E-HOP Chattel Capital lending Program Debuts!

@ 22 May 2019; www.educatemhc.com

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, ‘mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing.’

This blog posting is sole national advocate, official ombudsman, historian, research reporter, education resource & online communication media for North American land lease communities

To input this blog, &/or affiliate with EducateMHC, formerly Community Owners (7 Part) Business Alliance, or COBA7, use Official MHindustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764

Motto: ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Online media goal? Inform, opine, transform & improve manufactured housing & land lease community lifestyle! Visit www.educatemhc.com

INTRODUCTION: Hang on to your seats today! MUCH GOOD & CHALLENGING NEWS for you to absorb and use in upcoming business plans, decisions, and actions:
• E-HOP chattel finance program debuts with Park Lane Financial.
• Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars = only time this year!
• Manufactured Housing Manager certification available to you on 19 June in Elkhart, IN.
• A plan to ‘raise the bar’ on land lease community experience and lifestyle!
• Once more, a plea for industry unity among MHI, MHARR, & NAMHCO.
See what I mean? That’s a heckuva lot of NEWS to wrap into one weekly blog posting for you!

I.

FLASH NEWS – FLASH NEWS

E-HOP: in-community Chattel Financing Program Debuts!

“The Earnings-based Home Ownership Program (‘E-HOP’) is now a reality”, announces Spencer Roane, MHM, of Pentagon Properties, Atlanta, GA. $10,0000,000 has been committed to this new manufactured home chattel loan pilot program by Park Lane Finance. Initially, only a select group of experienced and successful land lease community owners/operators will be involved during the next 12 months.

To learn more about the program, and to express interest in possibly participating in the future, contact Kirk McDowell at (561)644-1441 & via kmcdowell@parklanefinance.com

E-HOP is the result of two years of research, negotiating, and hard work by Spencer Roane, MHM, and a group of land lease community owners/operators, most of whom are also involved in planning and hosting the popular annual SECO conference in Atlanta, GA., every Fall. 9 & 10 October 2019 are the dates for this year’s SECO conference, and know E-HOP will be a highlight of the event! Google SECO Conference for additional event information. See you there!

II.

Two Days of Plant Tours & Home Sales Seminars

The Only HUD-Code Housing Sales Training Program for Land Lease Community Owners/operators Offered Anywhere, Anytime in the U.S.!

If you need to learn HOW TO ‘spec & price’ new HUD-Code housing to ‘sell’ in your local housing market and on-site; HOW TO buy homes directly from the factory; HOW TO effectively market & sell same on-site; and HOW TO seller-finance these transactions – or rent units as free-standing apartments, YOU will be present at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., on 17 & 18 June 2019.

This two day program debuted in 2016 and is a perennial sold-out event! Historically, independent (street) MHRetailers & ‘company stores’ filled vacant rental homesites with new homes, but not anymore. If you own one or more land lease communities, you will ‘survive & thrive’ ONLY if you buy, sell, and seller-finance new and resale manufactured homes on-site! So, phone (317) 247-6258 x 11 for more information and to register. Phone (574) 333-3707 to make a hotel reservation, for $105/night – when mentioning ‘Indiana Manufactured Housing Association’, during the reservation process at the Sheraton Elkhart (3254 Cassopolis St.).

And, if still not trained and certified as a Manufactured Housing Manager, plan to stay over one more day (6/19/2019) to participate in the popular MHM program put on by EducateMHC. This is, by far, the most popular professional property management certification program in the U.S. today, with nearly 1,500 MHMs now owning/operating land lease communities throughout the U.S. and Canada! For more info and to register, visit www.educatemhc.com or erin@educatemhc.com The $295 per person fee gets you a copy of the new, 9th edition of Land Lease Community Management text, handout material, as well as gold MHM pin and calligraphied MHM certificate.

III

The Land Lease Community Lifestyle Done Well

All the Pieces Are In Now in Place – to Ensure Homeowner/site lessees Experience the Best Environment Possible – Promoting & Protecting Their Manufactured Housing Lifestyle!

And these key pieces are:

• Manufactured Housing Institute’s (‘MHI’) National Communities Council (‘NCC’) division, since January 1996, representing land lease community owners/operators in our nation’s capitol. NCC is best known for its’ Spring & Fall Leadership Forums.

• National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners (‘NAMHCO’), since 2018, is the land lease community real estate asset class’ lobbyist in Washington, DC.

• EducateMHC, continues COBA7’s 40 year program of statistical research, intellectual product creation & distribution, print & online communication, property management training & certification via MHM program, & interpersonal networking opportunities

So, is anything missing at this point? Yes, but first, a brief description of ‘where we are today’ as an industry and realty asset class, and how we’ve arrived at this point.

