Blog # 581 @ April 18, 2020; Copyright 2020. www.educatemhc.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
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INTRODUCTION: Never before have I enjoyed the opportunity to watch history unfold before my eyes, as Covid-19 has. Well, that’s not really true. Some of the conflict I describe in Part I of this blog unfolded in similar manner. But I digress. I wish every stridently partisan politician could be forced to read Part I, for this truism, ‘People who don’t learn from history are often doomed to repeat it!’ And Part II? A description of marketing and home sales tools driving the ‘two decades long paradigm shift’ (2000-2020) away from independent (street) MHRetailers to in-land lease community sales and seller-financing of transactions. Part III = ‘Calling all writers!’ This is at best, a ‘once every two or three years opportunity’. So, if interested, sign up now!
I.
World War III
Coronavirus Battlefield Report
A Warning to Politicians
Mortal conflicts result in casualties and lessons learned. Whether the conflict is between nations, or among combatants, even disease-driven, some-if-not-many will be killed or wounded physically and or mentally, and often live lessons learned for decades to come.
I experienced the harsh reality of both perspectives, as a casualty and lessons learned, by dint of firefights in the Republic of Vietnam, not healed until 50 years later here at home. ‘Making Amends’ tells the story of my recovery, and a societal requital. Following it, I’ll make comparisons to the Covid-19 battle we now fight.
‘Making Amends’
“When I deplaned in Los Angeles, following flights from Vietnam and Okinawa, all I saw were mini-skirts. Later that day, exiting a plane in Philadelphia, all I saw was my lovely wife Carolyn! And that night, wanting an evening out alone, we were refused service at a hotel restaurant in Radnor, PA., because I was wearing my Marine uniform with combat ribbons. Such was my homecoming in 1969.
Years later, when it was OK to know a Viet Vet, and finally Thank him or her for their service, I found it difficult to acknowledge this gratitude, as deep hurt and strong emotions would well-up inside, as I recalled friends who didn’t make it back to be thanked, let alone live out their lives – like me.
None of this prepared me for what happened Christmas Eve 2005, in a pharmacy on the south side of Indianapolis. I’d gone there to buy last minute stocking items for my wife and her Mother. After I queried a clerk, who turned out to be the store manager, for help finding an item, she noticed the gold U.S. Marine Corps emblem on a chain around my neck, and asked if we could talk.
Turns out her son is an airman in the U.S. Air Force, likely headed for Iraq. She’s very proud of him and the man he’s become. But 38 years ago, she was a university student in Indiana and active in the anti-Vietnam War movement. She demonstrated with many of her fellow students, believing the war was wrong, and most of what was said about those of us who fought it. Nothing happened in her life, during the next three decades to change those views, until her son enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. When she saw him graduate from basic training, and heard him talk of his service as being patriotic duty to his country, she realized there are indeed many men and women, over the years, who’ve been – and continue to be, willing to risk their lives in service to their country- and her son, her own flesh and blood is now one of them.
So now, three decades following the official end of the Vietnam War, she wanted an opportunity, not necessarily to ‘thank a vet’, but to ask forgiveness for her misguided passion while a university student, all those years ago. And I was to be her veteran.
We talked. I cried. She atoned. I reflected on fallen friends who’d never hear these words but through me. She shared how every time she sees her son, she’s reminded how blessed she is to be an American and mother of a U.S. serviceman. In that moment we helped heal each other’s wounds.” GFA
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I was an emotional casualty of that conflict, but now healed. Lesson learned? ‘Be careful what you protest’, as history oft returns – and turns, vindicating leaders reviled, while painting detractors as having been shortsighted and wrong.
Know what? I think similarly about the coronavirus conflict, today’s invisible enemy. Here casualties are tallied as deaths, hundreds of thousands of them worldwide. There’s no earthly recovery from that. But partisan politicians, criticizing the handling of this crisis, who’d be wise to verbally restrain, and more legislatively supporting than they are today!
II.
What You Missed at the 2020 MHCongress in Las Vegas
(Not only was there no MHCongress last week, but on 14 April, we learned there’ll be no MHCongress in 2020!)
With that said, know there’s a unique opportunity for you to experience, nigh firsthand, one of the major bodies of information you would have learned if present at the MHCongress in Las Vegas, NV.
The May 2020 issue of The Allen Confidential! Business newsletter will feature this lead story:
‘21st Century HUD-Code Home sales Tools in Today’s Land Lease Communities!’
Nowhere else in the manufactured housing industry, or even among land lease communities selling and seller-financing new homes on-site, will you find this comprehensive, practical body of marketing and home sales knowledge! And, when done reading this seminal piece, if you want FREE copies of at least two of the training aids described, just ask for them!
How can you not want to benefit from this unique learning experience? All you have to do is be a subscriber, either basic or Premium edition, to tap into this ready resource. Visit www.educatemhc.com today!
And, by the way, date for the year 2021 MHCongress is 6-8 April 2021!
III.
Writers’ Conference
Ever Been to a Writers Conference, &/or Have a Hankering to Write for One or Another of the Manufactured Housing Trade Publications?
On Monday, 3 August 2020, at the RV/MH Hall of Fame Library in Elkhart, IN., a group of us will convene to address the topic: ‘Writing for Publication, Profit & Personal Satisfaction!’ From 9AM thru to 3PM, we’ll share examples of good and not so good writing, difference in left & right brain expression propensity, tools of writing, types of writing, maybe even some advice on the popular contemporary practice of self-publishing.
There’ll be no overt promotion of this one day program. Several have already committed to attend, at $95.00/person, and the group will be best served if kept to maybe two dozen writers, and would be writers, in attendance. SO, if interested in receiving more information as the date draws nigh, let me know via gfa7156@aol.com or phone (317) 346-7156.
And if you’re going to be there in Elkhart for the day anyway, consider staying over for the RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Banquet at 6PM. For tickets, phone (574) 293-2344. That gala event always draws between 500-700 RV & MH businessmen and women from across the U.S.
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George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC