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September 2011 Vol. 2 No. 12

Featured Articles September 2011

Featured Articles for Vol. 2, No.12, 2011
Alphabetically by Category

COMMUNITIES

Edward 'Eddie' Hicks – Manufactured Home Communities
• Filling vacant Manufactured Home Community homesites

Chrissy Jackson – Land Lease Community Management
• Guidelines for Living – Topics from Enforcement to Guests

FINANCE

Dave Shanklin – Manufactured Housing Industry Financing
• West Coast Heat Wave fires up Manufactured Home Buyers

GENERAL INDUSTRY/COMMENTARY

Suzanne Felber – Lifestyling
• Finding Joy in Factory Built Housing

L.A. 'Tony' Kovach – Industry Commentary
• Measuring Results

George Porter – Installations
• Aikido Anchoring

Dan Rinzema – Industry Commentary
• Will an MLS ever work for our Industry? Part 2 of 2

INSPIRATION/PEOPLE SKILLS

Tim Connor – Motivation & Inspiration
• Detours

Tracey C. Jones – Manufactured Housing Business Success
• Is Your AAA Rating at Risk?

Zig Ziglar – Motivation & Inspiration
• ZigOn Survival Tactics

LEGAL

Nadeen Green – Legal, Fair Housing
• Fair Housing – It's for the Birds – Part 1

MANAGEMENT

Tim Connor – Management
• Strategic Planning vs Strategic doing

MARKETING

Beth Monicatti Blank – Marketing and Advertising
• Advertising on a budget for Small Businesses

Derrick Hachey - Marketing and Lead Handling
• Best Practices on Leading Handling

SALES

Tim Connor – Sales
• Why People Challenge Price

Mark Hunter – Sales
• What is your customer's Price Tolerance Ratiot?

Mike Moore – Sales
• Manufactured Housing new home Retailing

Advertising on a budget for Small Businesses

by Beth Monicatti Blank

Many small businesses can't afford a mass advertising campaign. However, there are still ways that small businesses can work within their budgets to generate publicity for themselves and create a stronger

Detours

Tim Connor, CSP

Have you ever taken a vacation or been on a road trip with a certain destination in your plans when suddenly you decided to take a detour, not due to construction but out of a whim?

Over the years I have thought about many of the wonderful experiences I have had that

Strategic planning vs. strategic doing

by Tim Connor, CSP

Strategic planning is a vital management function. Over the years I have worked with a number of corporations facilitating their strategic planning events as well as following up on their commitments and actions that were driven by these plans. Strategic planning is not a substitute for strategic DOING i.e. everyone doing the right things (what) in the right way (how). Strategic DOING is successfully and profitably connecting products/services to customer's

Why people challenge price

by Tim Connor

In every sales training program I conduct whether one of my public sales boot camps or a custom in-house seminar the question always comes up again and again and again… How do we overcome price objections or price resistance?

I can't answer this complex question in 300 words but what I can do is

Finding Joy in Factory Built Housing

by Suzanne Felber

Any "foodies" who read this will understand my joy this week. I've been able to spend some time in the kitchen with Chef Joanne Bondy, Executive Chef of the Old Hickory Steakhouse at the Gaylord Texan, and frequent guest chef at the James Beard House in NYC. Watching her in the kitchen and getting to sample some of her creations is pure joy - it's not food, it's an

Fair Housing – It’s for the Birds - Part 1

by Nadeen Green

Whether you have had a long career in the manufactured housing industry, or if you are a newcomer, you would be well advised not to be an Ostrich. Hiding from the realities of fair housing, or pretending the law doesn’t really matter or apply to you, is not smart.

As it hides its head, an ostrich almost always has its rear end in

Best Practices for Lead Handling

by Derrick Hatchey

It’s imperative that your organization has a sound process for handling all leads that come in, no matter the source. For this article I’d like to focus on some steps that must be included in that process to have best results from leads that are generated over the Internet.

Internet shoppers have a different attitude about

Filling Vacant Manufactured Home Community Homesites,

the bane of some community owners

by Eddie Hicks

In many areas, there are either an insufficient number of local retailers who are willing and interested in the placement of new/used homes in land lease communities, or they lack the skill levels to sell prospective buyers on the many advantages of land lease community living: typically they only sell homes for land-home placement, with long term

What is Your Customer’s Price Tolerance Ratio?

by Mark Hunter

Every customer has a price range where they are willing to make a decision without any further thinking. I refer to this as the Price Tolerance Ratio – also known as the PTR.

Knowing your customer’s PTR is critical. I believe it is one of the major obstacles salespeople fail to

Guidelines for Living: topics from Enforcement to Guests

by Chrissy Jackson

Enforcement. How will the Community Manager enforce the Guidelines? If there
are state statutes in place, it is easy to simply refer to them. If there are not, the
Community Manager needs to approach this section with care. Consistency is the key
to good enforcement policies. However, when writing this section of the Guidelines try
not to paint a corner that the Community Manager cannot get out of without creating an
exception to the Guidelines. For example, if the Guidelines state that each Resident

Is Your Triple ‘A’ Rating at Risk?

by Tracey C. Jones

A dear friend and I were discussing the importance of branding, not just to businesses, but to every individual. Personal branding is, in effect, how your character, reputation and deeds are recorded. It’s what makes you distinctly you, as a person, as a professional, and as a member of our social collective.

Manufactured Housing New Home Retailing

by Mike Moore

The line at Disneyland is a 1 hour 45 minutes wait and the line keeps growing. It grows because the people in line anticipate the enjoyment of the ride. The Apple store is crowded and the Genius Bar is by appointment or a 30 to 45 minute wait but people flock to them because they love their ownership experience even more than the buying experience. People wait in line everyday for products like coffee at Starbucks that they feel enhance their life.

