Industry Voices

An MH Industry Turn Around Plan, Part II

CU Factory Built Lending, has again rolled out a new loan product with eye-popping low rates for manufactured homes in leased land communities. This leading industry’s lender provided this out of their Seattle office.

Their new floor rate is 4.5%. This is a “step-up loan”, not an adjustable rate loan. The low starting rate is locked in for the first five years, then “steps up” to the higher rate for the remaining term at 7.25% fixed.. This lender’s loan products are always fully amortized. The terms are very flexible and not too difficult qualifying; for example, a guideline that there be no mortgage defaults.

For example, a used 1980 multi-sectional in-community home-only could qualify with 10% down. Assuming top tier credit, the applicant can get a 20-year loan at 4.75% for the first five years, and 7.5% for the remaining 15 years. With 20% down, the start rate would be 4.5%, stepping up to 7.25% after 5 years.

Better yet, for a 10-year loan, with 20% down, the first five years will be fixed at 4.5%, and the remaining years fixed at 6.25%. The borrower may pay the monthly payment based on the higher rate, resulting in an accelerated principal reduction, and saving thousands in interest.

We are told this new “One Step Program” loan product is available in all CUFBL states. Cash-outs and refinances are also eligible, case-by-case. In CA, the older “pre-HUDs” are eligible, but with a 1% rate adder.

This will make financing new and used MH chattels much easier. Our industry needs a good shot in the arm. # #

post submitted by:

Dave Shanklin
Mobile Brokers Acceptance
(916) 962-7128

Exclusive MHMSM.com Industry In Focus Report

The March 2011 IBISWorld report that cited manufactured home dealers as a ‘dying industry’ has made news inside and outside of the manufactured housing industry. MHMSM.com has contacted a variety of Industry leaders and personalities from coast to coast to get their comments. On-the-record comments have included national association leaders, as well as professionals in factory-built housing from the manufacturing, retail, communities and lending sectors.

Messages, comments and calls to MHMSM.com from manufactured home industry professionals dribbled in at first, and then gained in volume as publications such as The Atlantic and Business Insider covered the IBISWorld report. As an example of mainstream media coverage, a TV station in Houston reportedly called a regional firm to interview them about the developing IBISWorld story.

Derek Thompson, associate editor at The Atlantic, penned a commentary that included these words:

“At the center of a perfect storm of boomer burnout, a brutal recession,
and a rapidly changing industry, the mobile home retail market
could be the worst industry in America. Here’s why.”

Photo from The Atlantic

“If I asked you to name America’s least fortunate industry, your mind might go to record stores, obliterated by on-demand apps; or photofinishers, left in the cold as digital cameras turn Americans into our own photo editors; or fabric makers, where business is booming … in Shenzhen, China.

“But when it comes to unlucky industries, it’s manufactured home (aka mobile home) retailers who really hit the trifecta. First they missed out on the housing boom. Then they felt the gut-punch of the recession. Now they might yet miss out on the recovery. That makes them America’s fastest dying industry, according to a new report from IBISWorld.”

Paul Bradley with Resident Owned Communities USA (ROC USA) was one of the first in the manufactured housing world’s leadership to publicly respond to this IBISWorld report. Bradley wrote a feature article for MHMSM.com that analyzed the IBISWorld report. Quoting from Bradley’s analysis:

“The (IBISWorld) report states ‘demand is dwindling’ and ‘sales are stagnant because the industry is not innovating, and that sales are likely to continue falling in the coming years.’ They go on to say, ‘Manufacturers have made cosmetics changes to manufactured homes, but they have not been significant enough to alter their life cycle stage.’ The report puts MH retailers in the ‘Industry stagnation’ category of declining industries.

“Are you kidding me? These are ‘deeply researched answers’?

“First, the headline clearly comes from their marketing division as a means of grabbing headlines. The research is not about a dying industry but a declining industry segment – one of two long-standing distribution channels in the business.

“With MH shipments in 2010 at 50,000 or 20 percent of 2000 levels, it’s not news that retailer revenues over that period declined. On that data, I’m surprised establishments are not down more than 56 percent. It suggests that the segment has excess capacity and additional closings are likely.

“Most surprising to me is laying the blame at the feet of manufacturers on the issue of design! From a ground-level market vantage point, that’s misplaced.

