Blog Posting # 875; Copyright 10 April 2026. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable, factory-built housing (a.k.a. one of four types of offsite construction: those being manufactured, modular & panelized housing, plus accessory dwelling units/ADUs. e.g. Park Model RVs), routinely paired with traditional stick-built, single-family residential housing (a.k.a. onsite construction, where building permits, starts, & completions are tallied and reported monthly by the U.S> Census Bureau). Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities, ‘mobile home parks’) are the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH. And, along with various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans, and real estate-secured mortgages) constitutes the post-production segment of the MH industry.
EducateMHC is an MH historian, trade term and trend tracker, as well as MH information resource! Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, or visit www.educatemhc.com to purchase ‘Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry’. This book belongs in every land lease community nationwide! And ‘SWAN SONG’ – a history of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production totals since 1955.
And my autobiography, ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’, describes personal combat adventures in Vietnam as a USMC lieutenant, a 40 year entrepreneur business career in MH & community ownership, as well as freelance consulting and authoring of 20 nonfiction texts.
George Allen is the sole emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (“MHI”), a founding board member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for ‘MHInsider’ magazine.
Chassis Yes or No; New Types of Tiny Houses, a 42 Digit Email Handle
Two decades ago I followed the writings and advice of factory-built housing savant Eliot Fabri. At the time, even MHI sought his opinion and experience relative to HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) design and placement – especially in urban settings. Eliot even ‘rose to the challenge’ of providing specially-designed MHs, when others would not, for a forward-thinking project that never went very far.
Well, I’d lost track of Eliot over the years, but recently, as the ‘removing of the permanent chassis’ debate heated up once again, here came a missal from him via LinkedIn. It was simple and direct, just Eliot Fabri’s style:
“Removing the chassis will not save a significant amount of money. Because the manufacturer will have to install a lot more lumber to strengthen the home.”
Good point, but there’s more to this issue than immediately meets the eye. Before I get to that, however, here’s what on veteran land lease community property portfolio owner/operator has to say on the subject:
“…Making the frame (i.e. permanent chassis) optional is either a really dumb idea or a really brilliant one. If the latter, I suspect it’ll be short-lived.
Really dumb in that engineers, setup contractors, etc., have said ‘It’ll cost $10-20K extra to build a perimeter wall capable of supporting the load of the MH, another $10K extra to engineer and build the MH so the exterior wall supports the house (in addition to current construction involving support of the floor joists by the frame), and another $5-10K more to crane-set the house. To those who say removing the frame will reduce the cost of today’s HUD homes, I’d remind them that a 60’ I-beam costs about $1,500 and can be easily reused.
Really brilliant in that removing the frame completely, muddies the water between HUD regulations and modular construction, paving the way for naïve regulators, lenders, etc., to consider homes built to the ‘new’ HUD-standard (i.e. w/o the frame”), to be eligible for the same lower cost financing now provided for modular housing.”
And yet more thoughts on the timely subject:
“I think for independent (street) MHRetailers, it opens up a whole new potential market, e.g. basement sets, etc… The interesting thing is many banks rely on the chassis of a HUD-Code home to differentiate it from modular units. Removing the steel chassis will certainly blur the lines for the home-buying public.”
For another interesting ‘take’ on this controversial subject, make it a point to read Dr. Leslie Gooch’s (CEO of MHI) recent Press Release (3/27/26) titled, ‘Removing the Permanent Chassis is a Game Changer for Manufactured Housing. She takes the matter a step further, by describing how removal of said chassis could very well make new HUD-Code homes (i.e. sans chassis) more attractive and acceptable to local land planners and zoning boards.
So, those are the opinions of four veteran MH ‘players’. What’s yours? Is this proposal dumb or brilliant, and Why? Inquiring minds would like to know, via gfa7156@aol.com
OK, changing topics here. What’s new on the Tiny Home scene? Plenty!
The Home Depot now sells 476 square foot Shed Homes for around $55,000 apiece.
Legacy Homes kinda said they had a shed home at Biloxi, but it turned out to be their version of a 1-3BR Tiny Home of 1,200 square feet, including of a shed package. At least that’s the way I read their pre-show literature.
And how’ bout Clayton Homes’ Buttercup, introduced in a 17 March Press Release as a 12X36, 408 square foot tiny home.
And the Amish Tiny Cabins sizes-in at 300 square foot. Finally, Amazon continues to online market their version of a ‘prefab tiny house’.
Why do I even mention this? As you know, I’m working to convince the U.S. Census Bureau to begin including offsite construction homes (i.e. factory-built housing such as HUD-Code manufactured, modular, and panelized home, as well as accessory dwelling units or ADUs – such as Tiny Homes, Park Model RVs, etc..) in their monthly tallies of onsite construction, i.e. site-built homes. This is my way of continually reminding them, the powers that be, that we’ll never really know the accurate total of new residential housing units completed each month until they make this historic change.
And finally, a third topic this time around.
The RV/MH Hall of Fame, in a recent Press Release, ballyhooed their “…new email system, which has resulted in updated email addresses”. Well, maybe – in my opinion, not quite the tool it could/should be. Daryll Milnikel is the president of the RV/MH Hall of Fame and his email handle now is: DaryllMilnikel@thervmhheritagefouondation.org That’s no fewer than 42 characters. Same with everyone else on staff: their name, plus ‘thervmhheritagefoundation.org
Suggestion. Write this email address down somewhere to have it handy when you need to contact the RV/MH Hall of Fame.
George Allen