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

September 19, 2015

Details & ‘stats’ here, you’ll read nowhere else!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 10:47 am

Blog # 366 Copyright 2015 COBA7® Worldwide Proprietary: community-investor.com

Perspective. ‘Land-lease-lifestyle Communities, a.k.a. manufactured home communities and ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’

This blog posting is the national advocacy voice, official ombudsman (press), research reporter, & online communication media for all LLLCommunities in North America!’

To input this blog &/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, a.k.a. COBA7®, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

COBA7® Motto = ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’, & Goal of its’ print 7 online media = to ‘Not only inform & opine, but to transform & improve our Business model!’

I.

SO VERY TELLING…

‘The #s; Who Came & Who didn’t; What Excited; What Educated!

The 24th annual International Networking Roundtable (9-11 September 2016) was the Biggest (200+) and Best Ever, with land-lease-lifestyle community aficionados participating from 26 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.

All the major HUD-Code home manufacturers (Cavco, Champion, Fleetwood, Adventure, Commodore, Skyline, Silvercrest, Redman, & Clayton) were represented by corporate executives and Business Development Managers (‘BDM’) – individuals specializing in Community Series Homes, a.k.a. CSH Model manufactured homes.

All the major real estate-secured mortgage lenders and brokers (Wells Fargo, Onyx Capital, Grandbridge, Capital One, Walker & Dunlop, Monroe & Giordano, Northwestern Mutual, Q10/Lutz, & Berkadia) were represented by loan originators specializing in the acquisition and refinancing of LLLCommunities1 Even had a trickling of local lender representation, including participation by American Commerce Bank of of Atlanta, GA, and others.

Frankly, it was most of the above lenders who, as $ sponsors, made this year’s event possible: Wells Fargo, Grandbridge, Onyx Capital, Berkadia Commercial, Capital One, and Walker & Dunlop – plus, Barrington Investments, LLC, Horizon Land Company, DATACOMP/MHVillage, and RHP Properties – the latter paying for the publication of the treatise:

‘Affordable (Manufactured Housing); From Factory to Family – a Bold Look into the Future of Housing & Community!’ Want a FREE copy? Send $20.00, to cover shipping & handling to COBA7® c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247.

But guess who wasn’t present – at all? Independent third party chattel capital firms! Not surprising though, given lack of easy access to chattel capital mortgages, via them, for new home transactions on-site in LLLCommunities. An interesting, albeit unintended confirmation of this reality is how David Rousher, in his recently released online book ($3.99), ‘How to Invest in a Mobile Home Park…’ only identifies two of the ‘Big Three + One’ chattel lenders. Don’t know whether his omissions were errors, oversights – or simply reflect how obscure chattel capital lending, from independent, third party sources, has become since the turn of the Century. What do you think?

And there was yet another interesting and telling trend that played out at this year’s Roundtable event. Most of the major (Top 20) LLLCommunity portfolio ‘players’, except for ELS, Inc., & UMH Properties, Inc., sent their acquisition specialists or teams. At the same time however, no fewer than 49 small to mid-sized property portfolio owners/operators were present; in their case, represented by owners and senior executives.

New blood. Another obvious trend this year was the absence of ‘industry pioneers’ who’ve been frequent roundtable participants during the past two decades – the men and women who clamored for national representation during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some have died, others have retired, still others have left the business altogether. Today’s crowd was a healthy mix of young faces, a lot of Young Wealth Builders (The term used to describe RE investors in between Mom & Pop owners of small LLLCommunities and large firms specializing in institutional grade properties) ‘making their mark’ during these still turbulent times for the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry. And yes, there were many examples of second, even third generation family dynasties among owners/operators present this year.

What excited? Whew! Where does one start? With Marcus & Millichap! Between 75 and 100 real estate investors arrived ‘early’ for the Wednesday afternoon panel presentation (a new format this year). And did the questions – and answers, ever fly! Kudos to M&M, for a program ‘well played’.

Then, who’d a ‘thunk’? HUD-Code home manufacturing executives ‘filling a room’ with focused owners/operators of land-lease-lifestyle communities! Well, they did, in spades, as Keith Anderson (Champion), Bill Danforth (Cavco), Wally Comer (Adventure), & Bob Bender (Commodore) ‘splained the facts’ of manufactured housing life and business to this eager crowd of listeners. And the second hour of Open Discussion fed the flames of passion to ship and sell more homes! Don’t miss this point: This was the first time in MHIndustry history, where ‘so many major players’ – even more than at the NSAC caucus on 27 February 2009, enjoyed such an enthusiastic and mutually supportive faceoff!

