Blog Posting # 742, Copyright 18 May 2023. EducateMHC
Parallel Perspectives. HUD-Code manufactured housing is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable factory-built housing! And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the investment real estate component of manufactured housing! EducateMHC alone is the online advocate, historian, trend tracker, and text resource for these two business models! To input this blog or connect with EduateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com; or visit www.educatemhc.com, to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry. This is the sole professional community management text in print today! And, SWAN SONG is a history of land lease communities, and official record of annual MH production totals since 1955; and my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven – describes my combat adventures in Vietnam and 40+ years business career in MH and communities.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, and author/editor of 18 non-fiction texts.
Homeowners/site lessees Protest
In Montana, a major land lease community portfolio owner/operator recently won approval to develop nearly 300 new rental homesites in a city in that state. Who do you think spoke out against this proposal, and why? Homeowners/site lessees already living in the petitioning firm’s properties, fearing high rents for new move-ins! In my opinion, while the developer won this battle, the fact that homeowners/site lessees are now speaking out against land lease community owners/operators with reputations for apparently abusing residents, is not only an historic ‘first’ but a ‘telling’, albeit negative, happenstance for the realty asset class at large.
Another indicator that consumer sentiment has shifted from relative neutrality, where rental homesite rates are concerned, is the recent quip in a national online trade newsletter suggesting a major land lease community portfolio owner/operator’s nickname has morphed from ‘grave dancer’ to ‘grandma gouger’. This is not the sort of publicity our unique income-property type needs at this time; which, in my mind, begs the question: ‘What is MHI’s National Communities Council division doing to ameliorate such matters these days? After all, they claim to represent community owners/operators nationwide. I’ve heard nothing to this end. Anyone else? If so, let me know via gfa7156@aol.com
SIX RIGHT ‘Ps’ OF MARKETING NEW HOMES INTO COMMUNITIES
First articulated in 2017, the ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’ debuted as an integral part of ‘Four Steps to Selling & Financing New Homes On-site Within Land Lease communities’, i.e. Getting Ready, Buying Homes, Selling Homes, & Financing Homes. (If you’d like a FREE 3”X5” plastic wallet card containing the four steps and Six Right Ps, simply email gfa7156@aol.com and request it. Be sure, however, to include a postal mailing address with the request.
So, what are the Six Right Ps for Marketing New MHs into land lease communities? As follows:
Right Product: brand, model, home size & configuration, appearance, floor plan, features & amenities, e.g. Community Series Homes with durability enhancing features and a WOW factor!
Right Place or location within the property, and how oriented relative to the sun and wind, and with good drainage.
Right Price per type deal customer’s Annual Gross Income or AGI; local housing market’s Annual Median Income or AMI; & 30% Housing Expense Factor, & workable rental homesite rate.*1
Right Promotion per USPS (Unique Selling Proposition), e.g. Energy Star & front porch-loaded; using print & online advertising; signage off and on-site; and resident referrals.
Right People, based on anticipated sales volume and # of vacant rental sites to fill; then, capable, experienced, motivated, as well as trained/supervised sales & leasing professionals.
Right Process includes planning and procedures to ID and meet shelter needs/wants of the target audience and mix in a specific local housing market, usually defined by postal zip code.
End Note.
- All these factors involve use of the Traditional 3:1 Rent Rule, where site rent is usually 1/3rd that charged for a 3BR2B conventional apartment unit; and the ‘Ah Ha! & Uh Oh! Worksheet’ to calculate ‘affordable’ & ‘risky’ home loan and purchase amounts in any local housing market. This too available FREE for the asking, via gfa7156@aol.com
Infamous Quote of the Week
‘Gorsuch isn’t fit to serve (on the Supreme Court) because he uses law and not emotions.” Kamala Harris