Some years ago, this Manufactured Home Pro News (MHProNews) website was ‘rebuilt’ and as a result some of the URLs (web addresses) to original content have changed.  But that content is still online. That helps set the stage for two of the three headline topics today. First, see what was said in post from 2016 (Part I) and then in 2020 showcased (both of which will be ‘warts and all’) in Part 2. Part III will be additional facts, evidence, analysis (FEA) and commentary.

For objective thinkers, either longtime readers or newer ones, to this website this will help bring into focus just how SLOWLY the core issues that have dogged the manufactured home industry during much of the 21st century have been ‘addressed.’ Indeed, one of several possible takeaways is that the overall average production level of HUD Code manufactured homes and the mobile home era before it has declined since 2016 and 2020. So, the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of production reminds us that the ‘leadership’ of much of MHVille is lacking, to put it politely.

Let’s be candid. Some of this could have been refined. So, while both Part I and Part II could have been ‘better,’ both raised issues that are not yet successfully addressed, 9 plus years later.

So, whatever the pluses or minuses of the writing style, each nevertheless provided facts, evidence, graphics, and more that pointed to the need for specific actions to fix what had gone wrong for the industry in the 21st century. With that in mind, ask yourself this question. What has changed in MHVille since those posts? Keep in mind that in 2016, some of those earlier calls to action were being forwarded by our email readers at the time to 5o or 100 people or more. They were (and still do) resonated with MHVille readers.

Answers to what has changed will be among the items provided in Part III.

With that understanding for the plan on this article, let’s dive in, shall we?

Part I – Manufactured Housing’s Problems and Solutions in a Nutshell

 

Information. Education. Understanding. Inspiration. Aspiration. Advocacy. Engagement. Enforcement. Jujitsu. Profits. Ethics. Repetition.

These 12 words sum up what’s needed for manufactured housing to achieve its potential in your market(s) or nationally in the United States. To make it a baker’s dozen, there is ‘satisfaction.’ More on that lucky number thirteen below.

The laws needed for manufactured housing to break free of the strangleholds that are keeping thousands of individual businesses – and thus the industry at large – underperforming already exist. ‘Enforce the law’ should be part of every white hat professional’s or investor’s mantra.

Each of us is either part of the problem or part of the solution. At times, to be accurate, a person or firm might be both.

 

 

The powers that be in manufactured housing have for over a decade failed to get good laws enforced. That’s a largely unchallenged reality. Everything else are details that make that point or are a smokescreen or distraction from that point.

If a coach that has a team that has the necessary talent to win fails for a few seasons in a row, that coach is replaced. That’s called accountability. But that is not what we’ve seen in manufactured housing nationally association leadership, is it? Why not? Doesn’t that fact alone point to corruption of the normal sources for advocacy in the manufactured housing industry?

There will be a series of special reports on Manufactured Home Living News (MHLivingNews) and here on Manufactured Home Professional News (MHProNews) that will be forthcoming in the days ahead. Watch for them.

Until then, carefully consider the latest post on the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) website, linked here. It is a candid and in depth walk through several major issues from the vantagepoint of that trade group. Keep in mind that MHARR has a history of punching above their weight. The fact that they have accomplished that means that others could organize and do similarly.

Also, look carefully at the articles linked herein and below the byline, offers and notices. Because parts of the solution can be as simple as evidence – whistleblowing, news tips – to MHProNews. Several of those articles are the results of news tips from readers like yourself.

The other side is trying to systematically weaponize numbers of nonprofits to the disadvantage of manufactured housing so that they can consolidate the industry. That consolidation occurs at discounted valuations that result from avoidable underperformance. The opposition has utilized bloggers and competing trade publishers to various degrees in order to give them cover. That cover is propaganda. It is self-evident that the industry is underperforming; a look at the graphics below tells the tale.

 

 

These facts are not in dispute. None of the Omaha-Knoxville-Arlington axis, or their outside attorneys, disputed what is below.

 

 

There is plenty of third-party material that makes the case for manufactured housing.  The two articles linked below are third-party professionals who studied manufactured housing and could make the case for our industry if they were routinely touted. So why are they absent from MHI’s website?

