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

Blog Posting # 687. Copyright @ 30 April 2022. 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, realty asset class historian, trend spotter, education resource & textbook supplier for land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com and or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

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INTRODUCTION: A primary consequence of not responding to the ‘Put Up or Shut Up!’ challenge of the past two weeks of blog postings? We will likely remain known as the ‘10% Housing Market Share Industry’. Seriously. While 105,772 new HUD-Code homes shipped during 2021 is a notable achievement – it’s still only 10% of the national housing market! Read Part I here following to learn how to increase this to maybe 20% or more market share.
Part II, frankly, is just plain sobering! And Part III should be a wake-up call to our industry.

I.

WE ARE THE 10% MARKET SHARE FOLK!

Yes, our 105,772 new HUD-Code housing units shipped during year 2021 calculates to approximately 10 percent of the national housing market share of single family residential houses started during that time period.

Here’re two ways to look at those numbers. One source announces 1,040,000 single family housing starts, of all types, during year 2021. Ten percent of that market is 104,000 – only 1,772 fewer than HUD-Code manufactured housing’s 105,772 units shipped.*1 Taking this a step further, 10 percent of the average of all four separately-published U.S. housing start totals (i.e. 1,040,000; 1,215,000; 1,238,000; & 1,087,000) = 114,500; still only 8,728 units more than the HUD manufactured housing shipment total for the year.

Point? Year after year it seems, we – as an industry – are stuck (Some say ‘satisfied’) with a measly 10% of national single family housing starts market share. But has that always been the case? No! Way back in 1973, the 579,940+/- new ‘mobile homes’ we shipped (i.e. HUD-manufactured housing code was legislated in 1974 & enacted in 1976) was a whopping 44 percent of national housing market share! And in 1998, the peak of our too sort renascence, the 372,943+/- new manufactured homes we shipped, pegged us at 23 percent of national housing market share! And frankly, there’ve been other similar ‘high points’, during years when national housing starts fell off sharply for various reasons.

OK, assuming manufactured housing ‘powers that be’ want to routinely achieve higher (e.g. 25%+) national market share (Again, some question whether such motivation is real and ready – or not), how might they achieve such a goal?

Well, one of the many responses received to two weeks of ‘Put Up or Shut Up!’ blog postings, suggested a couple common sense, practical measures, and here they are:

The independent (street) MHRetailers and ‘company stores’ should/must reposition themselves to attract and service traditional real estate homebuyers! To do so, they’ll need to become licensed real estate brokers and licensed general building contractors. Frankly, we attempted this during the late 1990s (a.k.a. land-home packages) but failed. Why? In part, because ‘dealers’ did not retrain and become licensed as suggested here. This is a whole new mindset and far more intense than simply selling and delivering (i.e. our DOR, or ‘Drop & Run’ delivery rep) new manufactured homes!

Furthermore, there absolutely must be more raw land development into land lease communities and subdivisions than has been the case anytime during the past 50 years! MHI is headed in the right direction with their efforts to identify and end local regulatory barriers to all forms of affordable housing, ameliorating local housing markets to receptivity of manufactured housing.

But I see significant challenges to the measures put forth in the previous two paragraphs.

• Unless there is already an independent (street) MHRetailers or ‘company stores’ already fully licensed and operating successfully with traditional real estate homebuyers – and willing to share said knowledge and experience with peers; we as an industry, are in the position of having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ to this end. This will not be a simple task.

• Given recent retirements, just who does the manufactured housing industry have on hand now to handle design and engineering of various raw land development projects nationwide? After all, it appears old mobile home parks are disappearing faster than new land lease communities are being developed. That is a sure path to oblivion, if not addressed soon.

• ‘Development, Marketing & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities’ text was published by J. Wiley & Sons in 1992 – a best seller at the time, but now out of print. The three co-authors are retired or deceased. We, as an industry and realty asset class, are in dire need of up to date HOW TO instructions.

• And last, but certainly not least of these concerns, remains the paucity of chattel capital (i.e. home-only loans) available to independent (street) MHRetailers, ‘company stores’, and community owners/operators marketing and selling new HUD-Code homes on-site within land lease communities. At least the sorry matter is being talked about in Washington circles these days, and elsewhere, but the handicap continues to exist.

In closing, it’s been interesting to me how the blog challenge of ‘Put up or Shut Up!’ has stimulated the discussion presented here today. Why interesting? Because, in my mind, it appears we have a classic ‘chicken or egg’ first conundrum. Do we just forge ahead to ‘break free of the 10% market share’ shackle, or do we first stop and decide whether the need is real, serious and timely enough to create a new POST-PRODUCTION ADVOCACY ENTITY for the manufactured housing industry and land lease communities of all sizes – INCLUDING MH subdivisions?*3
All this is why I’m anxious to hear more input from YOU, the blog readers. After all, it’s thanks to those who’ve responded during the past two weeks that this open conversation has progressed this far. Reach me via gfa7156@aol.com And don’t worry ‘bout me divulging your name; happy to keep it confidential if you wish.
End Notes

1. 105,772 is the widely-recognized official manufactured housing shipment total comprised from 12 monthly reports distributed, during year 2021, by HUD’s scorekeeper, the Institute of Building Technology & Safety (‘IBTS’).

