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

Blog Posting # 680. Copyright @ 11 March 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 & 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 and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: Parts I & II are chock full of helpful information and statistics relative to manufactured housing and land lease communities. Part III simply lets you know what I’m doing these days.
I.

AN HISTORIC FIRST FOR MH!

All five reporting agencies and manufactured housing advocacy organizations reported the very same number of new HUD-Code homes shipped during the month of January 2022, resulting too in the same Year to Date total as well. In both instances this magical number is 9,110 units!

The reporting agencies and advocacy organizations? Institute for Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), Department of Housing & Urban Development (‘HUD’), Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’) and EducateMHC.

Why is this ‘historic first’ important for the manufactured housing industry? Because it demonstrates that all five entities are indeed capable of reporting the same benchmark statistic, without bastardizing the basic shipment volume total by deducting the number of Destination Pending units one month, only to add them back to the next month’s total.

We can only hope that this public display of industry unity continues on into February and the months to follow! MHI has a new statistician on board; let’s hope he sees the wisdom of unity in reporting data like this, and follows suit with IBTS, HUD, MHARR and EducateMHC.



II.

PUBLIC MARKET SIDE OF MH & LAND LEASE COMMUNITY INVESTING

It has long amazed me no one routinely reports stock performance of manufactured housing-related firms, and real estate investment (‘REIT’) land lease community property portfolios. I’ve been doing so for several years, until we stopped publishing the Allen Letter and The Allen Confidential business newsletters. Now I simply send the ‘MHShipment Volume & Stock market Report’ to several dozen major firms in the industry and throughout the realty asset class. Here’s the gist of what we learned on 4 March 2022.

Manufactured housing manufacturers:

Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (BRK-A), i.e. Clayton Homes. $483,000; up from $476K in February

Skylilne Champion Corporation (‘SKY’). $66.71; down from$73.95 in February

Cavco Industries, Inc. (‘CVCO’). $267.64; down from $292.00 in February

Legacy Housing Corporation (LEGH’). $23.76; down from $25.52 in February

Nobility Homes (‘NOBH’). $31.45; down from $32.10 in February

Land lease community portfolio firms:

Equity Lifestyle (‘ELS’). #1 on 32nd ALLEN REPORT. $77.38; down from $77.38 in February

Sun Communities (‘SUI’). #2 on 32nd ALLEN REPORT. $181.10; down from $193.36 in February

UMH Properties (‘UMH’). #6 on 32nd ALLEN REPORT. $24.05; up from $24.02 in February

Flagship Communities. (#23 @ 32nd ALLEN REPORT. $18.35; down from $18.50 in February

Manufactured Housing Properties. #28 on 32nd ALLEN RPEORT. $3.25 In February

Manufactured Housing/land lease community composite stock index (‘CSI’) @ March 2022 = $713.. down from $738 in February.

If you’d like to receive the ‘MHShipment Volume & Stock Market Report’ each month, simply request it via email message to gfa7156@aol.com
III

WORK BEGINS ON NEW BOOK

Those of you who know me well, will recall I’ve been wanting to review 400+/- personal letters I sent home to Carolyn, from Vietnam, during 1968 and 1969. Well, I’ve finally started on this daunting project. The letters have been removed from steel ammunition boxes, placed in chronological order, and are not being typed.

The ‘working title’ is simply Dear Carolyn & Susan. In the preface I explain why it’s taken 60 years to write this book (my 16th book). And the introduction describes what was going on among the three of us ‘way back when’ Carolyn and I were in our early 20s, and Susan a toddler.

When will this project be finished? Not for some time. I’m reading each handwritten letter, then pulling interesting narrative describing what’s going on at the time. And yes, I have some concern about what I’ll run into when I read letters penned while in a foxhole or underground bunker before, during, and after combat. Guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

In the meantime, if you’ve not yet read From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven, my autobiography, but would like to do so, visit www.educatemhc.com to order it, or simply google the title online. The Smitty Alpha 6 reference is to my radio call sign while a U.S. Marine lieutenant company commander in a Shore Party Battalion in late 1969.

Retirement. For the first time in my life I’m enjoying opportunities to do what I want to do, when and where I want to do it. This book project is a key part of that, along with helping Carolyn care for our nearly one year old great granddaughter Emerson. And we’re enjoying spending the most time together since our dating days back at Eastern Baptist College in 1963.


George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 679. Copyright @ 25 February 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 & 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 and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: Part I contains late and important industry/asset class news. Part II gives us all something to think about. And Part III shows you ‘what might have been’ OR ‘what will indeed be’. Have you read From SmittyAlpha6 to MH Maven (my autobiography) yet? Several readers have expressed surprise at learning I was trained, while a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, in 1969 & 69, to be a ‘suicide bomber’ (i.e. Atomic Demolitions Munitions or ADM technician). And there are other surprises as well. Get your copy via www.educatemhc.com GFA

I.

ELS, INC. ACQUIRES DATACOMP & MHVILLAGE

Quoting directly from ELS’ Fourth Quarter Report: “In December 2021, we completed the acquisition of MHVillage/Datacomp for a purchase price of $43 million. MHVillage is the premier online marketplace dedicated to manufactured home buying and selling. Datacomp provides independent, market-based valuations for manufactured homes in land lease communities.”

A few sidebar observations relative to this surprising, major business transaction:

• My understanding is this deal includes acquisition of MHInsider magazine, the sole remaining print trade publication serving manufactured housing and land lease communities. No change in staff, so hopefully, little to no change in editorial stance.

• Speaking of ‘land lease communities’; it’s encouraging to see the largest portfolio owner/operator of land lease communities in the world, transition away from ‘manufactured home community’ and ‘mobile home park’ trade terminology.

• This transaction unintentionally highlights, in my opinion, a perennial legacy recognition shortfall per the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame recognition of industry and realty asset class pioneers and notable personalities. More on this in Part II following….

II.

DESERVED, MARGINAL & NO RECOGNITION

Assuming here you’re familiar with the RV/MH Heritage Foundation and its’ prestigious Hall of Fame, library& museum in Elkhart, IN. If not, encourage you to visit www.rvmhhalloffame.org

I was honored to be inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame as one of the Class of 2011, and attend the annual induction banquet every August. Carolyn and I donate $ annually to support the foundation, and recently gifted our extensive collection of MH and land lease community books (Most comprehensive in the U.S. & CN.) to the library, where they are now on special display. And we host MH trade events whenever possible, at the facility in Elkhart.

There are 427 members of the RV/MH Hall of Fame. And on August 15th, ten more will be added. The five MH inductees will be David Carter, Raylen Gritton, Harry Karsten, Eugene Landy, and Tim Williams. To purchase banquet tickets, phone (574) 293-2344. Join me there!

However; and again in my opinion, all is not as well as it could be relative to the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame. There are deserving individuals who’re yet to be honored, the occasional marginal candidate, and more than a few who’re ‘deserving’ but likely never to be inducted. Some examples…

The founder of DATACOMP and MHVillage (circa 1986), Theo (‘Ted’) A. Boers – also one of the few published authors in the manufactured housing industry, has yet to be inducted into the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s prestigious Hall of Fame. *1 Few would argue the observation that Ted and his firms have improved the face of manufactured housing and land lease communities, by dint of their valuation of manufactured homes, and marketing of same within and outside our unique income-producing properties. And don’t forget MHInsider magazine!

And there are additional deserving-but-unrecognized pioneers and notable personalities throughout the manufactured housing industry and land lease communities.

