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

November 27, 2020

Four Takeaways @ State of National Housing Address

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 8:54 am

Blog Posting # 614 @ 27 November 2020; Copyright 2020: Educatemhc

 

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 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:

 

 

 

I.

 

Four Takeaways @ State of National Housing Address

 

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University recently hosted a virtual presentation of its’ 31st annual State of the Nation’s Housing research and conclusions. Supposedly there were 1,000 listeners. I was underwhelmed by the number and nature of the observations made during the webinar. Here’re the four that stuck with me:

 

While it was acknowledged, housing matters are ‘local’, as in local housing markets, panelists agreed there was need to re-envision national housing policy at federal level. Depends on which administration.

 

The 2007 & 2008 recession was characterized by a foreclosure crisis; while today’s 2020 pandemic times characterized by a renter crisis. In both instances, beware scams!

 

Today there’s a stronger homeownership market than rental market; thanks, in large part, to young millennials with jobs, buying their first houses.

 

Underscoring all this was a plea for more homebuyer education and information, better screening.

 

I know, not much meat here, and I apologize for that. Perhaps a blog reader, who sat in on this virtual presentation, has more to offer. If so, let me know via gfa7156@aol.com  Thanks! GFA

 

II.

 

MHARR Harangues Post-Production Segments of MHIndustry but Offers No Practical Solutions!

 

In its’ REPORT AND ANALYSIS dated 20 November 2020, MHARR lamented the “…ineffectual representation of the industry’s post-production sector in the nation’s capital, in order to bring these crucial, market essential matters (i.e. consumer financing, discriminatory zoning and placement) to fruition.” (Lightly edited, with parenthetical addition & punctuation. GFA)

 

Rightly and wrongly, MHARR lays this failure at the feet of MHI. Rightly, because MHI overtly claims to represent the entire manufactured housing industry, including post-production sector businesses. Just how effective though, has their advocacy been? Wrongly, because even though there’re MHI divisions representing suppliers, land lease communities, and independent (street) MHRetailers, the bulk of the institute’s funding comes from HUD-code housing manufacturers, who – as a result, pretty much determine the direction, scope, as well as present and future efficacy of the organization.

 

To that end, the question arises, from time to time, when does a business type (e.g. HUD-Code housing manufacturing and home only chattel finance) cross the line, in terms of $ or national market share, to become a monopoly, monopsony, oligopoly or duopoly? The differences among these entities? This definition from Wikipedia:

 

“A monopoly…exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity. This contrasts with a monopsony, which relates to a single entity’s control of a market to purchase a good or service, and with oligopoly and duopoly which consist of a few sellers dominating a market.”

 

So, there maybe we have the answer to that decades old question of manufactured housing market dominance. Oligopoly or duopoly? Digging deeper into ‘definitions’, we find OLIGOPOLY to be the appropriate term: “a market situation in which prices and other factors are controlled by a few sellers”. Duopoly? Two firms control the market. So, OLIGOPOLY it might be!

 

And while I plowed this furrow in last week’s blog posting (#613), the observation made by MHARR is worth repeating again – as it does in this 20 November report:

 

“Nearly 13 years after enactment of the DTS (i.e. Duty to Serve) mandate by Congress, neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac have securitized a single manufactured housing personal property loan – and have no current plans to provide any DTS support for such loans for the foreseeable future – despite the fact that personal property loans comprise (and have historically comprised) nearly 80 percent of the manufactured housing market, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.”

 

Finally. MHARR laments “…a level of complacency on the part of (HUD) program regulators, toward the regulatory reform process and, at worst,…encouraged outright resistance to (the) process.” I ‘feel the pain’ in this observation. But don’t think blame can be laid entirely at the feet of MHI & MHARR. Frankly, the manufactured housing industry is way underserved, in my opinion, when it comes to investigative journalism and news coverage of regulatory and related matters. Gone are the days of the Manufactured Home Merchandiser magazine and The Journal tabloid. Today, The Allen Confidential! focuses on the information needs of land lease community owners/operators, while the quarterly MHInsider magazine is not on the scene enough to exert the sort of pressure needed from time to time.

 

Underscoring the message of the previous paragraph is the woeful lack of financial support (including advertising) from would be subscribers and readers of these few remaining print publications. It seems we’ve become so used to reading immediate, albeit shallow news at any number of online sites – oft penned by self-proclaimed, short-lived ‘experts’ with questionable credentials. Are you doing your part to keep quality trade journalism coming your way?

