Erik Engquist is an author and is listed as the senior managing editor at The Real Deal (TRD), a real estate industry focused news and views site. Engquist’s article in focus for this fisking is entitled (and linked): “The most overlooked affordable housing, and its big flaw.” As well-informed manufactured home industry professionals should know, the article is arguably a hodgepodge of accurate, inaccurate, and is apparently negative with respect to manufactured housing as an affordable housing option when situated in a land lease. The headline itself suggests the harm by saying that manufactured homes “big flaw” is often being on rented land.

Google’s AI powered Gemini defined fisking on 9.22.2024 in this fashion: “Fisking is the act of criticizing an argument or point of view by identifying and highlighting its mistakes.” Gemini also said that: “”Fisk” is a verb that means to criticize or refute an article or blog by pointing out its mistakes or flaws.”

Wiktionary said a fisking is: “A rebuttal to an article or blog made by quoting its content in sections and refuting each section individually.” While there are several ways to fisk or present a fisking, it is that later method that will be used in this fact check, analysis and expert commentary.

Let’s note that Engquist’s article is about 500 words, including the headline, date, and captions. It normally takes more words to thoroughly fisk than the length of the original content. That said, the goal in this fisking will be to be focused and reasonably brief. Additional information can be found by clicking the links from within TRD’s original article and/or our critical/analytical responses.

 

 

The featured image in the TRD article is used above and will not be duplicated below. That said, the caption for the featured image and some related commentary is included.  To save time and words, several terminology errors, including the pejorative ‘trailer park,’ are in evidence. The illustrations below should suffice to clarify what is and isn’t correct terminology when it comes to manufactured homes and its mobile home or trailer house predecessors.

 

 

With the above in mind, we will omit SIC behind the various terminology errors in what follows. Oxford Languages explains that SIC is: “used in brackets after a copied or quoted word that appears odd or erroneous to show that the word is quoted exactly as it stands in the original…” To read the original on their site without our fisking, see the link here.

Quote marks denote content from TRD and Engquist.

 

Part I

The most overlooked affordable housing, and its big flaw

Manufactured homes, cheap and improving, usually sit on rented land

Mobile park magnate James Goldstein, President Joe Biden and acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman (Getty; Illustration by Kevin Rebong for The Real Deal)

By Erik Engquist | SEP 13, 2024 AT 7:00 AM”

> MHProNews: Industry pros should know Biden and acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman. Goldstein is an interesting selection by Engquist. Per left-leaning Wikipedia the following.

It was reported by The Hollywood Reporter in 2020 that Goldstein made his money in mobile home parks, by “packaging groups of properties into investment vehicles and then suing municipalities…if they thwart his attempts to end rent control.” Carson, California‘s city attorney Sunny Soltani referred to his tactics as “litigation terrorism,” accused him of building his fortune “on the backs of the most vulnerable people in society,” and estimated cities have spent millions to fight him.^[8]”

The increased attention to housing affordability has elevated the cause of manufactured homes, which account for 6 percent of the nation’s housing stock and a far higher share of its low-cost housing, despite being unsubsidized.

The Biden administration just changed some rules to increase production of manufactured housing and make it safer and more attractive. (The Department of Housing and Urban Development sets design and construction standards for units built after June 15, 1976.) The biggest change is to allow single-family manufactured homes to have up to four dwelling units.”

> MHProNews notes: we did a more detailed report on the Masthead and on the Patch on that decades long-delayed update by HUD, are linked below.

 

 

That could boost the sector’s share of single-family home production, which has averaged 10 percent in recent years — half of what it was from 1975 to the late 1990s.

HUD is also doing away with an unnecessary inspection for a common roof type and gas-fired tankless water heaters, and making open floor plans possible. Previously, the government made it easier to get a loan to buy a manufactured home, among other improvements.

 

> MHProNews previously reported on increases in FHA loan limits, but it remains to be seen if it is in fact as hoped.

 

 

> MHProNews notes that Engquist made an important point, although he may have overstated the amount of the fall in production. The following base illustration is per Skyline Champion (SKY), a prominent MHI member.

 

Back to the TRD narrative.

All that is great, but the fundamental flaw of manufactured housing remains.

Owners of these units typically don’t own the land under them; they rent space in trailer parks. And mobile homes, despite their name, are hardly mobile. Relocating one can cost $10,000 — more than most of their residents can afford.”