 

Prosperity Now, Nonprofits Sustain John Oliver’s “Mobile Homes” Video in Their Reports

 

Why isn’t the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) routinely and robustly pushing for a proper understanding of those third-party facts? Why isn’t MHI pushing robustly, publicly and consistently for an unequivocal enforcement of good existing laws? As you ponder those questions, consider the whistleblowers news tip unpacked in the report below.

 

Whistleblower’s Documents on Lesli Gooch – Manufactured Housing Institute CEO – New Discoveries

 

When MHI insiders are giving this publication documents and tips that all point to the purported corruption of that organization, it is time for those on the fence to wake up. The reports above and below were both results of news tips by whistleblowers and informed sources.

 

 

The good news is that every problem is an opportunity in disguise. The opportunities to fulfill the needs of affordable housing in the United States in an honest and ethical fashion are much bigger than many realize. If your are already profitable – and are for instance, in retail – you could easily grow your results many times over. If you core costs are covered, those added sales results in more money from each sale going to your bottom line.

Problems are opportunities in disguise.

Millions of Americans want to be owners of affordable homes. Our industry has what millions are seeking. We just have to help them see manufactured homes in their proper and true light.

 

 

It is obvious that MHI isn’t getting that job done either. Sure, they produce some nice videos, but when you look at the scant number of views they have vs. the millions who’ve viewed John Oliver’s viral video errantly named “Mobile Homes,” that says it all, doesn’t it?

 

Stop Feeding the Hands that Bites You

There is no doubt that there is a conundrum in manufactured housing.

To a significant degree, Warren Buffett led Berkshire Hathaway has arguably been successful in slowly but steadily monopolizing the industry while giving advantages to others that are into consolidation too. Odds are good you are doing business with firms that are part of the MHI connected network that is purportedly and systematically strangling manufactured housing independents.

You may also be working for a firm that is part of that MHI network of so-called ‘black hat’ operations.

Our sources include those who are inside ‘black hat’ firms and have come to realize that it is a mistaken path on numerous levels. Clayton Homes, for example, is planning years into the future. They say so themselves. Look at their press for more automation. Sales people as well as factory workers alike could increasingly be automated out of jobs.

While we disagree with some of the proposals and conclusions of billionaire Nick Hanauer, the buddy of ultra-billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, he is correct in saying that there are more profits in the long run and more benefit to more people when wealth isn’t as concentrated. The quote below is another example of wheat from his chaff.

 

 

Pitchforks Coming – Billionaire Nick Hanauer Unpacked – Bridging Economic, Political and Moral Gaps – Affordable Housing and Manufactured Homes

 

The solution isn’t ‘higher taxes,’ even if that thought is well meaning, that’s a shell game. How so? Big companies simply pass those higher taxes onto their consumers in the price of their products and services. More regulation, similarly, isn’t a solution either.

 

 

By contrast, among the baker’s dozen of solutions is law enforcement. One of these laws that need to be enforced are antitrust laws that are designed to stop or break up the monopolization of an industry.

 

Does Misinformation Matter? Revealing But Misleading ‘News’ by MHInsider and the Manufactured Housing Institute?

 

Thanks to the support of forward thinkers, MHProNews and MHLivingNews have increasingly invested the research and effort for the last several years that exposes what’s gone wrong in manufactured housing. We also point to the documented connection between viral videos like John Oliver’s and some of MHI’s key members. Note that when asked, no one in the Omaha-Knoxville-Arlington axis or their outside attorneys have tried to debunk the evidence linked below. Rephrased, it stands undisputed.

 

 

For independents and white hats inside of black hat operations to break free, several things are necessary. It isn’t necessarily hard, but it isn’t instant either. It took Clayton Homes about 15 years to grow to their present size after Buffett-led Berkshire acquired them and bankrupted Oakwood Homes.

 

 

They accomplished that arguably by violating antitrust and other laws.

 

 

What manufactured housing needs is more forward-looking ethical people to look beyond today, next week, or next month. White hats must look years into the future, just as Buffett and his followers do.

