Spoiler Alert. An Executive Summary of the longer report below could be this.
For objective and detail oriented professionals, is that Tim Williams postured a stance while actually failing to address the actual issues. Rephrased, he arguably used a debater’s ruse. Read what follows further below carefully to see for yourself.
That said, testing that hypothesis tonight in the report that follows, is just a small portion of the bigger point to manufactured housing, which is in a 20-year plus downturn from which it has not recovered.
What follows sheds light on that, and includes Williams’ full statement, as he requested that it be published.
Williams sent MHProNews an emailed response early today that began with these words.
“I stand 100% behind Lesli Gooch, Mark Bowersox, Tom Hodges and MHI! I stand 100% behind Berkshire Hathaway and all our manufacturers in our industry both MHI and MHARR manufacturers.” – Tim Williams to MHProNews.
To see all that Williams said, and what he was responding to, see the featured focus further below the quotable quotes, left-right headline snapshot, and two of the three evening market snapshots at the closing bell.
Quotes That Shed Light – American Social, Industry, National Issues..
Headlines from left-of-center CNN Business
- Tax breaks
- A U.S. Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1040 Individual Income Tax form for the 2019 tax year is arranged for a photograph in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Friday, March 20, 2020. Tax forms and payments wont be due to the Internal Revenue Service until July 15 this year, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a tweet, as the government looks for ways to respond to the coronavirus. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
- Why you pay taxes and rich Americans — like Donald Trump — don’t always have to
- Analysis: Joe Biden calls Donald Trump what he is: A jobs loser
- Walmart is redesigning its stores. Here’s what they’ll look like
- See what’s new inside Walmart stores
- LIVE UPDATES Stocks post their first month of losses since March
- Pending home sales hit a record in August
- Palantir, the controversial data company, debuts on Wall Street
- Joe Biden said the economic recovery is ‘K-shaped.’ Here’s what that means
- Analysis: Fox News airs pro-Trump propaganda after first debate
- ‘Fox & Friends’ tries to coach Trump after his disastrous debate
- Google ditches the super-expensive phone race with the 5G Pixel
- The collapse of global air travel could wipe out 46 million jobs
- Airlines prepare for tens of thousands of job cuts without a bailout
- Thinking of relocating? Read this first
- A 1883 bronze statue of the first President of the United States, George Washington, overlooks Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange from Federal Hall on September 28, 2020 in New York City. George Washington was inaugurated President here in 1789 when New York City was the capital of the United States before it was moved in 1790 to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- Wall Street is ‘doomsday prepping’ for the election. It may not be necessary
- SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 17: Bottles of Aunt Jemima pancake syrup are displayed on a shelf at Scotty’s Market on June 17, 2020 in San Rafael, California. Quaker Oats announced that it will discontinue the 130-year-old Aunt Jemima brand and logo over concerns of the brand being based on a racial stereotype. Mars, the maker of Uncle Ben’s rice is also considering a change in the rice brand.
- These brands promised to get rid of their racist logos. Here’s why it’s taking so long
- Trump-Biden clash was watched by at least 65 million viewers
Headlines from right-of-center Fox Business
- MARKETS
- Stocks rally on Mnuchin-Pelosi stimulus hopes and record home sales
- September finished as a losing month for U.S. stocks.
- POLITICS
- Biden ads take over the web after debate
- Biden, Trump presidential campaigns ramp up Supreme Court ad wars
- PERSONAL FINANCE
- If you’re still missing your stimulus check, you need to act fast before it’s too late
- POLITICS
- Mnuchin, Pelosi make last-ditch push for COVID relief deal ahead of election
- OPINION
- ANDY PUZDER: At debate, Biden chooses to run as a pale imitation of Trump in 2016
- CITI MAYOR?
- LIFESTYLE
- 5 things know about prospective NYC mayoral candidate, Ray McGuire
- DARK DAYS AT DISNEY
- LIFESTYLE
- Company has to air its compensation packages out to public says CA judge
- LIFE SUPPORT
- POLITICS
- Newsom signs law requiring hospitals have 45-day PPE supply
- CONSCIOUS CLOTHING
- LIFESTYLE
- By the end of 2021, Nordstrom will no longer sell this luxury good
- ON THE RIGHT FOOT
- RICH & FAMOUS
- Crocs designed by this pop star sell out in just 16 minutes
- FUTURE OF RETAIL?
- RETAIL
- Walmart redesign modeled after airports
- TOO STIFF?