Another example of someone who’s ‘changed the face of manufactured housing and land lease communities’ is the founder, president and CEO of London Computer Systems – better known throughout our industry and realty asset class as Rent Manager (circa 1987). Most mid-sized to larger land lease communities utilize this firm’s accounting and property management software on a daily basis, year in year out. But, once again, the pioneering notable personality behind this well-known and respected firm continues to await induction into the RV/MH Hall of Fame.

Herein, I’m making the assumption the individuals have not declined induction.

And Yes, there’re more pioneers and notable folk not honored; unfortunately, some have died.

The late Tom Raper. You’ve likely never heard of him – unless you’re heavily into RVs and live or work in the Midwest. There was a time, several decades, when Tom was owner/operator of the largest RV dealership in the U.S.! He was flamboyant. For many years, more than a dozen full-sized highway billboards, advertising his dealership, could be seen along Interstate I-70 where it went through Richmond, IN. He was a generous philanthropist, even honored with a street named after him in his hometown. But recognition? Still in the wind. Maybe someday.

And there’s former professional football player and CPA, big Tom Horner, Jr., who acquired a sizeable portfolio of land lease communities during his lifetime. But that’s not why he deserves induction into the RV/MH Hall of Fame. Tom was a perennial board member in two states, and created the ‘21st Century National Manufactured Home Community Rating system’ introduced in the text, ‘How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community’. He was one of the 19 community owners who met in Indianapolis in 1993 to improve asset class advocacy.

The list continues, but not here. There are longtime retirees who come to mind. One of them introduced ‘resident relations’ to our realty asset class 25 years ago; the other one, during his prime, was one of the top independent (street) MHRetailers (& multi-communities owner) in the U.S. And how’ bout U.S. ex-pat, known throughout Canada as ‘Mr. Manufactured Home’?

At this time I won’t comment much on ‘the other side of the coin’, i.e. individuals selected for induction into the RV/MH Hall of Fame who’re salaried executives or successful businessmen and women, but who do not stand out, in my opinion, given their lack of notable influence outside their state or company of employ, nor tangible contributions to the advancement of the MH industry at large.

Hope to see you at the RV/MH Hall of Fame induction banquet on 15 August in Elkhart, IN.!

End Notes.

1. Ted Boers’ books include Three Simple Rules – Guaranteed to Improve Your Finances! and Demons of Poverty – how to improve the wellbeing of people in Haiti. Latter book is available from Amazon.com

III.

GOING TO MHI’S 2022 CONGRESS & EXPO?

When? 11-13 April. Where? Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, FL. What? Three high-end manufactured homes on display, 100+ exhibitors and sponsors, one keynote industry outlook session, 12 breakout educational workshops (more on this in next paragraph), two networking receptions, two optional forums re Developer Seminar & NCC Spring forum, and two optional fundraisers. For more information, email: events@mfghome.org

OK, so what will you likely NOT experience at this year’s Congress & Expo event?

Either or both these educational workshops I proposed to the Manufactured Housing Institute:

• Professional property management training for land lease community owners and managers! Having created and taught the popular Manufactured Housing Manger™ certification program since year 2001, today there are 1,000 MHMs ™ owning and managing communities throughout the U.S. and Canada. The course textbook, ‘Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry’ will be available for purchase after the seminar. Or visit www.educatemhc.com to purchase the text online. This is the book that should be in every land lease community information office!

• Retail Marketing & Sales within the Land Lease Community. In year 2016 I pioneered the first national class offered re ‘Four Steps to Selling & Financing New Homes On-site Within Land Lease Communities’. Besides the seminar synopsis, every participant will receive a 3”X 5” plastic wallet card containing said ‘four steps’, as well as the ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’ new homes within communities. Also the much-used ‘Ah Ha! & Uh Oh! Worksheet’ for estimating sale and purchase prices of new manufactured homes in any local housing market in the U.S. In my opinion, this topic continues to be the most needed in our industry/asset class today, after professional property management.

Anyway, I suggested these two topics to MHI for consideration. At this writing I’ve not heard back as to which one, or either or neither, will be included in the Congress & Expo. But wanted you to see/read what it is you’ll likely be missing at this year’s event – unless they decide otherwise.

IV.

LATE BREAKING NEWS! Women Advancing Manufactured Housing (‘WAMH’) will meet virtually at 7PM on 15 March 2022. Paula Reeves, president of CIS Financial will be the special guest. For more information, contact Maria Horton via maria@newportpacific.com

***

Blog Posting # 678. Copyright @ 25 February 2022, EduateMHC

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 & 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 and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone # no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: This week TMI (‘too much information’)? Maybe. You decide. If I don’t tell you, who will? (And ‘that’ question may take on even more meaning during the week or two ahead!). Whew! Our industry and realty asset class is surely a-changing! GFA


I.

LACK OF SUPPLY HOBBLES MHINDUSTRY

A 2022 Conundrum (‘hard question’) for HUD-Code manufactured housing industry! If, according to the Wall Street Journal, on 19 February, “…the biggest issue affecting the housing market seems to be the lack of supply’, WHY are HUD-Code housing manufacturers not displaying their product at regional trade shows (e.g. canceled Louisville MHShow in January 2022)? And now I learn, there will be little to no product at the Biloxi Show. Instead, HUD-Code manufacturers will be relying on booth space marketing and networking to effect contact with prospective wholesale purchasers (e.g. land lease communities and independent – street – MHRetailers) of said product. Therein lies the conundrum: But WHY?

So, what has HUD-Code manufactured housing been doing to answer lack of housing supply?

By the numbers (i.e. according to Institute of Building Technology & Safety or IBTS), during pre-covid 2018 the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry shipped 96,555 new homes nationwide.*1 At the very beginning of covid, in 2019, that number dropped to 94,615 new homes; and in the midst of covid, further dropped to 94,390. BUT, during year 2021 (semi-post covid) the industry rebounded to 105,772 new homes shipped! So, production momentum is there; just why aren’t HUD-Code housing manufacturers pushing those totals even harder? Hmm. Supply chain issues, new employee recruiting challenges, lack of home-only financing, and what else?

And the unanswered ‘elephant in the room’ question continues to be: WHY are new HUD-Code housing prices continuing to increase unabated and sans any embarrassment?

If you’d like to contribute to this timely discussion, simply email me: gfa7156@aol.com

End Note.

1. IBTS does not tally and publish annual shipment totals for manufactured housing; rather, they only do so monthly. It’s the adding together of their 12 monthly totals that provides the figures just mentioned. These numbers are NOT sullied by subtracting and then adding back Destination Pending units each month. GFA


II.

GSE REFORM, PAST & PRESENT

A recent story, by Don Layton, titled ‘Is GSE Reform Dead?’ covered a lot of territory, past and present, from two perspectives: *1

Between 2009 and 2016, influencers from a number of environments looked to replace two GSEs (‘Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac’) with ‘something different’; collectively referred to as ‘comprehensive GSE reform’. Well, these alternatives have pretty much moved on, as they reflected political philosophies of their proposers (e.g. “liberals and progressives looking for more government involvement and control, conservatives looking for less”) and bogged down, even given congressional interest in 2014.

Today, there’re two key GSE reform activities quietly underway. The “…two companies are retaining all their earnings to build capital”, making them more financially stable, easing conservatorship exit.*2

A second reform occurring is via the Federal Housing Finance Agency (‘FHFA’), the GSE’s overseer, effecting limited revisions to regulatory minimum capital rule, reining in risk of GSEs making uneconomic decisions.