 

In closing, and as a peripheral matter, I think MHARR’s message(s) would be more effective if not conveyed in 111 word paragraphs, and they’d stop referring to ‘hybrid’ homes, when everyone knows they’re describing the CrossMod™ model HUD-Code manufactured home.

**

George Allen, CPM, MHM

November 20, 2020

‘MHIckey & MHARRio’

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 6:44 am

Blog Posting # 613 @ 20 Nov 2020; Copyright 2020: Educatemhc

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 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: Recognize MHIckey & MHARRio from blogs past? I use these two ‘play on words’ creations to demonstrate how closely the trade advocacy entities are related in the manufactured housing industry and the minds of those of us who career there.

I.

‘MHIckey & MHARRio’

Musings. I’ve known of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) since entering the manufactured housing business in 1978. Didn’t really pay much attention to it, however, until 1980, when Carolyn and I launched GFA Management, Inc., as a fee management firm. And the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’)? While not present at the ‘big split’ in 1985, when Danny Ghorbani left MHI to help found MHARR, I was certainly aware of the proceedings.

It was shortly thereafter, in 1988, I began, what’s turned out to be, my perennial on again – off again tete-a-tete, with whoever ran MHI at the time. To that end, I’ve lived and worked through no less than a half dozen MHI executive vice presidents since 1990. MHARR, in contrast, performed its’ yeoman work, in behalf of manufactured housing, under the leadership of its’ founding exec, until a few years ago when he retired.

What happened in 1988 that ‘set the tone and tenor’ of my ongoing relationship with MHI? After penning articles for the Manufactured Home Merchandiser, and Ask George column in The Journal, I pulled the published material together in the first book on professional community management in two decades! The self-published, perfect bound book was titled, Mobile Home Park Management. And here’s where ‘the rub’ began. As a Certified Property Manager (‘CPM’) member of the Institute of Real Estate Management (‘IREM’), I planned to imitate that certification with one of my own – for mobile home park owners and managers.

It was at that very time, MHI decided to launch the Accredited Community Manager (‘ACM’) certification program – and asked me to hold off starting the Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) certification program. In the interest of being a ‘team player’, I agreed, even helping Craig White, ACM, pen the first of three ACM lesson plans, then teaching a 101 session with him in Portland, OR. *1

Point? As a new small business owner in the manufactured housing arena, I wanted to ‘get along with everyone’. But my first Lesson Learned was, this would be possible, only as long as I followed the lead of the institute’s elected and salaried leaders at the time – albeit they and their foci changed every couple years.

Things went smoothly enough for ten years. Then I learned, after asking pointed questions, there’d been barely 100 new ACMs designated during that period of time! Not a sign of program success. At that point, I dusted off the MHM program, and to their chagrin, started teaching it myself, from coast to coast and throughout Canada. Today there’re nearly 1,500 MHMs owning/operating land lease communities. MHARR has and had no such program.

Then an organizational hiccup occurred, between years 1993 and 1996. This was a pre-REIT (real estate investment trust) effort to ensure effective national advocacy for land lease community owners/operators (though, at the time, we were still talking ‘manufactured home communities’), once several of the large portfolio firms ‘went public’ in 1994. The Industry Steering Committee (‘ISC’), formed in 1993, evolved into the National Communities Council, effective 1 January 1996, under the leadership of Jim Ayotte. This whole scenario is documented in Bruce Savage’s book, The First 20 Years!, available via www.educatemhc.com

At the turn of the century, the manufactured housing industry and land lease community real estate asset class began the 20+ year paradigm shift that’d see, given the loss of easy access to chattel capital, the bulk of new home sales move, eventually, from independent (street) MHRetailers, to being effected within land lease communities. Everyone was ‘hustling’ at the time, as the annual new home shipment volume dropped from 372,943 in 1998 to 48,789 by year end 2009. MHI and MHARR, in my opinion, had no answers or solutions to this seven fold decline in shipments. According to MHI, at the time, more than 10,000 MHRetailers went out of business; and land lease community owners/operators realized they’d have to become their own saviors if they were to survive. This realization led to the debut of Community Series Homes in 2009. Result? In 2009, only 24 percent of new HUD-Code homes were shipped into this property type nationwide. By year 2014 the percentage increased to 40+/-!*2