“The industry’s great declines came about as a result of, first, an industry-created chattel collapse where the seeds were sown in run-up to the 373,000 shipments in 1998. The collapse, and the repossession overhang which followed, began the decline like a skilled boxer’s well-placed left jab.

“The right overhand came next in the form of aggressive sub-prime and predatory lenders in the site-built market. In that run-up, traditional MH buyers – who were harder to finance for MH as a result of the chattel collapse – were lost to site-built housing in an eerily familiar boom market.

“Dazed by the right hand blow to our collective heads, the left to the body that has people reeling now is the regulatory reaction – the SAFE act, etc. – to the clearly consumer-eating lending practices of the last decade.

“The results of this three punch combination are declines of the magnitude widely reported and felt, and like a good whack, the pain lasts a while.

“Innovation in housing design, however, is not the industry’s chief failing.

“For those of us in the community market segment, in fact, innovation in new homes is a small issue – not a non-issue but a mere shadow of the aforementioned home financing issue. In fact, we are seeing demand for replacement and in-fill homes but only where we are able to arrange decent home financing. People want more efficient homes and the cost savings with new EnergyStar homes can be dramatic based on buyers with whom I’ve spoken.”

(Editor’s Note: The complete analysis by Paul Bradley can be found at this link.)

Other commentary in the form of articles proposed for publication, private and public comments followed. Thayer Long at the Manufactured Housing Institute issued this email as part of his response:

“State Execs & MHI Board:

“A very well articulated response to the IBIS report from last week by Paul Bradley which was just posted on www.MHMSM.com.

“I’d also just add that the sentiment at the Tunica Show, the Louisville Show, and the expected strong turnout at the Congress & Expo and the Tulsa Show and York Show later this month certainly don’t indicate this industry is going anywhere.

“Tony/Paul – I hope you don’t mind me sharing. We’ll see you in Las Vegas. Thanks for your support.

“Thanks-

“Thayer”

MHMSM.com spoke with Danny Ghorbani at the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) and to Thayer Long at the Manufactured Housing Institute.

Danny Ghorbani stated in a telephone interview that his comments were not the official position of MHARR, but represented his own views on the IBISWorld report and related.

Ghorbani stressed that the IBISWorld report represented the “failure” of “the post-production sector of the Industry” [meaning, MHI] in “serving that segment of its membership.”

The MHARR official then referenced two previously published documents that do represent MHARR’s official position, which were previously published on MHMSM.com in August and October 2010. These MHARR Viewpoint articles called for ‘the post-production segments’ of the manufactured housing industry to form their own national association; a thinly veiled vote of no-confidence from MHARR towards MHI.

MHMSM.com spoke extensively with Thayer Long at the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). The typically soft-spoken Long was quick to respond.

Long was at times tongue-in-cheek, at other points direct in his comments about the IBISWorld report and Ghorbani’s often pointed comments on the matter. It should be stressed that Long’s comments, which follow, should be viewed as his own, and not necessarily reflective of the official view of MHI.

In an exclusive interview with MHMSM.com, Long shared the following thoughts:

Thayer Long:
“If it is a dying industry, then ok, then I guess I quit! And if Danny wants to blame it on us [MHI], okay, what else is new? … I am still struggling to figure out what he (Danny Ghorbani) is doing right now. Name one thing that he has accomplished … in the past three years? What has he accomplished…? I would love for you to think about that and get back to me. What has he accomplished? We [MHI] win and lose some battles. But at least we try. We have accomplished some things. Except, except, except… [MHARR]…nothing….

READ THE FULL INDUSTRY IN FOCUS REPORT

As far back as 1830, the French statesman and author Alexis de Tocqueville observed in Democracy in America that … Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all dispositions are forever forming associations.  There are not only commercial and industrial associations in which all take part, but others of a thousand different types ­religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, immensely large and very minute. And you know, he was right then and remains so today.  How many folks don’t belong to one or more social, religious or business groups?  Very very few.  But the issue here is, how many of you are not maximizing the profitability of your business because you don’t belong to a state, provincial or national manufactured housing trade association or institute?

The has identified 22 features that attract businessmen and women to join various assemblies of like-minded individuals and firms.  And the nearly two dozen features have been grouped into four areas of emphasis: activities, information, publications, and benefits. The following paragraphs take a closer look at ten of these feature areas (i.e. reasons) that are particularly germane to manufactured housing industry aficionados.

