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

Blog Posting # 845; Copyright 9 June 2025. 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), routinely paired with traditional stick-built housing (a.k.a. onsite construction). Plus, land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’), comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH. Various types of housing finance (e.g. chattel or ‘home only’ loans and real estate mortgages) describe the post-production segment of MH.

EducateMHC is the official MH historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as perennial MH information source. Contact EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, and www.educatemhc.com to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (This book belongs in every land lease community nationwide!), and SWAN SONG – History of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production level since 1955.

And my autobiography, from SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven, describes personal combat adventures in Vietnam as a USMC lieutenant, a 45 year entrepreneur business career in MH & community ownership, as well as freelance consulting and authoring of 30 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, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, Allen Legacy columnist and editor at large for MHInisder magazine.

Here’s How to Be Remembered by All!

Last week’s s blog posting asked readers, ‘Will You Be Remembered or Forgotten?’ Then I identified dozens of individuals in and around MH and land lease community businesses who, in my opinion, should recollect, write, and self-publish personal and or career memoirs (i.e. short stories) – even their autobiographies, as a record of adventures, experiences, Lessons Learned and more, for family, friends, business acquaintances and interested parties.

Well, I certainly received responses to this suggestion! One friend wrote to another and copied me: “I agree with George, you should write your book, if not for those of us who follow you, but for your sons and their families. My dad and uncle wrote books telling about growing up on the farm, plowing and clearing fields, the games they played, and how they made their money. Hope you think about it.” DR

And this from a California land lease community pioneer. “George, hope all is well with you and your family. Appreciate the recent mention of me in your blog. It’s hard to believe our firm has grown from just me and one employee to more than 400 today. Lots of stories as your suggest.  By the way, a local writer is drafting the story of Lido Peninsula Resort (land lease community).  I’ll send you a copy when completed. The resort was built in 1949; so a lot of history on how a ’26 MHs per acre’ property became one of the most prestigious communities in the U.S.A.”DB

So, where does that leave us? Ready to answer ‘How to Be Remembered by All!

The following advice is culled from two sources. A booklet I penned in 2018 titled ‘Who Will Preserve Your Legacy? Answer: You!’ To date, hundreds of copies have been distributed to RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinees, along with friends in the MH business and land lease community owners/operators. The other source? An Allen Legacy column featured in the May 2023 issue of MHInsider magazine, titled ‘Is It Time to Tell Your Story?’ Something to keep in mind as you read. This is one of those nonfiction stories where the content of End Notes (i.e. footnotes) is often as interesting and informative as the narrative.*1

OK, here goes: ‘Preserving Your Personal or Corporate Legacy’ in six key steps.

1. SET GOALS. Decide, “I’m going to do this!” Then, compile a list of personal and or corporate short story topics you experienced. This list will change and grow throughout the entire writing and editing process! Now, pen one or two of these short stories each month – as hard copy (i.e.  pen on paper or electronically). How to do this? Simply sit down alone, then write or type what comes to mind, not worrying about grammar, spelling, errors, word choices, or even how it flows. It does help to tell one’s stories from a consistent perspective however, whether it be personal, family, corporate or mix of all three.*2 Also, whether to write in the first or second person, but unlikely the third.*3 In any event, these short stories become your memoirs.

Always wait 24 hours before making changes to what you’ve penned! Reread the story slowly, making pen changes along the way, e.g. seek better word choices, correct spelling errors, consider comma placement and grammar. Then retype the story, wait another 24 hours, and edit again. On average, I fine-tune my memoirs five times before compiling theme into an autobiography.

Over time, collect the edited memoirs and put them in some sort of order, sometimes chronological, possibly topical. Doing so will trigger memories of even more events, other short stories, and incidents worth recording and sharing. So, add these new topics to aforementioned list and write about them.

• BE PATIENT. Memoirs can be fun to write, especially when pacing oneself to pen a couple each month. But this also means the overall writing and editing process can take the better part of a year – or longer, to tell one’s stories. This is wise use of your time. Better to avoid rushing, and wishing later, that you’d penned more memoirs.

Again, if memoirs haven’t already been organized chronologically or by topic, do so. But also know that presenting some memoirs ‘out of order’ might enhance the readability of one’s story. In any event, taking any of these actions will likely stimulate the recollection of additional stories, even Lessons Learned along the way.