> MHProNews notes: a problematic use (see illustrations above) of terminology, but Engquist is correct in saying that moving a single or multi-section manufactured home can cost $5000 to $10,000 (+/-), with regional and other variations.

That said, Engquist is unjustly lumping all land-lease community owner-operators into the same basket. There are so-called predatory brands and others, often so-called ‘mom and pop’ operators, who have operated their communities well for years, often decades, and have a positive relationship with their residents and apply business practices that are reasonable as opposed to predatory. That noted, had Engquist specified some companies, it is demonstrably true that numbers of community operators are, per their own residents, advocates, and public officials, “predatory.” Some linked reports flesh those concerns out.

 

Back to the TRD narrative.

Even if owners had the money to move their homes somewhere cheaper, it’s typically not worth it. Besides, finding a more affordable plot can be impossible, because towns often pass rules to keep mobile homes out.

MHProNews notes: this is an example of a mish-mash of accurate, potentially misleading, and either underinformed or wrong information. True, untold scores of cities and towns in virtually every state can make it difficult to place a manufactured home. MHI is aware of this problem. They have talked and talked, written and written about this problem. There is a federal law that MHI and the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) jointly worked on to enacted that ironically is referenced by Engquist in his mention of updates to the HUD Code. Those updates are in response to the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (a.k.a.: MHIA, MHIA 2000, 2000 Reform Act, 2000 Reform Law). The 2000 Reform Law included a provision commonly called “enhanced preemption.” The evidence suggests that MHI pays that lip service, but due to apparently conflicting interests between producers/retailers and certain (often) “predatory” types of community operators, MHI declined the opportunity offered by MHARR to enter into litigation to get that law enforced.

 

 

Back to the TRD narrative.

So if a trailer park raises the lot rents and fees, the residents generally have to pay up. They are essentially hostages. Some real estate investors, private equity firms and even Warren Buffett have taken advantage of this by buying parks from longtime owners who rarely spruced them up and kept rents low. To be sure, improvements to properties are welcomed by some residents, despite the rent increases. But tenants who cannot afford them are screwed.”

> MHProNews note: Again, a mix of accurate and potentially inaccurate information is found above. Buffett led Berkshire Hathaway, per reports, wanted Clayton Homes to spin off their manufactured home communities. That was roughly some 2 decades ago. But perhaps Engquist for TRD had something else in mind in that reference (see Yes! Communities/21st report linked below). That said, the “hostage” term was used by Frank Rolfe/Mobile Home University, which “Frank and Dave” (via MHP Funds) is reportedly an MHI member.

 

Back to the TRD narrative.

There’s more.

Mobile homes, like cars, become less valuable as they age — unlike traditional homes, which tend to gain value because the land beneath them does. (You’ve heard the axiom: “Buy land — they’re not making it anymore.”) That’s why loans to buy these homes have shorter terms and higher interest rates than conventional mortgages. Mobile home owners don’t build equity over time; they lose it.”

> MHProNews notes: Engquist is ill-informed or poorly expressed that claim. Manufactured homes, per a range of sources, have been appreciating at a similar, and sometimes faster pace than conventional single-family housing.

Back to the TRD narrative.

Another problem: Hurricanes, tornadoes and floods hit mobile homes the hardest. Vast improvements have been made in making them wind-resistant, but older ones are especially vulnerable, and extreme weather fueled by climate change will render them more so.

But the big issue remains the ownership model. Building homes in factories makes sense. Putting them on rented land, not so much.## ”

Again, Engquist and TRD are either ill-informed or poorly expressed several of those claims. One, he presumes climate change is a risk. If so, please tell Barack and Michelle Obama who purchased two ocean front properties (one in tony Martha’s Vineyard the other in Hawaii).  If they really believe in so-called “climate change,” as some on the left express that notion, then they are either foolish or hypocritical.  As that photo below (from TRD) illustrates, that home on Martha’s Vineyard is pretty close to the ocean. If the oceans are rising, that was a poor choice for an investment.

 

The climate is always changing. So, in that sense, the remark can be taken at face value. But the TRD usage seems to be about concerns that humanity is somehow causing a looming catastrophic climate crisis. Large numbers of scientists say that is nonsense.

