Industry Voices

I have just attended the MHI National Congress in Las Vegas last week.
Jim Clayton was the featured speaker. He covered his history and how Clayton homes got to be the largest manufactured home builder since the 1960’s.
I have given a lot of thought to our industry and what the future may bring to those who survive.

Let’s take a step back and see where the industry was.

My limited experience in this industry had me believe we were similar to the car business like GM. A manufactured home builder is “Saturn” the floor plans were an “ION”. The retailer (Dealer) purchased through a flooring line from a finance company a manufacturer’s floor plan (ION), the retailer paid for it on delivery. This floor plan model was delivered in one, two or three sections “unfinished” in most cases. The retailer having made this purchase took its capital, interest payments and the liability and either stored this placed it on its sales lot or secured a location with a cost and built the home, The retailer hopes it sells quickly and will profit. The manufacturer’s only involvement comes with the limited one year warranty after the home sold to the home buyer. The manufacture now knows who the customer is. In California, demands of the California government agency “CARB” to eliminate formaldehyde from finished goods has the retailer scrambling to rid itself of homes that were compliant and is now an obsolete model and with no value by 12/31/2010. Even the auto maker Toyota has stepped up to help a retailer.

A retailer to survive in business needs to sell its vision of what a home should be; whether in a Manufactured home community or a land home sale. The HUD/UBC models offered by the manufacturers are tried and true however they are not innovative and the public still perceives them to be inferior to standard home construction. The factories must be better pitchmen to promote their product through an “Apple” like advertising campaign to show the “Lennars” they mean business.

The factory perception is still a retailer can buy their manufacture spec. model, can afford to carry multiple models like yesterday and pay for them, run a sales lot with a cash flow expense, keep commissioned sales persons and continue with limited sales. It sounds like a car lot? All the while they have been paid. As is the case of “Saturn” the brand of car is not popular anymore and the support is gone. The number of lenders available today who want to finance “Chattel” homes is limited. The Federal Reserve will at some point have to raise interest rate and this will reduce even more the volume of manufacturer production and buyers who can qualify; while the retailer is left holding all of his assets in his inventory. Would a 10% personal loan interest rate make it better for sales?

Today:

HUD has no guidelines to energy efficiency however the government wants it now, makes conditions and offers rebates for its introduction. The retailer cannot offer it to its customer. The retailer is just like the retail store “Macy’s”. We try and sell products to the public through display and guess the wants and desires of the buyer while keeping very limited supplies. Our buyers are limited on funds and do not have much income or discretionary funds to purchase. We try to stand on our own two feet with our hands tied.

My belief is that all of the manufacturers appear to me to be subcontractors with no retail operations; they rely heavily on the retailer. Most factories have limited sales offices and are structured for retailer order takers with limited exposure to the buyer. Just like the New Home “Stick Built” builders consolidation is happening, the buyers for their inventory are scarce and all of the home buyer’s incomes are less and they have many choices for homes in this foreclosure environment.

Future:

The manufactured home builders are position to be the future of home building in my humble opinion. The recent home builder lawsuits for mold warranty claims, the drop in their home value and the huge volume of foreclosures with government programs for short sales are destroying the conventional builders. The banks have non performing loans. They have many issues to address before they could build a new home again. The conventional builders are still working in old uniform building codes that have changed several times since their last building permits were issued. The new 2011 Title 24 codes are coming and will include energy efficient requirements and may require 3rd party inspection through the course of a home build. The Lender may only lend on new homes that exceed standard construction. Their loss of their experienced subcontractors, their inability to adapt quickly to the new building changes and its implementation, the higher cost of on- site waste, training staff, green technologies and the new codes will take time, understanding, third party inspections and money before builder considers it next new home building project. They just might seek the help of the factory built manufactures to assist and to off-set their lack of experience and time to make a future project profitable in this new upcoming era of new home construction.

