by Michael Barnabas

Reading Tony's book review of the Jim Collins' business classic Good to Great got me thinking about books, and how much they have influenced my or others careers' over the years. I started reading books on people skills in my twenties, volumes on business and management, too. It hit me that it was time to pick up, MHR - The Manufactured Housing Revolution! Certainly glad that I did – you will be when you read this book, too. Let me give you a sneak peak at this gem of a read.

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by Chad Carr

Were you profitable last year? How about the year before that? Despite year over year declines in our industry for over a decade, many dealers have found ways to be profitable. In fact, some of our clients reported record profits in 2010.

Don't get me wrong – I am a positive thinker. We should all be working to stop this contraction and get our industry growing again. However, no one should be losing money while we work to turn this industry around.

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by Tim Connor, CSP

One of the biggest challenges facing salespeople today is the ability to ask engaging, thought-provoking and quality questions during the sales evaluation stage.

The effective sales process is a coordinated relationship between getting and giving information. The information you give, if it is to move the sales process forward easily and quickly, must include an effective information-gathering strategy. Here are a number of things to consider as you re-evaluate your sales approach.

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by Tim Connor, CSP

Managers in general are always trying to discover how to motivate employees for consistent peak performance. The key to understanding the motivation of others is to look at what motivates and/or de-motivates you as a manager or executive. It is not my intent here to re-hash many of the common motivators and de-motivators, but rather to look at the source of motivation – both in you and your employees.

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by Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber

Are you ready for a busy, exciting year? 2011 is already gaining momentum that we haven't seen or felt in awhile. Louisville is back and was well attended, and the rest of this year's calendar is already starting to fill up!

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by Nadeen Green

Sometimes I struggle to come up with ideas for articles to post. And sometimes the repetitive questions from those who reach out to me for input signals a topic that ought to be addressed.

Recently I have had a number of inquiries as to whether it is OK to advertise housing with wording of "families" – "children" - "kids" – "kid friendly" and the like. (Which, by the way, is so much more positive than "we eat your young".)

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by Edward 'Eddie' Hicks

In recent years, there has been a dearth of approvals for the FHA207m loans by the Manufactured Housing industry and, as a result, several community owner/investor/developers have questioned its viability. While it's true in the past 8-10 years, there has not been much use of this specialty program, recent improved home financing programs and market conditions make the timing right for qualified projects.

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by Chrissy Jackson

As most Community Managers know, a Guideline can be legal, but not be enforceable. Being legal simply means a Community Manager is able to enforce the Guideline through the court system. However, being enforceable means a Guideline can be enforced without having to go to court each time there is an infraction or violation. It means the Guideline is clearly reasonable (both in form and content), and a Resident should have no problems in abiding by it.

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by Susan Knowles

Whether it's a heart-wrenching email from a Moroccan prince or signs at intersections promising thousands per month for selling items on eBay, get-rich-quick schemes usually send up red flags for most of us. We have been taught since an early age that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Ninety-nine percent of the time, this is a helpful instinct that keeps us from losing our identities, savings and time from predators who seek to prey on the naive. However, what about the one percent of time that it could keep us from missing a viable opportunity to generate legitimate additional income? By attempting to avoid scams and wasted time, are we, as owners, occasionally missing out on ways to enhance our bottom line?

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by L. A. 'Tony' Kovach

I read stories and hear the rumors, same as you do. Plant closures, sales center closures, MHC owners who struggle with occupancy issues, you name it.

Then I read the upbeat emails, including ones from Deanna Fields, who knows that times are tough, but somehow never seems to get down. Have you noticed that some of those 'can do!' types seem to turn vinegar into fine wine? Have you noticed that the Nay Sayers generally don't advance past their own no?

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by Steven Lefler

The operation of maintaining status quo in your Senior Community is not the new reality in 2011. How would you make a Senior Community appealing to the upcoming Baby Boomer turning 65 who, by the way, is looking to collect Social Security, use their IRA and to downsize their present living situation? Have you given this any consideration, Community Owners?

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by Greg McClanahan

A water bearer in India had two large pots. Each hung on the end of a pole that was carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For two years this went on. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. The cracked pot was ashamed of its imperfection - of not being able to deliver a full pot of water.

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by Shawn P. Mullins

Having recently read an article on crawl spaces in Home Energy Magazine (Hales, 2011), I was inspired to touch on the subject as it applies to our industry. While many of the homes we build can be put on a permanent foundation, anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of our homes are pier set with some type of crawl space below. Whether the crawl space is above or below ground, the appropriate considerations must be made for the home to perform adequately over the years. It is important to remember that the conditions seen on the day of install may not be the overall conditions that will be present in the crawl space over the life of the home.

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by George Porter

Have you ever traveled the same path for years and then one day noticed something rather large and obvious, but you never saw it previously? To make the occasion even more embarrassing, after you decide that it wasn't there before and that is why you didn't see it, it becomes clear that it was there all along. We like to think that we take things in as we go along. We have fairly active brains and we don't miss too much. If we want to see something new, we need to look someplace we haven't gone before; explore new ground; range out into the unknown; well… not necessarily. Sometimes the best place to hide something is right under your nose, the last place you would think of looking.

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by Ken Rishel

In the manufactured housing industry, manufacturers increasingly rely on community owners for the majority of all new-home sales and for providing set up and service to homebuyers in most areas of the country. The disappearance of boulevard retailers in most areas except the Southeastern United States and Texas has made community-based retailing very important to manufacturers, although most manufacturers have done little to market effectively to them. The performance of community-based retailers, therefore, has a significant impact on the manufacturers' profitability.

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by Dave Shanklin

Our industry's major lender out of Seattle has extended its "record-setting" interest rate special that was slated to expire the end of 2010, through the end of March.

However, buyers in only nine western states will get to take advantage of this. CA, OR, WA, AZ, ID, NV, MT, and WY are the states of this lender's "western region" where this is in effect.

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by Bob Stovall

Whether you're building your website's marketing model around Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-per-Click (PPC) or a combination of both, you're going to need to know what are best keywords to optimize for in the SEO model or which you need to bid on in the PPC model.

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by Zig Ziglar

Most people consider me an optimist because I laughingly state that I would take my last two dollars and buy a money belt. I'd even go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, and take the tartar sauce with me! However, I've got to confess that I don't hold a candle to the ultimate lady optimist who lived in a retirement home. One day, a distinguished-looking gentleman also became a resident. As luck would have it, the first day they sat across the table from each other at lunch.

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