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

March 25, 2023

‘And Just Whose Job Is It Anyway, to Market MHs?’

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 4:48 am

Blog Posting # 734, Copyright 24 March 2023. EducateMHC

Parallel Perspectives. HOUD-Code manufactured housing is federal –regulated, performance-based, factory-built housing! And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) 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 EducateMHC.com to order  Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry The sole professional property management text in print today!); SWAN SONG, a history of land lease communities and official record of annual MH production totals since 1955; and, my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven – my combat adventures in Vietnam & business career in MH & communities.

George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus member of MHI, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, and retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines.

‘And Just Whose Job Is It Anyway, to Market MHs?’

Have you ever given much thought as to how to answer that simple question? During the past four plus decades my answer has always been, ‘Everyone who sells manufactured homes to would be homebuyers/site lessees (i.e. siting in land lease communities)’. A veteran state MH association leader recently shared the following insightful (lightly edited) comments with me:

“Only one of four HUD-Code manufacturers in this state supports our consumer-facing website, and NONE of the independent (street) MHRetailers do, yet they all benefit from it!*1 This bewilders me! States with rejuvenated websites like ours are making great progress, but it’d  be great if we could go even further – and get some ‘big guns’ to see the need to contribute. “

OK; but then follows, these two shocking albeit ‘telling’ observations: “We have been told by manufacturers it is not their job to advertise. They see the retailer as their customer, and retailers often don’t want additional business. It is a very strange dynamic.”

So, after all these years of up and down production of new manufactured homes, it all boils down to this: No one really wanting to take responsibility for marketing, let alone selling ‘more product’! Appears this is the proverbial Achilles’ Heel of our industry! (i.e. the sole unprotected part of our business model that makes us susceptible to influences negating our profitability!*2

If so, little wonder the recent ‘National MH Awareness’ program was and is dead before arrival!

What say you? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com

End Note.

  1. The contemporary trade term ‘independent (street) MHRetailer’ was coined by Iowa-based industry consultant William Carr, soon after the turn of the 21st century.
  • Achilles’ Heel. “From the legend that the Greek hero Achilles was made invulnerable by being dipped in the river Styx by his mother. However, the heel, by which his mother held him when she dipped him, was unprotected.” Webster’s Dictionary.

GOOD NEWS OF SORTS

We recently informed you of the Manufactured Housing Institute’s (and Texas MH Association) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy’s (‘DOE’) manufactured housing energy standards scheduled to be effective as of 31 May 2023. Well, here’s the latest on that matter.

“The DOE is proposing to extend the compliance date for the manufactured housing energy standards until DOE’s future enforcement procedures take effect.” In the case of singlesection MHs this would occur 60 days after publication of DOE’s final enforcement procedures; and 180 days, for multisection MHs. In the meantime, watch for DOEs’ Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (‘NOPR’) to be published in the Federal Register. Then YOU & I have 30 days to submit comments on  the proposal.

Also be aware, MHI is in favor of energy standards proposed by the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (‘MHCC’) currently under consideration by HUD – with this response expected by June 2023.

Speaking of MHI; in blog #732 we erroneously referred to MHI’s office address as being in Alexandria, VA.. Its accurate location is in Arlington, VA. Sorry ‘bout that! GFA

Heard of or Read Works by C.S. Lewis?

On Writing (and Writers)’, A Miscellany of Advice & Opinions, edited by David C. Downing. This is a very new book (2022). My interest? I’ve read Christian apologist’ C.S. Lewis writings during much of my adult life, and long respected his intelligence and ‘way with words’.  While most well known for his Narnia Chronicles, he authored 40 other books on a variety of topics. What follows here  are a few of many salient quotes collected here from letters he penned to family, friends, and fans over the years.

“…I would not know how to advise a man how to write. It is a matter of talent and interest. I believe he must be strongly moved I he is to become a writer. Writing is like a ‘lust’, or like ‘scratching when you itch.’ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.” P.33 (1963)

“What you want is practice, practice, practice. It doesn’t matter what we write (at least this is my view) at our age, as long as we write continually as well as we can.’ P.13 (1916)

‘Whenever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is the great cure for all human ills, as I have found out long ago.” P.21 (1916)

“I hope, by the way, you always write by ear not by eye. Every sentence should be tested on the tongue, to make sure that the sound of it has the hardness or softness, the swiftness or languor, which the meaning of it calls for.” P.96 (1957)

And I could go on, but you get the idea. There is a portion of the 191 pages book that focuses on writing for children. Not my passion, but good stuff if it interests you. And C.S. Lewis, in this book, encourages the practice of re-reading books in one’s library. Good advice, but difficult to do when there’re so many new titles out there to read.

And Finally…

My plan is to use blog # 734 (31 March 2023) to share an excerpt from Chapter 12 of ‘My 13 Months in the Republic of South Vietnam during 1968 & 69’ (Culled from 400+ letters sent home). I’ve already shared, in previous blog postings, how we prepared for actual battle in Vietnam; and recently, my (humorous) concerns about poor table manners upon returning home from RVN. This time around, however, the firefight stories are true and serious, not graphic or gruesome – since I was writing home to Carolyn and daughter Susan. Hope you enjoy the read.

Infamous Historic Quote

“My fear is if North Korea nukes us, Trump is gonna get us into a war.” Maxine Waters.

Now, to my way of thinking, that’d be the equivalent of being ‘a day late & a dollar short’.

George Allen, CPM, MHM

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