1.      To support and advance a personal, business and other common and important interest to the individual or business involved.  For example, manufactured housing, finance, real estate investment or management, OEM suppliers (i.e. original equipment manufacturers), and on and on.  The purpose to all this?  To capitalize on the very real concept that there is greater strength in numbers of like-minded folk than always going it alone.

2.      To meet, network and share ideas, frustrations and lessons learned, with peers who have similar personal and professional interests.  A good example of this is the periodic meetings we attend on local (i.e. chapter), state (i.e. convention or annual meeting) and national levels to do just that.

3.      To acquire information and access resources key to one’s business survival, even prosperity.  Venues for these opportunities?  Regularly scheduled meetings, trade and professional publications subscription, trade show attendance, even recreational activities like golf outings.  Furthermore, unique and helpful resources are oft available from association staff contacts and their experience, familiarity with research results, etc.

4.      To develop new business through and with people met at association events and activities.  When I started my manufactured housing-related business two decades ago, visiting local manufactured housing association chapter meetings was essential in developing contacts and future business relationships throughout the locale in which I was working.  And now, twenty years later, the pattern repeats itself on a national and international level relative to the very same reasons.

5.      To increase and update one’s skills and knowledge base.  How?  By attending association-sponsored seminars, training programs and other related activities.  Frankly, there are no other opportunities to obtain the specialized knowledge we often need in manufactured housing than to be intimately involved with our state, provincial and national trade associations and institutes.

6.      To keep abreast with changes to industry rules, regulations, statutes and standards.  For that matter, association involvement is oft the only way one has to input the process to begin with, to express one’s support of or displeasure with pending legislation, rules changes, etc.  For that matter, sharing a practical Code of Business Ethics with one’s peers is an important feature of this particular reason for joining.

7.      To learn of and access latest worthwhile business products and services.  Vendors often contact trade associations first to ‘test the waters’ relative to market (i.e.  association member) acceptance.  This is an especially common phenomenon at our regional MH trade shows.

8.      To interface with professional association staff for answers to strategic business questions -and learn where to go for further information.  This could well include access to the association’s attorney for legal opinion and initial guidance in sensitive business matters.

9.       To increase clout in local, regional and national political and regulatory arenas.  Politics is obviously a fact of business as well as personal life.  Why not enhance your opinions in this arena by uniting with trade associations that share your concerns?

10.  To take advantage of group purchasing and/or member discounts for certain products and services.  There’s a very wide range of possibilities here: printing, advertising, travel discounts, group health and liability insurance, banking services, long distance telephone services, association -sponsored retirement plans, etc.

Convinced yet to join?  I surely hope so.  Here’s what Teddy Roosevelt had to say on the subject: ‘Every man owes a part of his time and money to the business or industry in which he is engaged.  No man has a moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve conditions within his sphere.’  So won’t you join me?  As a matter of principle, I maintain trade association memberships in every state or province in which I have ongoing business interests, plus the national association that lobbies in my behalf at that level.

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” That observation was made famous by President Ronald Reagan, even if not originated by him. The recent passage of the SAFE Act and the subsequent developments at the state levels in reaction to it certainly brings to mind that quotation. Congress passed the SAFE Act as a reaction to the bursting of the housing bubble, which had been expanding for more than a decade. The SAFE Act has specific language that requires parties to comply with new licensing requirements if a particular party in the transaction performs two separate functions and uses the word “and” to connect the functions.

When a national organization developed “model” language to assist states in developing their laws in compliance with the SAFE Act, the word “and” was replaced with the word “or.” While the SAFE Act’s language permits individual states to adopt language that exceeds the mandates within the act, the net impact of the creation of the “model language” was that many states took the path of least resistance and used the suggested language from the “model.” The adoption of the “model language” by a significant number of states has raised the bar for compliance with the SAFE Act in those affected states. This extreme application using the model language raises the cost of doing business in the affected states and does not reflect the intent of Congress when the act was passed.

A partial list of the consequences of the SAFE Act:

• Exit of lenders at the state level rather than go through the ratcheted-up licensing level
• Increased costs for those lenders who did not exit
• Increased costs for lenders with a national presence, for they have to comply with multiple states’ licensing requirements
• Exit of lenders that had a multi-state presence, but could not handle the attendant compliance

The net result to the consumer is fewer lenders to compete for his/her business. Those lenders that are available have to charge higher interest rates to cover the increased costs that occurred from compliance activities.