Off topic, and despite recent musings to the contrary, past inaction by the GSEs, relative to Duty to Serve (‘DTS’) plans affecting HUD-Code manufactured housing, has unnecessarily crippled the industry’s ability to answer this nation’s persistent affordable housing (shortage) challenge!

End Note.

1. Housing Perspectives, ‘Research, trends, and perspective from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies/, dated 14 February 2022.

2. “As of 9/30/2021, the GSE’s, between them, have a net worth of $67.5 billion, a much-improved position over the near zero figure of a few years earlier.”

III.

EVERGREEN ISSUES OR PECCADILLOS?


Evergreen (‘always relevant’) Issues, relative to the manufactured housing industry and land lease communities, have long been of lively and important interest to me as an observer, businessman (now retired) and writer/historian. To that end, I maintain a list of 18+/- Evergreen Issues updated at least annually. If you’d like me to email you that file, simply request it via gfa7156@aol.com

Anyway, it’s become apparent to me during recent months there’re other ‘always relevant’ pairings of perspectives worthy of identification and examination. I’ll briefly describe each one and leave it to you to decide if it rises to the level of being an Evergreen Issue or not.

Overvaluation of mid-sized and large land lease communities, oft driven by new investors from outside the manufactured housing industry; almost always resulting in excessive rental homesite rate increases soon after ‘closing’ of deals. And this phenomenon is inflamed, in my opinion, by simple greed on the part of some, but not all, property sellers. What’s the idiom? ‘It takes two to tango!’ And that certainly is the case in these sorry situations, forcing homeowners/site lessees to become victims.

There’s a recurrent shibboleth (‘slogan’) going ‘round these days; specifically: ‘Raw land development into land lease communities is the answer to the affordable housing shortage!’ Not so. Raw land development is LOCAL housing market driven – for better or worse. If city/county ‘fathers’ really want such a rental community nearby they’ll help finance the project and deal with NIMBY, LULU, & BANANA attitudes.*1 Why recurrent? Same shibboleth the last go-round, back in 1992 when J. Wiley & Sons published Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities.

We lost 10,000+/- independent (street) MHRetailers at the turn of the century (i.e. when we lost easy access to chattel capital for new home sales financing), and community owners/operators learned how to ‘buy, market & sell new homes on-site’. Well, as they say, ‘the worm has turned’ and new MHRetialers want ‘back in’ the communities – but will not do so as long as community owners/operators compete with product and pricing. What’s the challenge? Community owners/operators oft sell at slightly above cost, to fill vacant rental homesites. MHRetailers won’t risk losing customers by sending them into discounted price environments. What to do? Practice what I did, as a community owner, back in the late 1970s thru the 1990s. Engage in the ‘Care & Feeding of MHRetailers’ via regular visits to sales centers, with business cards, trifold brochures, and freshly baked cookies in hand. At one time in Indianapolis, all 18 MHRetailers (now down to two) had coffee mugs on their desks and leather-like binders in hand for writing deals, all with my property logos prominently shown. Oh yes, and my assurance I would not steal their prospective homebuyers.

Know the peccadillo that bugs me most? Our realty asset class’ inability to support and sustain in person training of on-site and regional property staffers as professional property managers! Every other type of commercial real estate investment, from multifamily rental properties, to shopping centers to office buildings make it a point to ensure their employees – managing high-priced properties, are all trained and certified as professional property managers. But not land lease communities! I trained and certified 1,000+ Manufactured Housing Managers, in person, between 2011 and 2021. Today there is no regularly scheduled in person training and certification of this sort! So sad!

End Note.

1. NIMBY = ‘Not in my back yard’, LULU = ‘locally unwanted land use’, & BANANA = ‘build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone’


IV.

CONGRATULATIONS ART TUVERSON!

“Congratulations to Art, and Berkadia Small Loans, for their recognition as GlobeSt Real Estate Forum’s 2022 Rainmakers in Debt & Equity.”

The magazine article goes on to state that “…Art Tuverson represents a unique niche in the multifamily housing industry, specializing in manufactured housing communities and the RV resort industry.”

V.

DID YOU KNOW?

Median sales price for new homes in the US is now at $350,300. Up 15.4% from last year! The FHFA , however, in a recent press release, put the increase at 17.5%.

Rumor has it a major land lease community portfolio owner/operator is acquiring, or has acquired, one of – or the largest, MH appraisal, marketing, and communication firm in the industry.

In next week’s blog posting I’ll tell you what you might well miss if/when you attend the MHCongress in April 2022.

And that’s all for today folks!

George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 677. Copyright @ 18 February 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 & 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 and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: Much interesting news for you this week, beginning with the identity of ten states where HUD-Code manufactured housing is the most affordable. Then there’s some teaser information about interest in forming a new national trade body to truly represent the interests of land lease community owners/operators across the board – not just the major portfolio players. And a further reminder of how we, as an industry, shipped 105,772 new homes during 2021 – and don’t let anyone tell you differently! Finally, resident-owned communities continue to materialize across the U.S. – and now, finally in California! GFA

I.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Top Ten States for Manufactured Home Affordability, based on 2021 sales data, and first published in MHVillager on 9 February are as follows:

Kansas. “New manufactured homes in Kansas sell for an average price of $51,780, the lowest average price in the entire country.” And pre-owned manufactured homes sell for $24,306+/- apiece.

Arkansas. There the new manufactured home average price is $56,812; and, pre-owned manufactured home at $50,394.

Mississippi. Down there, new and pre-owned homes, throughout the state, sell for just about the same amount: 457,361.

Oklahoma. Now here’s a dollar spread for you. New manufactured homes sell for $68,743 on the average, and pre-owned homes for $40,777.

North Dakota. Up there the average price of a new manufactured home is $60,841; pre-owned homes at $44,969 apiece.

Missouri. Here’s yet another pretty broad price spread; new manufactured homes at $61,642 and pre-owned homes at only $37,026.

Virginia. Among the original 13 states (colonies), this state boasts an average new manufactured home price of $61,719, while pre-owned homes actually cost more, at $63,436 apiece.

Pennsylvania. New manufactured homes in this state average $62,523 in average price, while pre-owned manufactured homes are sold for an average of $37,307.

Kentucky. Here’s another ‘close comparison’ between average sale prices for new and pre-owned manufactured homes. In the former instance = $63,742; in the latter instance = $61,970.

Georgia. The tenth state on this ‘affordable housing’ list, sees its’ new manufactured homes going for $64,397, while pre-owned manufactured homes sell for $41,900. Apiece.

So, now you know where to find the most affordable new and resale manufactured homes ‘for sale’ in the U.S. these days.

II.

RUMOR OR FACT?

Community Owners (7 part) Business Alliance, a.k.a. COBA7 ended its’ six year run in 2020; SECO (Southeast Community Owners), launched in 2011, and EducateMHC (circa 2020) have become valuable national resources for land lease community owners/operators; and the National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners (‘NAMHCO’) in AZ appears to be dormant at this time. What else is there?

This leaves MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division as the sole trade body (lobbyist) representing political and regulatory interests of land lease community owners/operators.

But maybe not for long. Email messages have been flying, and preliminary meetings held, pursuant to the probable soon launch of a Manufactured Home Community Owners Association of America (‘MHCOAA’) body, purposed to improve the reputation of the realty asset class, directly counter negative press, and encourage professional property management among owners and property managers. And its’ activities will likely be communicated by an existing trade publication. Interested in participating? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com and I’ll pass your contact information onto the organizers.