Steve Lefler is Vice President of Modular Lifestyles, Inc. Advanced Certified “Green” Building Professional “CGBP” and Build it Green Member. lef39@yahoo.com

Notice: As with all INdustry Voices guest blog posts, the views represented are that of the author and may or may not reflect the views of www. MHMSM.com

1943 N. Albany is a sustainably-designed single-family spec house that achieves a Chicago Green Homes two-star rating. It is the first development by Lindsey Lee and Ben Gault, the developer-builder team of Custom Green Homes Chicago (CGH). It is also the first green project for architect Frank Michalski of Northlight Architects.

Presently on the market, the house was developed to be competitive with other conventional single-family options, yet affordable given its green emphasis. With a listing price of over $500,000, the home is more affordable compared to some of its neighbors, which have sold for over $1.2 million. A primary focus of CGH was the creation of a home built on sustainable technology that shunned a premium price tag, making green construction costs comparable to that of conventional building.

Read more the full article »

Source: http://www.greenbeanchicago.com/

Submitted by: John Skura and Rich Osty

Sheri Koones, author of “Prefabulous and Sustainable”, debunks prefabrication home myths on a recent interview with David Ushery of New York Nonstop on NBC New York.

Sheri starts the interview by discounting the misconceptions of modular by stating “prefab homes built today are absolutely gorgeous, prefabulous and sustainable”. She goes on to highlight the benefits of modular as a building method explaining that modular is not only built faster and greener, they’re indistinguishable from traditional site built homes.

The entire interview can be can be found on NBCNewYork’s website. Click here to see the interview.

For more information about Sheri Koones including upcoming speaking engagements and appearances, visit her website at www.SheriKoones.com.

Item submitted by RJO.

by Chrissy Jackson

Communities are the enduring segment of the manufactured housing industry. As such, we community owners bear the brunt of the reputation – good or bad – that’s floating around the media and in the minds of the public. Communities age, they look tired, infrastructure wears out, new homes become larger and no longer fit on some of the older homesites and so on. We all know the many elements and challenges that this segment of the industry faces.

As a community owner or manager, it’s up to you to not only maintain your community, but to make it look as bright and shiny new as possible, while taking advantage of the maturing features that bring so much benefit to your residents.

How to do that? Glad you asked! There’s a series of articles coming that will walk you through upgrading your community – inside out – starting right here at www.MHMSM.com. Each month for the next eight months, we’ll look at a different part of the upgrade process and how to accomplish it while preserving the unique charms of your older community.

One of the other benefits of this series of articles is that community owners/managers of not-so-old communities can pick up tips for upgrades, too. Don’t wait until your entire community needs a facelift… start early using Chrissy Jackson’s tips.

Chrissy

Chrissy Jackson
President, Chrissy Jackson & Associates, Inc.
President, Florida Writers Association, Inc.
Vice President, Florida Writers Foundation, Inc.
P. O. Box 66069
St. Pete Beach, FL 33736-6069

Chrissy Jackson bio

Services & publications specifically designed for the needs of the manufactured housing industry.

Chrissy began her career as a Community Manager in 1980 with a 200-site manufactured home community in a rural area of Florida. Over the next 16 years, she was responsible for communities ranging from 125 sites in economically distressed areas to larger, country club type developments with over 800 sites, including many with sales operations.

In 1997, she created and headed the Chrissy Jackson Seminar Division of Steiner Communities. This venue enabled Chrissy to then provide property management seminars and training across the country for state association conventions and private property management conferences.

In May of 1999, Chrissy joined the staff of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) as Director of Training and Community Resources. She remains the principal trainer for the Manufactured Housing Educational Institute’s (MHEI) accreditation programs and other courses. These include the Professional Housing Consultant (PHC) course, the Crisis Communication courses, and the Play it Safe Disaster Preparedness Seminar. Chrissy Jackson also served as a professional resource available to the members of MHI’s National Communities Council.

She currently conducts private training sessions and workshops at regional or national employee conferences, and provides advisory services. Chrissy has been a presenter for the National Manufactured Housing Congress in Las Vegas, Nevada, for several years.

