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

Blog Posting # 714. Copyright 11 November 2022. 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, realty asset class historian, trend spotter, education resource, and textbook supplier for land lease communities throughout North America! To input this blog and or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com or visit educatemhc.com

George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, RV/MH Hall of Fame, & MHI Emeritus member

BIG NEWS – THAT’S NOT BIG NEWS

But first, a Disclaimer Statement. I am not an expert on all things related to the content of this blog; rather, these are my viewpoints and opinions. Also not responsible for any loss or damage caused by information provided here. It is your responsibility to verify the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of information contained herein. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. GFA

An introduction to the BIG NEWS – THAT’S NOT BIG NEWS. As many, if not most, of you who read my weekly blog postings know, I’ve been reporting Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’) unadulterated monthly ‘Shipments and Production Summary Reports’ for several years.*1 And during the last two years or so, I’ve added a Stock Market Report that follows the performance of five HUD-Code housing manufacturers and five land lease community portfolio owners/operators – at least three of whom are Real Estate Investment Trusts (‘REITs’). Part of the latter reporting includes a Composite Stock Index (‘CSI’) that excludes but one publicly-owned firm, and includes an unchanging ad hoc factor.

It’s the most recent ‘MHShipment Volume @ September 2022, and Stock Market Report of 3 November 2022’ that sets the stage, so to speak, for the BIG NEWS – THAT’S NOT BIG NEWS.

Quoting from the subject Report: “Manufactured housing/land lease community Composite Stock Index (‘CSI’) on 3 November 2022 is $612.02, down $178 from this year’s starting point of $790.07 during early January 2022.” This is a nearly 20 percent decline in the CSI during the past 11 months! This is the BIG NEWS – THAT’S NOT BIG NEWS, at least where our national advocacy entities and trade press coverage appears to be concerned, or not concerned.

Why the overall decline in stock prices? Our monthly production and shipment totals are, at 89,222 units YTD, on track to eclipse 2021’s 105,772 new manufactured homes – maybe by another 10,000 units (Think 115,000+). There’s an unsolved mystery regarding what is going on in the manufactured housing industry and land lease community real estate asset class these days.

And I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter. Send them to me via gfa7156@aol.com Confidence assured. GFA

End Note. Unadulterated? Reference to the unfortunate fact that IBTS data, contracted for by HUD, is not accepted as carte blanche by at least one national manufactured housing trade advocacy group. Furthermore; for a copy of the only comprehensive record of annual MH production/shipment totals (from 1955 till 2021), order a copy of SWAN SONG via www.educatemhc.com


STORIES I’D LIKE TO READ!

Manufactured housing history is rich with exciting tales of entrepreneurial enterprise, business acumen (‘keenness of perception’) and product innovation. Just as land lease communities are diverse in size, location and ownership, with unique stories of personal and corporate success and failure. So, where can we find these ‘tales of yore and nowadays’?

Best place to start is the library at the RV/MH Heritage Foundation Hall of Fame facility in Elkhart, IN. Though not as well-archived, in my opinion, befitting the legacy guardian of our industry and realty asset class’ historical records, one can find dozens of corporate biographies and personal autobiographies within its stacks.

For example, here’re the authors and titles of 11 such works; all well worth reading and studying for the practical lessons they teach even today:

Kristian Jensen, Sr., ‘A Danish American’. Dutch immigrant and 1972 Hall of Fame inductee. Here we have a long deceased entrepreneur whose portfolio passed to the third generation before being sold off to another firm. Fascinating tale.

John Crean, ‘The Wheel & I’. Late founder of Fleetwood Enterprises. Probably one of the earthiest of MH moguls, in his writing style. His book is leather bound with gold-edged pages.

James Clayton, ‘First A Dream’. Still shows up at MH industry events. Son Kevin today runs the firm his father founded decades ago – but for Berkshire-Hathaway.

Borislav (‘Boro’) Vukovich. ‘The Life & Times of B.M. Vukovich’.His family, after his death, produced a photo-autobiography of his life before and after immigration to the U.S.

Harrell & Darrell Cohron, identical twins, now deceased. ‘The Trailer Twins’. Friends of mine who developed and grew the largest portfolio of land lease communities in Indiana. Now in the hands of their third generation of family members.

Mike Conlon’s ‘Unconventional Wealth’ reads like Part I of his life story – sharing his secrets to financial success, e.g. ‘go ugly early’. Watch for Part II sometime in the future.

George N. Goldman, ‘The Road Less Traveled’. An old, but now deceased, ‘friend in the MH business’. Besides communities, George owned the Woodall Publishing Company for a while (Think ‘MH & RV directories)

Alvan L. Schrader’s ‘No Respect At All…A PATH TO MILLIONS’. This should be required reading for every MH industry professional! 100 memoirs and a timely commentary on our industry.

Samuel Zell. ‘Am I Being Too Subtle?’ Only autobiography published by a traditional publisher. It’s subtitle says it all: ‘Straight Talk from a Business Rebel’. One of my favorite ‘reads’.

Jim, Ralph & Jeff Scoular’s ‘Leap of Faith’. Newest of the 11 autobiographies, a collective effort by three generations of the Scoular family. Ralph is deceased but Jim and Jeff continue active.

George Allen’s ‘SWAN SONG’. A history of land lease communities from 1970s to now, & Official Record of MH Production Since 1955. ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’ is my autobiography, chronicling overlapping 40+ years careers as a Marine officer and community owner/operator

All but three of these books are available for purchase from the RV/MH Hall of Fame. Conlon, Goldman, and Zell books are available via amazon.com

Now for those titles – not yet penned or published, that I’d like very much to read and study:

Eugene Landy of UMH Properties. ‘Name Your Passions: Sulky Racing & mid-1980s REIT’

Rob tunnel, III of Pots-Nets. ‘Three Generations of Land Reclamation & Development in Delaware’

Spencer Roane, MHM of Pentagon Properties. ‘Birth, Growth & Today’s Role of SECO’

Chuck Fanaro of Saddlebrook Farms. ‘Visionary Community Developer & High End Housing Manufacturer’

David Nap & Colleen Edwards. ‘Reinventing Oneself Over and Over and Over Again!’

Randy Rowe. ‘My Road from ELS to Hometown America to Green Courte Partners’

Sharon Niccum of ACT III. ‘Succeeding in a Man’s World & Inspiring Young Women Entrepreneurs’

Donald Westphal. ‘My Legacy? Landscaping This Nation’s Best Communities’

Paul Bradley, MHM. ‘ROC USA; from Concept to a Popular New Path to Community Ownership’

Martin, Tim & Todd Newby of Newby Management. ‘Christian Approach to Professional Fee Management’

Danny Ghorbani of MHARR. ‘Washington Watchdog’ for the Manufactured Housing Industry’

Dave Hegemann of Rent Manager. ‘Flying Under the Radar Growing Property Management Software for You’

Walter Comer of Adventure Homes. ‘Growing the Employee-Owned Manufacturing Firm’

Ross Partrich of RHP Properties. ‘Following in Dad’s Footsteps & Passing Him Along the Way’

John Rogosich, CPM. ‘Executive Property Managers Have Thick Skin to Survive & Thrive!’

And yes, there are more titles I’d like to see materialize during the next few years. But that is not going to happen unless those with ‘stories to tell’, begin to take time now to organize their thoughts and memoirs, for eventual compilation into their life story.

Need help to this end? Reach out and let me know. Gfa7156@aol.com

George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master
Author/consultant for EducateMHC
Member, RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame
Emeritus member, Manufactured Housing Institute
(317) 881-3815