###

Douglas Gorman, Home-Mart, Inc.
doug@homemart.us

Let me take this opportunity to share some more exciting news about the Great Southwest Home Show! We now have another plant confirmed! Southern Energy (SE) of Texas has committed, along with Southern Energy of Alabama. Currently our lineup is: Sunshine, Legacy, Skyline, Palm Harbor, Oak Creek, American Homestar, Fleetwood, Clayton, SE of Alabama, SE of Texas, Franklin Homes and KABCO… a couple more plants are still on the fence! However, only a couple slots are still available in the current site-plan. Naturally we can always add more rows. The Expo holds 100 homes and we do have access to the lower level that will accommodate 50 more homes!

Just three months out and already our supplier/service booths are filling up! Not only will we showcase “industry related” products that only do wholesale business with our manufacturers and retailers/community owners, we also have a large number of booth exhibitors that are showcasing their products during both “Trade” and the two and a half “Public” days. We have wine vendors, specialty food vendors, roasted nut vendors, household decor vendors, healthcare vendors, amusement/lodging vendors, sheds/landscape vendors. There will be no bad locations/areas for home displays at the Great Southwest Home Show! [same] Both the North and South ends of the Expo will be open for public days. At both ends of the entrance, we will have some cool exhibitors (Branson & Southern Journey) showcasing vehicles (trucks/cars) for drawings, plus other vacation giveaways both for Trade & Public Days! The Show will have a “wow” presence unlike any other “industry” show you have ever been too! And again we are only three months out, so it’s continually building momentum!

If you have not yet submitted your paperwork to be part of this exciting show, please do so as soon as possible! You don’t want to be left out! This will be the only largest indoor home show in the country as well as the only one west of the Mississippi!! Go to www.mhao.org and find our show logo on the main page and various links for registrations that fit your needs! # #

Deanna Fields, Executive Director of the Manufactured Housing Association of Oklahoma (MHAO) and the Show Coordinator

A Conversation with Kathleen Maynard, CMHI

Unlike the manufactured housing industry in the United States, the market for manufactured homes in Canada remains rather prosperous by comparison. A Canadian Manufactured Housing Institute (CMHI) report for the 3rd quarter of 2010 shows some 3,608 factory-built single-family homes were started in the third quarter, representing a 17 percent improvement over the same period in 2009; and that factory-built units have started to improve as a share of total single- family housing starts. In raw numbers, that may not immediately impress, but consider the population variation. The population of Canada is approximately 33,700,000, compared to some 307,000,000 in the U.S.

The healthy market has attracted a number of U.S. companies to become certified to do business in Canada where communities are being updated and renovated. There are also important distinctions in the market that some credit with the success of the industry in our northern neighbor.

The third-quarter report also showed a surge in imports of manufactured buildings, and weak exports resulted in Canada registering a trade deficit of manufactured buildings, its first since the fourth quarter of 2008. The report indicates that although the U.S. still accounts for the majority of exports of manufactured buildings, demand should continue to waver as the housing market in the U.S. remains depressed.

Kathleen Maynard, Executive Director and CEO of the Canadian Manufactured Housing Institute, spoke with MHMSM.com about some of the differences between the market and regulatory environment in the U.S. and Canada.

A major difference, and one that has kept the market strong and attracted U.S. companies, is the fact that chattel loan financing is for the most part readily available in Canada.

Maynard explains the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation provides chattel loan insurance for manufactured homes when land is not involved.

“If you’re putting a home into a land-lease community without purchasing the land, then they provide the insurance to facilitate those sales,” Maynard says. “It’s required you need to get mortgage insurance with less than 25 percent down payment. CMHI provides that.”

A five percent down payment requirement is typical in Canada. The maximum amortization period on chattel loans is 25 years. Effective March 18, the maximum period is 30 years for other mortgage loans. Maynard says other features of the two types of loans are consistent. Default rates on chattel loans are not available.

Perhaps most notable is that Maynard says there is typically appreciation on homes purchased with chattel loans in Canada.

“There would be a comparison made of recent purchase prices of similar homes in the area, and factors such as improvements and retrofits made would be taken into account,” she says.

While manufactured homes in the United States are somewhat distinct from other forms of both factory-built and site-built housing because they follow federal manufacturing and safety standards, Maynard explains there is no equivalent to the HUD Code in Canada.