 

 

Additionally, as the right-leaning financial news and views site, ZeroHedge recently pointed out, the left-leaning Washington Post recently (albeit inadvertently) illustrated that the temperature is much lower today than it was some millennia ago before factories, cars, and other byproducts of modern man.

 

A funny thing happened as the WaPo tried to map out half a billion years of global temperatures and the “disaster of global warming” pic.twitter.com/HA6yxpf9V7

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 20, 2024

 

For those still capable of analytical thought, it arguably takes a lot more faith to believe in ‘climate change’ as some pitch that belief than it does to believe in God.

 

In terms of the concerns about a risk for living in a manufactured home during severe weather that TRD referenced, the report with analysis linked below debunks any false notions found there.

 

 

You normally don’t get to Engquist’s status at an operation like TRD without doing a lot of good work. However, TRD’s post reviewed and unpacked (fisked) above is at best a mixed bag. He made some useful and interesting points, some problematic, some seriously flawed. That said, if they wanted to help the affordable housing crisis through a better understanding of the facts and issues, this would get perhaps a C or D grade if this writer were his instructor on the realities of MHVille vs. what his article portrayed.

That fisking tees up Part II.

Part II Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary 

1) MHProNews touched base during the weekend with Engquist via email.

from:		L. A. Tony Kovach (for MHProNews.com)
to:		Erik Engquist @ therealdeal.com
date:		Sep 22, 2024, 9:45 AM
subject:		Erik, media outreach

Erik,

Copilot

Sent by Copilot:

I couldn’t find any specific social media posts or public responses from the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) or any state associations directly addressing the article from The Real Deal¹². However, the MHI has been active in discussing broader issues related to manufactured housing, including recent amendments to the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards³.

If you have any other questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!

Learn more

1 therealdeal.com 2 kcur.org 3manufacturedhousing.org 4 therealdeal.com 5 therealdeal.com 6manufacturedhousing.org 7manufacturedhomes.com 8 manufacturedhomepronews.com…” (Note: red text added by MHProNews, but the link was provided by Copilot)

3)  MHI belatedly responded to a perceived insult by their self-proclaimed ‘partners’ at HUD. But as a rule, in our years of checks, we have yet to find an example where MHI either contacted a publication to question problematic statements, or to publicly respond to them.

 

 

Why does that matter if MHI responds to mistaken information? Former MHI Chairman Tim Williams provided the answer.

4) In a longer message to MHProNews, 21st Mortgage CEO Williams said the following.

 

5) Another reason to respond is provided by Darren Krolewski, now Co-President at Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS) owned Datacomp, MHVillage, with the later publisher of MHInsider.

6) Others involved at MHI have called out that association for failure to respond publicly to negative media. Some examples follow.

 

7) Given that Williams, Krolewski, Stevens, and Rolfe have all made such remarks publicly, one might think that MHI would get the message. Or, the other possibility seems to be that failure to respond is not an oversight. It is not an accident. It is part of a plan, which Copilot itself suggested.  “Whether it was strategic or unintentional, its crucial to consider the impact on industry perception and resident protection,” said Copilot.

8) Copilot has on several occasions exposed MHI’s “Orwellian” methods.

9) As a programming note, MHProNews plans a follow up on the report linked below with inputs from some of those contacted.

 

10) That teaser noted, to put a bow on the fisking of Erik Engquist for The Real Deal, are these closing musings.

Engquist and TRD can turn lemons into lemonade. They can do a follow up, and/or clean up their current post by making the necessary corrections. They can’t be the first in mainstream media that shines a light on these issues, but they could break ground by interviewing someone at MHARR about the lack of enhanced preemption enforcement.

The apparent motivation for MHI’s posturing without performing seems to be in part because their community operators often think the status quo benefits them. They say so in their own IR pitches.

11) As one more look ahead, several third-party research reports on manufactured housing are on our radar. If MHI were doing their job as claimed, the industry might be doing 500,000 homes a year, without the negative drama. One need not look too far in the past to see how a prior MHI president and CEO, Chris Stinebert, took a very difference stance toward paying mere lip service to happy customers and industry growth.

More could be said about several of the issues raised by TRD, including the sobering realities of the Biden–Harris housing performance, but this should be enough on this fisking and for today. ##

 

Again, our thanks to free email subscribers and all readers like you, as well as our tipsters/sources, sponsors and God for making and keeping us the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, 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 MHProNews.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.

http://latonykovach.com

Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

 

 

Related References:

The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.’