2014.
• During September, shortly after the annual International Networking Roundtable, the Trade Advocacy Body Directory makes its’ appearance for all to see and use. Like many of the other SSRDs, the information contained herein is not available, in collected fashion, anywhere else, from anyone else.

• Annual Summary of Proceedings from the International Networking Roundtable. Published in narrative form, it describes what took place at the year’s networking roundtable, including topics presented, as well as the names and contact information of all the presenters! What other trade body in MH and LLLCommunities does that for their (often working for free) speakers? No one.

• MHIndustry Paradigm Shifts Timeline has been around ‘for years’ but isn’t as widely known as other SSRDs. Why? Well, it can be a bit controversial, as it contains stats, trends, even quotes, that some individuals would sooner forget than remember. But it ‘tells the story’, over time, of the MHIndustry & LLLCommunity asset class. Distributed with the November newsletter.

• December of each year generally sees a mish mash of reports and narratives that don’t easily fit elsewhere. Used to be referred to as the National State of the Asset Class, or NSAC caucus report (Recalling the exciting events of 2/27/2008 & 2/27/2009); though supplanted by the Manufactured Housing Initiative® moniker of late. And now with COBA7® on the scene, methinks there’s yet another evolution on the horizon.

Well, there you have it; a summary of the SSRDs that LLLCommunity owners/operators ‘in the know’ have relied on, for much of the past 25 years, to keep them informed. Well, at this year’s 23rd International Networking Roundtable, two additional (new) SSRDs will debut; they are:

• Directory of Real Estate Brokers Who Specialize in Marketing ‘for sale’ LLLCommunities nationwide.
• Directory of HUD-Code Home Manufacturers. This is something ‘left undone’ since John Griffin left the industry a few years ago.

Bottom line. If you’re not presently receiving the dozen, soon to be 14 SSRDs just described, YOU are missing OUT on numbers, trends, advice, and more, that you should be using to improve the profitability of your LLLCommunity-related business interests. What to do about it? Affiliate with COBA7®, the sooner the better! There’re three options:

I = $134.95 for subscription to the Allen Letter professional journal only. No SSRDs
II = $544.95 for Allen Letter subscription and all SSRDs!
III = $944.95 = for Allen Letter subscription, all SSRDs, and subscription to the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! – a very special monthly newsletter for CEOs and business owners!

To effect your affiliation with COBA7®, simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

Is affiliation worthwhile? Well, more than 200 of our peers, since the first of this year, have certainly seemed to think so. Where else are you going to have such access to research, SSRDs, communication via print & online, networking & deal-making opportunities, professional property management training & certification, and national advocacy, e.g. Official ombudsman (press) of the MHIndustry & LLLCommunity asset class. And the list of benefits, tangible and otherwise, goes on….

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