“There’s no across-the-board federal standard,” Maynard explains. “Anything produced in the factory has to meet the same requirements.” In some ways, she says, it may be easier to have factory-built housing installed in Canada. All factory-built housing must meet standards set by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).

That’s not to say local building officials aren’t able to at times restrict the placement of manufactured housing. Local building officials do have the authority over technical requirements.

For example, Maynard says some local jurisdictions don’t approve homes built to something known as the Z240 standard, which she says is the closest thing Canada has to the HUD Code.

“If it’s just built to CSA Z240, they may not approve it,” she says, explaining that that standard has recently been updated to mirror the national building code, which is voluntarily adopted by Canada’s provinces.

Zoning issues can also prevent placement of manufactured homes in Canada, but that, she says, is largely due to issues surrounding terminology and outdated regulations. These issues are particularly acute in the province of Alberta.

This is not to suggest the grass is always greener across the northern border. The industry has had its ups and downs in recent years. Maynard says while 2008 was generally a very good year for the industry, 2009 was terrible, and while 2010 started off strong, there was a bit of a decrease in the second half.

“Most economists are projecting deceleration for 2011, but not a complete collapse or anything; just a downturn in keeping with demographic requirements,” Maynard says. “Prior to economic meltdown, we were producing at levels above what was projected by demographic requirements. Particular markets were very hot. What they’re saying now is a return to normal. 2009 was below normal. 2010 and 2011 are stabilizing.

Regionally, Maynard says Quebec and Ontario did better in 2010 than 2009 and activity in British Columbia is on the rise, but Alberta is “not as hot as it used to be.”

“There was a huge boom in Alberta and Saskatchewan in ’06, ’07 and ’08,” Maynard says. “It’s not as hot as it was, but still good there. No market is experiencing a huge boom.”

Maynard says “the landlease community option has been more attractive to first-time buyers looking for lower cost, or seniors who want to free-up equity and spend half the year in Florida. Typically the industry has looked to those consumer segments.”

While manufactured housing typically makes up ten percent of single-family housing starts in Canada, Maynard says, as for over-all starts, multi-family is accelerating faster than single-family.

“It could be due to housing costs, aging population, all sorts of things,” she says.

While the hottest industry topics in the United States seem to center around financing and regulation, the most talked about issues in Canada are an aging population and how that affects the number of sales and type of units and how design might be affected, a shortage of skilled labor and the use of social media.

“The shortage of labor is in a way a result of aging population,” Maynard says. “The average age of a brick layer is something like 68. There are a range of federal and provincial programs trying to deal with that.” For example, she says the ideas of additional apprenticeship certifications and allowing apprentices to move across provinces are being explored.

Maynard says the aging population is resulting in more multi-generational households, so demand for homes with two master suites, as an example, is on the rise.

The biggest difference, Maynard says, between the industries in Canada and the United States is the distinction made between manufactured and factory-built housing in the U.S. That distinction isn’t made in Canada and may be the reason why what is called manufactured housing doesn’t have much of a stigma across the northern border.

“There has been a lot of positive press (in Canada) with improvements in design and green technology and with manufactured housing being an environmental choice,” Maynard says. “There’s interest in the architect and design community. Developers and planners are seeing it as a good green choice.

“We talk more about factory-based construction,” she says. “That’s been a way to address the stigma. That was a concern for many years. There’s more of a recognition that with certification and quality control, waste-management and protection from the weather, the benefits are more recognized.”

Attached for your information and review is a copy of a Executive Order regarding federal regulation just issued by the White House on January 18, 2011. The Order, released in conjunction with a companion Wall Street Journal article by the President on over-regulation, marks a major policy shift by the Administration that has implications for manufactured housing as a federally-regulated industry.

In fact, it appears this Order almost could have been written with the HUD Code manufactured housing industry in mind. Its focus is on promoting the type of fair, reasonable and open regulatory environment that the HUD Code industry needs to thrive while serving consumers of affordable housing. Among other things, it states, as Administration policy, that the federal regulatory system, while protecting health and safety, must also advance “economic growth, innovation, competitiveness and job creation” through an “open exchange of information” that includes “affected stakeholders” – exactly the opposite of what is happening today in the HUD program.

