Blog Posting # 765, Copyright 27 October 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 is the online advocate, historian, trend tracker, and text resource for these two business models! To input this blog or connect with EduateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815, email: gfa7156@aol.com, or visit www.eduatemhc.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 combat adventures in Vietnam, and a 45 year business career in MH and community ownership/management & consulting.
George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, only Emeritus member of Manufactured Housing Institute (‘MHI’), an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, retired lieutenant colonel of U.S> Marines, & author/editor of 20 books re MH, communities, business & management wisdom, & prayer.
‘Rental Trailer Trashed by Tenant’
Gathering ‘storm clouds’ potentially affect the manufactured housing industry and land lease communities nationwide! Lest you think I’ve been exaggerating during the past few weeks of weekly blog postings, here’s the latest example of how we’re collectively ‘shooting ourselves in the foot’, where treatment of homeowners/site lessees and renters of manufactured homes is concerned. Following is quoted from ‘The New York Times Magazine’ on 22 October, in an article titled Homespun, by Michael Friedrich:
“It’s no surprise that social media brims over with videos from real estate influencers. …some of the most broadly despised people in the country are logging on to boast about the most ruthless and loathsome things they do….a landlord exhibits the ‘nightmare’ of a rental trailer trashed by tenants, explaining that rents are so high ‘because of people like this.’ “ pp. 8&9.
So, is it any wonder our industry and realty asset class is beset by national groups of tenant activists, and (so far, one) a Class Action Complaint? I don’t think so – at all. I subscribe to every industry trade publication and receive a plethora of state MH association newsletters (i.e. mostly at the behest of their members). So far, not in one have I seen any mention of discussion and action, by national trade advocacy organizations, relative to aforementioned (and the other) gathering storm clouds.
This is why I’ve floated the idea, in two previous weekly blog postings, of planning and hosting a half day Manufactured Housing Caucus the morning of 18 January 2023 during the annual Louisville (‘KY’) MHShow – either at the venue proper or in a nearby hotel meeting room. So far, I’ve heard from more than a dozen (now approaching two dozen) businessmen and women in support of the idea and assuring me of their in person participation.
What are your feelings and opinions on this important and timely matter? Should be Caucus or not? Let me know ASAP via gfa7156@aolc.om I’ve committed to ‘make up my mind’ to plan and host – or not, this MH Caucus, no later than 30 October 2023 – just days after we post this week’s blog.
FYI. Such a national meeting is not without precedent. Here’s a list of previous such gatherings:
31 August 1993. 19 land lease community owners/operators convened in Indianapolis, IN., to form an Industry Steering Committee (‘ISC’), precursor to MHI’s National Communities Council division (‘NCC’) which was launched on 1 January 1969, with Jim Ayotte at the helm. Why? Because community portfolios were preparing to ‘go public’ as REITs, and there was no national advocacy, to speak of, for the unique, income-producing property type. Challenge resolved!
27 February 2008. 100 land lease community owners/operators convened at Fountainview Community in Tampa FL., to address the precipitous decline in HUD-Code housing shipments (Hit bottom in 2009 with only 48,789+/- units produced!). Result? Five action areas.*1 This gathering served to ‘get the ball rolling’, so that a year later on…
27 February 2009. A year later, again, 100+/- land lease community owners/operators, plus HUD-Code housing manufacturers, convened at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., to plan an industry turnaround! This date marked the debut of the Community Series Home (‘CSH’) and realization that communities would have to market, sell & finance their new homes.*2 Within five years, the percentage of new HUD-Code homes sold directly into communities jumped from around 15 percent to 40+/- percent. Again, challenge resolved!
2010 saw two significant happenings: Randy Rowe’s Think GreenCourte Partners founder) keynote address at the Networking Roundtable: Five Park Market Share Recovery Plan (also documented in SWAN SONG), and the birth of SECO (Originally, Southeast Community Owners summit), designed for small to mid-size community owners/operators nationwide. These were continuing efforts by land lease community owners/operators to seize control of their own destiny.
2014. This year, the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance (‘COBA’) was launched informally at Saddlebrook Farms in Grayslake, IL Formed to ensure ongoing statistical research, communication among communities, networking opportunities, and professional property management training and certification. However, COBA did not continue beyond my retirement in 2021. Who knows? This ‘disconnect’ might be an agenda topic at the Caucus on 18 January.
So, once again, if you care about the future of manufactured housing and land lease communities, consider being present at a half day caucus on 18 January 2024 in Louisville, KY. – whether hosted by one or both national trade advocacy groups, or yours truly. Again, let me know what you think via gfa7156@aol.com
End Note.
- For a detailed list of these five strategies & action areas, read SWAN SONG; available for purchase via www.educatemhc.com
- The Community Series Home moniker did not materialize until more than six months later, at the annual Networking Roundtable, when consultant Don Westphal suggested the new trade term. And the rest is history!
The 1995 MH Terminology Pledge
28 years ago, when annual new HUD-Code housing production was at 339,601+/- units, the publication of the first manufactured home community land development tome (‘a large book’) in 20 years was effected by New York publisher J. Wiley & Sons. One of the unique features of the case bound book was the introduction of new and updated trade terms for the industry and realty asset class. As the ‘Decade (1995 – 2005) of the Manufactured Home Community’ kicked off that year, everyone was encouraged to ‘Take the Pledge to Use Correct Manufactured Housing Industry Terminology!’ going forward.
Here’s a list of those terms:
- Manufactured home community. (This term would be updated to land lease community round-about year 2011)
- Resident & resident relations (Supplanted talk of tenants & tenant relations; after all, these are ‘homeowners/site lessees’ on rental homesites in communities)
- Guidelines for Living was intended to replace ‘Rules & Regulations; and in many locales it did.
- Homesite or rental site was intended to replace stall, lot, pad, sites.
- Leasing or sales consultant was a new HR position on-site in many communities, and generally replaced ‘dealer’ as the default description of anyone selling homes.
- Information Center replaced loose use of office in trade vernacular
- Resident or community manager replaced caretaker and landlord
- Retailer & Retail or Resale Sales Center. Again, an effort to supplant ‘dealer’ lingo; and a few years later, consultant William Carr suggested ‘independent (street) MHRetailer’ as a better catchall term.
- Singlesection & multisection descriptions were intended to replace ‘singlewide’ & ‘doublewide’ terminology
- Transporter was the new term for ‘toter’.
So, how did all this work out? Actually, pretty well. Sure, even today we have individuals, both within and outside the industry who naively continues to use terms like ‘mobile home’, ‘mobile home Park’, lots & pads, ‘dealer’, and more….But for the most part, trade literature takes the higher road and uses the terms listed here.
George Allen