Hint. At this stage, if not already doing so, make it a point to read other memoirs and autobiographies. Observe writers’ styles, perspectives from which they write, and how easy or difficult their story is to read. Learn from them!

• EDIT WITH A PASSION. If not qualified to do this (e.g. proper grammar, sentence structure, word choice, and more), hire or enlist a trusted, capable, experienced, motivated individual (preferably non-family member) to do this for or with you. Hint. Learn and use basic proofreader marks to make this process easier and more productive.

• DECIDE WHEN ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Do the memoirs cover the desired limited or broad scope of personal and or corporate life for now – or forever? Only you can decide. Hint. One’s autobiography can just as easily be a portion of one’s life, business experience, or much more. Just take one part at a time, if need be, and decide. Update later if desired!

• SEEK ASSISTANCE WITH PRE-PRESS MATTERS. Identify and interview more than one printer/binder, for price, product quality, and service comparison. Ensure they’re experienced with basics and nuances of the self-publishing process. Ask for samples of their past work. Hint. Become familiar with front and back material information and requirements, to legitimize your finished product, e.g. ISBN#, copyright information, and more, are important.*4

• BE PREPAREDTO MARKET YOUR BOOK OR SIMPLY GIVE THEM AWAY.*5 No one but you is going to market and sell your self-published book! Seriously. Traditional publishers won’t be interested if you’re not already much published; and, vanity publishers will publish anything for a price that varies with book quantity and services contracted (e.g. editing, cover design, etc.). Hint. Be sure to send a copy of your book to the RV/MH Hall of Fame library in Elkhart, IN.*6

End Notes.

1. Getting Started On Your Memoir by Shawn Girvan at The Muse Writers Center. Recommends reading one or more memoirs to get a sense of style and form that appeals to you. Read a craft book; for example, On Writing, by Stephen King. Start a journal – to explore how you feel about writing about your experiences and feelings. Take a memoir class online or in person. And decide whether you tend to be a ‘stream of consciousness’ writer or one who outlines material before starting the process. All this means is that if the former, you might need to purposely avoid ‘run on’ sentences; in the latter case, be careful not to abbreviate the story being told.

• ‘Tips for Better Storytelling’ by Stephanie Garibaldi. Recommends ‘opening strong’! You must grab your audience’s attention immediately and hold onto it. This is the ‘hook’, the opening paragraph of any story, memoir, autobiography. Make sure there’s enough of YOU in your story, and be vulnerable when you can. Speak in the present tense, to create immediacy and help build tension; the past tense when describing past events and how they relate to the present and future. Minimize context by providing just enough to understand your story – and not to be buried in descriptive detail. Use dialogue and acting whenever possible, to bring characters to life. Paint the picture by including specifics and sensory details. Find your story’s frame or focus; ensure opening and closing cohesion. Build and develop your scenes; have them unfold in real time.

• 1^st, 2^nd, & 3^rd Person? First person narrative uses pronouns I, me and my to demonstrate the narrator is a character in the story or memoir. Second person uses pronoun ‘you’ to address the reader and bring them into the story. And third person is used by biographers to tell the story; pronouns not always needed.

• Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual. ‘How to Write, Print & Sell Your Own Book’, by Para Publishing Company, CA. Available in most bookstores and online via amazon.com in paperback.

• Joh Kremmer’s 1001 Ways to market Your Book, ‘for authors and publishers’, from Open Horizons in IA. 700 page book available on line via amazon.com in paperback.

• Personal experience authoring my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven. My memoir topics are presented in chronological order; from childhood to college, to romance and starting a family, to service in the U.S. Marines, and then a 40 year business career. I recollected new topics and events, and wrote about them too, even as I was finalizing the manuscript for printing and binding. The entire self-publishing process took a full year; writing, editing, rewriting, preparing front and back material, printing and binding, then finally selling and distributing to friends, family and associates. Along the way I also crafted reference lists of recurring military and trade terms, difficult to spell names and places, even key dates; all to ease the writing process from beginning to end. Hint. Speaking of being careful about vanity publishers; one ‘fresh off a vanity press’ book I reviewed was printed entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS. It was unreadable! The author, while she had a good message, did not ensure – and the printer/binder did not warn her, that the final product would indeed be unreadable. So, be careful.

George Allen