Consequently, after carefully examining the Order overnight, MHARR, on January 19, 2011, acted to press HUD officials to fully comply with this Order as it relates to all aspects of the federal manufactured housing program including, most importantly, its ongoing rapid expansion of in-plant regulation. This expansion, which began innocuously as a program of “voluntary cooperation,” is now being transformed into a full-blown de facto regulation that will needlessly increase regulatory compliance costs passed to consumers by manufacturers and retailers, as the ongoing expansion now appears to target both. Details of the latest phase of this expansion, developed entirely behind closed doors, are emerging piece-by-piece, having been adopted without any official procedures.

All of this is addressed in detail in the attached copy of MHARR’s self-explanatory January 19, 2011 MHARR letter to HUD Assistant Secretary-Federal Housing Commissioner, David Stevens, a copy of which is attached for your information and review. This letter addresses the ways that the President’s January 18, 2011 Order applies to – and must alter – the practices of both the HUD regulatory program and HUD’s consumer financing programs, specifically including the FHA Title I manufactured housing program, which has been subject to severe limitations which thwart competition and market growth.

We urge you to carefully review this package, as it provides details of the latest phase of HUD’s ongoing expansion of regulation – mandatory three-day audits and costly enhanced Subpart I involvement by third-party inspectors – that are on-course to be imposed on manufacturers and retailers, because the industry establishment in Washington, D.C. refused to join forces with MHARR in order to force HUD to comply with the law by going through consensus committee and rulemaking procedures. Now, as shown by the attached letter, the industry has a major task on its hands to try to stop this.

MHARR, therefore, in an effort to curb and reverse the course of this runaway expansion of in-plant regulation, will now include and use the President’s Order and its January 19, 2011 letter to HUD in its overall ongoing activities with the 112th Congress, to demonstrate how HUD is violating the Administration’s own policy.

We will continue to keep you apprised as new developments on these issues unfold.

Danny D. Ghorbani, President
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

December 28, 2010

Randy Brubaker
Managing Editor
DesMoines Register
P.O. Box 957
Des Moines IA 50306-0957

Mr. Brubaker:

I am writing in response to your December 26th article The most dangerous housing in America. While I would like to applaud the considerable amount of space you gave to highlighting the need to replace older mobile homes, I do want to point out the article failed to correctly distinguish between “mobile” homes built before the implementation of the HUD Code in 1976, and modern, safe manufactured homes.

No, the “most dangerous housing,” is not manufactured housing. That housing is statistically as safe as more conventional site-built housing. Yet a reader is presented with the term “manufactured housing” early in the article. Given the fact that many readers take in only the headline and beginning paragraph, one could easily take-away the incorrect impression that manufactured housing is unsafe.

The article recalled the first death of 2010 occurred during a fire in an old, pre-HUD code mobile home. The article goes on to note one in 10 fire fatalities in Iowa during the past six years has happened inside a “manufactured home” and adds that most of them occurred in “trailers” that are at least 25 years old. The term “manufactured home” correctly refers to homes built to safety and construction standards contained in the HUD Code, which was implemented on June 15, 1976. The article makes a late reference to the code, but doesn’t differentiate between mobile homes and manufactured homes or relate homes built to the HUD Code to the term “manufactured.”

The use of several irrelevant dates also cause confusion. “At least” 25 years puts us at 1985, nine year’s after the implementation of the HUD code. Also the date 1980 doesn’t seem to have any significance.

Moreover, though the seventh paragraph correctly states that according to fire officials, “The quality of manufactured housing built today is as safe as, or safer than, site-built housing,” only committed readers who get nearly three quarters of the through the long piece learn about the HUD Code and read that “Today’s manufactured homes are subject to much more rigorous engineering standards and to inspection during construction and installation.”

This is is clearly a missed opportunity by the paper to differentiate modern manufactured homes, which research shows are as statistically as safe as site-built homes, and pre-HUD Code mobile homes. Manufactured homes are today both affordable and safe and present perhaps the most viable form of affordable housing for Iowa and the nation.

I invite you to reference our fact sheet for reporters, and a recent article on the safety of manufactured homes.

Fact Sheet for Reporters: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/manufactured-home-fact-sheet-for-reporters

Do Manufactured Homes Burn Faster? Experts Say No: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/industry-news/industry-in-focus/1260-do-manufactured-homes-burn-faster

Sincerely,
Eric Miller
Reporter
MHMSM.com

About MHMSM.com – Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal, a.k.a. MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or MHMSM.com, is the largest and most popular media outlet that focuses on factory built housing, including top feature writers and industry focused news.

