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

December 18, 2015

Year 2016 = Most Exciting Year in MHIndustry history!

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 5:00 am

Blog # 378 Copyright 2015 COBA7® @ 20 December 2015: community-investor.com

Perspective. ‘Land-lease-lifestyle communities, a.k.a. manufactured home communities and ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.

This blog posting is the national advocacy voice, official ombudsman (press), research reporter, & online communication media for all LLLCommunities in North America!

To input this blog &/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, a.ka. COBA7®, use Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764

COBA7® Motto = ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’, & Goal of its’ print/online media =
to ‘Not only inform & opine, but transform & improve MHBusiness Model Performance’

INTRODUCTION.

You may not realize it, but the manufactured housing industry & land-lease-lifestyle community owners/operators are on the threshold of what promises to be the most challenging and exciting, if not profitable, year since the turn of the 21st Century.

How so?

The ‘New Breed of MHRetailer & Lender’ (a.k.a. LLLCommunity folk!) and MHIndustry ‘players’ are already a full year into the NEW ERA of manufactured housing! And as we kick off January, year 2016, with the Louisville MHShow (It’s SOLD OUT!), as well as the ‘biggest & best’ ALLEN REPORT penned in 27 years (Read Part II following), it should be No Surprise to you, ‘big things’ are planned for ‘us in the MHBusiness’, by FHFA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and others who’ve ‘kinda’ recently rediscovered our unique type of affordable (not subsidized) housing and professionally-managed community lifestyle! OK, so the Access to Manufactured Housing Act didn’t make it through Congress this time around, due to political finagling – we can make a run at it again!

But know what’s different ‘this time around? It’s become clear, demarcations are now clearly in place relative to national advocacy and the supplying of intellectual products and services to the HUD-Code manufactured housing industry & LLLCommunity realty asset class:

• Manufactured Housing Institute. Controlled by the major HUD-Code home manufacturers, continues to represent all segments of the industry.

• Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform. Represents smaller, mostly regional HUD-Code home manufacturers and no one else – that I know of.

• Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance® serves more LLLCommunity owners/operators than any one or two other national advocates related to manufactured housing.

And if you’re ‘one of the many’ who believe this industry and realty asset class need some ‘new blood’ pumped into it, then support plans for the first ever ‘Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars’ (Read Part III following) being readied for sometime during late Spring 2016 in the Midwest. Hopefully it’ll serve as a template for other regions of the U.S. that have HUD-Code housing factories.

Enjoy the ‘read’, learn, and support! GFA

And hey, if YOU’re into Marketing &/or Sales, of any sort, do not miss reading Part IV of this blog posting! Some new ground being plowed here. Be among the first to embrace the ‘Six Right P’s of Marketing’!

I.

‘Merry Christmas’ & ‘Happy Holidays’ to All My Friends

in Manufactured Housing, & Land-lease-lifestyle Communities Nationwide!

This time of year, many reflect on Christmases past as they plan for the present holiday season. I’m no different. Few memories give me more pleasure than recalling the first Christmas Carolyn and I spent together in 1963, when freshmen in college. We were already in love, and enjoying our first holiday together, setting the tone for 51 more to follow – and one we’d spend apart, in 1968, when I opened my presents while sitting atop our command post bunker at LZ Stud (later renamed LZ Vandegrift), a few miles East of the infamous Khe Sanh combat base. Then there were the many Christmases we enjoyed with Susan and Adam, as they grew through childhood and teenage years to adulthood; today sharing the holidays with them and their children, and now grandchildren – our great grandchildren. ‘Ah, the memories….’

This year won’t be much different for us. Carolyn has already decorated our home. The tree is up and awaiting decorating Christmas Eve by ‘everyone’ in the family – before or after enjoying our traditional dinner of standing prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and fixing’s. And before the meal, or later in the evening at church, we’ll take time to recall the true meaning of the holiday, and what we’re really celebrating together….

Christmas morning we’ll arise, enjoy the spirit of the moment alone together, then visit the families with children, to watch them open presents, and enjoy breakfast together. Later in the day, when we return home, we’ll again – just like 52 years ago, ‘enjoy the holiday together’. Life does not get much better than that! George Allen

II.

Tantalizing Tidbits from the 27th annual ALLEN REPORT

a.k.a.

‘Who’s Who Among LLLCommunity Portfolio
Owners/operators Throughout North America!’

You have no idea yet, of the enlightening experience you’re going to have when reading the 27th annual ALLEN REPORT or (‘AR’), for the first time, during January 2016!

Here’re a few of the special statistics & tantalizing tidbits contained in the most widely-read and frequently- referenced compendium of land-lease-lifestyle community data, emerging business trends, and 120+ name directory of property portfolio ‘players’:

• 24 percent of all LLLCommunity property portfolios are profiled this year!

• For the first time, affiliation with COBA7®, & membership in MHI’s National Communities Council division, is recommended for all LLLCommunity owners!

• Ten largest portfolio firms (including three REITs), control 56 percent of all rental homesites and 42 percent of LLLCommunities inventoried in this report!

• Rental (manufactured) homes, ‘contract sale’ units, & especially RV rental sites, figure greatly in the AR as LLLCommunities ‘Do whatever it takes to survive!’

• For the first time in several years, raw land is being developed into new LLLCommunities, & existing properties expanded; throughout the U.S. & CN!

