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

May 15, 2023

NOT EXACTLY WRITER’S BLOCK

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 6:10 am

Blog Posting # 741, Copyright 15 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 EducateMHC, 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 MHI, RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, and author/editor of 18 non-fiction texts.

NOT EXACTLY WRITER’S BLOCK

741 weekly blog postings stretching back more than 14 years, and nary an instance where I didn’t have something newsworthy, interesting, controversial, or praise-worthy to write about. But this past week manufactured housing and land lease community ‘new news’ was hard to come by, both on the local and national scenes. So, here’s a quick ‘broad brush’ list of subjects I’m working on for here and in my Allen Legacy column in ‘MHInsider’ magazine.

Did you know? The average U.S. ‘asking rent’ for conventional apartment communities remained the same for a second consecutive month in February? It was $1,702/month. Know what that means? That applying the traditional Rule of 3, for land lease communities in any local housing market, average national site rent rate comes in around $567.00/month – assuming ancillary charges are handled alike in both income-producing property types.

Did you know? Come August 2023, it’ll have been two years since the final (of 31) annual Networking Roundtable was held in Nashville, TN. And you likely know there have been a couple short-lived efforts to launch a successor to this popular annual event for land lease community owners/operators nationwide. So far, the only viable alternative – and it’ll be 11 years old this year (10-13 September in Atlanta, GA), has been the growing SECO Conference. And just this past week, many of us received an email announcement from the Information Management Network (‘IMN’) in New York City, announcing their inaugural Manufactured Housing Forum, 28 & 29 September 2023 in Nashville, TN. Unfortunately, IMN is under the impression MH is experiencing ‘significant growth in recent years’. As you know, that’s not the case – and I’ve since advised IMN’s event coordinator of the true situation, and suggested they keynote this event with executives from the ‘Big – 3 C’ HUD-Code housing manufacturers. Suggested to her the topic might/should be: Marketing HUD-Code Manufactured Housing Brands to the National Home buying Market!

Do you read my Allen Legacy column in ‘MHInsider’ magazine? You should, and here’s why. Editorial guidance has me researching and penning this column with a dual focus in mind: what’s going on in and around the industry and realty asset class – with an historical perspective where/when possible. And it’s been fun balancing those two assignments. Here’s the most recent column, along with titles and information on the ones being written:

  • Manufactured Housing Finance, a 70 Year Retrospective. This is in the March/April issue and, in my opinion, should be required reading by everyone in the manufactured housing industry. You know, history does repeat itself – especially in our industry.
  • Dates, Groups & Books Narrate MH History.  Did you know the Urban Land Institute (‘ULI’) sponsored a MH ‘think tank’? Or that the professional property management text marketed by EducateMHC, first published in 1988, is in its’ 8th edition?
  • Is It Time to Tell Your Story? Visited this topic five years ago in the very first issue of the magazine. Being retold here, with addition of several autobiographies and more detailed guidelines for penning your memoirs and later autobiography.
  • Vietnam Veterans in Manufactured Housing. In recognition of year 2023 commemorating the 50th year since the end of that conflict, this column will profile many of the veterans who served in and during that period of time.

And here are a couple topics I’m continuing to research, to maybe pen later this year. ‘Sole Proprietor Land Lease Communities Soon Extinct?’ & ‘Eccentrics We Have Known Over the Years’.

If you’re not already a subscriber to MHInsider magazine, simply google the title and effect contact.

OUR UBIQUITOUS NATIONAL ANTHEM

Just before my great grandson Hunter’s final home lacrosse game as a high school student, I stood in anticipation of the playing of our national anthem. Llooked down to my left, and there, standing next to me, was our two year old great granddaughter Emerson (‘Emmie’), Hunter’s youngest sister. As I brought my right hand up to my forehead in a military salute, she did the same. And our daughter Susan, Emmie’s grandmother, standing behind us, snapped a phone photo of the two of us. As the anthem began, with the two of us saluting side by side, tears rolled down my cheeks.

Why? First, the playing and singing of the national anthem always evokes this emotional reaction, taking me back nearly 60 years to when, as a young Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, I experienced up close and profoundly, what it means to defend our nation and all it stands for – then and now. And now there’s this poignant and loving imitation of her great grandfather, by an innocent two year old, showing like respect for our flag and nation – one generation to the next!

The feeling of pride and encouragement I experienced during that tender moment was akin to similar feelings I realized when watching our grandson Travis (Emmie’s uncle) graduate from USMC boot camp in San Diego a few years ago. I thought at the time, ‘Yes, our nation is indeed in the good hands of this next generation.’

George Allen

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