And there was – and continues to be, CONSOLIDATION – on two fronts. There were 25 major housing manufacturers shipping new homes in 1977. Leading that group was Skyline Corp. at #1, followed by Fleetwood Enterprises (now part of CAVCO Ind.), then Champion Home Builders. The next 22 firms have all been consolidated into others or gone out of business – except for Commodore Corp. of VA (presumably same one as in Goshen, IN. today). Clayton Homes is not on that 43 year old list. Today, we generally talk of two groups of HUD-Code housing manufacturers, the ‘Big 3-C’ firm members of MHI (i.e. Clayton Homes, Skyline-Champion, and CAVCO Industries), plus a few smaller firms. And the smaller, relatively few regional ‘players’ who align with and support MHARR. *3

The other CONSOLIDATION front? Land lease communities nationwide. Back in 1989, when I researched and published the first ALLEN REPORT, there were but 25 known portfolio owners/operators of (then) ‘mobile home parks’. Today, that number has swelled to 500+/-. As the unique, income-producing property type has increased in popularity, among investors, as the Ten Good Reasons for Owning a Land Lease Community became widely known. *4

So, has CONSOLIDATION been good or bad for the manufactured housing industry? I can state only my position, but here goes:

• Where HUD-Code housing manufacturers are concerned, their ‘floor fee $s’ and reduced number presence (i.e. fewer but larger firms as MHI members) has concentrated their influence (and power), in my opinion, at the expense of all other segments of the manufactured housing industry; e.g. lack of proxy voting, patronizing of luxury meeting venues (a.k.a. affluence gerrymandering), etc..*5

• Where land lease communities are concerned, state housing associations have suffered the most, as there are fewer ‘Mom & Pop’ owners to patronize and support education, networking, and political action events. And the relatively recent influx of ‘outside investment $’, and resulting property mismanagement, has created increased turmoil, and once again, raised threats of landlord-tenant legislation, like rent control.

While I’ve seen CONSOLIDATION slow somewhat, during the past few years (i.e. limited number of manufacturers and investment grade communities to acquire and consolidate), it won’t stop altogether. Smaller, regional manufacturers are still easy prey for behemoth firms; and today, portfolio firms are wont to ‘trade’ properties among themselves, rather than – as in the past – rely on real estate brokers to bring prospective sellers to them.

Back to MHIckey & MHARRio. My lowest and highest points as an MHI member? Lowest occurred during the 2011 annual meeting in Austin, TX., in a National Communities Council division gathering, when the chairman called me, and a friend (fellow land lease community owner) sitting next to me, ‘out’ loudly and publicly for opposing what we viewed as too much portfolio control of that group. This happened in front of 70 business associates and was embarrassing. We were given no opportunity at the time, or later, to defend or even explain ourselves. That was the last MHI meeting my friend has ever attended.

High points? Actually, there’ve been two. One, a few years before the sad incident described in the previous paragraph; when MHI honored me as their Industry Person of the Year! And then, in 2018, MHI honored me as their first and only (to date) Emeritus Member!

Today? I’m content with my relationship with MHI and MHARR – though in the latter instance, I am not, nor have I ever been, a member, given their tightly focused mission of ‘regulatory reform’ in behalf of smaller HUD-Code manufacturers. I continue, however, to believe MHI, and by extension, the NCC division, would better serve land lease community owners/operators nationwide, if they’d incorporate some of my/our (now EducateMHC) products and services into their resource repertoire for this real estate asset class.

End Notes
1. Quoted from SWAN SONG, combined history of the realty asset class and official record of new HUD-Code housing shipments from 1955 to the present day. Available for purchase via www.educatemhc.com
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. By way of example, there’s this paragraph, with redactions, from a recent email exchange between MHBusinessmen: “…one of those…thinly veiled trade secrets within MHI. Specifically, as long as the (interrelated) firms you mention – and their leaders in particular (e.g. ______ = chairman of MHI & corporate attorney for __________ ; ________ = past chairman & still influential within MHI & head of __________; and, of course, _________ = ‘everyone’s friend’ & head of __________) reign in Alexandria, VA. (MHI’s headquarters); well, the entire industry and realty asset class will pay a price related to business suppression.”

I.