- POLITICS
- British PM Boris Johnson says US tariffs on this drink should be removed
- OUT OF TIME
- POLITICS
- SEE IT: Hillary Clinton gets Zoom warning message during TV interview
- TOOLS OF THE TRADE
- MARKETS
- FOX Business rolls out new features to help you make money
- LIFESTYLE
- Movie theaters reducing hours with no new releases on the horizon in October
- TECHNOLOGY
- Musk says he won’t get coronavirus vaccine since he and his kids aren’t at risk
- LIFESTYLE
- More sour grapes for Napa wineries as wildfires rage on in California
- TECHNOLOGY
- China readies antitrust investigation into Google year after Huawei complaint: report
- ECONOMY
- US private employers add 749,000 jobs in September, topping expectations
- POLITICS
- Top political strategist at Chamber of Commerce abruptly forced out
- POLITICS
- McCarthy previews ‘major items’ in Chinese Communist Party probe
- PRODUCT RECALLS
- Ford recalls more than 700k vehicles over potentially dangerous problem
- MEDIA
- Why this Harry Potter book, found ‘sitting on shelf,’ could be worth $65k
- MARKETS
- Louisiana lands $215M in BP oil spill money to improve damaged marshes
- TECH
- US Border Patrol signs $13M contract with Axon to provide agents with body cameras
- ECONOMY
- More Americans sign contracts to buy homes in August
- MEDIA
- Viral TikTok video boosts Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 song ‘Dreams’ on streaming service charts
- MARKETS
- William Hill backs Caesars’ $3.7B takeover bid
- NEWS
- Police investigate as deadly shooting breaks out at Amazon fulfillment center
- LIFESTYLE
- Cold weather means new challenges for struggling restaurants
- RETAIL
- Store landlords face a battle for a cut of online sales
- ECONOMY
- Disney to lay off 28,000 employees as COVID-19 continues to hammer its businesses
- POLITICS
- Biden promises to eliminate tax advantages that Trump benefited from
- MARKETS
- Shell plans to cut up to 9,000 jobs in transition plan
Market Indicator Closing Summaries – Yahoo Finance Closing Tickers on MHProNews…
Featured Focus –
Where Business, Politics and Investing Can Meet
Tim Williams sent an on-the-record response to the email that follows. As readers will note, Williams copied dozens of manufactured housing industry professionals. He also copied the Manufactured Housing Executive Committee group. An analysis will follow the email exchange that is shown in toto below, save some information below email addresses or other unessential details. A typo correction is shown below in brackets.
— Start of message to Tim Williams from L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, MHProNews —
Re: Tim, disappointment is not a strong enough word
Tim,
You say you are pro-Trump, right? Then why are you giving cover to the Berkshire Hathaway types that are undermining manufactured housing independents and consumers?
Do tell, sir.
You said you would publicly debate the issues facing our industry, what happened to your pledge? I get it why the MHI types aren’t going to do it, they don’t want to lose publicly, right?
Even some of your state association colleagues have made statements that contradict your claim that Lesli Gooch is the best you’ve ever seen in her role. Wasn’t it an absurd claim from the get-go?
Here is my invite. Do what Andy Gedo did, but I’ll make it easier. Pick a topic from the below or any other recent report you like. If it isn’t already posted on LinkedIn, tell me, and I’ll post it. Then, you start posting your take on that comment. Fair enough? Can you handle it?
FYI, I’m BCC[ing] a few of your colleagues. Please don’t disappoint. This is the time to debate, before the election.
Or simply admit by not replying that you were wrong about Gooch and that MHI is arguably a fraud that is undermining independents and consumers alike, fair enough?
Thanks,
Tony
L. A. “Tony” Kovach
Managing Member
LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC
DBAs:
MHLivingNews.com | MHProNews.com | LATonyKovach.com |Cell 832-689-1729 |
Connect on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
— Start of emailed message from Tim Williams —
from: Tim Williams
to: “L. A. Tony K”
cc: “mhexecs@googlegroups.com”
- Lesli Gooch
- Mark Bowersox
- “jwilliams@mfghome.org”
- Dennis Hill
- Andrea Reichman
- Elizabeth Birch
- “Tom Hodges Clayton Homes
- Augusta Homes-Nathan Smith
- Evan Atkinson
- Glenn Wilder
- Jay Elsea
- Rodney Hemming
- Archer Kevin – Triad Financial Services Inc
- Tom Puffenberger – Gressley, Kaplan, & Parker LLP
- Debby Wilbur – STYLE CREST, INC.