III.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

According to the Institute for Building Safety & Technology (‘IBTS’), HUD’s official scorekeeper of the number of new HUD-Code manufactured homes shipped monthly, December’s total (8,014), when added to that from the first 11 months of the year, pushed us – for the first time in 15 years, above the 100,000 target goal. Our industry’s 2021 new MH shipment total was and is, 105,772. And don’t let anyone tell you differently. This 105,772 is the consensus total touted by HUD, MHARR, and EducateMHC.

IV.

ROC USA NOW IN CALIFORNIA!

ROC USA, on 4 February, announced the sale of The Woods, a premier 55+ senior community, located in Little River, CA., to the homeowners/site lessees (i.e. residents). This is the first ROC USA-supported resident-owned community in the state of California!

ROC USA, to date, has helped nearly 300 land lease community owners/operators sell their properties to their residents for fair market values. For more information, contact aromeo@rocusa.org

V.

FANNIE MAE & FREDDIE MAC

Yes, there’s some news afoot relative to the two GSEs, but I’ll hold off telling you about it until next week’s blog posting. Suffice it to say, they’re coming under some Senate scrutiny, and there are questions about their future in receivership.


George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 676 @ 11 February 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 & 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 and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: Some extremely Good News, some Not so Good News, and some Exciting News! Also a return to some potpourri for your reading enjoyment. GFA


I.

2021 = 105,772 NEW HUD-CODE HOMES

Yes, you read that right! For the first time in 15 long years, the manufactured housing industry shipped more than 100,000 new HUD-Code homes throughout the U.S. Now that’s something to celebrate! Let’s say it again: 105,772 new HUD-Code homes shipped during all of 2021! *1

According to MHI-sponsored Dr. Stephen C. Cooke’s ‘production value’ formula for manufactured homes, the 8,014 homes shipped during year 2021 are valued at $451 million. And our 105,772 new homes shipped throughout year 2021 are valued at $4.56 billion! *2

End Notes.

1. Most recent previous year during which more than 100,000 new homes were shipped, occurred during year 2006, and that year’s total was 117,510 units.

2. Dr. Cooke’s ‘production value’ per new manufactured home is $43,126. That factor is now a decade old and MHI, in my opinion, should have the value updated to 2022.




II.

A BAD WEEK FOR MH & COMMUNITY STOCKS

That is, with the exception of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (‘BRK-A’) – owner of Clayton Homes, whose stock price on 3 February increased to $476K. Everyone else (four manufactured housing firms and five land lease community firms – mostly REITs) saw their stock prices decline. *1

Skyline Champion Corporation (‘SKY’) @ $73.95
Cavco Industries, Inc., (‘CVCO’) @ $292.00
Legacy Housing Corporation (‘LEGH’) @ $25.51
Nobility Homes (‘NOBH’) @ $32.10

Equity Lifestyle (‘ELS’) @ $278.43. (#1 on 32nd annual ALLEN REPORT)
Sun Communities, Inc. (‘SUI’) @ $193.36 (#2 on 32ne annual ALLEN REPORT)
UMH Properties, Inc. (‘UMH’) @ $24.02 (#6 on 32nd annual ALLEN REPORT)
Flagship Communities, on Canadian Stock Exchange @ $18.50 (#23 on 32nd ALLEN REPORT) Manufactured Housing Properties, Inc., (‘MHPC’) @ $2.53 (#28 on 32nd ALLEN REPORT)

Based on above data, the Manufactured housing/land lease community Composite Stock Index (‘CSI’) dropped from $788.87 on 3 January 2022, to $738.00 on 3 February 2022.

End Notes:

1. All stock prices were recorded mid-morning on 3 February 2022.


III.

WAMH, PRONOUNCED ‘WHAM’!

Time has arrived for a new national organization where questions about manufactured housing can be addressed, where women will be recognized for their individual accomplishments, and where, as an advocate, we can help improve the perception of our industry by touting its’ positive features!

And the name of this new organization? Women Advancing Manufactured Housing (‘WAMH’); however, pronounced ‘WHAM’!

Tuesday evening, 2 February, saw more than 40 men and women from manufactured housing and land lease communities, meet virtually for more than an hour, to organize and introduce the new organization conceived at the virtual SECO meeting this past fall. And this Mission Statement was presented:

‘Women advancing manufactured housing by supporting and elevating females in the industry, improving the perception of manufactured housing throughout the country, collaborating, and helping expand each member’s knowledge.’

WAMH’s executive committee is comprised of Justine Natalie (co-chair), Maria Horton, MHM (co-chair), Sherrie Clevenger (deputy chair), Kim Shultz-Rainford (secretary), and Maryuri Barberan, MHM (treasurer). Two additional founding members are Julie Straus and Chandra Houston.

Next event for WAMH will occur 15 March, featuring a guest speaker – yet to be announced. For more information about WAMH and this event, visit:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14029066/ and https://womenadvancingmanufacturedhousing.com/

On a personal note, by someone not present at the meeting but wholly supportive of what these women executives are doing, I’m pleased once again, to see women leaders take the initiative to their professional lot and the reputation of the manufactured housing industry going forward. A similar attempt was made two decades ago, but failed. This time around, however, as an industry and realty asset class, we need such enthusiasm and focus all the more! *1 GFA

End Note.

1. The turn of the century women’s executive group went by the name of Manufactured Housing Executive Women (‘MHEW’). It met during annual Manufactured Housing Congress sessions.






IV.

POTPOURRI

Did you know there’s a ‘trailer park musical’ titled LUST ‘N RUST’? Well there was (I saw it in 2001) and is today (google it). Gist? A young man comes to town to start a new job but needs a place to stay. At the local greasy spoon restaurant he meets a tattooed waitress who takes a liking to him and suggests he stay with her in her ‘trailer’ – but not to arrive until she kicks out her soon to be ex-husband. Anyway, the musical is full of trailer stereotypes from start to finish. Just one more of the entertainment standards we must fight on our way to land lease community image improvement.

And then there’s Trailer Park of Terror (Yep, google it too). First appeared back in 1975. Then in 2006 I was invited to invest in a Hollywood film version of the tale. I declined but it materialized anyway. Another figurative albatross our industry must bear for the time being.

Here’re nine holistic principles to a clutter-free life:
1. Handle one item at a time
2. A path (place) for everything, everything on its’ path (place)
3. Don’t cover your tracks, i.e. Don’t toss clutter where you’ve already cleaned
4. Group like things together
5. Take breaks
6. Leave no stone unturned
7. Dispose with ceremony (Imbue the letting-go process with flair)
8. After cleaning or working, revel in the empty space and accomplishments
9. Acknowledge steps one takes and resist the temptation to look ahead to see how much is left to do.
Sorry, but I don’t recall where this came from; but it’s in my potpourri file. GFA

Then there’s this NOTICE I once saw and saved for now:

“This department requires no physical fitness program.
Everyone gets enough exercise jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, running down the boss, knifing friends in the back, dodging responsibility, and pushing their luck.”

George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 675 @ 4 February 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 & 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 and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S> # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: OK; two somewhat related but different topics this time around. First, by how much, the price of (some) new HUD-Code manufactured homes, during year 2021, exceeded the benchmark FHFA House Price Index during the same period of time.*1 Then, comparing rental homesite rates at two – one on the east coast, another on the west coast, of the most luxurious (on one hand) and iconic (on the other) land lease communities in all the U.S.*2 No potpourri this week.

End Notes.

1. FHFA = Federal Housing Finance Agency (oversees the two GSEs: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac).