• Pride of Young Lions! Ten firms added a total of 33,334 rental homesites to their portfolios, averaging 3,333/LLLCommunity, or arithmetic mean of 3,034 sites.

• Once again, the professionals at DATACOMP & MHVillage supplied JLT-based rent $ averages for various U.S. MSAs, & LLLCommunity inventories per state!

Three easiest ways to receive the ALLEN REPORT. 1)If you’re an Option II or III affiliate of the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®, you’ll receive a copy of the 27th annual ALLEN REPORT as a lagniappe, in the January 2016 issue of the Allen Letter professional journal. 2) If a LLLCommunity owner/operator, and you completely filled-in and returned the ALLEN REPORT questionnaire distributed in August of this year, you’ll receive a complimentary copy of said report. 3) Manufactured Housing Manager® candidates, when attending the one day professional property management class, receive a copy as well. Next MHM® class: 19 January 2016, in Louisville, KY

If not eligible to receive the 27th annual ALLEN REPORT in the manners just described, but still need or want a copy, simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 and affiliate, at the Option II ($544.95) or III ($944.95) level. Option II gets you 12 months of the popular Allen Letter professional journal, and a Signature Series Resource Document, or SSRD, each month of the year, e.g. ALLEN REPORT = January; ‘State of the MHIndustry & LLLCommunity Asset Class!’ = February; annual National Registry of ALL $ Lenders (RE & chattel capital) = March, etc..

Frankly, if you’re a LLLCommunity owner/operator, how could you not want to be ‘in the know’, via knowledge gleaned from the 27th ALLEN REPORT; and each month of the year, reading unique and information-packed Signature Series Resource Documents?

III

Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars

New Way to Learn How to ‘Spec’ & Buy New HUD-Code Homes from the factory, then Sell, & if need be, Seller Finance them on-site in Land-lease-lifestyle Communities Throughout the Midwest!

The ‘Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars’ concept has been in the preliminary planning stage throughout the year 2015. To date, six northern Indiana HUD-Code home manufacturing plants, owned by five different firms, have committed to host two hour morning and afternoon tours at their respective locations, during a two day period of time in late Spring 2016.

The number & specific topics of Home Sales Seminars, to be featured at a central (to be determined) location, likely in Elkhart, IN., are being decided and staffed at the present time. If YOU have expertise & experience in a particular aspect of in-LLLCommunity home sales operations, and would like to be considered as a presenter at this inaugural event, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. .

A primary focus of this event is the small to mid-sized LLLCommunity (& portfolio) owner/operator not yet involved in ‘buying new homes & selling/financing them on-site’. These folk have, to a large extent, suffered the consequences of more than 10,000 independent (street) MHRetailers going out of business since the turn of the century – their very means of filling vacant rental homesites with new and resale homes. Hopefully this ‘Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars’ will be a pattern for other regions in the U.S. to plan and facilitate similar venues for even more small to mid-sized LLLCommunity owners/operators – and of course, along the way, stimulate more new home shipments out of our HUD-Code factories!

If you’re interested in attending this inaugural event, don’t wait to be invited! Phone (317) 346-7156 and ask to have your name and contact information put on the initial list used to invite LLLCommunity owners/operators to participate. Pre-registration will be required before this event, to even out plant tours and home sales seminars.

IV.

Five Right P’s of Marketing Become Six Right P’s of Marketing!

a.k.a.

Right Product, Place, Price, Promotion, People, now add Process!

Remember ‘way back when’ university marketing textbooks taught the ‘Four P’s of Marketing’ as being Product, Place, Price & Promotion? Know what? Some academics continue to teach such a limited foci.

Well, a few years ago, while fine-tuning the popular Manufactured Housing Manager® professional property management training & certification class, I realized how a LLLCommunity owner/operator could have the best Product, ideal location (Place), right Price, and effective mix of Promotion avenues – but still be unsuccessful, without capable, experienced and motivated People! Hence, the ‘Five Right P’s of Marketing’ was born!

And this has worked just fine now for a few years. In fact, LLLCommunity owners/operators throughout the U.S. & Canada (Including the more than 1,000 MHM®s now owning/managing the unique, income-producing property type) routinely refer to 3X5 inch plastic wallet cards describing how to use the ‘Five Right P’s of Marketing’ to lease rental homesites and or sell new/resale homes on-site; even, from a HUD-Code factory sales representative perspective, how to market new HUD-Code homes to LLLCommunity owners/operators. If you’d like a FREE card, simply phone the aforementioned Official MHIndustry HOTLINE.

While reviewing MULTIFAMILY HOUSING, ‘a Comprehensive Guide for Investors, developers, Apartment Professionals, Suppliers & Students’, I came across some sound reasoning on page # 250, for adding a sixth ‘P’, that being Process. And just what is Process? According to the 730 page text, published jointly by NAA, NMHC, & IREM, it’s: ‘The planning, procedures, and marketing to identify the target audience.” Amen to that! Not much point in having the Right Product, Place, Price, Promotion, & People, if you err in who you should be, or are, marketing new homes and leasing homesites. So Process becomes a critical part of the strategic mix of Six Right P’s of Marketing!

By the way, to order your copy of this text, visit www.naahq.org/multifamilytext

And that my blogging friends, is our ‘lesson of the day’ – one I’m happy to learn and share; hope YOU feel the same way!

***

George Allen, CPM & MHM
Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance®
Box # 47024
Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 346-7156

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