Blog Posting # 782, Copyright 1 March 2024. EducateMHC
Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable & attainable factory-built housing! And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH! And EducateMHC is the online advocate, official historian, trend tracker, and information resource for both business models. Access EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, & visit www.educatemhc.com to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry. This is the sole MH-focused professional property management text in print today! And SWAN SONG is 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 author and freelance consultant.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, is the only 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, MHInsider editor at large & Allen Legacy columnist, Vietnam combat veteran & retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, as well as author/editor of 20 nonfiction books & chapbooks re MH, communities, business management & prayer.
Oop$!
Did you notice? I started a new topic in last week’s blog posting (‘On a Related but Different Matter: $’) but never finished it. Here’s how that paragraph went…
“Previous paragraphs described a whole new type of housing (@400 square feet) apparently intended to compete with HUD-code manufactured housing – by size and cost per unit. However, what was not covered in those same paragraphs was the continuing scarcity of personal property financing (a.k.a. chattel capital) for ‘home only’ mortgages on new manufactured homes sited in land lease communities nationwide.” And here’s how it should have continued….
My unrealized intent was to describe recent efforts of the Land Institute-sponsored Underserved Mortgage Marketing Coalition (‘UMMC’), to advance financing plans among the GSEs relative to underserved markets (i.e. manufactured housing). Well frankly, where the UMMC is concerned, that is not what happened. The following paragraph is one I emailed to dozens of MH industry and land lease community portfolio owners/operators about what I view as a ‘bait & switch’ move by said coalition.
“I found this edition of Land Lines (magazine) to be particularly interesting – up to a point. Impressed to see 32 affordable housing organizations working together to ‘bring housing finance opportunities to American families not traditionally served by the private market’. Appears most of the efforts of the Underserved Mortgage Marketing Coalition are focused on shared equity loans (i.e. those loans used to finance ‘resident-owned community’ transactions) – and nothing that I saw having to do with improving land lease community homeowners/site lessees’ access to chattel capital (i.e. personal property finance). Why is this? HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) are indeed represented within the UMMC by dint of membership by ROC USA and Next Step. And I did find it strange that neither MHI nor MHARR are named as members (of the UMMC). I suspect this has something to do with the primary focus of the group.”
Point? Appears, to me anyway, that affordable housing activists have united under the auspices of the UMMC to garner funds for shared equity CRE transactions, but not (at this point) what would be manufactured home buyers/site lessees really need: ‘home only’ loans in the form of chattel capital or personal property mortgages. So, once again – if I’m reading this right, our industry and realty asset class is left ‘out in the cold’ where Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac are concerned. Someone want to show me if I’ve got this wrong? Do so via gfa7156@aol.com
And there’s more! Manufactured housing, over past decades, has been referred to as the ‘Rodney Dangerfield of housing’ in general, factory-built housing in particular. Well – guess what – there’s now yet another ‘not so new game in town’ – offsite-built homes! Yep; modular & panelized homes.*1 Next week I’ll introduce you to this NAHB interloper.*2
End Note.
- Rodney Dangerfield. American stand-up comedian
- National Association of Home Builders
Review of 1968,
‘A Primer For Understanding Baby Boomers’, by Rick Robinson.
A more apt subtitle, in my opinion, would have been ‘A Primer for Understanding Northern Kentucky Baby Boomers’. Until I read this book I had no idea KY life was so rife with local politics, organized crime, and “…drinking small-batch bourbon and smoking cigars.” P.157.
Most humorous part of 1968, for me anyway, was Rick’s description of comedian Pat Paulsen’s campaign for president as candidate of the Straight-Talking America Government party or STAG party. His slogan? “We’ve upped Our Standards, Now, Up Yours.” Paulsen believed marijuana should be kept away from college students as it was too good for them, and the government should give everyone a gun, but confiscate all the bullets. P.103
Robinson’s description of Vietnam era individuals who “…spent a great deal of time devising ways to avoid service.” P.151, struck a responsive chord with me, my annoyance at healthy individuals who did not serve – resulting in unnecessary battlefield casualties when units fought understrength. And in my later years, silently denigrating those same dodgers when they became family members through marriage and otherwise.
As a history writer I was particularly struck by this quote: “…news stories about success are put into scrapbooks. News stories about bad things make their way into history books.” P.146. So true. Carolyn and I have 40 albums of family photographs stretching back 70 years. And here I sit with my unpublished story: ‘The Bad Boys of Manufactured Housing’, describing bag men, murderers, slum landlords, and other rascals active in manufactured housing and communities.
Did I enjoy 1968 as a casual read? Sure did; once I accepted the fact the scope of the book is restricted to the pivotal year 1968, and geographically specific to Northern Kentucky. This new release joins Rick’s seven political thrillers, two literary fiction tomes, and three other non-fiction titles. I particularly recommend Opposition Research.
By the way, if interested in reading ‘The Bad Boys of Manufactured Housing’, let me know via gfa7156@aol.com and I’ll write it into an upcoming blog posting. GFA
George Allen, CPM, MHM