2. ‘Iconic’ = “a representation that stands for something by virtue of a resemblance or analogy of it”. Webster’s dictionary. In this case, as an example of what the ideal land lease community might be like.

I

COMPARING HOUSING PRICES!

Let’s begin with the FHFA House Price Index published to the public on 25 January 2022. Here goes: “FHFA House Price Index UP 1.1 Percent in November: Up 17.5 Percent from Last Year. Got that? 17.5% overall U.S. housing price index increase during year of the pandemic, 2022.

Now, quoting from email messages from veteran land lease community portfolio owners/operators who routinely buy new HUD-Code manufactured housing direct from factories, then sell/finance them on-site, once affixed to rental homesites within the properties:

“The base price of the _____model, on attached (factory) pricing ‘adjustment’ letters, increased from $65,826 during January 2021, to $85,505 during February 2022. That’s a 29.9 percent increase in 13 months!” (&)

“The attached spec price on a 3BR 16X76 manufactured home, with standard options, has increased from $45,787 in October 2020, to $56,125 during January 2022. That’s a 22.6 percent increase in 15 months.”

Bottom line? While not really comparing apples to apples (i.e. rather, all types of single family residential housing vs. new manufactured homes), it’s still instructive to observe how new HUD-Code manufactured housing is selling from 5.1 to 12.4 percent higher price than the national housing market at large.

A question for you, especially if you’re a dues-paying member of the Manufactured Housing Institute: Will this price imbalance, between housing at large and new manufactured homes be on the winter meeting agenda, 9-11 February, in New Orleans? Answer. At present, NO.

II.

RENTAL HOMESITE RATE EXTREMES

Now, before you go apoplectic on me, when reading what follows; understand this: the two land lease communities involved here are, for different reasons, well beyond the pale (‘a strictly bounded area’) of usual community characteristics.*1

First, the properties themselves. Baywood community, outside Lewes, DE., looks every bit the very upscale subdivision, featuring large two story homes on spacious rental homesites. And the property itself is surrounded by tournament grade golf courses, a fine dining restaurant, golf driving range, and so much more.

Lido Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA., is a really an old ‘mobile home park’ that’s been upgraded at least twice during the past two decades, with two story HUD-Code manufactured homes.*2 Here’s the secret ingredient. The two story (doll-like) houses are affixed to the same ‘footprint’ used by the original mobile homes of yore! That’s why they’re two stories in height. And the homeowners/site lessees panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean is breathtaking.

OK, now for the rental homesite rates characteristic of these two special properties.

A townhome, with 2,700 square feet living space, located on the 18th fairway at Baywood, is on sale today for $399,000. The lease fee? $1,419 per month; same as other rental homesites.

Average rental homesite rent at Lido Peninsula is more than $3,000 per month.

But know what? There are additional ‘special’ land lease communities scattered across the U.S. and Canada. In certain local housing markets where we can match, even better, conventional housing available for sale. Yes, and in certain rural areas of the U.S. it’s still possible to find, usually smaller, land lease communities, where rental homesite rents remain at. or only slightly more than, $100. per month.

End Notes.

1. Apoplectic = “a sudden, usually marked loss of bodily function due to rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel”. Webster’s dictionary

2. Lido Peninsula was built in 1949 with 26 units to the acre. Today, thanks to the forward-looking planning and efforts of Richard Bessire of Bessire & Casenhiser, new Fleetwood two story homes, at 1,200 square feet, are being sited and will likely rent for more than $7,500/month.

III.

RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE AGENDA

No, I won’t be attending MHI’s winter meeting in New Orleans on 9-11 February. Oh, I encourage you to attend, if you’re active in manufactured housing and or land lease communities. I just won’t be going – for good reason – beyond the fact I’m pretty much retired these days and soured on travel. No, it’s much more for the reason here following…

I prefer ‘meat & potato’ issues to be on the agenda of any national trade association meeting I attend, whether it be MHI, IREM, SECO, or otherwise. And just what are such issues? Already identified one candidate in Part I of this week’s blog posting. Here’re three more:

Dire need for Creation and Funding of a National Marketing Campaign, sans specific brand promotion, of HUD-Code manufactured housing! This has been of, sad to say, behind the scenes interest among some manufactured housing aficionados and land lease community owners/operators, since at least the Networking Roundtable held in Mystic, CT., nearly two decades ago. Kevin; remember? Many land lease community folk do. It’s time to act!

Is rampant Consolidation improving or destroying manufactured housing and land lease communities? Won’t attempt to ‘make the case’ either way here, but surely you’ve seen, read, and heard the pros & cons on both sides that fence. If not, ponder how and why only three ‘consolidating’ HUD-Code manufactured housing firms now boast more than 80 percent of national housing market share. And among communities, what to do about the predatory real estate investment and operation practices of some ‘consolidating’ firms nationwide these days?

When was the last time you heard these two troublesome topics discussed and debated – with an eye to resolution, at any national trade gathering during 2019, 2020, 2021, and now 2020?

There’s more I’d like to say on this timely, and in my opinion, critical alternative agenda subject, but won’t for now. But here’s a hint of are more ‘meat & potato’ issues begging attention.

• The perceived lack of ‘equity’ for manufactured homes and prospective purchasers of ‘affordable housing’

• An upcoming White Paper “…relating to the exploitation of federal housing funding and assistance, for purely public relations purposes, by ostensible representatives of the industry’s post-production sector.”*1

• How “…the two most dominant manufactured housing lenders…control a ‘combined 30 percent’ of the manufactured housing market, including 56 percent of chattel lending’….”

To learn more about these three bullet points, phone (202) 783-4087 and request a copy of ‘Issues & Perspectives’, dated January 2022, penned by Mark Weiss.

What additional ‘meat & potato’ issues, not listed here, come to your mind? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com

End Note.

1. Would someone please define ‘post-production’ for me, relative to composition and scope as an industry sector? It appears to have become, in my opinion, a convenient ‘whipping boy without explanation’, to some folk in manufactured housing.



George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 674 @ 28 January 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 & textbook supplier for land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 888-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #3 no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!
_____________________________________________________________________________\

INTRODUCTION: The Great Reset, it seems, is on just about everyone’s mind these days – even the folk in manufactured housing, based on the encouraging email responses received to date. And ladies, get familiar with WAMH – you’ll likely want to participate in this latest advocacy in behalf of manufactured housing and land lease communities. And POTPOURRI is back with more wise and pithy information and advice. GFA

I.

‘GREAT RESET’ REVISITED

It’s easy to tell when I ‘hit a nerve’ with a blog posting. The email messages and phone calls pour into me. Such was the reaction to last week’s posting titled: ‘A Great Reset For Manufactured Housing & Community Portfolios?’ Equal number of responses from the housing manufacturing side of the industry and community portfolios.

“This Great Reset will take time. I’d emphasize rural housing, retirement cabins, RVs for low cost family and transient labor, making manufactured homes coded – e.g. UBC or whatever, to ease acceptance by a well-established and respected NAHB.”

“I read your blog. This is one of your best. (&) Redouble one’s efforts to have all in-community homes looking great, and homeowner/site lessees (my term, GFA) fully engaged in promoting the land lease community lifestyle. “I would never have asked DC for help George. Geesh!”

