Affordable Housing Crisis Solution Made Easy – 9 Minutes of Facts with Applied Common Sense
‘Grand Canyon Sized Gap’ Between the Elites and Most of Us – Research Reveals What the 1 Percent Think of the 99 Percent – Survey Results, Facts, with Population Manipulation MHVille Analysis
Whitehead: ‘Watched – You’re Likely Already on Govt Watchlist’ – ‘2024 Is the New 1984: The Rise of the Security Industrial Complex’ – Evidence, Claims, Facts, and Analysis
Dr. William Happer Explains Science on CO2 and Climate – Happer, Other Experts on Motivation, Agenda, Psychology and Sociology Behind Agenda Driven Big Lies – Why it Matters to USA-World-MHVille
Life and Death-In Some Ways We Choose Our Own Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory – Exploring Thoughts from Bootcamp for Boomers, Gen Z Concerns, AARP-AMAC-ACRU-Akalue and Joe Biden-Realities Check
Independent Party ID Tied Record High-Democratic ID New Low per Gallup–How that Matters in Affordable Housing-Manufactured Home Advocacy and Manufactured Housing Industry Performance-Reality Checks
Happy Holidays! ‘Outrageous’-In Time for Christmas, New MHI Doc Reveals Apparent Threats to any Who Disagree w/Manufactured Housing Institute as MHI Declares Sweeping New Meeting-Event Powers
Big Picture-Have Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) Leaders Defrauded Own Members? Prima Facie Case of Racketeering-Market Manipulating Allegations Based on MHI Members Published Statements
Google-Industry Issues-Trends-Behaviors-THE Witness for Contemporary MHVille Woes – Artificial Intelligence Praise for ‘Manufactured Housing Expertise’ – Experience of L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach and Manufactured Home Pro News
August 2023 Production Data – Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) Leaders Should Embrace Responsibility for Continuing Manufactured Home Production Decline – Consolidators Fueled Crisis?! 
previous arrow
next arrow

MHAction Disrupting Manufactured Housing Industry Business as Usual

Let’s look at a pattern that is hiding in plain sight.  This pattern has and is being used to disrupt the manufactured housing industry.

If we as professionals fail to define ourselves and our operation(s), then others will define us – often to our disadvantage.

When enterprises like yours or ours are harmed, that will routinely negatively impact millions of current and potentially future manufactured home owners.

Let’s consider recent examples.

There are a growing number of operations and groups that are akin to MHAction, which recently teamed up with left-of-center activists to undermine private equity’s role in manufactured home (MH) communities.

MHActionHomePagePavingRoadtoHellManufacturedHousingActionPostedMastheadBlogManufacturedHousingIndustryCommentaryMHProNews
MHAction is just one of several possible examples. They are recruiting members in manufactured home communities. Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynold lead RV Horizons and Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS) are but two examples of groups that MHAction has targeted.  Note, we defended ELS, though they aren’t an MHProNews client. This is about facts, and industry solidarity. We strive in principle to act in the best interests of the industry, which ought to be the role of a pro-industry trade publisher.

Media-Based Attack on Investor-Owned Communities = ’The Private Equity Takeover of America’s Neighborhoods’

On the West Coast, another activist group recently worked to pass Measure V in California.

NPR’s All Things Considered ‘report’  (actually, Todd Lamb is right, it’s thinly disguised advocacy) by Daniel Zwerdling, entitled “Mobile Home Park Owners Can Spoil An Affordable American Dream” is another example of media being used to target manufactured housing, in that case, communities.

But in 2015 and 2016, it was the Seattle Times – which frequently acted in concert with others like the Center for Public Integrity and BuzzFeed News – to attack industry giant Clayton Homes and their sister operations in MH lending.

MediaShouldRevistDodd-FrankReportingManufacturedHomeLivingNewsPostedMastheadBlogMHProNews-
Click the image shown to see the video and report.

The Common Thread?

im-williams-CEO-and-President-21st-mortgage-corporation-postedMastheadBlog-MHProNews-com-
Tim Williams, 21st Mortgage CEO and MHI Chairman.

These activist groups have common threads, and Tim Williams of 21st Mortgage described that in a power point he gave MHProNews permission to share – but we’ll save that slide for another time, while making his key point.

Namely, that these self-described progressive groups have an agenda.

Those so-called progressives are often harming the very people they claim to help.

But they are so passionate – so dedicated to their cause and beliefs – that they simply never, never quit.

While some can be reasoned with, for others, the facts don’t matter to them, especially when the facts go counter to their beliefs.

Progressives claim to champion the poor and downtrodden, but in fact it’s often Big Government and Big Foundations that supply them with the money they need to do their activist work.

They’ve learned to utilize quite successfully local and Big Media to carry their messages.

And for years – decades – manufactured housing has taken it on the chin.  The easy way of not responding effectively is the hard and painful way.  Or as Sunshine Homes President John Bostick colorfully likes to say, “Easy doesn’t pay well.”

EasyDoesntPayWellJohnBostickSunshineHomesRedBayALManufacturedHomes-com-MHProNews-com--504x430
The proper approaches will yield serious growth. Proper media engagement is part of that picture, industry opponents use it, why can’t we use the media with the compelling truth? In a trillion dollar a year housing industry, to be between stuck 5 and 6 billion a year in new manufactured home sales seems low, doesn’t it?

Fool Me Once…

There is an old saying. “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”

As professionals, we must be honest with each other. Manufactured housing professionals keep getting sucker punched.