FHFA 2021 Loan Caps Lower & Restrictive

$ “Volume caps for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac have been set at $70 billion for each Enterprise, with respect to their purchase of multifamily loans in calendar year 2021. This is a modest proportionate reduction compared to the prior year cap, which was $100 billion during the longer five-quarter period…” *1

But here’s the rub:

“To be counted as mission-driven, affordable housing manufactured housing communities (‘MHCs’), must either be resident/government/nonprofit-owned (think ROCs or resident-owned communities) or must have tenant pad lease protections as outlined in the Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) regulation.”*2 In my opinion, this latter paragraph is misleading, discriminatory, but reacts to predatory business practices (i.e. extreme rent increases) of outside investors whose property loans the GSEs guaranteed during the past couple years. Specifically:

• Affordable housing manufactured housing communities. Where did the FHFA come up with this beaut? They’d have been better off, and easily understood, if they’d opted for ‘affordable land lease communities’. When will they ever learn?

• Discriminatory? So the FHFA believes resident-owned communities are fairer to homeowner/site lessees than privately owned (and REIT) land lease communities. Not always so. Not all residents have invested in the cooperative-owned business structure, and are subject to, some times different, rent rates set by their erstwhile peers.

• Reaction to predatory business practices. Guess we, as a realty asset class, deserve to have ‘tenant pad lease protections’ foisted on us, given the extreme rent increases, and other abuses to homeowner/site lessees, that have occurred during the last couple years.

It pains me to tell you how disappointed I am in recent Press Releases from the FHFA and GSEs (i.e. Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac). Last week you learned here, of the ‘infeasibility requests’, by said GSEs – approved by the FHFA, to backburner the ongoing and dire need for chattel capital, to effect mortgages for home-only loans! And now this week, while not as overtly negative for land lease communities, we see the naiveté GSEs continue to demonstrate relative to the realty asset class – see the three bullet points above. GFA

End Notes.
1. Quoted from MHI’s HOUSING ALERT dated 17 November
2. Ibid

***

November 13, 2020

& Now There Are Nine…

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 11:55 am

Blog Posting # 612 @ 13 Nov 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 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: Part one announces latest manufactured housing-related firm to ‘go public’. All nine stock exchange firms (including five featuring land lease community property portfolios), are examined monthly in the combined ‘MHShipment Volume & Stock Market Report’, prepared and distributed by EducateMHC. Part II, is kinda historic, as it directly quotes the Federal Housing Finance Agency agreeing with the two GSEs, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, it’s INFEASIBLE for them to improve our industry, and especially our realty asset class’, access to chattel capital for home-only mortgages! And Part III. Whether the Trump administration remains in place, or the Beiden group ‘rules’, both must remain wary of the actions by the Chinese government (CCP = Chinese Communist Party).

I.
& Now There Are Nine…

EducateMHC’s November edition of its’ ‘MHShipment Volume @ September 2020, & Stock Market Report of 3 November 2020’ Introduce Flagship Communities as ninth public company in the manufactured housing industry.*1

Yes, the rumors are indeed true. Longtime business partners Kurt Keeney and Nathan Smith, founders and owners/operators of the Kentucky-domiciled SSK land lease community portfolio, renamed Flagship Communities, took their firm public on 7 October 2020 via the Toronto Stock Exchange (‘TSX’). These 45 land lease communities, containing nearly 9,000 rental homesites – including 600+/- rental units, will rank high on the upcoming 32nd annual ALLEN REPORT – now being compiled, and scheduled for distribution during January 2021, as an addendum to The Allen Confidential! business newsletter. To reserve a copy, visit www.educatemhc.com

The other eight public companies? Four of which are HUD-Code housing manufacturers: Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (i.e. Clayton Homes), Skyline Champion, Cavco, and Legacy Housing Corporation. Four land lease community portfolio owners/operators: ELS, Inc. (first & largest REIT), Sun Commu8nties, Inc., UMH Properties, and Manufactured Housing Properties, Inc. And now, of course, Flagship Communities.

II.

FHFA’s Annual Housing Report Comes Clean

MHI and MHARR have been saying and writing for months – no, make that ‘years’, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’) and two GSEs (government-supported enterprises) it oversees (i.e. Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) have been way underperforming, in behalf of the manufactured housing industry! Just read the blog postings of the last two weeks for their commentary.

