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

Blog Posting # 724, Copyright 20 January 2023. EducateMHC

Two Perspectives. HUD-Code manufactured housing is federally-regulated factory-built affordable housing. Land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) are the real estate component of manufactured housing! EducateMHC is the online national advocate, historian, trend spotter, and education resource for these business models. To input this blog or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 881-3815, email: gfa7156@aol.com, &r visit EducateMHC.com to order Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (property management certification text); SWAN SONG, history of land lease communities & record of annual MH production since 1955; and my autobiography, from SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven. Apt resources for community owner’s!

George Allen, CPM®Emeritus, MHM®Master, Emeritus Member MHI, & RV/MH Hall of Fame


Who’s the Mystery Community Portfolio Owner?

Last week’s blog posting (#724) challenged you to identify one of the most talented owners/operators of land lease community portfolios to invest in the realty asset class. Well, here’s the answer:

Dr. Matthew Jenkins of Long Beach, CA., during his long and distinguished career, served our nation as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force; private practice veterinarian; real estate mogul (i.e. portfolio of land lease communities located in more than a half dozen states); local philanthropist (i.e. funding education of many minority children); and, during 2013 served as interim president of his alma mater, Tuskegee University. He and his wife of 61 years, Roberta, founded their real estate investment firm, SDD Enterprises; and later, the Matthew & Roberta Jenkins Family Foundation, awarding scholarships and grants to deserving students, institutions, and local organizations. During the latter part of his long career, Dr. Jenkins authored a self-help text titled Positive Possibilities – which I’ll review in a future blog posting. Dr. Matthew Jenkins passed from this life on 24 September 2019.

Carolyn and I met Matthew and Roberta Jenkins during the early 1980s, when he purchased the large (i.e. 500 rental homesites) Lantern Hills Village ‘mobile home park’ I owned with partners, in Mooresville, IN. While our time together was brief, sharing some meals together, we long appreciated their friendliness and fairness in business matters.

In my opinion, Dr. Matthew Jenkins is a deserving but unrecognized and unsung hero of the manufactured housing industry! Why? Because he quietly went about his business of real estate investment, in time became a renowned education philanthropist in his home city, and shared personal ‘lessons learned’ in a tome still available on amazon.com Perhaps one of these days I’ll reconnect with his son Dexter, and take steps to nominate Matthew for induction into the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s prestigious Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN.
Anyone Else Out There an NCIS Fan?

I am. And even now, with Mark Harmon as ‘Gibbs’ out of the character lineup, I watch most episodes on TV. How ‘bout Gibbs’ Rules? Ever wonder about them? Well I have a detailed list of 35 ‘rules’ – though some say there’re 69. Here’re some that lend themselves to application by owners/operators and professional property managers of land lease communities:

• Rule # 1. Never screw over your partner.
• Rule # 3. Never be unreachable.
• Rule # 5. You don’t waste good.
• Rule # 8. Never take anything for granted.
• Rule # 15. Always work as a team.
• Rule # 28. When you need help, ask
• Rule # 51. Sometimes you’re wrong.

And there’re a few rules outside this norm:

• Rule # 23. Never mess with a Marine’s coffee if you want to live. (Especially one who drinks his coffee out of a canteen cup that is never cleaned. True story.)
• Rule # 9. Never go anywhere without a knife. (Kinda old-fashioned in today’s woke society, but good advice nonetheless)
• Rule # 12. Never date a coworker. (We’ve all seen the consequences of abusing this rule.)

The above material is quoted from TV Guide Magazine Special, dated March 2022, p. 64.