There is a strong sentiment in the industry that somehow companies or associations that are attacked must often avoid publicly debating or defending our position effectively with the groups and media in question.

jayhamiltonavoidingcontroversymanufacturedhousingindustrycommentarymastheadmhpronews
Jay is right, far better for the industry to call out truly bad actors, than for the entire industry to take it on the chin. Beyond that, we must also defend and explain cases that may look problematic, but may have a good explanation, so long as that reason is understandable. Credit, Facebook.

But There’s More…

CFPB
HUD
DOE

cfpb-pseudo-logo-credit-plus1properties-posted-masthead-blog-mhpronews-com (1)
CFPB satire logo image credit by Plus 1 Properties.

Add to these disruptive anti-MH business activist groups and their allies in media, a veritable alphabet soup of federal, state and local agencies, which in recent years have swamped the ability of small businesses to enter, stay effectively or be as profitable as they would otherwise be in the marketplace.

MHAction1.5.2017MHActionPostedMastheadBlogManufacturedHousingIndustryCommentaryMHProNews
Arrows and comments by MHProNews, Google search on the date and time shown.

That in turn hurts job creation, and costs every level of government tax revenues.  It also causes increased expenses by government, costs that could have been avoided in the absence of anti-business policies.

As is linked above and here again, federal dollars have gone to groups such as CFED, which in turn lobby media, federal, state or other entities in ways that may be well-intentioned, but in fact promote “solutions” that often (though not always) may be impractical or worse.

RVHorizonsFrankRolfeDaveReynoldsTargetedbyMHActionPostedMastheadBlogMHProNews
MH Action is targeting Frank Rolfe/Dave Reynolds led RV Horizon roughly number 6 among MH portfolio operators in number of home sites. These left wing groups often target the larger or biggest companies, the ones moving up, which in turn sends shock waves through others in the industry who may have no other connection other than the fact that they are in manufactured home communities, the MH Industry, etc.

He Went to Prison, But He Had a Point

James Watt, President Ronald Reagan’s U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1981 to 1983, made an interesting observation.  He said that he didn’t believe in conspiracies most of the time.  What Watt did witness and believe in was people with common beliefs acting on those common beliefs in a way that may have looked conspiratorial.

But the result is almost the same.

Be it done cloak-and-dagger in smoke-filled rooms by design, or because people with common beliefs behave in common ways, they are de facto working in concert.

PaulBradleyROCUSA-FramedChristmas2015-MHProNews-
Why is Paul sending a thumbs up? What’s next to him on that end table?  For the answer, see the collage at the end of this post.

Paul Bradley told MHProNews a few years ago, that manufactured housing lacked cohesion.  Bradley was spot on then, and now.

IMHO, there are too many petty rivalries and turf-wars that harm all in the industry mix, because they limit what SSK’s Nathan Smith called our “boutique industry,” keeping it from reaching its full potential.

Reflection Should Lead First to Understanding…

Many in the center-right may believe that the left dominates in numbers, but that’s not true – nor has it ever been accurate.

Here’s proof.

variety-of-diverse-people-smiling-CreditEpicOfEvolutionPostedDailyBusinessNewsMHProNews
To se the Gallup Poll data, click the image above credit, Epic of Evolution.  Let’s be clear, MHProNews has readers, sponsors,and friends from across the political spectrum.  We respect the rights of people to vote or act as they believe, within the bounds of ethics.  But we should all be engaged and act upon facts, not opinions. Some leftist thinking produces bad outcomes in the real world, just as some far right thinking can be problematic too.

http://www.MHProNews.com/blogs/daily-business-news/gallup-u-s-liberals-up-but-america-still-center-right-nation-politically/

The dominance of leftist thinking in:

  • academia (universities are often an arm of government),
  • the media and
  • in government results in what looks like an overwhelming majority.

In fact, it’s a minority that is influencing, manipulating, and controlling the center-right majority.

If you missed these two recent Masthead posts below, please find the time to review – because we are building on a series of principles, facts and realities that must be understood and acted upon for manufactured housing to achieve its potential.

ThinkerReflectionsCreditLifestyleFactoryHomesLLC2016MHProNews
Reflections are often useful, and while common at the end or start of a new year, ought to take place routinely. Image credits, MHProNews.com

Reflection and Understanding should then lead to sound plans and action.

bigger_strike_CreditPostsidePostedMastheadBlogMHProNews500-
See R2D2, Seriously? Linked here or from the image above.

MHAction is just one of several operations that target manufactured housing professionals.  Make no mistake, in an industry of our size – an attack on one sector sadly – and avoidably – impacts and disrupts every part of our industry and profession.

Let me encourage Masthead readers to check out Paul Bradley, Todd Lamb, Kurt Kelley and Tim Williams‘ recent, thoughtful comments on the NPR related issue.

Also, look again at Congressman Dennis Ross’ statement on Dr. Ben Carson for the role of HUD Secretary.

Kindly check back here this weekend, when the new issue and our January 2017 featured articles will be live on the MHProNews.com home page – ready to feed your mind – so that you and others can serve more, better – and thus boost your bottom line. ##

MostNeverConsideredWhatHouseIsNeedlessPoorMustHaveOneLikeNeighborsHenryDavidThoreau-MHProNewsMHLivingNews-MastheadBlogMHProNews
The collage represents a variety of HUD Code manufactured home styles by various producers from across the United States.

(Image credits are as shown above.)

l-a-tony-kovach-mhlivingnews-mhpronews-latonykovach-com-
Publisher and industry consultant, L. A. “Tony” Kovach.

By L. A. “Tony” Kovach.

LATEST MASTHEAD

MHARR
sunshinehomes-mhpronews
sunshinehomes-mhpronews