And if you’ve yet to hear Dr. David Funk, now with Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago, hold forth on ‘’Housing Economics & Manufactured Housing’s Strategic Niche’; well, you simply don’t know what you’re missing! His talk should be required fare at every state MHAssociation gathering during year 2016. So much to learn from him! (Since the Roundtable he’s been invited to address several industry gatherings)

The Thursday luncheon will never be the same! Following a delicious meal, Judy Jankowski of the RV/MH Hall of Fame recruited members and donations; and Rick Rand, ACM®, sold raffle tickets for MHI’s PAC Fund. But the big surprise came when Katie & Ken Hauck, MHM®, introduced their charity MHGives – to feed and house orphan children in Latin America! The stunning results? More than $55,000 pledged to the RV/MH Hall of Fame; nearly $10,000.00 raised in MHI PAC funds; and, $22,000.00 in matching funds for MHGives!

Spencer Roane’s ‘All Things Chattel!’, according to end-of-event Evaluation Forms was one of the most popular educational program of this year’s event. Here an owner/operator shared his Secrets to Success, selling & self-financing on-site new home sales transactions on-site using the lease-option approach.

Another very popular session was Barbara Hames’ ’10 Lessons for LLLCommunity Owners Selling Homes On-site!’ All her handout outlines disappeared before the end of her session. This is a hands-on LLLCommunity operator who’s maximized social media in promoting her family’s new home sales into and outside their LLLCommunities.

The GSE Hour. No surprise here. We all expected, with Michael Price, of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, leading the way, we’d be treated to a Special Hour of insight and discussion relative to his agency and its’ oversight relationship with Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac ‘Government Sponsored Enterprises’. Biggest Takeaway last year = LLLCommunity folk not limited to five or 10 percent ‘park-owned homes’; rather, every deal is evaluated on its’ own merits! Biggest Takeaway this year = GSEs are OK with ‘doing deals’ $1,000,000.00 or less in size! We just need to find local lenders willing to underwrite those loans. Well guess what? Cultivate a good working relationship with your local bank, then ask me who to contact at the GSEs for their added measure of security. This is BIG. Why? Because 85 percent of all LLLCommunities in the U.S. today, need $1,000,000.00 or smaller mortgages for acquisition and refinancing purposes. For example: 100 rental homesites valued at $12,000/site = estimated value of $1,200,000.00 X 75 percent Loan to Value, or LTV limit = a $900,000.00 mortgage.

Steve Lefler and Marie Whittaker of Newport Pacific wowed their packed room of LLLCommunity owners, as they described how near ‘net zero energy use’ HUD-Code homes are being used to rehabilitate older, often functionally obsolete rental homesites in properties throughout California. A real eye-opener, including solar panel shingles by Dow Chemical. Hint. Watch for a near ‘net zero energy usage’ HUD-Code home to be featured on the Tiny House series on TV this Fall!.

Rick Robinson, esquire, general counsel for MHI, was also present – as were Nathan Smith, PHC® and the institute’s latest hire, Mark Bowersox (formerly exec @ IMHA/RVIC). Rick shared his comprehensive legislative briefing with this august audience. Your state should invite him to address your members during 2016! And learn from Rick, how to make ‘your voice heard’ in Washington, DC. I follow his lead all the time!

Ben Rao, of the National Buying Group, described existing programs (Lowe’s, Sherwin Williams, Office Depot, etc.) designed to assist real estate investors in general, COBA7® affiliates in particular, with cost-saving purchases of products and services used in and around LLLCommunities! Ben’s presentation was a ‘tip of the iceberg’ talk, in terms of additional programs on the planning table, to benefit COBA7® affiliates, e.g. big box stores exhibiting new manufactured homes in their parking lot; bulk purchasing of new Community Series Homes from cooperating manufacturers, etc.. So, if not already aboard, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877)MFD-HSNG or 633-4764, to learn details; and use attached brochure to affiliate with COBA7® today!

Well, the list could continue on, but you get the idea. Like, where else in the U.S., are you going to find more first rate information than what you’ve just read – and that’s only a partial list of all that was covered between 9 and 11 September. Plan now to attend the 25th Anniversary International Networking Roundtable next September. Location to be announced, but likely on the East coast. Want to be a presenter, or have a topic(s) you want to see featured? Let me know via the aforementioned Official MHIndustry HOTLINE.

*****

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