Note to media: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com staff and Industry experts are available to discuss issues related to modular, prefab and manufactured housing, the federal HUD code for Manufactured Housing and other factory built housing topics. Call us at 847-730-3692.

Until only in recent years, the heartland of America has been the center of the market for low and moderate income families who have a special fondness for manufactured housing as a viable alternative to less affordable site-built housing.

From the Northern reaches of America’s breadbasket in the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Minnesota to the south-central states of Kentucky and Tennessee, with strong central Midwestern states representation by Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, manufactured housing has appealed to both urban and rural home buyers; this in spite of the many myths about wind safety aspects of factory built homes. Some of our finest retirement communities have been built around many Midwestern urban areas, such as Chicago, Detroit and Michiana. So-called modular homes built to the wide-ranging, ill-defined state codes, hasn’t had the impact here as they have in Northeastern, New England and Mid-Atlantic States.

Is it the affordability? Is it the prices? Is it the home designs? Or is it just the relative ease with which so many Mid-American families find manufactured housing a good value? I guess only an expensive survey will tell, but who cares?

For many years running, the most successful of showcases for our uniquely American form of housing in mid-Western markets has been the Louisville Show. Coordinated by Showays’ Dennis Hill, it has a reputation for not only putting on a great physical display of the latest in home designs by top manufacturers, but it also provides the many attendees with a wide range of products and services that support these unique homes, ranging from the latest in home financing options and home insurance, to new innovative products for safely installing homes, accessories to supplement the homes, and the latest in insurance, wholesale and retail financing programs.

The show is popular not only with retailers and developers, but with their staffs, installers, salespersons, and suppliers. The introduction of many new innovative concepts in HUD code and Modular homes have started trends in the industry that are prevalent today. A highlight of the show is the many seminars and industry speakers bringing timely subjects to the industry.

January’s 2011 show will also offer insightful seminars that can help you grow your business or address specific needs. In addition to the many homes and booths, the conference speakers will share their decades of experience for those who attend.

• George Allen will be presenting his “Ah Ha! Oh, No” formula for calculating the ideal pricing of homes and site for long term success.
• Ken Rishel will be presenting a must-attend topic for many who are looking for new sources for chattel financing. He should call it, “Yes, you can!” with captive finance. But whatever the title, it is good material that every community owner needs to hear, and many retailers should listen to as well.
• Don Westphal has become the go-to guy on the topic of Community Series Homes as well as being the stand-out man when it comes to development or redevelopment of a community.
• Bob Stovall and L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach of MHMSM.com fame will be presenting their marketing magic ideas for driving traffic to your retail or community locations. Check out their “Dominate Your Local Market!” presentation. I saw Tony’s talk on a similar theme in Phoenix, and gave him a 10 out of 10.
• Finally, I will be presenting an intro on site and an off-site presentation on how you can get manufactured housing community financing or refinancing – yes, even in today’s more challenging lending environment. ‘Tony’ Kovach will act as moderator for this off-site event, with Bedford Lending being present to help with a little-known, but very valuable FHA 207m private lender loan guarantee program. Learn more or sign up for that seminar at this link. This important seminar is to be held for from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. the afternoon of Thursday Jan 13^th at the nearby Louisville Crown Plaza hotel, which is adjacent to the Exposition Grounds, and is easily accessed by car or the shows’ internal transportation system.

More than ever before, the MH industry needs to gather up our resources, spruce up our thinking and light up our resolve to bring new life to a waiting American public. With all our Nation’s problems associated with high unemployment and large numbers of foreclosures, manufactured housing homes look even better than before as a real, viable alternative to more expensive site-built homes. New financing programs like the FHA Title I program, existing programs like the FHA 207m community financing program, and green home building options being offered by some manufacturers are concrete proof of our commitment to the general public in bringing safe, affordable, functional housing to Americans. There is an energy and opportunities aplenty to learn at a manufactured housing show that you simply can’t get any other way.

And it will all start in 2011 with the Louisville Show. I’ll be there, and I hope to see you there too!

Editor’s Note: Photos of the 2006 Louisville Show by Edward ‘Eddie’ Hicks

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By Eddie Hicks
Consultants Resource Group
Lic. RE Broker, Lic. Mortgage Broker
(813) 661-5901 Office
(888) 264-6472 Toll Free
www.mobilehomepark.com/
www.factorybuilthome.com/
www.Interlokhome.com/

FHA207(m) Loans for M/H Land Lease Communities Seminar