Further thoughts on the subject. While the final tally won’t be effected for another week (i.e. Think 1 February 2022), we’ll certainly, as an industry, eclipse the 100,000 shipments of new HUD-Code homes, unseen since year 2006 and its’ tanking figure of 117,510+/-.*1 Hmm. Wonder if we’ll meet or better the 2005 figure of 146,644 – or 146,744 – depending on who one asks? In any event, as I’ve pointed out before, it’s unlikely we’ll ‘ever’ return to the acme year records of 372,943+/- in 1998 (Ah, the year of the Developer Series homes) and 579,940 in 1973. Wonder what blame corporate ‘consolidation’ plays, if any, in this compression of national market presence? And likewise, where community portfolios are concerned; will continued ‘consolidation’ (i.e. absorption of smaller property portfolios into larger ones), have minimal or profound effect on sole proprietorship development of raw land into full scale land lease communities? So there’s still a lot out there to think about relative to a Great Reset for manufactured housing and land lease communities.

End Note.

1. Why the +/- clarification of some annual MH shipment totals? In those instances, according to comprehensive listings (i.e. from 1955 to present day) in the text SWAN SONG, there are, and continue to be, different annual new HUD-Code housing shipment totals researched by the Institute of Building Safety & Technology (‘IBST’) and reported by HUD and MHARR, compared to similar-but-different totals posted by the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and its’ member companies. To order a copy of said text, visit www.educatemhc.com


II.

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF?

We’ve been here before! The current issue of MHINSIDER magazine, in a feature article penned by publisher Patrick Revere, ‘New Organization to Advance Women in Manufactured Housing’ introduces readers to Women Advancing Manufactured Housing or WAMH. He introduces Maria Horton, MHM, of Newport Pacific Family of Companies, and Justine Natalie of Dynamic MH Solutions as two of five organizers of this effort to advocate for manufactured housing and land lease communities. Three additional organizers include Sherrie Clevenger from CoreLogic, Maryuri Barberan, MHM, from Pentagon Properties, and Kim Schultz-Rainford from Innovative Housing Solutions. Plans for WAMH took shape during a roundtable discussion at the recent SECO conference.

What’s the precedent to WAMH? Well, way back in the mid-1990s, around the time MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division took shape, a group of female owners/operators of (then) manufactured home communities agreed to meet at annual Manufactured Housing Congress events in Las Vegas, to network and work together to advance the role of women in the manufactured housing industry. The name of that group was Manufactured Housing Executive Women, or MHEW for short. Two contemporary RV/MH Hall of Fame inductees, Christine Lindsey, MHM, of UMH Properties, and Dee Pizer, MHM, of Zeman MHC, were among that august group. While all started off well and enthusiastically, in a few years, interest in the group waned, and it eventually stopped meeting.

This time around, given the proven leadership abilities of the five organizers, expect to see WAMH grow and take a place among organizations dedicated to advancing women executives throughout the manufactured housing industry. If interested in getting in touch with these women, let me know via gfa7156@aol.com


III.

SOME MORE POTPOURRI

Here’s a Short Course in Human Relations, dating all the way back to the year 1978 or before.

The 6 most important words: ‘I admit I made a mistake’

The 5 most important words: ‘You did a good job’

The 4 most important words: ‘’What is your opinion?’

The 3 most important words: ‘Will you please?’

The 2 most important words: ‘Thank you!’

The 1 most important word: ‘We’

The least important word: ‘I’

Those of you who’ve read my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven, now know that besides being a USMC combat engineer officer, while in Vietnam during 1968 & 69, I was trained in Okinawa, to be an Atomic Demolition Munitions (‘ADM’) technician. It paid an extra $100.00 per month. And I was expected, when so ordered, to mate up with my ADM (the size of a soccer ball and strapped to my chest) to be transported by low flying helo, into North Vietnam, near Hanoi. There I’d emplace the ADM, set the timer and ready the firing device before attempting to return alone to South Vietnam. I recently came across more information about the previously secret ‘back pack nuke’, powerful enough to “destroy a dam…drop a mountainside down on an invading army, vaporize essential command and control installations, wipe out a large formation of tanks….” Nuclear weapon protocols at the time required two technicians present when utilizing ADMs, but the Marine Corps opted for just one man. There are two photographs in the aforementioned texts showing just how destructive ADMs could be.

You from Michigan? Well nearly a quarter century ago the Michigan Department of Labor, Safety Education, and Training created and widely distributed a set of 2 ½” X 4 ½” business card-like paper instructions relative to SKILL in LEADING, SKILL in PLANNING, SKILL in INSTRUCTION, and several additional topics. I came across the cards early on in my management career and have shared their wisdom widely. For example, here are the four steps recommended ‘How to Handle a Problem’:
Get the Facts. Be sure to have the whole story.
Weigh and Decide. Don’t jump to conclusions.
Take Action. Don’t pass the buck.
Check Results. Did your action help operations?

In this instance I used this Michigan wisdom to create and copyright the first of five Management Wisdom cards (1979) – since distributed in every MHM class. My parallel?
Select a Problem, a Task – Consider it a challenge, an opportunity.
Define it, Document it.
Study & Question Every Detail
Research & Organize Data
Refine & Digest Data
Produce & Rework Ideas
Implement & Monitor
Follow-up & Recap Results.
If you’d like a free copy of this Management Wisdom card, let me know via gfa7156@aol.com

Are you interested in learning ‘How to Eat Crawdads’? Maybe I’ll have nerve to share with you in days to come. For now, here’re the first and last paragraphs:
“Use only live, healthy crawdads. Boil until they turn red and float to the top, usually about eight minutes after the water returns to a roiling boil. The rule of thumb is a gallon of water to two pounds of crawdads.” (&)
“The only adult drink permitted with boiled crawdads is beer. Kids can drink soda. Leave the wine in the cellar.”
Oh yes, there’s more….



George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 673 @ 21 January 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 & textbook supplier for land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 888-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto; ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: This week’s posting ranges from the very serious (Part I,) to a mixture of humor and wise advice (Part II). While I don’t want to come across, in my writing, as a naysayer or pessimist, I do have serious concerns about the present and future viability of our industry and its’ real estate component (i.e. land lease communities). This week I only scratch the surface of such concerns; attempting to remain positive throughout the commentary. GFA

I.

A ‘GREAT RESET’ FOR MANUFACTURED HOUSING & COMMUNITY PORTFOLIOS?

By now many, if not most, Americans have at least heard of the coming Great Reset.
Is it “…a conspiracy theory imagining a vast left-wing plot to establish a totalitarian one-world government?” OR, simply “…a means of addressing the ‘weaknesses of capitalism’ purportedly exposed by the COVID pandemic.”?*1 Or, something altogether different?

Historically, the phrase ‘Great Reset’ became commonplace upon publication of the 2010 book, ‘The Great Reset’, by Richard Florida. Here, the author suggested the 2008 economic crash was the most recent Great Reset; others being the long depression of the 1870s and Great Depression of the 1930s. The World Economic Forum (‘WEF’) in Switzerland, in its’ recent book, ‘COVID-19: The Great Reset’, suggests ‘weaknesses of capitalism’ were exposed by the COVID pandemic.