An internationally recognized author, she has been writing handbooks on community management since the early 1990′s. She has also written monthly columns for The Journal, Manufactured Housing Today, Manufactured Housing Professional News, The Merchandiser and Community Management (industry trade publications). In addition, she has penned guest articles for other newsletters, magazines and industry publications.

To reach Chrissy, write to Chrissy Jackson at P. O. Box 66069, St. Pete Beach, Fl 33736-6069. Or email chrissyj@earthlink.net. More information can also be found at www.chrissy-jackson.com.

I love the South Central Manufactured Housing Show – the weather can be as unpredictable as the economy is right now but you always have a great time. I hadn’t attended for a few years, but I believe in always being on top of trends and the market for my clients so I thought I’d attend and see what was new.

There has been lots of talk over the last few years about if we even need to have shows anymore – I truly believe we do. I do think though many times we miss a great opportunity of showing consumers what we do (and do well!) by not having a public day. Tunica is a great example – there is amazing traffic going by the homes every day (and these homes get set earlier than most shows so they even get more exposure) and I’m sure many of these are potential buyers. What I noticed this year is that Clayton and Southern Energy did some homes with beautiful exteriors, but they were in the middle of the show grounds with a sea of blah beige homes surrounding them – you couldn’t see they were there until you walked through the show. I would think that if the manufacturers worked together to help promote what we do to consumers and the press everyone would win. Another possibility would be having information from the different manufacturers available at the front, or even a website where they could get more information. On that note, this is one of the reasons I’m so excited about the Virtual Housing Show – it will give people a place to go and get information for more than the three or so days of a show.

Wednesday was an absolutely beautiful day – not too cold, not too hot, no rain and lots of beautiful homes to look at! One of the biggest trends I noticed is that manufacturers seem to be reverting back to neutral, simple exteriors, but the interiors had lots of that legendary “Alabama Flash”. Southern Energy was definitely the exception to that – their brick faced home was the one that everyone was talking about. It was a great example of how we can compete with site built homes. I personally loved the ranch house – it was a beautiful exterior and the bold colors and textures were really refreshing.

As far as interior colors, Franklin Homes were my favorites. A lot of the other homes started looking the same after awhile using the same colors and fabrics, but Franklin offered interiors that were simple,tasteful and used beautiful color palettes.

One thing I noticed, and I’d almost consider this a good thing is some of the homes had so much furniture in them it was hard for people to navigate through them. It was great to see so much traffic going through the homes – that had to make the manufacturers that were participating in the show happy! Space planning is so important and one reason why you do a model home. You should want to sell homes, not furniture and traffic flow in a show house needs to be a major consideration. On the other side of the coin if you under-merchandise it looks like you ran out of money. Hiring a professional that understands how to make a model home sell can mean the difference between the model becoming your top seller or one that sits on the shelves.

With Tunica being outdoors and so spread out many times I don’t get to see people that I know are there, but this time I was thrilled to see people that I knew doing their research. Craig Calkins from Cavco Texas was there as well as one of my favorite new Showtime at Tunica clients – Howard McGirt of Champion of Texas. Erv Bontrager of Commodore Homes was also there and we crossed paths in a couple of the homes. You can tell who the current and future leaders are of our industry are – they never sleep and are always out there learning.

I also spent quite a bit of time in the vendor spaces looking for new products, and there were some interesting ones there. My favorite was Syntec and the BeauFlor resilient flooring. The offerings were spectacular and this product just continues to provide a look and ease of maintenance that I personally would use in my home over ceramic tile or wood – it looks the same but has easy or no maintenance. Definitely a green,lifestyle product – perfect for busy families or people with pets. Syntec was very smart to bring Michael Huffman and Dean Sippel on to their team to introduce Syntec to the manufactured housing community.

Another group that it was great to run into was Russell Yancey and Chris Murray with Blazon International Group (BIG). They shared with me some of the new introductions they will be making and if you haven’t seen their products yet you need to.