2. 579,940+/- & 372,943+/- are burdened with (+/_) uncertainty (and have been from between 1974 & 2013), because four entities (i.e. IBTS, HUD, MHARR, & EducateMHC) report the comprised IBTS total and only one entity reports a different shipment total.

3. To this end, here’s what one veteran land lease community portfolio owner/operator opines: “I always thought a well-funded division of MHI was the way to go. But the NCC division doesn’t seem to be working in its’ present form. If we tried to pump up the NCC, or create a new advocacy group, would smaller operators (like me) support it? Or would we end up being pushed aside by the likes of ELS, SUN, RHP, UMH, etc? Isn’t that the reason MHARR exists? Smaller operators were pushed aside by the big guys?” (lightly edited. GFA)

II.

HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE ‘GREAT RESET’?

Well, I have during the past several months to a year long period of time. Sometimes it refers to
political matters, other times to domestic issues, and on and on. Well, I picked up a new book recently, authored by fairly well known pundit, Glenn Beck. (Do you recall my review of his earlier novel, The Overton Window – it described how we’re influenced by advertising messages, when repeated time and again, cause us to consider something once disliked, as now being OK).

Anyway, the new 317 page tome is co-authored by Beck and Justin Haskins, and carries the subtitle ‘Joe Biden and the Rise of 21st Century Fascism’. Here’s how the book ends: “This book offers a wealth of information you can use to help show others how to recognize the Great Reset for what it really is – a globalist, authoritarian scheme to manipulate virtually every industrialized society on earth….” P.277

Earlier in the book, the authors present this summary: “…how the Great Reset would be fueled (modern monetary theory), how the conditions have come about that make the Reset possible (the coronavirus pandemic), and what the justification is for the destruction of the current world economic system (claims of an ‘existential’ climate change crisis).” P.152.

And this scary thought: “…the Great Reset’s biggest backers have deliberately chosen to use terminology that sounds appealing to many supporters of free markets – like ‘capitalism’, ‘investments’, and ‘stakeholders’ – while meaning something very different from what many of us think of when we hear these ideas discussed in the United States.” P.152.

Does any of this sound familiar to you? “Countless members of the press have argued this is all just a wild conspiracy theory cooked up by the ‘far right’ to scare you. Why should you believe Glenn Beck when the New York Times is portraying the Great Reset in a completely different light? Well, here’s something you won’t hear the New York Times say, especially when it comes to the Great Reset. Do not take my word for it. Do your own homework, and you will see the Great Reset is all too real and that it is an overt power grab by the ruling class, one that might be impossible to fully reverse once it is in place.” P.221.

So, as is oft said, you have been forewarned, now you are forearmed – if/when you look into the Great Reset on your own.







III.

BEST BOSSES

In the March/April issue of Globe St., Real Estate Forum magazine, there’s a feature article titled BEST BOSSES. It begins with this: “On the following pages you will find our selection for Best Bosses in commercial real estate – (35) men and women who have had an indelible impact on their companies and our industry, even as they navigated the unprecedented events of the last two years.” P 15..

As I thumbed through the article and photographs of Best Bosses, I recognized several individuals – but only one, from the interrelated manufactured housing and land lease communities business model. This was DAVE HEGEMANN, founder of London Computer Systems, but better known for Rent Manager property management computer software.

My relationship with Dave goes back to the early 1990s when we launched the annual Networking Roundtables for (then) manufactured home community owners/operators. He was the first vendor to demonstrate computer software developed for the realty asset class. Today his company employs more than 400 and serves customers throughout North America.

So, why am I bringing this accolade to your attention? Simply because – in my opinion – we should and could do a far better job identifying and honoring our ‘movers and shakers’, or as this trade magazine puts it: Best Bosses.

Right now, tributes and citations for pioneers and achievers in our industry and asset class are limited to the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s prestigious Hall of Fame, MHI’s annual awards to members only, and in the pages of MHInsider magazine. So, it is a ‘big deal’ when our folk are singled out, like this, by others. And Dave Hegemann is certainly worthy of recognition and honor – not only amongst his commercial real estate peers but with us as well!

Point? We need more avenues of recognition among our business leaders, male and female, entrepreneurs and association executives. I can think of at least two possible venues: the annual SECO conference for land lease community folk, and non-member recognition by the Manufactured Housing Institute. What do you think?


George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC

P.S. Next week, watch for yet another suggestion on how to increase our shipment performance.