Blog Posting # 745, Copyright 9 June 2023. EducateMHC
Parallel Perspectives. HUD-Code manufactured housing is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable factory-built housing! And land lease communities, (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’0 comprise the investment real estate component of manufactured housing! EducateMHC alone is the online advocate, historian, trend tracker, and text resource for these two business models! To input this blog or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com; or visit www.educatemhc.com, to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry. This is the sole professional community management text in print today! And SWAN SONG is a history of land lease communities, and official record of annual MH production totals since 1955; and my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven – describes combat adventures in Vietnam and 40+ years business career in MH and communities.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute 9’MHI’), RV/MH Hall of Fam enshrine, retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, and author/editor of 20 books about MH, communities, business & management wisdom & prayer.
California no longer a state, it’s a hedge fund!
“Things are crazy here in California, with most rental homesite rates in land lease communities averaging more than $1,000.00 per month! However, this has not affected new manufactured home sale prices in communities where they’re selling for $250,000 to $400,000 apiece.” How so? Prospective homebuyers “…are selling their stick-built homes for $750,000 to $1,000,000, then paying cash for new homes in these communities, and putting more than $500,000.00 in the bank – and still living in the area where they’ve resided for decades.”
“And installation costs have recently jumped 25 to 30 percent, to as much as 60 percent of new home cost! Also, we’ve seen an increases in new home cost go from $70 to
$110 per square foot on custom manufactured homes.”
Finally, as you’ve noted in previous blog postings, “despite the current demand for affordable housing, no new land lease communities are being built here in California. There have been fewer than five new communities built during the past 10 years!” (Lightly edited, with the use of contemporary trade terms homesite and land lease community. GFA)
The previous three paragraphs are quoted from recent correspondence with a land lease community portfolio owner/operator headquartered in southern California.
Know what I miss most about no longer publishing the Allen Letter for community owners/operators? Just this: providing a public platform where businessmen and women across the U.S., can share their experiences, hopes, successes & shortfalls relative to their enterprises. And frankly, this is a big reason why I continue to move forward posting a weekly blog. So, if you’d like to vent or share about anything relative to manufactured housing and or land lease communities, consider this an invitation to do so. Simply email me via gfa72156@aol.com or send correspondence to GFA c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247.
‘FFF’ as Antihero of Manufactured Housing Installation
In literary terms, an antihero is a protagonist who conspicuously lacks heroic qualities. From a manufactured housing perspective, Frost Free Foundations are the default antihero of contemporary installation methodology! Meaning, in the minds and experience of veteran home installation specialists, the FFF ‘Alternative Shallow Frost Protected Foundation Design for Manufactured Homes’ – placed on rental homesites within land lease communities, on privately-owned homesites in subdivisions, and scattered building sites, when properly installed are superior to virtually every other type economical installation design.
In today’s world, the life of an FFF installation antihero is oft lonely and misunderstood.
How so? Well, looking back to early 2010, when there was no Frost Free Foundation methodology, a veteran installation consultant experienced a genuine epiphany; realizing water, soil and gravity, when properly controlled pursuant to the installation of a HUD-Code manufactured home, negates all need for extensive excavation, below grade piers, and other expensive measures! Yes, you read that right.
Next steps? Bring Emmanuel Levy of SBRA into the picture,*2 and find a civil engineering firm (Hayman Engineering*3) who’d research and prepare a White Paper describing a shallow frost protected foundation design for manufactured homes. Money was raised from various businessmen in the industry and from community owners/operators to fund this research and foundation design. When the final report was completed and circulated it received widespread attention and approval. HUD-Code manufacturers (e.g. Champion) began writing Installation Manual Addendums featuring the FFF design. HUD even came on board for a while.
So, just what are Frost Free Foundation protocols? First, when buying a manufactured home, obtain manufacturer’s official Installation Manual for that home. Ensure FFF design is a clearly approved method of home installation, sometimes including a Site Procedure Checklist. Then have a local registered engineer prepare a FFF plan tailored to the specific property or building site where home is to be installed. Ensure FFF plan does not violate any local ordinances, etc…
Proceed with home installation per FFF plan, using Site Procedure Checklist, if available, to include, but not be limited to:
- Soil test by a licensed soil tester
- All drainage diverted away from the home
- Homesite not in a flood hazard area
- Footings placed on undisturbed soil or fill compacted to 90% maximum relative density.
- Ground water table during winter season is below the local frost line
- Home has perimeter enclosure (‘skirting’) installed
- Where perimeter support is required (e.g. openings 4 ft. or greater), one of the following required: Option 1 = Installed according to adjustable brace per manufacturer’s instructions; Option 2 = Footing extended below the frost line
- The local authority having jurisdiction has accepted the FFF design for use under home.
The above information summarized from SBRA and Installation Manual Addendum for FFF per Hayman Engineering. This is neither legal nor engineering advice.
So where does FFF appear to stand relative to HUD installation protocols for HUD-Code manufactured homes? It’s a mixed bag. FFF does not occur in HUD-administered states because HUD inspects all home installations. However, in states san HUD-administration, regulation continues to be pretty much in accords with housing manufacturer’s Installation Manual guidance, often including FFF.
Over time, properly emplaced Frost Free Foundations under manufactured homes continue to validate design principles of keeping ground water away from under homes and necessity of properly installed skirting. Proof? How many, if any, complaints from consumers about properly installed FFFs?
Yes, it’s time for HUD to once again evaluate the Frost Free Foundation ‘Alternative Shallow Frost Protected Foundation Design for Manufactured Homes’.
End Note.
- Epiphany. ‘A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into reality or the essential meaning of something, often initiated by some simple commonplace occurrence.’
- SBRA = Small Business Research Alliance, NY, NY. (212) 496-0900X10; affiliated with the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) in Arlington, VA.
- Hayman Engineering, Inc., Paul W. Hayman, MS, PE.
George Allen