My coverage of the show wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the amazing marketing campaign that Clayton did. As basketball was at the top of any sports fans topic list, what Clayton did with their “Tunica Madness” was the perfect example of a timely idea that was right on target for their buyers. They had trading style cards instead of business cards out in the homes that had the various sales people’s “stats” – what region they sold in, how many years with the company, and how many homes they sold in 2009. They had lots of games, fun prizes (branded with the Clayton logos) and huge inflated basketballs at each end of their area signed by “Commissioner” Kevin Clayton. Well done, and I would argue that this campaign would win over any I’ve ever seen a site builder do.

If you didn’t attend the Tunica show you should have – it had a lot to offer. But MHMSM and Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber would like to share what we experienced at Tunica, and have over 500 images from the show we would like to share with you. Just visit the Tunica Show Photos page and we’ll email you the URL and password to where you can view what we saw and loved.

Next stop – Vegas! We will be attending the 20th MHI Congress in Las Vegas April 13 – 15th, then on to the Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa, OK April 29-30. A Lifestylist’s work is never done . If you are at Congress please say hello – I’ll be with the photographer capturing images and ideas to share here. In Tulsa I will be presenting a Lifestylist Designed Home for Champion Homes of Texas. Hope to see and meet you soon!

Suzanne S. Felber, Lifestylist® Suzanne has been involved in the home building industry for over 25 years. She is a member and instructor of the Institute of Residential Marketing, was previously on the board of trustees for the National Sales and Marketing Council and is a popular speaker at various events including the International Builders Convention, The Manufactured Housing Industry Congress and Home Interiors and Gifts national conventions.
Her work has been seen throughout the country in various publications, showhouses and model homes. She has been featured on the HGTV program “Dream Builders” and her work has appeared in Home Magazine, This Old House Magazine and Home Depot’s StyleIdeas Magazines. Felber considers herself a Lifestylist® because home design truly has more to do with how a person lives within their home instead of current trends and fads. Felber is the only licensed Lifestylist® in the United States, and has merchandised successful site built and manufactured model homes from coast to coast. The Home Idea Factory is available for all of your design and decor needs including furniture and decor packages, product selections, and show homes. We can be reached at: 214-941-8341 or emailed at: answers@lifestylist.com – All photography by LAS Photo

by Tim Connor, CSP

As part of the www.MHMSM.com writing team, I can tell you that we are always on the lookout for new ways to serve Associations, Companies, our readers and clients. We’ve had a number of suggestions and requests regarding how we could provide a Speaker Bureau for Associations and various MH Industry Companies to use, and with that in mind, let me provide this introduction.

First, we want to thank all of you for making us at www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com an important part of the factory built home industry landscape. In line with that reality, we are exited to announce that we have decided to begin a new service for the industry effective April 1st, 2010.

Factory Built Housing Industry Speakers Bureau.

Bob Stovall speaking
at Mobilewealth Seminar

www.MHMSM.com will now be offering organizations seeking talented and proven speakers with vast knowledge of this industry the opportunity to hire some of the most talented industry speakers available today. We have already partnered with some of the best of the best. We believe it will keep on getting even better over time.

Each speaker we represent has agreed to reduce their fees by 25% for their speaking and training services to the Manufactured Housing Industry when you utilize our bureau services. They have also agreed to pay us a 25% engagement fee which we will use to grow our business platform so that we might continue to offer you the best information to help you continually grow profitably.

To take advantage of this opportunity all that is required that you contact us with your need for a speaker for a keynote address or training seminar and we will pass this information along to one or more members of our speaking team. They will then contact you directly and all arrangements i.e. logistics, session content, fees and travel expenses will be handled directly between you and the speaker you select.

Our speaking team has a vast and wide array of industry knowledge and experience including; marketing, sales, leadership, management, motivational and other industry topics. Many members of our team also offer a variety of consulting and coaching services that can be customized to fit your individual needs.

If you want information on speakers, please send a message to speakers@mhmsm.com

We see this initiative as a win/win for everyone and encourage you to take advantage of this new service. We look forward to helping you grow your business and our continuing relationship.

In His service, Tim Connor

tim@timconnor.com (EMail)
www.TimConnor.com
www.CorporateDisconnect.com

Adapt or die… That is the universal ultimatum, and retailers in the factory built housing industry are no exception.

