A Home-Shoppers Eye View of MH vs a Professional’s Vantage Point

Your firm wants to sell that next home. Then another. Then another. Of course. The shopper wants to get a home, but from their viewpoint, MH may not be high on their radar (or manufactured homes may not be on their radar at all).

For you to break through to the better qualified buyers out there, you have to see the world through their eyes, not your own.

We’re going to oversimplify to make some rapid points. There are exceptions to these generalities, so let’s keep in mind we mutually want to see MH Advance for the sake of all.

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Note: MHI has very similar totals to this chart which used data provided by MHARR.

When you’ve been in MH a significant length of time involving contact with retail customers or the general public, you begin to understand certain realities. In no certain order of importance:

  • Some housing shoppers genuinely want an MH

  • Some see MH as a stepping stone to a ‘real house’

  • Some see MH as the house of last resort

  • Some like what they see in MH, but they are troubled by various negative impressions (wind storms, financing, resale, etc.)

Too many MH Pros are guilty. Guilty of what, you ask?

Unwillingness to change to adapt to the opportunities all around. As a rule, those who come to MHProNews or MHLivingNews tend to be the forward thinkers, or those looking for solutions. So this is not meant as an offense to anyone, just a statement of fact.

When more MH pros become laser-focused on opening up to the many new ways to attract better qualified clients, new MH home sales levels will no longer snore. They’ll soar.

To sell more homes, one must start with twin realities.

  1. Where the consumers mind set is at, and you must be able to successfully address it, regardless.

  2. What the strengths and weaknesses about your location(s), team(s) or career.

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MHI correctly notes that over 20 years, MH has averaged some 20% of the total new housing starts in the U.S.. Sadly, that’s NOT the case for the last decade. Returning to that 20% of single family housing starts figure alone would take MH to sales levels we’ve not seen in over a decade.  See graphic, at the right below.

Based upon a SWOT analysis of your location, and given an understanding of the realities-on- the-ground at your operation, you create a plan tailored to advance your marketing and sales.

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Graphic credit, Reed Construction and MHProNews, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

Here are the challenge, and the opportunities. With incomes down, with rents rising, with about 4 million boomers retiring a year (pretty amazing all by itself, yes?) once you learn how to open the minds of housing seekers in your market, your sales can roar.

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Unlike some trainers and marketers, Tony has owned and successfully operated a sales center that hit the top 1/2 of 1% all retail sales centers in the U.S. nationally.  Tony has also supervised MHCs and fired up sales results for them too.   These are reality based insights, not pipe dreams.  Tony’s next public trade presentation will be the New York Housing Alliance, see link below.

On MHLivingNews.com, we’ve been developing a library of video interviews that help knock down consumer’s preconceived or errant notions about today’s MH. These videos are true interviews, not commercials. They are clearly unscripted.

A serious shopper likes that, and once interested, will watch a number of those interviews and video home tours, until they are ready to go to a community or sales center.

That’s when the real work begins. As many of you know, you don’t handle the good credit or cash buyer the same as the ‘get me done’ Customer. You and your colleagues/team mates must be ready for that more upscale, credit or cash qualified buyers.

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If you have not yet seen the Inside MH Video series, you’ve not been on MHLivingNews.com lately!

With dozens of video interviews in hand, we can now start making videos that tell a story. Once they’re intrigued, they will want to see even more of those in-depth consumer and expert interviews.

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Housing shopping isn’t always fun for home seekers. They may have pressures. They may be well off. But everyone has had dark moods and times.  Those realities may help you understand the ‘dark clouds’ this video begins with!

Check out this new, and already favorably commented upon video production, linked here or above. Get an RSS feed on your consumer-focused website that features MHLivingNews.com. It’s a free way to tap into our exclusive and otherwise copyrighted content.

For those with a budget and a hunger to advance to the next level, see why we have so many endorsements and recommendations. Then, send me a message of give me a call, thanks. We hope to see some of you at my New York Housing’s 65th annual event. There will be a special marketing and sales presentation. If you’re anything like attendees from coast-to-coast at similar presentations made, you’ll be glad you came. Learn to see things from the shoppers eye view, adapt and soar. ##

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L A ‘Tony’ Kovach has become one of the most widely recognized experts in MH marketing, sales and publishing.

By L. A. “Tony” Kovach.