Blog Posting # 725, Copyright 27 January 2023. EducateMHC
Dual Perspectives. HUD-Code manufactured housing is federally-regulated, factory-built affordable housing and land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) are the real estate component of manufactured housing! EducateMHC is the online national advocate, historian, trend documenter, and text resource for these business models. To input this blog or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815, email: gfa7156@aol.com, or visit EducateMHC.com to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (The only property management certification text!); SWAN SONG, a history of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production since 1955; and my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven. All excellent resources for community owners/operators in the U.S. & Canada.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus member of MHI, & RV/MH Hall of Fame
Where to Begin?
Did you ‘do’ the Louisville MHShow last week (18-20 January)? If so, did you notice? 30 new HUD-Code homes were promised in advance press, but only 16+/- in place. Furthermore, the highest number of chattel capital lenders present (i.e. 18) since 1998 – the peak year of the last MH production renascence (i.e. 372,943+/-homes). Nary any exhibits by land lease community portfolio owners/operators, but several real estate brokerages. Also a few ‘land development’ firms looking for work – and these were encouraged during the manufacturers’ panel presentation on Wednesday, when a panelist declared ‘Land lease community development is back!’, but failed to mention how ‘local regulatory barriers to affordable housing’ continue to be one of our industry’s most persistent bugaboos, and now that interest rates are rising, ‘good luck’ finding reasonable land development loans anytime soon! And there was more. Read on…
Did you know there’s a National Manufactured Housing Awareness program in the making? Well there is, and it has been evolving throughout year 2022. Under the present volunteer leadership of consultant Ken Corbin, 20 committee members met for lunch at a local Louisville restaurant Tuesday afternoon, to fine tune Thursday’s Awareness Panel at the MHShow. And how’d that go? Ken and his three panelists (Dr. Lesli Gooch, MHI; Jennifer Hall, Mississippi; and Jim Ayotte, Florida) kept an audience of more than 100 ‘in their seats’ for nearly 1 ½ hours, reviewing market research and introducing outreach plans working in MS & FL. A survey form was distributed, polling audience opinions ranking importance of various marketing factors. Here’s a summary of some of ‘What’s important to you?’ responses from 72 completed forms: Affordable housing = 38 responses; Consumer Awareness = 35; Local Government = 28; Home Quality = 24; Lead Generation =21; and five lesser factors. What’s next?
Continue to follow this weekly blog to stay abreast of developments during the months ahead!
Scott Jackson (1955 – 2023)
ARC or Affordable Residential Communities, Casa Feliz – the investment firm, and ‘the man with the white mane and beard’ are three ways Scott Jackson’s friends and associates in the land lease community business will long remember him.
Scott died on 6 January 2023 at his ranch in Kiowa Colorado. There will be a memorial service in his behalf on Saturday, January 28th between 3 & 4 PM, at Cielo Castle Pines in Castle Rock, CO.
His claim to fame? Quoting from an online obituary: “In 1995 Scott (founded) Affordable Residential Communities (‘ARC’)…the company was taken public in 2004. In all, the company acquired over 380 communities and managed a portfolio of (more than) 70,000 home sites…”
My relationship with Scott Jackson? Visited ARC offices in Denver around year 2000, where I met his executive staff – all similarly attired. Over the years, I ‘mystery Shopped’ most of the firm’s land lease communities, and described the ‘ARC Treatment’ of new property acquisitions in Manufactured Home Merchandiser magazine, e.g. property names changed, replacement of all signage with same color scheme, repaved streets, improved infrastructure, and more. Scott was a keynote presenter at International Networking Roundtables – where he regaled his audience with ‘war stories’, lessons learned, and memorable experiences. Last time I visited with Scott was at the Louisville MHShow a few years ago.
The only thing missing here is a tell-all book by Scott, describing the meteoric growth of ARC, ‘that auction’ in Chicago, and phoenix-like rise of Casa Feliz since the turn of the century.
Scott’s passing reminds me of other notable but now deceased pioneers and entrepreneurs of the ‘mobile home park’ business: Tom Horner, Jr (KS); Ron Richardson (NV); Darrell & Harrell Cohron, (IN)**; Kristian Jensen, Sr., (CT)*; Boris Vukovich, (CO); George Goldman, (IL); Mel Fath, (IN)*; Curt Hames, (IA)*; Maggie Stephenson, (IN)*; Bob Bross, (MO); Maurice Wilder, (FL); Warren Huddleston, (IL)*; Dr. Matthew Jenkins, (CA); Myles Sampson, (PA); and my longtime mentor, Bud Meyer, (IN). Seven of these 15 individuals are members of the prestigious RV/MH Hall of Fame*, and six authored autobiographies. I interacted with these folk and easily recall interesting, humorous, and educational tales about each one. I doubt I’ll get to pen all those stories.
DID YOU KNOW ?
Today, 27 January 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the formal end of the Vietnam War! Yes, this is important to me because I served 13 months there during years 1968 and 1969. You can read about my combat adventures there and after returning home, in my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven. Available via EducateMHC.com
Recently came across some very interesting, albeit correcting, statistics relative to this conflict. Source? Marine and Vietnam War veteran, Mackubin Thomas Owens, who served at the Naval War College in Newport, RI, and the Institute of World Politics.
• 30% of those who died in Vietnam were from the lowest income group, but
• 26% were from the highest.
• 86% of those who died during the war were white, and
• 12.5 were black (in an age group In which blacks comprised 13.1% of the population)
• Two thirds of those who served in Vietnam were volunteers, and
• Volunteers accounted for 77% of all combat deaths.
Point? “Vietnam was not a ‘class war’, as the liberal, aging antiwar crowd has commonly and unceasingly claimed for decades” – since the end of that conflict.
Without a doubt, serving in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine lieutenant, was a pivotal point in my life, and those of my immediate family members. For a decade, after returning home, I was unable to cry when appropriate, and for longer than that, was mirthful during funerals of friends and family. All that is behind me now. And I’m grateful my son, grandson, and 18 year old great grandson do not have to stand in the line of fire in defense of our great nation. Semper Fi! GFA
GFA/cc