Two months before the COVID outbreak in China hit the news scene, the WEF, with others, engaged in a pandemic exercise, ‘Event 201’, simulating an international response to an outbreak of a coronavirus. Results closely resembled what happened during the future COVID scenario, hence the tie to it being another Great Reset. And shortly after its 50th meeting, during June 2020, the WEF declared “…COVID represents an ‘opportunity (to) be seized’, to reimagine our world by …”Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon….” to introduce a bewildering economic amalgam (‘combination or compound’) ‘stakeholder capitalism’, a.k.a. ‘corporate socialism’; some say ‘communist capitalism.’*2

A consequence of this social justice aspect of the Great Reset? “…government, banks, and asset managers use the Environmental, Social & Governance (‘ESG’) index to squeeze non-woke corporations and businesses out of the market.” It’s essentially a social credit score used to drive ownership, even control production, away from those non-woke and non-compliant.*3

Specifically, “…the governmental favoring of industries and players within industries – what used to be known as corporatism or economic fascism”…continues in play during the Great Reset. (as) “Approved corporations’ tend towards monopolization, exercising control over production and distribution IN AS FEW FAVORED CORPORATIONS AS POSSIBLE, while eliminating industries and producers deemed non-essential or inimical (‘harmful’).” WHOA! Some will argue this is already happening, via industrywide consolidation, among HUD-Code housing manufacturers….think of the Big 3-C corporations ostensibly controlling proceedings of the Manufactured Housing Institute – and its National Communities Council division.

So, has the Great Reset already impacted (i.e. impacting) manufactured housing and community portfolios in the fashion just described?

We’re about to find out as we move further into year 2022. Will the Big 3-C corporations grow to claim more than 80 percent national market share of manufactured housing shipments? Will (some) land lease community portfolio owners/operators continue to negatively impact local rental housing markets with exorbitant site rent rate increases and imposition of other add-on homeowner/site lessee expenses? If so, don’t be surprised when a Great Reset negatively affects our industry and realty asset class in ways not experienced before!

If you have personal commentary on the Great Reset scenario, reach me via gfa7156!aol.com

End Note.

1. Quotes in this posting are from a speech, by Michael Rectenwald, delivered at Hillsdale College on 7 November 2021, and published in the December issue of IMPRIMIS newsletter.

2. “…stakeholder capitalism involves the behavioral modification of corporations to benefit not shareholders, but stakeholders – individuals and groups that stand to benefit or lose from corporate behavior.” Hard not to think of pending landlord/tenant legislation relative to land lease communities nationwide….GFA

3. ESG. Three key factors measure the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a business or company. Here we have our first hint of how the Great Reset might influence and impact the manufactured housing industry; e.g. Governance criteria…how a firm polices itself, focusing on executive remuneration, political lobbying, board diversity and structure, as well as other variables. GFA

II,

PERSONAL POTPOURRI

Years (decades?) ago I penned a column for the now defunct ‘Journal’ (of manufactured housing) that occasionally featured a potpourri (‘mixture of anything’) collection of bon mots (‘pleasant remarks’) I collected when satisfying my voracious appetite for reading. Well, now that I’m pretty much retired, I’m finding such gems all over the place – even in long neglected files of newspaper clippings, etc… What follows here is your first opportunity to share in an eclectic reading experience.

Did you know? In white pages of older telephone directories, phonetic language was oft used to help patrons find desired listings. For many years, Indiana Bell (before it was dissolved) listed itself as the ‘Fone Company’, right before Mee Kiu Fong’s telephone listing in the directory.

Do you speak in front of audiences? Here’s what James Roosevelt’s father recommended to him: ‘Be sincere…Be brief…Be seated! And Alben W. Barkley suggests the best audience is one that is intelligent, well-educated, and a little drunk.

Ever hear the Mushroom Farm Lament? Well, here goes: “We feel we’re being kept in the dark. Occasionally someone comes around and spreads manure on us. When our heads pop up, they’re chopped off. And then we’re canned.” Quoted from Jim Lundy’s classic book, ‘Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way’, 1986.

Know someone in the industry or realty asset class who routinely angers, insults, and or torpedoes relationships in word or deed? Perhaps a T-shirt with this logo is appropriate:
MAY LIGHT FROM THE BRIDGES I’VE BURNED LIGHT MY WAY.

While reading the following short story, reflect on where it’s headed and who inspired it: “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. Hence I solemnly took to the ship in a blind effort to appease my drizzling soul. Unbeknownst to me was the fateful event this voyage would present. Having a shortage of fresh water, the men resigned themselves to not washing their hands after the moving of their bowels, causing a severe occurrence of stomach cramps and other unpleasant digestive symptoms. Perhaps if I had taken solace in the land, I would never have set foot on that cursed ship.” So, did you think of the author Herman Melville and his classic ‘Moby Dick’? Believe it or not, this reading material was prepared, years ago, and posted in rest area bathrooms along Allegheny County highways in Pennsylvania.

OK, let’s end this week’s post with this quote: ‘Old Age and Treachery will overcome Youth and Skill’ – or so read the T-shirt I wore awhile back.

Next week’s blog? Expect to read ‘A Short Course in Human Relations’, ‘Dr. Strangelove in Vietnam’ (all about the presence of nuclear weapons nearby at the time). For those of you who’ve read my autobiography, you know I was trained as an Atomic Demolitions Munitions technician (a.k.a. suicide bomber), to be activated in the event the North Vietnam Army crossed in mass over into South Vietnam.*1 and ‘How to Eat Crawdads’.

End Note.

1. ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’ autobiography available via www.educatemhc.com



George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 672 @ 7 January 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 & textbook source for land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 888-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: Thanks for your input of late, helping me decide how to pen future postings of this blog. More suggestions and ideas? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com

I.

2022 TO APE 2021 OR BE BETTER?

Were you one of hundreds to recently receive my ‘Expression of Appreciation & Look Forward into Year 2022’? If not, you’ll want to read the following four paragraphs to learn how our industry appears to have ended year 2021; what 2022 ‘looks like already’; and, why I’m not bullish on the land lease community real estate asset class. Here goes….

“How will year 2021 end relative to new HUD-Code housing shipments? Even though we shipped fewer new HUD-Code homes during November 2021 @ 9,069 compared to previous month of October @ 9,254*1. To date (i.e. end of November), we’ve already shipped more new homes @ 97,758 than during previous 15 years, going back to 2006 @ 117,510. But will December’s shipment total be enough to eclipse the 2006 year-end number? At this point we need only 19,752 homes shipped to do so! Hence, the speculative answer is ‘yes’! In any event, we’ll be back above the 100,000/year target total. BUT, how long will we enjoy that momentum – or will we grow – or slip backwards again?”

“2022? While we’re ‘on a roll’ shipment-wise right now, future performance depends on resolution of alleged supply chain issues, controlling arbitrary price increases by housing manufacturers, and if/when we finally bring reason and resolution to our perennial chattel capital (i.e. home-only) financing challenges. After all, it’s been 13+/- years since we lost easy access to this type financing, e.g. 1998 = 372,943 new homes shipped, compared to 2009 and only 48,789 new homes shipped during the latter year – our industry’s nadir year.”

“I want to be bullish about the land lease community sector of the manufactured housing industry, but am not! Why? In my opinion, ‘consolidation’ of sole proprietor-owned communities into one or another of 500+/- property portfolios has generally run amuck. Property sale prices, for the most part, are driven by greed (on the part of ‘sellers’), and willingness, on the part of ‘buyers’ to greatly increase site rents following ‘closing’. At the very least, we’ve seen the rise of tenant activism on a near national scale; something we’ve not dealt with before. And how are we going to convince prospective homebuyers/site lessees to buy new homes within land lease communities when site rent is no longer a third, but fully half the amount – or more, they’d pay for a conventional, non-subsidized 3BR2B apartment unit in the same local housing market? I fear we may well see a ‘shaking out’ among hedge fund investors who’ve entered the realty asset class during the past five years.”

