Blog Posting # 807; Copyright 23 August 2024. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable factory-built housing (a.k.a. one type of offsite construction). And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH! EducateMHC is the online advocate, official historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as information resource for both business models, and to a lesser extent the recreational vehicle (‘RV’) industry. Access EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, and via www.educatemhc.com to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry, 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 45 year entrepreneur business career in MH & community ownership, as well as prolific nonfiction author and freelance consultant.
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, and MHInsider magazine’s ‘Allen Legacy’ columnist and editor at large. He’s a Vietnam combat veteran and retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, and author/editor of 30 books & chapbooks on MH, communities, business management, prayer & figures of speech.
Is This on the NCC Division Agenda?
Recent ‘Concord Monitor’ (newspaper) headline: ‘It’s Borderline Criminal’ – ‘Manufactured housing was an affordable homeownership option. Now, Investor-owned parks are pricing residents out’ This is such a sad story, one that casts our land lease community real estate asset class in the most negative light, for consumers and prospective homebuyers/site lessees alike!
Read the story yourself at https://www.concordmonitor.com/Belmont-manufactured-housing-park-rent-increases-56287780
What you just read has been frequently-shared email fare among, as one portfolio owner/operator describes them, ‘community owners who provide a strong value proposition for homeowners’, and who are offended by ‘people who take advantage of the land and homeownership structure characteristic of this land use’. MHI was alerted to this travesty (on 11 August), in the hope of seeing this serious matter placed on the agenda of the National Communities Council at MHI’s upcoming annual meeting, with an eye to resolute corrective action!
Will this happen? On one hand, I sure hope so. However, given the council’s characteristic quietude on controversial matters to date, I doubt we’ll hear/read much of anything from that quarter. No, it appears someone else, somewhere along the history line of land lease community advocacy will have to step forward and take appropriate action. Might that be the rapidly growing influencer, the national SECO Conference for small to mid-sized community owners/operators? Next one is scheduled for 16-19 September in Atlanta, GA. Or, as I’ve heard of late, via the industry’s scuttlebutt (‘rumors’), other parties are studying the pre-history (i.e. 1993-1996) of the NCC, as described in the late Bruce Savage’s book, ‘The First 20 Years’ – available for purchase via www.educatemhc.com Do not be complacent! As a realty asset class, thanks to greedy predatory landlords new to land lease communities, we are on the dangerous cusp of increased site rent regulation at multiple levels via landlord-tenant legislation. Your thoughts on this timely matter? Reach me best via gfa7156@aol.com
You Too Can Attend a Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (‘MHCC’) Meeting!
That’s right, this MHCC Meeting will occur on 11-12 September, in Elkhart, IN., to discuss proposed updates to the HUD-Code. To make comments at this meeting, register on or before Wednesday, September 4, 2024, by contacting Home Innovation Research Labs: Attention, Kevin Kauffman at 400 Prince Georges Blvd., Upper Marlboro, MD. 20774, or email him via mhcc@homeinnovation.com, or phone (888) 602-4663. Written comments encouraged. There will also be an opportunity for public comment ono specific matters before the MHCC.
Have you attended a previous MHCC meeting? I have, during the Louisville MHShow ‘years ago’. And it was a worthwhile educational experience from start to finish. I may attend this one.
George Allen