Well, spring is just around the corner and for most of you, the snow is melting and the “season” is about to get under way. You have survived yet another winter and you are most likely looking forward to increased activity. But\ are you really ready? Are you really prepared to harvest as much business as possible over the next 8-10 months or are you going to suffer through another less-than-stellar year? Flourish or perish, the choice is truly yours. In this article I will give you what I believe to be the 5 essential elements for not only survival, but to actually be extremely profitable. That’s right… I said “extremely profitable”.

If history is allowed to serve as a teacher, then I am absolutely convinced that while the overall future of this industry may look a bit more challenging than you would like, there will be retailers who will make as much profit this year as the most successful retailers did when our industry was experiencing better times. Interestingly enough, whether you think this is possible or not, you will be right. What we do know is that we cannot “change” the economy, but we can certainly learn to be profitable within our economy. Some of the retailers, communities and developers that will embrace these 5 principles will have good years, others will have great years, but everyone will benefit.

The Status Quo

Before I share these 5 principles, let me first address what I see that is NOT being done. I see still way too many retailers or community operators sitting with their thumb up their proverbial derriere waiting for things to change. If that describes you, here’s the news… things WILL change… but not in your favor unless you MAKE something happen. Stop living under the illusion that the industry is in dire straights and there is nothing you can do about it. Tough times sometimes build character, but tough times always reveal character.

I see retailers all across the country trying to cut more costs by reducing marketing and advertising, reducing commissions, eliminating sales positions, and further reducing inventory. Understand that you cannot simply “save your way to prosperity”. Your revenues MUST outpace your expenditures and I am quite certain that the majority have cut all of the fat out of your organization and any further cuts will slice too deep.

What I am not seeing are enough retailers focusing on the other side of the equation and doing all that can be done to increase sales, increase traffic, increase conversion ratios and following up with current prospects.

Included in your “growth kit” you will find 2 fundamental strategies and 3 disciplines that you have to master. If you understand and embrace these 5 concepts, you will not only survive, but you will be more profitable than you can imagine at this point. First, the 2 basic beliefs:

1st Basic Strategy: Think Small

What I mean by thinking small is to begin developing and structuring a business model that is based on gearing down your operation to a size that is concurrent with your current market. This restructuring of your business has to be based on what is often referred to as a “break-even strategy”. In other words, it is about putting plans into place that allows your organization to be profitable in virtually any market. Keep in mind that markets have always been cyclical. You can be profitable in any market as long as you are prepared to operate within that market and as long as you know what your fixed overhead is and you know how much you need to sell in order to break even and even make money. If you’re struggling with this issue, I would suggest calling Chad Carr at Rainmaker Software (563-359-4441 or chad@getrain.com). I know of no-one who is as adept and knowledgeable about explaining and helping a retail builder implement this very timely and powerful business strategy.

2nd Basic Strategy: Don’t try to “Save your way to Prosperity”

Understandably, one of the first reactions a small business owner has when times get tough is to reduce overhead. One must realize that reducing overhead without having a plan of how to most effectively apply the money that you DO spend, often does more harm than good. If your cutting out the fat in your organization, that’s great. We should do this regularly. If you’re cutting into the muscle of your organization, that can be detrimental, and if you cut off your legs, that can be devastating. When times are tough, you don’t need LESS advertising, you need more EFFECTIVE advertising. You don’t need LESS inventory, you need less DEAD inventory; you need inventory that has a proven track record. In tough times you don’t need LESS sales people; you need your sales people to be more PRODUCTIVE.

1st Discipline: Prospect Acquisition

It is absolutely essential that you have a comprehensive marketing strategy that will put you and your organization in front of every prospect that is shopping for your product in your market place. I realize that all of you have walk-in traffic, and drive-by is a great source for prospects. Many of you spend a great deal of money on increasing your curb appeal and I applaud you for this effort and foresight.

According to our research 87% + of all prospects begin their shopping efforts on the internet. If you do not have a “visible” presence on the internet, you will never see those prospects unless they happen to drive by your location. Having a website is great for promoting your business on the internet, but in order to drive people to your website, you must MARKET YOUR WEBSITE and most business fail to do so.