- Brian P. Younkin Green Lawn Companies
- Ronald P. Younkin – Green Lawn Companies
- Elaine Gauck – LAKE TERRACE PARK INC
- Wally Comer – ADVENTURE HOMES LLC
- Thomas Ronald A – Rona Enterprises Inc-MM
- Ace Elsea – ELSEA INC – CIRCLEVILLE
- Ron Thomas – Rona Homes
- Associate Insurance Company Mr. Dan Greenfelder – GREENFELDER INSURANCE SRVCS IN
- Howerton Ryan – 21st Mortgage Corporation
- A Baker – Skyline
- Colliers International – Russell Williamson
- Gloria Gandara-Thomas Rona Homes
- Jake Zide Clayton Homes
- Jim Hauch
- John Flask JAF Legal
- John Jacon Skyline
- Jim Lashbrook – Champion Home Builders
- “Mary (Sun Com) Sun Communities
- Rebecca Mellino MAGrann
- Rich Rice-Adventure Homes
- SSK Andrew Pulliam SSK Communities
- Bob VanSchuyver -UMH Properties
date: Sep 30, 2020, 12:55 PM
subject: RE: Tim, disappointment is not a strong enough word
“I stand 100% behind Lesli Gooch, Mark Bowersox, Tom Hodges and MHI! I stand 100% behind Berkshire Hathaway and all our manufacturers in our industry both MHI and MHARR manufacturers.
I said I would debate you in an industry “LIVE” public forum meeting or event face to face where industry members are in attendance not some online or virtual debate. That means at a Show like Louisville or an MHI event. So, it’s on you to be able to gain access to those events in order to debate. Having said that I have little doubt you will take these comments out of context and twist them to continue your relentless attacks on me and MHI and anyone else who doesn’t share your opinions about our industry, MHI and it’s leaders. I challenge you to print your email below verbatim and my response verbatim so people can read exactly what you sent me and my response. To fail to publish my comments in its entirety is tantamount to exhibiting the same journalistic misinformation campaign as many in the Mainstream media. I hope you are better than that.
It also is questionable ethics to pose a question via email as you have below and suggest that no response is an answer you determine the person provides when you know such is not the fact.”
Tim Williams
Executive Director
Ohio Manufactured Homes Association (OMHA)
— End of body of Tim William’s message —
— Reply from L. A. “Tony” Kovach, MHProNews to Tim Williams, 5 minutes later. —
Tim,
What are you aiming for, a clever dodge to debate?
Did you forget that we arranged for a university to moderate a public debate?
L. A. “Tony” Kovach
Managing Member
LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC
DBAs:
MHLivingNews.com | MHProNews.com | LATonyKovach.com |Cell 832-689-1729 |
Connect on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
— End of body of message —
Note: Because Williams failed to follow through, and various live industry events have been cancelled, MHProNews previously offered weeks ago to debate virtually online and/or via a university moderated live and public debate. Williams’ confirmed receipt of the invitation, but he declined accepting. Thus the message above.
— Follow up message at 2:32 PM ET —
Tim,
Was that one reply message below your very best shot? Don’t you have sufficient moxie or evidence to give you the confidence to debate on even ground instead of trying to hide behind MHI controlled territory?
For your convenience, and that of those who might have missed the email exchange below, here was my reply to your statement, all of which is unedited in the history that follows.
Tim,
What are you aiming for, a clever dodge to debate?
Did you forget that we arranged for a university to moderate a public debate?
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach
www.MHLivingNews.com|www.MHProNews.com| Cell 832-689-1729 |
Sent from my iPhone.
Connect on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
========== End of emailed messages between MHProNews and Tim Williams ==========
As of 7 PM ET, neither Williams nor any of his MHI colleagues have followed up. The previous exchange with Williams and MHProNews is shown. Note that what Williams did was arguably a dodge, red herring, and an ad hominem attack.
Additional Information, MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
As has been noted in the quotable quote segment above, both Tim Williams with OMHA and Tim Williams with Berkshire Hathaway owned 21st Mortgage Corporation have praised MHProNews.
Reportedly on instructions from Tim Williams at 21st, prior MHI President and CEO Richard “Dick” Jennison issued public praise for MHProNews.
Our industry rivals in publishing have at various times praised our work too. Among that praise was mention – as OMHA’s Williams did – of our accurate, fair, and balanced yet pro-manufactured housing industry reporting.
