2019; Copyright 2019; www.educatemhc.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
This blog is sole online national advocate, official ombudsman, asset class historian, research reporter, PM education resource & communication media for all land lease communities!
To input this blog &/or affiliate with EducateMHC, telephone Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. Also email: gfa7156@aol.com & visit www.educatemhc.com
Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U! Goal: Promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. source of affordable obtainable housing! Next MHM class @ 9/11
INITRODUCTION: Two key and timely parts to this week’s blog posting. One describes a dozen opportunities for YOU to improve job skills, engage in interpersonal networking, and ensure your voice and opinions are made known to industry and realty asset class’ salaried and elected leaders of all three national advocacy entities! AND, don’t for a minute, think the ‘private equity consolidation/profiteering storm’ has passed. It hasn’t. In fact, where land lease communities are concerned, the whole sorry affair now runs the risk of becoming a national debate issue during the upcoming presidential campaign. Be sure to read Part II following – and take action!
I.
A MHIndustry & LLCommunity Potpourri of Opportunities
No particularly hot issue(s) taking place this last week of July & first of August. So, how ‘bout a potpourri of matters and opportunities on immediate and interim horizons. No busy businessperson is going to be able to avail themselves of all that follows here, just be aware of events and circumstances potentially influencing one’s workaday world. Here goes:
• the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! business newsletter distributed this week! Contains the sole published summary of ‘State of Nation’s Housing Report’ per JCHS at Harvard University; correspondence with Drs. Carson at HUD & Calabria at FHFA; and, update re New Type (HUD-Code) housing per MHI versus MHARR. To subscribe: www.educatemhc.com
• RV/MH Hall of Fame on Monday, 5 August, in Elkhart, IN. During day, meet with Spencer Roane, MHM & me at the Hilton Garden Inn, or board room or library at the museum. Banquet that eve. Tickets: (574) 293-2344. Daytime meeting details: (317) 346-7156
• ‘Using AMI to quantify local housing market housing affordability; & AGI, with Housing Expense Factor (‘HEF’), to calculate ‘risky’ & ‘affordable housing’ price points’ at Wisconsin Housing Alliance on 14 August. To participate, phone (608) 255-3131
• As you know, MHI has begun its’ search for a new salaried executive director, as Richard Jennison retires at the end of this year. And HUD continues to limp along without a non-career leader for its’ manufactured housing program. I’ve taken myself out of consideration both places, but am collecting names to submit. You? Gfa7156@aol.com
• New edition of MHInsider magazine to be distributed this week and next. You in line to receive a copy? If so, be sure to read the Allen Legacy column near the back of the publication. If not, reach out to Darren Krolewsky to subscribe: Darren@mhvillage.com
• MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division to hold its’ ‘first ever’ Western Summit in Phoenix, AZ., 14-16 August. For info, phone (703) 558-0400. And visit National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners: (480) 96-2446
• Almost finished a new (4th edition) of Chapbook of Business & Management Wisdom, ‘What I Know Now I Wish I’d Known 50 Years Ago!’ Want a copy? (317) 346-7156
• 28th Networking Roundtable, 8-10 September, at The Alexander Hotel in Indianapolis. Last week’s blog posting listed most of this year’s presenters. Why don’t other national venues do likewise? Anyway, still room for more registrants: www.educatemhc.com
• And yet another one day Manufactured Housing Manager professional property management training/certification class! This one 11 September following the Networking Roundtable. Nearly 1,500 MHMs managing today! www.educatemhc.com
• MHI’s annual meeting will occur 22-24 September in Savannah, GA. This is MHI’s most important meeting all year; and in my opinion, is often ‘management by committee’ at its’ worst, but at least there’re opportunities to air one’s news & views. (703) 558-0400
• SECO conference 2019 in Atlanta. Similar to Networking Roundtable, and unlike every other national MH venue! It’s is a large homegrown annual event facilitated ‘by & for’ land lease community owners/operators in the Southeast! spencer@roane.com
• Another Manufactured Housing Manager professional property management training/certification class! This one, 11 October following SECO Conference in GA. Text? Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry. www.educatemhc.com
• Speaking of the Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry text, this 8th edition of Mobile Home Park Management (1988), is now 202 pages, and belongs in every land lease community in the U.S. and Canada! www.educatemhc.com
• MHI’s NCC division’s Fall Leadership Forum, 13-15 November in downtown Chicago, IL. (703) 558-0400
• National Housing Conference in Washington, DC, 3 & 4 December. NHC expressing interest in ‘things manufactured housing’, including land lease communities. Core group of MHIndustry businessmen and women participate in NHC events. (202) 466-2121
• MHI’s Winter Meeting, 16-18 February 2020 in Nashville, TN. (703) 558-=0400
• Next book update by EducateMHC? J. Wiley & Sons’ How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community. Published in 1996, the case bound ‘bible of LLCommunity investment’ is long out of print but still sought! www.educatemhc.com
II.
