Blog Posting # 739, Copyright 28 April 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’) 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 MJH production totals since 1955; and my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven – describes my combat adventures in Vietnam & 40+ years business career in MH and communities.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus member of MHI, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, and author/editor of 18 non-fiction texts.
Brilliance or Bull____?
There’s an erstwhile (i.e. former) manufactured housing employee who, for more than a decade now, has been – IMHO – writing roughshod as a ‘wannabe’ business muckraker, targeting national MH trade advocacy groups and industry corporate executives.
Consequence? Within the manufactured housing industry at large, the hypercritic is no longer welcome to attend regional trade shows or meetings of certain national and state-based advocacy groups. And several pundits (‘learned men’), trade journalists, and industry observers/commentators, contacted by this scolder from time to time requesting input, do not respond – for good reason: ‘Why set oneself up for possible future ridicule or criticism?’
So, recalling the famous W.C. Fields’ quote: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit”, the previous two paragraphs relate to the ‘bull___’ nature of this faux journalist’s musings. But hark (‘listen’), that’s NOT the focus of this week’s blog posting. Rather, based on a recent communique and other manufactured housing-related news and op/eds, it appears this individual is onto something worth pursuing, in a word, maybe even brilliant.
Specifically, ‘Why, in the face of declining production (of new HUD-Code homes), are we not hearing from the Big 3-C manufacturers (i.e. Clayton, Cavco, Skyline/Champion) as to what they’re doing to increase interest in, and sales of, their product lines? Are they, as has been stated ‘before & now’ simply satisfied with contemporary status quo? Seems like it, to this veteran industry observer. I’ve even addressed the sorry matter in previous blog postings. Now others are coming out in word and print with similar messages/questions. It’s been posited recently that we (i.e. manufactured housing) is ‘not a fighting industry’, albeit content with letting regulators, housing competitors, and naysayers push us around verbally and legislatively. Is this true? I deign that it is! Case(s) in point: For the second and third time in recent MH industry history, preliminary group plans to popularize manufactured housing in local housing markets coast-to-coast were stifled by bureaucrats before said program got off the ground!
Returning to the W.C. Fields quip (‘witty remark’): ‘Hey manufactured housing, if you can’t dazzle us with your brilliance (at marketing and sales); stop baffling us with your bull___ – of being badgered and beleaguered. Rise up and fight for change’! Fight for market share! Go national with housing brand advertising; reintroduce would be homebuyers and existing homeowners/site lessees to today’s affordable, energy efficient, durable, manufactured homes – and the land lease community lifestyle!
Two Industry Icons Die
GALE ‘GUB’ MIX, before his retirement in year 2006 was one of the most well-known pioneers and leaders in the manufactured housing industry! Gub died on 16 March 2023 at his home in Utah. After establishing independent (street) MHRetail operations in three cities in Idaho, he founded Manufactured Housing Services, Inc., and became executive director of state associations in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and later in Arizona. What I remember Gub for best, was his founding of what is commonly and well known today as the Manufactured Housing Congress – an annual venue purchased from Gub, and perpetuated by the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’). Gub is an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee.
As a related aside, Gub’s passing underscores the need for the RV/MH Hall of Fame library to rise to the next level of archival sophistication. In this instance, Gub’s in-your-face op/eds at the turn of the century, in my opinion, were instrumental in getting the manufactured housing industry to recognize its’ chattel financing errors of that time. Are those editorials readily accessed at the library today? And a final word. Gus is no longer with us – and, as far as I know, departed without penning his memoirs for our education and inspiration. Will the same be said about you at some point in the future?
LONG LARSON has died at the age of 79 years. He joined Olive Technologies, Inc., in 1978 to work on manufactured housing foundation systems. Besides his decades of work at Oliver, he joined the RV/MH Hall of Fame board in 2001 and was elected chairman in 2008. He also served on the boards of MHI and the California Manufactured Housing Institute.
Again, an inquiring mind asks: Has anyone taken the time to research and pen the corporate history of Oliver Technologies, Inc.? Lon was obviously a likely candidate to do so, but to the best of my knowledge did not. So, let this not be a lost opportunity going forward. A corporate history of this well-known firm should have a place in the RV/MH Hall of Fame library in Elkhart, IN.
DID YOU KNOW?
“About 40.6 million U.S. households spent more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing in 2021, according to analysis from the Joint Center for Housing Studies (‘JCHS’) of Harvard University.” Quoted from ‘Affordable Housing Finance’, March/April 2023 issue, page #8.
Quote of the Week
“You need to vote for the Democrats, otherwise the illegal aliens will lose their rights!’ Nancy Pelosi.