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

January 3, 2020

31st annual ALLEN REPORT a.k.a. ‘Who’s Who Among Land Lease Community Portfolio Owners/operators Throughout North America!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 8:50 am

Blog # 566 @ 3 January 2020; www.educatemhc.com

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’

This blog is the online national advocate, official ombudsman, asset class historian, researcher, education resource & communication media for land lease communities in North America!

To input this blog &/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: promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. source of affordable attainable housing! MHM class: 1/14/2020 in KY

INTRODUCTION: Most owners/operators of land lease communities, large & small, throughout the U.S. & Canada, are familiar with the annual ALLEN REPORT. After all, it’s researched and reported on community portfolios for more than 30 years. And frankly, a high proportion of the 500+/- portfolio owners/operators purchase the report each year to stay abreast of benchmark statistics and trend identification needed to manager their properties professionally and well.

ANSWERS to Challenges in Land Lease Community Ownership/Operations continues to point out key passages, within the 8th edition of Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry, that make this 250 page tome a MUST HAVE reference on-site in every land lease community throughout the U.S. & Canada! Have you purchased copies for your on-site and regional property managers yet?

On a similar subject, know the next one day Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) training and certification class is scheduled for 14 January in Louisville, KY. To register, phone (317) 738-3434 and or visit www.educatemhc.com

I.

31st annual ALLEN REPORT
a.k.a.
‘Who’s Who Among Land Lease Community Portfolio Owners/operators Throughout North America!

Year 2020 celebrates the beginning of a New Era for land lease communities, large & small, nationwide! For the first time in the 80 year history of the realty asset class, there’s now a dedicated source for community-focused products (books, directories & newsletters) and services (Professional Community Evaluation & property management training/certification). Heretofore, community owners/operators relied on print material I produced and distributed via GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing. Henceforth, EducateMHC, will cover all those bases, and more, digitally. All ten of EducateMHC’s invaluable Resource Documents are identified in this ALLEN REPORT.

The written history of the land lease community property type begins during the mid-1980s, and is summarized in this 31st edition of the ALLEN REPORT. Did you know, in 1989 we knew of only 38 portfolio owners/operators? And today we know of 500+/- such firms; 100 of which are ranked by total rental homesite count, and profiled by home office location and more, in this ALLEN REPORT.

Did you know there are now, no fewer than five national advocacy entities serving HUD-Code manufactured housing in general, land lease communities in particular? Well there are, and they are identified by name, along with their telephone number for contact purposes.

To assist the ‘first time reader’ of an ALLEN REPORT, we’ve included two paragraphs; one summarizing the types of factory-built housing and related shipment volume history, along with other related statistics and curiosities. The other paragraph focuses on the land lease community income-producing property type, and the spread of that 50,000+/- community inventory throughout the U.S.

Then, the ALLEN REPORT proper begins, covering these major categories of land lease community portfolio operations information:

• State summary of portfolios, relative to where portfolio home offices are located.

• Overall summary of rental homesite tallies, and number of communities in portfolios

• Top Ten reporting portfolio firms, by total MH & RV rental homesite count

• Presence of rental units and contract sales within land lease communities

• Average national physical occupancy, from year 2014 to present day

• Average national operating expense ratios (‘OER’), from year 2010 to present day

• Evergreen Issues. Debuted in 30th anniversary ALLEN REPORT and continued here! Nowhere else will you find a more comprehensive recitation of ‘always present’ issues and obstacles affecting manufactured housing and land lease communities nationwide !

And that’s not all that’s featured in the 31st annual ALLEN REPORT. The firm, DATACOMP, has supplied Figures, again, showing average rental homesite rents in MSAs throughout the U.S. and a list of the number of land lease communities estimated to be in every state of the union.

It should be obvious to you by now, that if you own and or fee manage one or more land lease communities, you need to acquire a digital copy of the 31st annual ALLEN REPORT. To do so phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 or subscribe to the Prime Edition of the Allen CONFIDENTIAL. The report is available as a standalone purchase (after January 8th), or in conjunction with obtaining 12 monthly issues of the newly-formatted Allen Confidential business newsletter as a Premium Subscriber.

II.

ANSWERS to Challenges in Land Lease Community Ownership/Operations…

Good resident relations within a land lease community is a key indicator professional property management is an important and routine effort effected by the owner/operator, and appreciated by homeowner/site lessees, a.k.a. residents. But getting to that desirable end requires knowledge, and takes effort to achieve! How? Well first, a quick look at the beginning and history of resident relations in this unique, income-producing property type.

It didn’t occur until mid-1993, when 19 (then) manufactured home community owners convened in Indianapolis, IN., to lay plans for achieving better national advocacy and representation – before the REIT wavelet would begin in 1994. Among matters discussed at the meeting, there was concern community owners/operators take steps to foster good resident relations, in a manner similar to what was routinely observed within apartment communities.

Enter (now retired) Martin Newby of Newby Management, headquartered in Ellenton, FL. Newby Management, was and is, a 100% fee management company, specializing in land lease community operations. The firm, under Martin’s leadership, had unique resident relations enhancing practices in place, e.g. 24 Hour Rule, where any problem on-site, brought to management’s attention, would be fully resolved within 24 hours, or a written commitment to do so provided to the resident at the time! The firm also had a chaplain on staff who traveled among the firm’s all adult communities, meeting residents’ needs of all sorts, performing marriages, etc.. And on-site managers routinely collected rent from shut-ins, by going from home to home on a golf card, distributing fresh donuts to residents as they went.

Though Martin is long retired, his firm’s cutting edge resident relations efforts continue unabated via top management succession of Tim Newsy, and now Todd Newby.

How can YOU effect practices fostering Good Resident Relations? Buy a copy of EducateMHC’s Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry, 8th edition. by Allen, McCarty & Smith, all certified Manufactured Housing Managers! Chapter # 5 of the text is dedicated to this timely and vital topic; and teaches the ‘Six Rs of Resident Relations’ as a training aid! If not familiar with these six practical practices, you need the book, and you need to apply the unique formua!

To order the book, visit www.educatemhc.com

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