“So, where do we go from here? Again personally, I yearn for far more effective national advocacy than we suffer now! At the very least, a salaried executive at the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’) and its’ National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division should be solely-tasked with day to day administration and representation of land lease communities nationwide – just like it used to be, from January 1996 to pre-2010. In addition, endorse professional property management among on-site and regional managers by insisting on ‘education & certification’ in a meaningful manner! This by dint of Accredited Resident Manager (‘ARM’) and Certified Property Manager (‘CPM’) member programs via the Institute of Real Estate Management (‘IREM’), OR some other credible in-person (NOT online) training program! This obvious professional property management shortfall continues to be the Achilles’ heel of land lease community management and ownership nationwide.”*2

End Notes.

1. The new HUD-Code housing shipment totals as reported by the Institute of Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’), HUD, MHARR, and EducateMHC.

2. You serious about providing the property management tools on-site and regional managers need to do their jobs right? Every property should have a copy of ‘Community Operations in the Manufactured Housing Industry’ – available via www.educatemhc.com

DID YOU KNOW?

Biloxi Manufactured Housing Show to be held from Monday, 28 March, through Thursday, 31 March, at the IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi, Mississippi. This trade show is successor to the popular Tunica, Mississippi MHShow. For more information: www.biloxihomeshow.com

MHI’s Congress & Expo is scheduled for Monday, 11 April thru Thursday, 14 April, at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. For more information: www.manufacturedhousing.org

Stephen Braun, co-CEO, has retired from Hometown America. For corporate contacts, email either Ken Kravenas via KKKRavenas@HometownAmerica.net for operations-related matters; or Greg Lynch via GLynch@HometownAmerica.net for all other matters. Stephen’s leaving has been so quiet, it reminds me of when Barry McCabe, another Hometown alum, faded from the scene a decade ago. Hometown America was founded by Randy Rowe (presently head of Green Courte Partners) in 1997, and today owns 66 land lease communities in a dozen states – including the well-known SaddleBrook Farms in Grayslake, IL.

You a fan of the popular TV show series NCIS? I am, and one of my Christmas stocking presents from Carolyn was a copy of the magazine GIBBS FOREVER. Best part? Finally, I have a complete list of what show fans know as Gibbs’ Rules. There’re 34 of them in all. A few gems appear to apply to the business world: #3 Never be unreachable. #5 You don’t waste good. #11 When the job is done, walk away. #15 Always work as a team. #18 It’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission. #28 When you need help, ask. #51 Sometimes you’re wrong. And a personal favorite = #23. Never mess with a Marine’s coffee if you want to live!

I’m old enough to remember the influence and death of social and political activist Saul Alinsky in mid-1972. He authored ‘Rules for Radicals, Reveille for Radicals’ – a simplification of Vladimir Lenin’s original scheme for world conquest by communism, under Russian rule. He wrote there are eight levels of control that must be achieved before one is able to create a (new) social state. They are:

1. Healthcare. Control healthcare and you control the people (Pandemic anyone?)

2. Poverty. Increase the poverty level as high as possible; poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing everything for them to live (Think illegal immigrants)

3. Debt. Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way one is able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty. (Present national debt level sustainable?)

4. Gun Control. Remove the ability of citizens to defend themselves from the Government. That way one is able to create a police state. (Gotta love the second amendment!)

5. Welfare. Take control of every aspect of citizens’ lives (Food, Housing, & Income)

6. Education. Take control of what people read and listen to – take control of what children learn in school. (Errant social media platforms, Critical Race Theory, etc.)

7. Religion. Remove belief in God from the government and schools. (No prayer in schools)

8. Class Warfare. Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to tax the wealthy with the support of the poor.

Well, there you have it, a veritable blueprint on how to convert a democracy (republic) into a totalitarian state. Now that you know how it’s done, do your part to prevent it from happening!

George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

Blog Posting # 671 @ 31 December 2021: 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, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communication media for all land lease communities throughout North America!’

To input this blog and 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: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!

INTRODUCTION: This week’s blog materialized as I replied to the usual daily collection of email messages from friends and business associates throughout the manufactured housing industry and among land lease communities. Decided it might be interesting to you to read about what’s been going on around here for the past week or so. So….

I.

NEW YEARS EVE MUSINGS

First off, a sincere Thank You to many ‘friends in the MHBusiness’ who sent Carolyn and me holiday gift packages of fresh Florida citrus fruit, genuine Lebanese ‘extra virgin’ olive oil – and other Mediterranean treats, an equally genuine YETI – insulated travel flask, and such a variety of fudge, sausage, cheese, and other goodies!

Especially appreciated the manufactured housing-themed greeting cards from MHI and Monroe & Giordano. And the family photographs of the DeMarco families at Security Mortgage in NY.

I exhibited symptoms of Covid-19 on Saturday, 18 December, so checked-in to a local hospital, where the diagnosis was confirmed. Kept me there most of the day, until they infused me with the same pharmaceutical administered to President Trump awhile back. Told me I’d feel like new in 12 hours – and I did. But have been quarantined at home with Carolyn until 28 December, when I tested ‘negative’ for the virus. This meant we canceled a large family dinner Christmas Eve, and spent the holiday alone at home – our 58th Christmas together, except for my year in Vietnam.

Sad news. Learned from Rick Robinson of Bill Matchneer’s untimely death on Christmas day. Many of you will remember him from his days as head of HUD’s manufactured housing division. Sorry, but have no further details.

Have you seen the list of manufactured housing industry notables who comprise the Class of 2022 Inductees into the prestigious RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN.? They are Eugene Landy of real estate investment trust UMH Properties in NJ; Tim Williams of 21st Mortgage in TN; Harry Karsten of Karsten Homes in CA; Raylen Gritton a MHRetailer in CA; and David Carter from FL. The Class of 2022 will be officially inducted at the annual Hall of Fame banquet on Monday, 15 August 2022. For more information, phone (574) 293-2344. Plan now to attend; anyone who’s anyone in MH will be present for the festivities!

II.

THE B-ATTITUDES OF JOURNALISM

John W. Fountain is an award-winning columnist, journalist, and author, working out of Chicago, IL. In 2006 he delivered the Samuel E. Cornish memorial Lecture at the World Journalism Institute in Atlanta, GA. The lecture was titled ‘Mightier Than the Sword’

Within the presentation Fountain introduces his B-Attitudes of Journalism. While somewhat reminiscent of my personal ‘writing bromide’, the ABC3 Rule of Good Communication, Fountain digs much deeper.

First, the ABC3 Rule of Good Communication. Be Accurate, Be Brief, Be Clear, Concise & Complete! – when communicating in person and in print!

Now onto Fountain’s B-Attitudes of Journalism.

Be accurate. A journalist never sacrifices fact for details.

Be honest.. To the craft, to the reader, to your editors.

Be professional. Be on time; do quality work.

Build on good mechanics. Master the fundamentals of journalism.

Be consistent and diligent with writing and reporting. Regularly practice the craft. Diligently work in school to learn how to do good journalism.

Be a reader. Good writers are Good readers.

Be thick-skinned. Learn to take criticism and grow.

Be confident. As a journalist, there are hills and valleys. Don’t judge your worth by a difficult valley experience.

Build a network of support. Editors, colleagues, non-journalist friends and family can lend perspective and balance.

Be patient. Write and rewrite, understanding that good writing is a process.

Bring your perspective. Your uniqueness will generate unique stories and enable you to tell a story as only you can.

Be excellent. One can’t argue with excellence!

Believe. In the story, in the power of journalism, in your ability to make a difference.

BE. Rather than talking who you are, just BE who you are.

I can think of many a journalist who should be reading and practicing those Be Attitudes!

George Allen, CPM, MHM