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

June 4, 2021

OK, THE MYSTERY IS (ALMOST) OVER!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 6:22 am

Blog Posting # 641 @ 4 June 2021: EducateMHC

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’

EducateMHC is the online national advocate, asset class historian, data researcher, education resource & communicatio0n media for all land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and/or affiliate with Educate MHC, 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: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing & land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Attend MHM class!

INTRODUCTION: What will you be doing on Thursday, the 12th of August 2021? Hopefully you’ll be with us in Nashville, TN., participating in the final Networking Roundtable & a Retirement Celebration. Read Part I here following. And some interesting information from the CFPB, gleaned from HMDA research. Part II. And are you one of those Waiting for Distress, where underperforming income-producing properties are concerned? Part III is for you.

I.

OK, THE MYSTERY IS (ALMOST) OVER!

The cover page of last week’s blog posting (#640) announced what will be the FINAL NETWORKING ROUNDTABLE, & a RETIREMENT CELEBRATION. This national manufactured housing and land lease community dual event will occur 12 August 2021 at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Nashville, TN. It will be the 29th and FINAL Networking Roundtable, and a Retirement Celebration to fete roundtable founder and perennial host, George Allen, a.k.a. ‘The Colonel’ – as well as other recent retirees present at this dual event (Cary, Don, Sharon, John, George – are you, and others, paying attention?)

PROGRAM? Still putting details together, but here’s what we do know now. Registration will be during the morning along with vendor booths and opportunities to network and make deals with the who’s who in the MH Industry. Early afternoon, I’ll begin with, as you’ve come to expect, the most comprehensive STATE OF THE MANUFACTURED HOUSING INDUSTRY & LAND LEASE COMMUNITY ASSET CLASS presentation, followed by a ‘fireside chat’ Open Conversation with the audience.

Then we’ll enjoy a KEYNOTE PRESENTATION like nothing you’ve heard and seen in many years! About what? Not telling you yet, but here’s a hint. If all works out as planned, the exciting and timely topic will be the first such major presentation of this sort since the mid to late 1990s!

Here’re a few related points to ponder. 1) Given the planned – timely and trendy focus of the KEYNOTE PRESENTATION; 2) the fact manufactured housing & land lease communities endured a two decades long (years 2000-2020) PARADIGM SHIFT, where new HUD-Code home sales moved from independent (street) MHRetailers onto rental homesites within communities; and 3) our products & services RETIRING from the industry and asset class business scene, this 12 August 2021 final Networking Roundtable will mark the END OF AN ERA and BEGINNING OF OUR NEXT ONE! Do you get my drift? You certainly will by the time this landmark event ends – if you’re present!

What else that day? Superb interpersonal NETWORKING of course, during a cocktail hour and celebratory dinner (Semi formal attire requested). We request all RV/MH Hall of Fame Members, present at the banquet, to wear their bright green RV/MH blazers.

More details to follow. But for the time being, visit www.educatemhc.com and click on the Training & Seminars prompt to learn more and to register.

Hope you sense a major manufactured housing & land lease community event is in the offing!

II.

CFPB SHARES HMDA RESEARCH INFORMATION

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (‘CFPB’) recently published (27 May 2021) a report whose content is based on information collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (‘HMDA’). What follows here is a digest of that information.

“Manufactured housing is a small segment of the overall housing supply, but is one of the most affordable types of housing available to low-income consumers, and makes up 13 percent of the housing stock in small towns and rural America” & “…acquisition costs, however, often come coupled with higher interest rates and limited opportunity to refinance.”

• “…around 42 percent of manufactured home purchase loans are ‘chattel’ loans….” And then there’s this, in my opinion, red herring statement: “Consumers may choose to get chattel loans to avoid putting the underlying land at risk if they default on the loan.” True enough, for the few times when that happens. But nothing is said in this bullet point or the ones to follow, about consumers getting chattel loans for homes sited on rental homesites within land lease communities! It’s a fine point, I know, but ‘telling’ in the omission.

• “Most manufactured home loan applications are denied, and less than 4 percent of chattel originations were for refinances. Homeowners seeking a loan on a site-built home are approved more than 70 percent of the time, but less than 30 percent of manufactured home loan applications are approved.” Now that’s sobering!

• “The top five lenders account for…nearly 75 percent of chattel lending.” The four largest originators are specialty lenders that primarily offer chattel loans to manufactured housing owners. & “Over time…banks have decreased their activity or exited the market altogether.”

• “Hispanic, Black and African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, and elderly borrowers are more likely than other consumers to take out chattel loans….” & “Black and African American borrowers are the only racial group …underrepresented in manufactured housing lending overall, compared to site-built….”

The previous paragraphs were lightly edited to facilitate ease of understanding. GFA

III.

SOME INTERESTING INSIGHTS GLEANED FROM ‘WAITING FOR DISTRESS’

The following quotes are gleaned from a feature article titled ‘Waiting for Distress’, as published in the May 2021 issue of GlobalSt. Real Estate Forum magazine, pp. 35-39

“Stalking horse auctions are a routine part of many Chapter 11 bankruptcies.” What’s a ‘stalking horse’ auction? ‘A false pretense concealing someone’s real intentions.’

“…the pace of distressed assets coming to market has been agonizingly slow for funds that accumulated capital with this goal in mind.” What goal? To acquire distressed retail and hotel assets.

“…the U.S. economy is poised for super-sized growth, and lenders continue, for the most part, to show patience with borrowers.”

“The Global Financial Crisis came about because of poor underwriting and unnecessary risk.” Thinking back to 2007 & 2008.

“Another challenge for distressed investors is the reluctance of many lenders to push properties into foreclosure, coupled with a wave of opportunistic capital targeting troubled borrowers.”

And, as they say, ‘the beat goes on’, prompting one (me) to wonder: ‘When and what will be the fallout among land lease communities acquired and abused by aggressive portfolio builders?” I believe you can push homeowners/site lessees only so far with large inordinate rental homesite $ rate increases, conversion to utility submetering, and new add-ons – all at the same time! In my opinion, the combined rental homesite rent amount and PITI payment on the home proper, taken together, must be 10-20 percent less than either the monthly 3BR2B apartment rent or site-built housing PITI. Why? Simply to remain competitive in the local rental housing market. Think about it.

George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC.com

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