Blog # 436 Copyright @ 5 March 2017; community-investor.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, & ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
This blog posting is the sole national advocate voice, official ombudsman & historian, research report & online communication media for North American LLCommunities.!
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/online media = ‘to
‘Not only inform & opine, but transform & improve MHBusiness model performance!’
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I.
Your Opportunity to Influence Manufactured Housing’s Political & Regulatory Agendas in 2017!
When was the ‘last time anyone’ around Washington, DC., ‘asked for your input’, relative to legislation & regulations ‘to affect & or already affecting’ manufactured housing & land lease communities business models nationwide? Did I just hear you say, “Never!” ? Well, read on, to learn HERE, how to ensure your views & opinions will become known where they will count most!
Subsequent to FHFA’s*1 three recent Listening Sessions, and following MHI’s Winter meeting in San Antonio, TX., COBA7 began receiving letters and emails from businessmen and women from across the U.S., expressing a mix of optimism and frustration. Optimism, in anticipation of a new, presumably business-friendly Trump administration in Washington, DC., but frustration over being ‘taken for granted’ by national advocates for the industry and asset class, when it comes to issues of import, to HUD-Code home manufacturers, financiers, LLCommunity owners/operators, and other post-production segments of the MHIndustry.
So, we began collecting these ‘issues of note’, and will introduce them in next week’s blog posting (#437). That gives YOU just enough time to ponder, then articulate your thoughts on one or more such matters, and let us know, then we can either add them to ‘the list’, or merge your insights in with those already expressed.
Do so via gfa7156@aol.com or phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.
And remember; I outline blog content on Wednesday, pen it Thursday, edit on Friday, and send to COBA7 affiliates Saturday morning; everyone else, Sunday morning.
FYI: To date, we’ve heard and listed six major issues on this list cum agenda.
What’s next? We have ‘quiet friends’ within MHI & MHARR who’ve requested YOUR INPUT about matters that should be/must be addressed during the weeks and months ahead. It may well be, this list you help formulate, is the first such grassroots effort to profoundly influence national advocates doing our bidding in and around the nation’s capitol.
What are they going to do? Ignore written input from members and constituents, at the risk of losing ground and influence as national advocates? I don’t think so. There’s precious little ‘trade press’ anymore, so everyone pays close attention to the quality journalism that remains, faithfully communicating what’s happening throughout manufactured housing!
Do you want to fumble this unique, ‘first time ever’ opportunity? Didn’t think so. Get busy now, articulating your thoughts. Get them off to us by Wednesday of this week, 6 March 2017.
End Note.
1. Federal Housing Finance Agency, oversight of GSEs Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac
II.
Caught ‘Between a Rock & a Hard Place!
An Idiom: ‘In difficulty, faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options!
The Difficulty?
Industry Identities.
1) Torn between decades-long, direct, dues-paying membership and camaraderie in the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), BUT dismayed with mixed feelings as a non-manufacturer outsider, with no influence whatsoever in institute policies & proceedings.
And,
2) Since early 2014, leading the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, a division of GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing (Awaiting not-for-profit status). Happily; the research, resources, communication, networking, deal-making, & property management training/certification source for 55,000+/- land lease communities nationwide, BUT disturbed at the lack of tangible support, even affiliation, by ‘national advocates’, relative COBA7 and other segments of the post-production manufactured housing business community!
Choices Going Forward?
Between a Rock
Continue ‘second class member’ status with MHI, to stay informed about industry matters. Frankly, other than the institute’s national lobbying, in behalf of manufactured housing; and to a lesser extent, land lease communities, there are no tangible products or services coming our corporate way with any regularity.
‘Second class member’? Sure; here’s one example: I’m a four decades land lease community owner/operator; the manufactured housing industry’s most prolific author (10 books); writer (two monthly newsletters & a weekly blog posting); an, member of the RV/MH Hall of Fame, BUT have yet to be invited to address MHI peers on any topic, other than an occasional MHCongress lecture. You can’t be more ‘second class’ than that!
and a Hard Place
Deciding whether to follow, in trace of, the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’); which, after separating from MHI in 1985, at the behest of regional HUD-Code home manufacturers, went its own way as national advocate and anti-regulatory measures lobbyist for manufactured housing. NOW (perhaps), is time for land lease community owners/operators, large & small, to become masters of their destinies as well – taking their floor dues $ with them, no longer subservient to an MHI division dominated by the largest of property portfolio ‘players’, who control meeting agendas and outlaw proxy voting during annual elections of officers.
Is There a Middle Ground Between ‘a rock & a hard place’?
I used to think so, as one of the founders of the National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, in 1993 & 1996.*1 But not anymore – unless something significant changes greatly and soon.*2
Maybe more, about being ‘caught between ‘a rock & hard place’, in next blog posting.
In the meantime. Your input on this subject? Send it quickly to gfa7156@aol.com, phone (317) 346-7156, or correspond via GFA c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247.
End Notes.
1. Read Bruce Savage’s The First 20 Years!, PMN Publishing, Indianapolis, 2013.
2. For a list of specific grievances to this end, request same in writing, via GFA c/o Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247.
III.
All You’ve Wanted to Know, Good & Bad, About Today’s Secular Media, But Didn’t Know Who to Ask
“The news is a relentless 24/7 battle to grab eyeballs and achieve total domination.”
The above & following information is quoted from ‘The News in Crisis’, featured in March 2017 issue of WIRED magazine.
“The New York Times has the greatest combined print and web audience, with 5.4 million readers, followed by USA Today (3.8 billion) and The Washington Post (3.4 billion).”
It really does make for a fascinating ‘read’, if you’re any kind of news junkie. Some is old hat (“…the news media seems to have lost its power to shape public opinion.”), some is nouveaux a la mode since the presidential election (“Politicians no longer need to rely on journalists to reach their audiences but instead can speak to voters directly on Twitter”), and some, well, shocking-but-true (“…the ability to reach a national audience now belongs to everyone (&) the more partisan and enraged someone is, the more likely they are to share political news online.”). See what I mean?
Even teaches how to become an anonymous source, via the web & using a burner phone.
In the latter case, “Buy a burner – a cheap, prepaid Android phone – with cash from a nonchain store in an area you’ve never been to before. Don’t carry your regular phone and the burner at the same time, and never turn on the burner at home or work. Create a Gmail and Google Play account from the burner, then install the encrypted calling and texting app Signal. When you’re done, destroy the burner and ditch its’ copse far from home.” Now you know….
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