Blog # 473; Copyright @ 23 December 2017; community-investor.com
Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, & ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’
This blog posting is the sole national advocate, voice, official ombudsman, historian, research report, & online communication media for all North American LLCommunities.
To input this blog &/or affiliate with Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, a.k.a. 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 to transform & improve MHBusiness performance!
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INTRODUCTION: You a conscientious manufactured housing executive, savvy land lease community owner/operator, or better than average state MH association executive?
Three topics in this blog post have (in Part I) potentially long-range and serious consequences; (in Part II) unique education offerings not to be repeated anytime soon; and, (Part III…well, just wait to read what you’ll find there….) the MHIndustry is a-changing!
Please pay attention to all three messages. Again, one finds us on the cusp of moving ahead as a realty asset class OR regressing back to the ‘near total lack of resources of the 1970s’. The second simply offers opportunities available from no one else anywhere! And the third? The ‘jury is out’. Will a successor be better or worse for the MHIndustry?
I.
2018
What Began in 1978 Comes to a Close in 2018, or Does It?
Intimates know I started my professional property management career in 1978, with Turtle Creek Management, Inc., managing conventional apartment communities and four (then) mobile home park ‘turnaround challenges’, in Indiana and Kentucky.
In 1980, Carolyn and I founded GFA Management, Inc., overseeing, as she was wont to say at the time: “Anything that didn’t move!” We soon purchased our first (then) manufactured home community – out of foreclosure, selling it two years later for a sixfold return on our investment.
In 1988, via PMN Publishing, self-published my first book, Mobile Home Park Management (Since renamed Land Lease Community Management, 8th edition). Six years later, with co-authors David Alley & Edward Hicks, we published, via J. Wiley & Sons, Development, Marketing, & Operation of Manufactured Home Communities, along with its’ sister text, two years later, How to Find, Buy, Manage & Sell a Manufactured Home Community. Both case bound tomes became now industry classics and used copies continue to be available online.
During the next two plus decades, we launched the annual ALLEN REPORT; Allen Letter professional journal; International Networking Roundtables; the Allen CONFIDENTIAL! business newsletter; Manufactured Housing Manager (‘MHM’) professional property management training program & certification designation; and most recently, the Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, or COBA7
Now, as we close in on our 40th year serving the manufactured housing industry and land lease community real estate asset class, we and business associates find ourselves in the midst of exploring, and soon deciding, which of several organizational alternatives ensures the continuation of the 40 year legacy of COBA7, a division of GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing.
Those alternatives to date, late December 2017, early 2018?
• Merger. A written proposal, to this end, was delivered via email to the Manufactured Housing Institute in early December. No response to date. No surprise there.
• Partner. Met with advocates for a new national entity representing all post-production segments of the manufactured housing industry. No commitments made, but COBA7’s presence would jump start such an effort.
• Sale or transfer. Intellectual assets of COBA7 offered to a business entity comprised of land lease community owners/operators, and parties, not interested in reverting to the 1970s wasteland of land lease community resources and communication.
• Liquidate intellectual assets of COBA7 over time, as need be….
Nothing particularly new here. MHI made a half-hearted pass at acquiring certain (now COBA7) assets more than five years ago. Post-production folk have been underrepresented for decades, someone is now addressing the matter. A few COBA7 assets are being absorbed by various business interests; though, the sum total is available to a capable communicator, industry experienced, motivated successor. And the least desirable alternative, liquidation, will occur quickly, or over time, depending on circumstances.
Bottom line? If you, as an individual, influential member of one or another national trade entity, and or businessman/woman owner/operator of land lease communities, desire to see COBA7 research (e.g. ALLEN REPORT, etc.); resources (e.g. National Directory of ALL Lenders, etc.); communication (e.g. Allen Letter & TAC!); networking (Networking Roundtable); publishing (‘All MHIndustry & LLCommunity books in print); and, professional property management (‘PM’) training/certification (e.g. the MHM program) continue on into the 21st Century, you’ll explore, and seriously consider supporting one or another of the first three alternatives described.
The question begging answering, by all, is: ‘How do you want to see year 2018 end?’ Like it is NOW, awash in products & services, OR, how it was in 1978 when there was no research, few resources, little communication, paltry networking, no publishing, and no PM training! Seriously. That is the compelling question! Your answer?
Want to discuss the matter? Reach GFA via the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764 or (31`7) 346-7156 or gfa7156@aol.com or via Box # 47024, Indianapolis, IN. 46247.
II.
Take Control of Your Education In Year 2018!
Are you, like many of our peers in the manufactured housing industry and throughout the land lease community real estate asset class, frustrated with the paucity of quality educational, via seminars and panel offerings during the course of the year? Well, here’s one effective way for you to help salve that frustration during the months ahead.
In a couple weeks, every state and province manufactured housing and community-related trade association, along with many of the property portfolio firms, will receive a letter from COBA7, a division of GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing, offering no fewer than six pithy and timely topics for presentation to members and employees. Here’s a summary of those offerings:
• ‘Official State of the Manufactured Housing Industry & Land Lease Community Real Estate Asset Class!’ No one else, on the public speaking circuit, presents ‘both sides’ of our industry/property type story to you and others!
• ‘Solving Our Nation’s (Lack of) Affordable Housing Crisis, with Factory-built Housing & Land Lease Communities!’ The mini-White Paper, by the same name, has ‘housers’ in Washington, DC., talking about manufactured housing!
• ‘Four Part Procedure for Selling New (HUD-Code) Homes On-site, Using ‘Six Right Ps of Marketing’ to Get the Job Done!’ This the gist of the first ‘Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars’ in 2016. The handouts are incomparable!
• One day ‘Manufactured Housing Manager professional property management training & certification program’. 1,000+ MHMs own/operate communities throughout U.S. & Canada. The only active national program in the U.S. today!
• ‘Basic MH & LLCommunity Math, Formulae, & Rules of Thumb!’ No one else in the MHIndustry & LLCommunity business will share this sensitive info with you!
• ‘How to Pen & Self-publish Your Career or Firm’s Worthwhile Story!. This program has already spawned two autobiographies and many memoirs. Is your story worth telling? If so, now is the time to learn how to prepare and share it!
One or more of these six topics spike your interest? Then reach out to the state and national trade entities to which you pay dues, and request they explore hosting one or more of these programs for you, and your peers, during 2018. Cost? Minimal! All we ask is for host association or firm to cover travel expenses and offer a modest honorarium. In the case of the MHM program @ $295/student? If 20 or more paid candidates are in the class, expenses are taken from the tuition. No one else in the manufactured housing industry offers a more cost effective educational opportunity!
For questions, and to schedule sessions, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764, or (317) 346-7156, or GFA 7156@aol.com
III.
Heard on the Street:
‘Danner is reassigned & Starkey is gone!’
Or, words to that effect….
That’s all we have to say on that subject at this time. More as it becomes available.
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