2nd Discipline: Customer Conversion

Once you have the number of qualified leads you need, it is absolutely essential that you have a specific, documented and measurable process by which you fulfill the inquiries you get from the internet or via phone calls. Here is what you need:

1. First, you need a process by which you get these inquiring prospects to your store.
2. Second, you need a Sales Process by which you convert the largest number of these prospects into homebuyers. After all, this is the essence of our business.

According to our research, if all other requirements are met as they relate to the sales process, 30% of the prospective home buyer will make a commitment on the very first visit to your location. That means that 70% of the prospective home buyers will either not buy at all, or make a commitment to someone at some time in the future. Your sales people must have the ability to build enough of a relationship and have a specific follow-up methodology in place so that these other 70% of prospects actually will respond when the sales person follows up. There are too many sales people that have all but given up on following up with prospects because their prospects either don’t take their calls, return their calls, show up for appointments and, obviously rarely come back to buy.

Your effectiveness in your follow-up efforts is in direct correlation to your ability to build a strong relationship with your prospect while they are in front of you.

3rd Discipline: Prospect Management

We are living in the Information Age, which simply suggests that he who gathers the most information, who can analyze this information and who can manage this information… WINS. At least they will win more often than those who do not.

We also know that sales people today are busy, or at least they should be. Sales people should only be focused on two things:

1. they should be either in front of a prospect, or…
2. they should be busy trying to get prospects BACK in front of them.

I think you get my drift. Sales people should be selling. As I stated earlier, because such a large percentage of prospects are not going to make a buying commitment until a later time, sales people are required to stay in front of and keep up with a fairly substantial number of prospects at any given time. This is virtually impossible unless you have some type of technology working on their behalf. At the very least, not having such a technology is horribly inefficient. Also realize that sales people by default are only going to keep up with people that they believe are going to buy in the very near future… ones that they can SELL. The rest, I’m afraid will fall through the cracks, not because they’re not going to buy, but because your sales person believes that they’re not going to buy in the immediate future. Again, a good prospect management system will avoid losing prospects and increase your sales. If this is an issue, visit www.getrain.com and you will find some really great information.

So there you have it.

While the industry outlook may be less stellar than we would like, there are few, if any, reasons why you should not be very profitable as long as you plan to be profitable and you position yourself to be profitable. Think small, spend wisely, attract quality leads, sell the ones that will buy today and stay in front of those who are not yet ready to make a commitment. Sounds simple… but rest assured that those retailers, developers and community operators who are going to experience high profitability in the next 2-3 years, and I have several clients that are expecting record years, will be paying attention to the 2 basic strategies and the 3 disciplines I just discussed. They will not perish, but they will flourish… and you have the same opportunity.

My gift to you…

For those who do not have as effective and efficient sales process as you would like in place, over the next few months I will be offering a step-by-step sales training program which will be easy to understand and even easier to follow. In appropriate sequence, with each article I will address one step of the sales process and give your sales people a sure-fired system for closing more deals in less time. If you will print and collect all of these 7 articles and keep them in a binder, you and your sales people will have a brief, but poignant sales methodology in place. Follow it and succeed. This is my gift to you, but what you do with it is entirely up to you.

Conclusion…

The ONLY thing that will bring our industry out of the doldrums is enough retailers and sales professionals just like you will step up to the plate and be committed to doing all that they can to knock every ball out of the park. You and others like you ARE the industry.

I, and many others like me, are deeply committed to helping you prosper and our passion for this industry is as strong as ever… but we can’t do it for you. I know you want to not only survive, but also prosper, otherwise you would not be searching through this highly informative website nor would you be reading this article.

So in 2010, let’s lift the bat off of our shoulders and swing… swing hard and swing accurate… and let’s for once, claim our rightful place in the affordable housing industry.

John Underwood has been a sales and sales management consultant in the factory built housing industry for over 25 years. During that time, he has helped literally thousands of sales people reach the level of performance they wished to achieve.