And now, along comes FHFA’s Annual Housing Report, for the period 1/1/2019 thru 12/31/2019, but only released publicly on 30 October 2020. Why the nearly long communication lag from year end 2019 to nearly year end 2020? Go figure.

In any event, here’s the damning paragraph in said report:

“For manufactured home titled as personal property, or chattel loans, both Enterprises submitted infeasibility requests on their chattel pilot initiatives, requesting that FHFA exclude these objectives from a consideration during the Annual Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) performance evaluation for 2019. An Enterprise may submit an infeasibility request if underserved market conditions or other extenuating circumstances outside of its control substantially interfere with its accomplishment of an objective. FHFA approved these infeasibility requests on February 27, 2020.” (Only edit = insertion of DTS)

So, what does this mean? Quoting from ‘MHARR’s News Item’ dated 4 November 2020,

“…nearly 80 percent of the entire manufactured home consumer loan market – is totally excluded from FHFA’s compliance evaluation.” That, my readers, is the entire chattel (capital) sector of the manufactured housing market!

Bottom line for me? We’ve been wasting our time and resources, except where land lease community real estate-secured mortgages are concerned, courting the favor, support, and cooperation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I now begrudgingly admit, the time and money spent traveling to Washington, DC., and participate in three FHFA-hosted Listening Events, during the past several years has been a near 100 percent waste!

III.

Enemy Report

Following two paragraphs extracted from Brian T. Kennedy’s speech, delivered on 29 September 2020, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar.

“We know with certainty that after the (corona) virus began spreading in Wuhan (during) the fall of 2019, the Chinese government closed down flights from Wuhan, which is in Hubei province, to the rest of China. At the same time (however), it allowed flights from Wuhan to continue to go to Europe and to the U.S. – where the Chinese knew with certainty that the virus would spread. And when President Trump closed the U.S. to flights from China, its foreign ministry and one of the CCPs (Chinese Communist Party) propaganda arms, the Global Times, pushed for a reversal of this policy – again, knowing full well how contagious the virus was. Indeed, the Chinese government locked down Wuhan and released videos of men in hazmat suits welding doors shut so people could not leave their homes.” (Lightly edited. GFA)

“It is also believed that Chinese operatives in the Houston consulate provided intelligence to Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters in Houston, as a way of demonstrating their solidarity. Indeed, there is growing evidence the CCPs United Front includes these groups, and that some of the funding for BLM and Antifa is coming from CCP-sponsored groups; Liberation Road, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the Chinese Progressive Association.”

If you’d like to receive Hillsdale College’s IMPRIMIS (free) monthly newsletter – and it is well worth reading, phone (800) 437-2268

***

November 6, 2020

Seven Past & Present Manufactured Housing Executives’ Books Available on Amazon.com

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 1:20 pm

Blog Posting # 611 @ 6 Nov 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 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: Have been wanting to share this information with you for some time now. We have some talented writers in our industry and realty asset class, and you should be (in my opinion) reading their published works. Here’s that information in Part I. And, Part II, shows yet another of our industry’s national advocates keeping pressure on the federal government bureaucracy, to better serve our financial (lending) needs! Part III announces a professional property management position available with one of the 500 land lease community portfolio firms.

I.

Seven Past & Present Manufactured Housing Executives’ Books Available on Amazon.com

Yes, you read that rightly. More and more manufactured housing and land lease community businessmen and association executives’ books are available for purchase via Amazon.com Here’s a summary of the ones found there today.

Four of the authors – one of whom is deceased, have their autobiographies available to purchase and read. Jim Clayton and Samuel Zell are the most widely known of these folk. Jim’s First a Dream was penned some time ago and is in its’ second edition. (There’s an interesting, albeit humorous story, that takes place between Jim and me, as he moves from the first to the second edition. Remind me to tell you about it someday.) And Sam Zell’s book, Am I Being Too Subtle? is classic Zell. In my opinion, probably one of the best non-fiction ‘stories’ in the entire mix.

Then there’re Mike Conlon’s Unconventional Wealth treatise – as much a HOW TO (get rich) text as partial autobiography. (And there’s an incident in these pages few know about today.). Why partial autobiography? When Mike penned this manuscript he was a young man, certainly in his 30s or 40s; so, room for more tale-telling down the road. The late George Goldman, unknown to most ‘newbies’ of the past couple decades, did a credible job with his autobiography, titled, The Road Less Traveled. While I Knew George, and his wife Judy, I still learned quite a bit about their land lease community business history, as well as their Woodall’s ‘mobile home park directory’ ownership for a time.