Measuring Results

by L. A. 'Tony' Kovach

At the end of the day, as business owners, execs and managers, we need measurements for results. For a business, the measures may include units closed, profits and customer satisfaction.

How do you turn around in a:

Aikido Anchoring

by George Porter

Aikido is one of the most sophisticated martial arts. It is used only in self-defense and uses the force of the attacker to create the power to subdue the opponent. The techniques provide effective defense against an unprovoked attack by one or even several adversaries. The art is thousands of years old and is very efficient.

Will an MLS ever work for our Industry?

(Part 2 of 2)

by Dan Rinzema

In Part 1 we examined the difficulties and obstacles that prevent our industry from fully embracing the residential R/E MLS. (If you haven’t read part 1, you can find it here)

In Part 2 we’ll look at why we’ve not been successful in developing and implementing our own MLS. We'll also examine another alternative that may provide us with many of the benefits of an MLS without all the burdens.

West Coast Heat Wave Fires Up Manufactured Home Buyers

by Dave Shanklin

The West Coast heat wave has fired up buyers this year. According to a leading MH appraiser in Northern California, sales are up dramatically.

This appraiser reports that his orders have increased from a record-low of only five appraisal orders for August 2010 to 30 orders for same month this year. That’s an increase of 600%.

ZigOn Survival Tactics

by Zig Ziglar

The giraffe is the largest mammal that gives birth while standing up. I don't speak "giraffe," but I can imagine what the baby giraffe must think when he bounces on the ground from that great height. He just left warm, cushioned quarters in which all his needs, comforts and security were provided. Now he finds himself bouncing off (comparatively speaking) hard, cold, unwelcoming ground.

Daily Business News Briefs

Manufactured Housing Component Supplier puts Project on Hold

As follow-up to a story MHProNews posted Feb. 27, 2013 concerning Universal Forest Products, Inc. (UFPI) taking over a former manufactured housing facility in Silverton, Ore., city officials now say UFPI has put those plans on hold. Silverton City Manager Bob Willoughby says the 126,000 square-foot building, once occupied by Redmond Homes, was set...

19 Jun 2013

School District may Lease Homesites in Manufactured Housing Community

Updating a story MHProNews posted June 12, 2013 regarding manufactured homes for teachers in housing-strapped Midland, Tex., the Midland Independent School District (MISD) trustees authorized up to $3.5 million to create a 70-unit temporary housing development. While the trustees originally thought they would have to develop infrastructure for the...

19 Jun 2013

Many Tracked Housing Stocks, Three Major Indexes all Tumble

Following the Federal Reserve’s hinting that it may taper its bond purchases later this year, the three major indexes all lost 1.12 percent to 1.39 percent in a slide that cost the Dow just over 200 points. CNNMoney reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -206.04 points, -1.35 percent, to end the day at 15,112.19. [...]...

19 Jun 2013

Green Courte Announces Promotion of Braden Rudolph

Private equity real estate investment firm Green Courte Partners, LLC announces the promotion of Braden Rudolph to Vice President, Asset Management. A 2010 MBA graduate of Northwestern University’s J L. Kellogg School of Management, Rudolph has been active in strategic initiatives at American Land Lease, Inc., an owner/operator of 50...

19 Jun 2013

Bridge Collapse Strands Community Residents

A sinkhole on a bridge at the Pine Haven manufactured housing community in Marietta, GA left residents who relied on the only vehicular access to the community stranded on Monday, June 17. Some residents needing to go to work relied on cabs or friends to take them; others waited for repairs to be completed. While [...]...

19 Jun 2013

Manufactured Home Taxes Now Payable Online

The Vinton County Treasurer’s Office in McArthur, Ohio reports taxpayers can now pay real estate and manufactured home taxes online. “The online payment system offers added convenience for the taxpayer and streamlines the process of collecting taxes. I hope that in time it decreases wait time for those taxpayers who choose to come to the [...

19 Jun 2013

$33,000 in Scholarships Awarded by First State Manufactured Housing Association

As follow-up to a story we published June 17 concerning First State Manufactured Housing Association scholarships, MHProNews has learned First State of Delaware has awarded $33,000 in scholarships to 30 recipients since 1999. Eligible candidates are judged on their scholastic record, financial need, an essay and personal/professional...

19 Jun 2013

Canadian Development may Include Manufactured Housing

A fifteen acre parcel of land in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada has been approved for retail and residential development, as the Kings County Council voted unanimously to give the second and final reading to the rezoning proposal for the property in Kentville. The redevelopment by Kent Building Supplies Limited would include a new retail [...]...

18 Jun 2013

Housing starts increased 6.8 percent in May to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 914,000 units due to a jump in multifamily construction. Single-family production remained steady at 599,000 homes, but multifamily activity grew 21.6 percent to 315,000 units. Regionally, the South posted a gain of 17.8 percent in combined starts and the West a...

18 Jun 2013

Most Tracked Housing Stocks Advance, as do the Three Major Indexes

All three indexes advanced, with the Dow moving up over 120 points, as inflation remains low and housing starts increase, despite concerns of what the Federal Reserve may reveal Wed., June 19, about possibly tapering the quantitative easing. CNNMoney reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained +0.91 percent, +138.38 points, to end the day at...

18 Jun 2013

Improving Manufactured Housing’s Image to Increase Sales

With image being a key component to selling more manufactured homes to cash and credit worthy buyers, that may explain the growing daily commentary in favor of the start of the ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com image campaign. Nancy Geer, Executive Director of the New York Housing Association said: “Manufactured Home Living Website is a great r...

18 Jun 2013