He is also the author of “Scratch Selling: 18 Lessons Golf Will Teach You About Sales“, an author for numerous industry publications, as well as a past member of the Executives in Residence program at the University of Arizona where he spoke on sales and marketing issues.

Mr. Underwood is available to work with your retail organization or community to help you build a more effective and efficient sales organization. He currently resides in Naples, FL and can be reached at:

John A. Underwood
380 Stella Maris North
Suite 2607
Naples, FL 34144
Cell: 520-241-9907
Office: 239-393-0465
sellingedge@aol.com

Given the continuing decline of the manufactured housing industry and the related loss of affordable housing opportunities for moderate and lower-income American families, the attached February 23, 2010 MHARR WASHINGTON UPDATE — REPORT AND ANALYSIS, addressing the following issues, is a must-read in order to be fully up-to-date regarding these important matters:

• MHARR And FHFA Officials Meet On Private Financing
• MHARR Members Brief Congress On Pressing Issues
• No Time For More Costly Regulation
• Energy Regulation Catching Up With Industry
• MHARR Refutes HUD Position On Administrator

Click here to read the entire articles

Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform
1331 Pennsylvania Ave N.W., Suite 508
Washington, D.C. 20004
Phone: 202/783-4087
Fax: 202/783-4075
Email: MHARRdg@aol.com

As an industry we have done a remarkable job of designing a product that consumers need, but what I am seeing is most consumers don’t know we offer that product. The stereotypes of “trailers”, “mobile homes” and “sales lots” drive away many people who could really benefit from what we do. This includes everything from the most affordable housing to amazing estates we all would love to live in. There has always been a lot of talk about doing an image campaign (and the cost) but maybe this is an idea who’s time has come by taking a different approach.

I’ve never been very good at doing what everyone else does – that’s why I became a Lifestylist instead of a traditional designer or merchandiser. Consumers want more than just a decorated house – they want a home that reflects their lifestyle. This takes a little more time and research but it shouldn’t cost anymore – it might even cost less. I also really believe in spreading the word about the great things my clients are doing as well as talking about trends and ideas that can help everyone. I don’t charge my clients for this – I consider it a service and part of my cost of doing business. I also go to trade shows, events and do work in the site built industry so I can bring back more than “what we’ve always done” as an industry.

This week I got invited to a meeting of the Social Media Club of Dallas. In a few hours I met some amazing new people who I was able to share the message of factory built housing to and they shared with me the importance of social media. Social media by definition is the various online technology tools that enable people to communicate easily via the internet to share information and resources. Social media can include text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia communications. These include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FourSquare and blogs. For $20 (which included dinner) I learned what to expect from these groups and how to make them work for myself and my clients. They shared case studies that had mind boggling results.

What really made an impression is how easy and cost effective it could be if the members of our community came together and started using social media to promote our industry. There would be minimal or no cost and think about what could happen if every person who benefits from being in our industry got on Facebook or Twitter and started telling the world what a great product we provide. Is this the ultimate answer to change our image? With technology changing as quickly as it does it might be the solution we have been looking for. At least we would be doing something and getting our community connected.

Tony Kovach has done an amazing job in a short period of time sharing the message and bringing the community together with his Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management site. It is always full of great information and he is always updating what is there and keeping the message current. And I think his idea of having a Virtual Louisville Show© is right on trend. I attended most of our traditional shows for the past 8 years and the last two have been painful as far as attendance and sales. We designed some beautiful homes but it was like having a party and no one came. What a great opportunity for the factory built industry with a virtual show to take back our place in the market as an innovative, cost effective and green way to build. I know I’ll be attending this virtual show and will also be tweeting and blogging about it.

Let’s get this party started and get connected. You can find me at:

Twitter: @homeideafactory
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LifestylistDesign/104907317529?ref=search&sid=1370651794.2078388608..1 (or search LifestylistDesign)
Blog: www.aboutmodularhousing.com

See you at the show!

Suzanne Felber

We all get just 24 hours per day. How do you spend invest your time?