Featured Articles and Reports for Vol. 3, No. 5, 2012

Alphabetically by Category

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT & FAIR HOUSING (LEGAL)

• Fair Housing 2012 – The Two Most Important Words!

by Nadeen Green

I thought about holding a contest to see who might be able to come up with what I believe may be the two most important words for fair housing in 2012. But being generous of heart and spirit, I am simply going to tell you the two words, and then - not so simply, but still understandably, I hope - I will explain my rationale.

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• Where to Build

by Eddie Hicks

To build or not to build. That's the question. To "take up arms against a sea of trouble." Perchance to "dream"? Is that the rub? Sorry, Bill. I had to take a little license with the gentle Bard's musings.

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• Content Area of Guidelines for Living: Security and Protection through Storage

by Chrissy Jackson

In our last column, we covered Manufactured Home Community “Guidelines for Living” topics ranging from Refuse Removal through Rights of Management. This month, we will explore Security and Protection through Storage, so let's get started, shall we?

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• Community Management: The $20,000 Dog

by Kurt Kelly, JD

It’s exciting. You just purchased a manufactured home community. It has fifty (50) sites, forty eight (48) of which are occupied by home owning tenants paying $300/month in rent. You were pleased to purchase it for $960,000, or $20,000 per site. And now that it’s time to begin managing the community, you discover three things.

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FINANCING

• Manufactured Housing Financing Alert

With approaching half a year of increasing shipment levels, we are seeing what could be the start of an industry turn around. This is not the time that anyone wants to the lose momentum. We will take a quick snapshot of a real challenge, but also suggest some common sense steps that pro-active industry professionals should consider taking to mitigate the issue we will review.

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• Six Ways to Make your Manufactured Home Loan a Smooth Transaction

Over the years, I have noted several helpful procedures that make our loan processing smoother. In the past I have written on this topic. Here are some new tips to help our industry.

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GENERAL MANUFACTURED HOUSING INDUSTRY TOPICS

• Multiple Listing Service… It is all about the Listings

by Boe Davis

This is our second installment about how a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) functions and how it could help manufactured home sales throughout the country. In this article we will explore the type of listings which can be found on a MLS and their value to MLS participants.

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• It's Show Time in Tulsa!

by Deanna Fields

March 1-2 will be here before you know it! Do you want access to more financing? Do you need new sources for inventory, services or just want to network with your peers? You can compare dozens of homes, products and services all indoors, all under one roof!

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• When Emails Aren't Where They Should Be, Whitelist

by Joe Geller

Many of us have gone through the frustration of not receiving an email, even after we verify the sender has sent the email, and he or she has not received an email indicating the email was not delivered. Often, if the person who did not receive the email looks in their SPAM or JUNK folder, they will see the email in it, and are at a loss as to how it was diverted there.

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• How Long Will an Anchor Last? Anchor Rust

Have you ever heard of anyone replacing anchors because they were worn out or not good anymore? I know I haven't and it worries me. Have you ever seen anchors and/or straps that were so rusty that you could not turn the slotted bolt or step on the strap without something coming apart?

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MANAGEMENT

• It Is - What it Is

One of my daughter’s favorite lines is, it is what it is. Every time I hear that from her it makes me stop and think – why is she saying this to me again? What did I say that triggered her need to repeat this common phrase?

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MARKETING

• The Tribe is Here

by Jeff Templeton

I try to listen and learn about marketing and business from as many experts as possible. I believe that their insights will make myself and those that I work with and for that much better. One of the best I heard lately, was a marketing professional that said, " what matters now are tribes."

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• Model Homes…..or NOT Part 2

by Katy Weldon

Whether the term is model home or staged home, the definition is the same. It is the detailed and creative preparation of a house to be sold. If you missed the first article in this series, click here to read it now, so we can jump into this month's topic!

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PERSONAL REFLECTIONS, MOTIVATION and INSPIRATION

• ZigOn Healthy Fear

In recent years, in manufactured housing and in other industries too, we've seen fear take a toll. There really is "healthy fear." For example, it's very healthy to fear drinking before you drive. However, fear should not be allowed to run rampant through our lives so that it becomes such a devastating factor that it produces failure.

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SALES

• Sales Super Stars – Got any?

by Tim Connor, CSP

Creating a team of super-stars is manufactured housing – business to business or business to consumers – is not as difficult as many managers or trainers would have us believe. The reason - everyone wants to be successful and create a lifestyle of affluence, freedom and control over their destiny. So if your staff in general is not producing consistent stellar results, do you know why?

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• What are you prepared to do?

As we have noted before, at the heart of any successful career or business, there are certain basics or fundamentals. Being on the Cutting Edge of marketing or sales begins with those fundamentals! You or I could have the smoothest marketing process, but if we are not prepared to do what it takes handle the marketing properly, we fail to tap the true potential of our investments.

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