So, perhaps it is rather embarrassing for Williams/OMHA to even suggest that MHProNews would be another than accurate in our quotes.
That noted, it is utterly absurd that Williams would even make the claim before – cited above – that Lesli Gooch was the ‘best he had ever seen.’ Then Williams apparently thinks it is better that manufactured housing in recent years is only producing about 25 percent of the results that it did in 1998?
That’s as absurd as the statement made by Richard “Dick” Jennison below. Let’s note for new readers that Jennison’s stunning statement was one of a series of such comments and behaviors that caused MHProNews to more carefully scrutinize what Jennison and MHI leaders were doing, and why.
But let’s return to Williams/OMHA comment. He copied several attorneys, Berkshire Hathaway team members, MHARR, and state association executives, among others. Was he posturing? Of was he instructed on what to say, and was showing his de facto masters that he was doing what he was told to do?
It is also worth bearing in mind that for some time, MHI and Berkshire brands have tried to pretend that MHProNews doesn’t exist, which is laughable because insider tips suggest that their team members are reportedly among our most faithful readers.
But let’s zero in on the key issue. Why is the manufactured housing industry underperforming for over two decades? Why is it having such a hard time implementing two good laws, one of which passed some 2 decades ago, and the other which passed about a dozen years ago?
The question alone makes it clear that Good and Bowersox aren’t some heroines to anyone save to the consolidators who have plainly stated their desires. Among those proudly proclaiming their intentions in public consolidators are Nathan Smith and his partner Kurt Keeney, in the graphic below.
Nathan was one of those that Tim Williams/OMHA copied. See the related reports below to learn more about Flagship or other MHI consolidators.
While he mentions MHARR, perhaps because he reportedly has a MHARR member factory in his state, the case can be made that MHI, 21st, and other Berkshire brands like Clayton Homes are deliberately creating barriers of entry, persistence, and exit.
Who says?
Pro-MHI member Andy Gedo.
Williams may not have the chutzpah to debate, but he isn’t alone. Neither does Tom Hodges, Kevin Clayton, Tim Williams, Eric Hamilton, or others with Berkshire and MHI. Keep in mind that Berkshire has access to the best sociologists and psychologists that money can buy.
If they wanted to debate, they would know be able to hire someone able to coach whomever on all of the tricks.
But they would also then be on the record. That is what they arguably fear. Because they very well know, based on their own statements, that MHProNews and our MHLivingNews sister site has produced the “Case Against Clayton Homes,” one of the hottest read reports on both sites all year.
MHProNews has alleged by that MHI is a fraud.
Let them defend against that directly and openly.
Watch for new revelations in the days ahead on why and how the industry’s underperformance has been rigged.
Related, Recent, and Read Hot Reports
Alice Sparks, SSK Communities Partner, Dies Amidst Flagship Communities IPO Controversies
Who is “Drinking the Kool-Aid” – Sunday Weekly Headline Review
Manufactured Housing Lending 2020 Re-Examination – FEDs, Lenders, and Advocates
Manufactured Housing Industry Investments Connected Closing Equities Tickers
Some of these firms invest in manufactured housing, or are otherwise connected, but may do other forms of investing or business activities too.
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- NOTE: The chart below includes the Canadian stock, ECN, which purchased Triad Financial Services, a manufactured home industry lender
- NOTE: Drew changed its name and trading symbol at the end of 2016 to Lippert (LCII).
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Fall 2020…
Berkshire Hathaway is the parent company to Clayton Homes, 21st Mortgage, Vanderbilt Mortgage and other factory built housing industry suppliers.
· LCI Industries, Patrick, UFPI, and LP each are suppliers to the manufactured housing industry, among others.
· AMG, CG, and TAVFX have investments in manufactured housing related businesses. For insights from third-parties and clients about our publisher, click here.
Enjoy these ‘blast from the past’ comments.
MHProNews. MHProNews – previously a.k.a. MHMSM.com – has celebrated our tenth anniversary and is in year 11 of publishing.
Learn more about our evolutionary journey as the industry’s leading trade media, at the report linked below.
· For expert manufactured housing business development or other professional services, click here.
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Disclosure. MHProNews holds no positions in the stocks in this report.
That’s a wrap on this installment of “News Through the Lens of Manufactured Homes and Factory-Built Housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, stock, investing, data, metrics, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHLivingNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing. For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.