‘Legalized Looting: Mobile Home Rent Increases Require Wall Street Reforms’
So reads the headline from U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s guest opinion piece dated 26 July 2019. Here’s what she goes on to say…
“The greed of Wall Street and private equity firms…affects more than just mobile home residents….Thousands of workers have been laid off from jobs at retailers, after private equity firms took over, drained their assets, slashed their jobs, and left them bankrupt.”
“Let’s call their actions what they are: legalized looting to make a handful of Wall Street managers rich while costing thousands of people their homes and jobs, bankrupting viable businesses and damaging communities across the country.”
“That’s why I’ve announced a new plan to rein in Wall Street firms engaged in unproductive and predatory behavior. Under my plan, private equity firms…won’t be able to buy companies, goose short-term profits by jacking up prices, and then walk away rich even if the company goes bankrupt. Instead, these firms would be required to align their interests with the long-term sustainability of the companies they buy – and the people those companies affect.”
Senator Warren concludes: “We need bold action if we’re going to deal with the excesses of private equity firms and their attack on American families.”
OK, so what’s the manufactured housing industry and land lease community real estate asset class to do? Here’s one possible, sequential course of action:
• Identify predatory private equity firms of which Senator Warren speaks. (Actually, that’s been done. There’s more than a dozen acquiring land lease communities today).
• Invite these private equity firms to attend upcoming industry forums (e.g. MHI’s NCC Western Summit in mid-August in AZ; Networking Roundtable in early September in IN; MHI’s annual meeting in late September in GA; and, annual SECO Conference in mid-October, also in GA).
• During said meetings, set aside time for open discussion of this volatile matter. If we don’t do so, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves if/when onerous business- restricting national regulation of land lease communities comes our way!
Lest you think I jest. Remember this: 50 years ago, federal legislators offered the mobile home industry an opportunity to police itself, where ensuring housing product quality was concerned. We did not do so! Result? 1974 passage of the infamous HUD-Code by which we live and work today. Yes, to some extent, the manufactured housing industry turned this ‘legislative lemon’ into ‘lemonade’, benefitting from federal preemption of our factory-built housing product relative to state and local building codes. But are we willing to risk the future of our unique, income-producing property type this time around? Methinks not – and I trust YOU feel the same way. SO, contact our three national MH advocacy entities and tell them YOU want them to be a key part of the Solution to this trending challenge, not part of the continuing problem!
Me? I’ve already invited these land lease community portfolio owners/operators to the upcoming 28th Networking Roundtable, 8-10 September, at The Alexander Hotel, in Indianapolis, IN. Will they come? Some have already registered. How ‘bout you? For information, go to www.educatemhc.com
What might happen if above course of action does not materialize? Some reading these paragraphs will recall two National State of the Asset Class caucuses, 2/28/2008 in FL & 2/28/2009 in IN, when, in the first instance, and under the leadership of Randy Rowe, community owners agreed to Five Strategies & Action Areas ensuring continuing business viability. A year later, another hundred community owners and HUD-Code manufacturers convened to create the Community Series Home, stimulating new housing placement on rental homesites! Both venues = positive results! Point? Come November, and if no progress relative to this troubling matter, it’ll be time for a third National State of the Asset Class caucus. Have questions or comments to this end? Let me know via gfa7156@aol.com
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George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC