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

June 17, 2024

Unexpected pleasure of retirement? 

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 8:29 am

Blog Posting # 798, Copyright 21 June 2024. EducateMHC

Know this! HUD-Code manufactured housing (‘MH’) is federally-regulated, performance-based, affordable-attainable factory-built housing (a.k.a. offsite construction). And land lease communities (a.k.a. manufactured home communities & ‘mobile home parks’) comprise the commercial real estate (‘CRE’) component of MH! EducateMHC is the online advocate, historian, trade term & trend tracker, as well as information resource for both business models, and to some extent, the recreational vehicle (‘RV’) industry as well. Access EducateMHC via (317) 881-3815; email: gfa7156@aol.com, & via www.educatemhc.com to purchase Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry, and SWAN SONG, a history of land lease communities & official record of annual MH production totals since 1955. My autobiography, From SmittyAlphaSix to MHMaven, describes personal combat adventures in Vietnam as a USMC lieutenant, a 45 year entrepreneur business career in MH & community ownership, as well as prolific non-fiction author and international freelance consultant.

George Allen is the only emeritus member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (“MHI’), a founding board member of MHI’s National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, an RV/MH Hall of Fame enshrinee, MHInsider’sAllen Legacycolumnist and editor at large. He’s a Vietnam combat veteran and retired lieutenant colonel of U.S. Marines, as well as author/editor of 30 books & chapbooks on MH, communities, business management and prayer.

This week as Carolyn & I are traveling to and from Georgia. There we’ll see our great grandson Hunter graduate from the U.S. Amy’s Advanced Infantry Training program, then drive north to Atlanta to spend a couple days with Spencer Roane and Lynn, as well as a few ‘friends in the MH business’.

I’m thoroughly enjoying retirement with Carolyn. We care for our youngest great granddaughter Emmie (Hunter’s youngest sister, who’s three years of age) a couple days each week. Due to my being in Vietnam when daughter Susan was a toddler I missed those cute years where she was concerned, and work kept me away from home when Carolyn was caring for son Adam and then two of our grandchildren – from infancy till starting school. So I’m experiencing all this 60 years late!

Unexpected pleasure of retirement?  Continual contact with friends and acquaintances in manufactured housing and land lease community ownership. Nary a week goes by that I don’t learn what’s ‘really going on’ within and outside our industry and realty asset class. And most of this information winds up either in our weekly blog posting, or the Allen Legacy column in MHInsider magazine. And I’ve been encouraged with the ongoing sales of our books at www.educatemhc.com, especially Community Management in the Manufactured Housing Industry (Only property management text, for land lease communities, available today!), and my autobiography, From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven!

When and where will I see you again? For sure at the RV/MH Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on 19 August 2024 at the RV/MH Hall of Fame facility in Elkhart, IN. For info, visit their website (RVMHHallofFame.org) or phone (574) 293-2344. And the following two days will see IMHA/RVIC (Indiana association) host their annual ‘two days of plant tours and home sales seminars’ at the same location. Spencer Roane and I started this program in 2016 to teach community owners/operators how to buy new HUD-Code homes directly from the factory, market & sell them on-site, even finance them if need be. For info, phone (317) 247-6258. Then there’s the annual SECO event this fall, 16-19 September, in Atlanta, GA. Visit SECO’s website – to also learn about the MH2X project’s first day long training session in July to teach community owners how to buy, sell, and finance manufactured homes in their properties. This grassroots program is growing!

Believe it or not, during the next two weeks we’ll surpass the 800 mark, where total number of blog postings is concerned! This means I’ve been blogging to you for more than 15 years, since at least year 2009! Since the 800th blog posting will occur near the Fourth of July holiday, I’ll likely retell the patriotic story featured in my autobiography: ‘Star Spangled Fourths of July, 50 & 200 Years Ago!’ It’s one of my favorites. Why? Because I experienced it in person on the Fourth of July, 1968, at Landing Zone Stud, ten miles east of the infamous Khe Sanh forward combat base in Leatherneck Square, S. Vietnam.

George Allen

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