By now, everyone knows the manufactured housing industry, and land lease communities, have been engaged in a sweeping paradigm shift since the turn of the century. A paradigm shift typified by land lease community owners/operators, oft supplanting independent (street) MHRetailers and ‘company stores’ as primary means of distributing new HUD-Code homes, by now buying and siting new units directly onto rental homesites throughout their properties, then sell and seller-financing the transaction – or rent them out as self-contained apartments. Most of the 500+/- known portfolio ‘players’ are well into this business model*1; however, smaller Mom & Pop-owned/operated properties continue, for the most part, to rely on aforementioned MHRetailers to fill vacant rental homesites – or do nothing at all to this end.

NOW a unique opportunity presents itself to the manufactured housing industry and owners/operators of land lease communities nationwide.

What can we do to ensure the ‘Land Lease Community Lifestyle Is Done Well’ for our homeowners/site lessees and apartment renters?

Professional property management (‘PM’) is part of the answer, but given that there’s only one active national classroom program in place today, EducateMHC’s MHM certification program, that’s ‘far too little & not soon enough’ to help much here.

NO, there needs to be, in this veteran industry observer’s opinion, a new and unique property owner and PM executive level learning and networking opportunity and experience, incorporating features once provided by the…

• Urban Land Institute’s Manufactured Housing Communities Council (‘MHCC’) ‘think tank’, circa 2004-2015. Where industry and asset class issues & trends were identified, addressed and resolved. No such forum exists today and it is sorely needed!

• Periodic 1 ½ day long, small FOCUS Groups, convened on-site in land lease communities around the U.S., adhered to set agendas agreed upon in advance by all participants. Practices and procedures spawned therein continue in effect to this day.

• National State of the Asset Class (‘NSAC’) meetings during 2008 & 2009, where industry & realty asset class survival was on everyone’s mind. It’s where Randy Rowe first described Five Action Areas, and the Community Series Homes concept was birthed.

Unfortunately, general mass gatherings like MHI’s annual MHCongress and seasonal Leadership Forums, along with the Networking Roundtable and regional manufactured housing trade shows and exhibits (e.g. SECO, Louisville, & Tunica) simply don’t fill this strategic need. Why? There’s far too much diversity among participants – as there will always be at such venues.

No, what’s needed is far more specific. Specifically, 1 ½ days long FOCUS Group-like gatherings, limited to one or two dozen land lease community owners or senior executives participating, with everyone agreeing ahead of time, what topics are of utmost importance now and going forward. Ideally these gatherings, in my opinion – and when convenient, should be held on-site within land lease communities. Doing so, encourages the ambiance of the physical setting to influence the discussion and resolution of industry and realty asset class matters at hand.

Recently floated ‘the general idea’ described in the previous paragraphs, to two dozen land lease community owners/operators whose business reputations and views I respect. Response? So far, a half dozen thoughtful replies, all in support of the idea of ‘raising the performance bar among property owners, for homeowners/site lessees living in their properties’. Does this describe your vision and goal for your property or properties?

Going forward. If YOU would like to be part of this heady discussion – and help plan
1 ½ days FOCUS Group-like gatherings, let me know via email: gfa7156@aol.com or via Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. I’m especially interested in hearing from those who’ve attended past ULI/MHCC meetings and FOCUS Group sessions. Also those who’ve participated in similar ‘shared performance & experience’ forums in other industries.

End Note.

1. FYI. It’s possible for you to access this 500+/- name list, by direct mail via EducateMHC. For more information, phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877)MFD-HSNG or 633-4764. It’s an excellent means for prospecting for land lease community acquisitions.

IV.

GET YOUR ACTS TOGETHER!

If you’re reading this, and are a member of the Manufactured Housing Institute (‘’MHI’) – as I am proudly, its’ sole Emeritus member; or the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (‘MHARR’) – as I am not, because I’m not a HUD-Code housing manufacturer, then you received a digital communique this past week ballyhooing that national trade advocate’s efforts influencing HUD to rescind an earlier policy on garages relative to manufactured homes.

Well, that NEWS was certainly a Welcome development, but it begs this question:

When there are opportunities like this, to present a united front not only to legislators and regulators in our nation’s capitol, but to manufactured housing and land lease community businessmen and women nationwide, WHY are these two organizations not doing so today – or ever?

Not a new or novel question. Lack of industry unity has plagued us for decades!

So, where does a unity solution begin? With you and me, as members of either or both MHI & MHARR, as well as the National Association of Manufactured Housing Community Owners (‘NAMHCO’). Next time you talk to Dick, Mark, or Susan – tell them you prefer they ‘work & announce’ together rather than ‘separately & weakly’! Seriously. When they receive sufficient feedback from members, like thee and me, they’ll eventually ‘get the point’ and figure out how to move forward in a unified, and far more effective fashion, than is the case today!

Nuff said. Unless you want to share your views with me via gfa7156@aol.com

***

George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC
Box # 47024
Indianapolis, IN. 46247
(317) 346-7156

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