Rick Robinson and Charles Irion break the mold of MH non-fiction. I’ve known Chuck for most of my 40 year career, initially as a ‘mobile home park broker’ and limited partner in deals. But, more than that, I appreciate his skills as a mystery/thriller author. His books on Amazon.com? Murder on Kilimanjaro, Murder on Aconcagua; and recently, Murdered by Gods. Chuck also has a few ‘off the wall’ titles, one of which being, Roadkill Cooking for Campers. And finally, he’s an artist of sorts; unsure what to call the colorful representations I’ve seen to date.

Back to Rick Robinson. Most folk reading this know him from his years with the Manufactured Housing Institute; and of late, manufacturedhomes.com – where he’s vice president for industry relations. That aside, he’s a prolific author of mystery/thrillers, with these titles: Opposition Research (most recent book), The Advance Man, Alligator Alley, The Maximum Contribution, Sniper Bid, Manifest Destiny, Writ of Mandamus, Killing the Curse, The Promise of Cedar Key, Washing Cars to Hollywood Stars, and Strange Bedfellow. WOW! What production! Me? I’ve read the first three of the books listed.

I also feel fortunate to have my books available, not only via Educatemhc.com, but at Amazon.com These include new editions of the Chapbook of Business Management & Wisdom, as well as the Chapbook of Prayer, and Collection of Figurative Language & Figures of Speech – ‘A Tool of Writers & Readers’. ‘Closer to home’, so to speak, are these manufactured housing and land lease community-related titles: Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (8th edition of Manufactured Housing Manager certification text, and most comprehensive land lease community management text ever published!); also, SWAN SONG, the combined ‘MHShipment Totals from 1955 to date’ & personal, semi-autobiography within our industry and realty asset class. Also on Amazon.com, as ‘used texts’ are the two J. Wiley & Sons classic tomes: Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities (1994) and How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community (1996) – both long out of print but still popular as references, nonetheless.

Now, there are other interesting titles, and places to get them. For example, the RV/MH Hall of Fame stocks and sells above-referenced books by Jim Clayton, George Goldman, and some by George Allen; also an autobiography, The Trailer Twins, by the late Darrell & Harrell Cohron. Then, there’s Al Schrader’s autobiography, No Respect At All – A Path to Million$. The most recent addition to titles available via RV/MH, is Leap of Faith by Jim, Ralph, & Jeff Scoular.

Well, there you have it. Some really great reading in most of the books authored by manufactured housing executives and businessmen. Heck; maybe there’s a story you need to be telling! If so, contact me via email (gfa7156@aol.com) and ask for a FREE copy of the booklet, ‘Who Will Preserve Your Legacy?’ This little gem contains not only excerpts from the ten MH autobiographies penned to date, but describes five HOW TO ‘legacy pen’ steps along the way.

II.

MHI Keeps Pressure on FHFA & GSEs!

This from Manufactured Housing Institute’s ‘News & Updates’ newsletter of 28 October 2020:

“MHI…to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’) emphasizing the critical importance of access to secondary markets for manufactured home loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs), under their statutory Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) manufactured housing. In the letter, MHI acknowledged the progress the GSEs have made in increasing volume of land-home loans and creating new financing options for the industry’s new CrossMod™ homes, but called for more progress in the development of a secondary market for chattel lending. MHI also discussed the GSE’s financing for land-lease communities for Duty to Serve Credit.”

“MHI comment letter follows remarks by MHI CEO Lesli Gooch before the FHFA, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, during its’ recent Listening Session about the GSE’s Duty to Serve manufactured housing, and a recent MHI meeting with FHFA Director Mark Calabria on the subject.”

It is so important the national advocates for manufactured housing and land lease communities continue to apply pressure to the FHFA and GSEs relative to their DTS responsibilities!

III.

Regional PM Position Open

One of the 500 land lease community portfolio owners/operators is seeking a regional property manager for the Southeast U.S. If qualified, experienced, and interested, let me know via email: gfa7156@aol.com Attach resume and I’ll forward your message and attachment to this firm.

***

George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC.com

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