White hats must see that the trend lines will steadily squeeze the independents out of business. Even if your firm may be a larger independent that arguably won’t help you. Why not? Because there are numerous examples of how organizations like far larger than yours have been – and thus could be – knee capped and put under. Who says? Look at the evidence. Consider the old ‘original’ Champion and Fleetwood. They were giants 20 years ago. They were the big boys then.

Now, their names remain but their former corporations are gone.

 

Manufactured Housing Professionals, Independent No More

 

Only the truth will set you free. Lies, deception, and buried heads in the sand will never liberate you. It will take effort to beat the cunning of the consolidators. But the good news is that the laws are on the side of the white hats and consumers.

That will be the one of the final points for this column. Consumers must be properly cared for and their interests must be properly tended to as MHI’s former president Chris Stinebert said in his parting message.

 

 

Information. Education. Understanding. Inspiration. Aspiration. Advocacy. Engagement. Enforcement. Jujitsu. Profits. Ethics. Repetition.

Give us your tips and documents that clearly point to the corruption that has occurred in manufactured housing. We recommend that if you are in a nonprofit or larger company that is potentially engaged in black hat efforts, that you use personal email or personal phones instead of company or organization phones to provide any news tips.

 

We don’t believe in unlucky numbers. Satisfaction must obviously mean customers and residents. It is that baker’s dozen, the lucky number 13.

Consumers who are already manufactured homeowners are also part of this planned effort. They are a key to the success of this effort to free the industry from the power of consolidators because the interests of consumers and white hat businesses and investors are interwoven. There have already been examples of current manufactured homeowners providing us useful information and evidence. More on that in the days ahead.

Information. Education. Understanding. Inspiration. Aspiration. Advocacy. Engagement. Enforcement. Jujitsu. Profits. Ethics. Repetition. Satisfaction.

That’s it for now but sign up for our industry leading x2 weekly emailed headline news if you aren’t already on our industry’s most important e-news list. The powers that be follow it carefully. That means you should too. Information and inspiration are necessary to counter the ongoing propaganda of the consolidators.

There’s work to be done. Working together with others of good will, we can get it done and do it profitably with honor. Most people can win so long as people of good will do what they can, while avoiding feeding the monster as much as they can. If a mad dog bites your hand, you don’t keep feeding it that same way, do you? Don’t feed the hands that are biting your professional interests.

 

 

History reminds us that there are numerous opportunities to turn lemons into lemonade by doing what’s right. That’s jujitsu in a nutshell. That’s what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. did. That’s what George Washington did. White hats in MHVille can do so in our era by making a bright-line distinction between themselves and the black hats that currently hold sway over much in manufactured housing.

 

 

There is always more to come, but that’s it for now in this chapter of manufactured housing “Industry News, Tips and Views Pros Can Use,” © 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.)

 

Part II Duh?! The MH Solution or the MH Problem? | 2016/04/24 at 11:19 am

People don’t know what they don’t know. Duh, right? Parents and instructors take on the duty of informing the child; much good effort is needed to properly form every single life. To the degree parents and teachers fulfill their task of instruction, they are part of the solution and advance the child, family and society. By contrast, the more they fail to inform, they’re part of the problem. These successes or failures are measured in degrees.

Among the tens of thousands working in MH – and the hundreds of thousands directly and indirectly supporting manufactured housing – a similar principle of the need to inform oneself and others applies.  

To the degree each person does what is useful to advance and promote the cause of the MH Industry, such individuals are part of the solution. To the extent that a given person fails to promote the advancement of the industry, that person is part of the problem.

The Important Role of Company and Team Leadership and Associations

Each and every leader is called upon by virtue of their role to get and stay informed.  The ignorant leader is the one whose followers may be lead to failures or even to organizational destruction.

Its the marketer’s job to attract customers to the operation(s) they support. But its also the job of each and every professional to be an MH Ambassador – an MH Evangelist – for the most amazing solution known today for the growing U.S. affordable housing crisis.

We’ve documented numerous times on MHProNews and MHLivingNews.com the huge and growing need – and the MH Solution! – to the affordable housing crisis.

We’ve done more than any publisher in the history of the factory-built housing industry (so say our readers) to model and promote the path to MH Industry’s rebirth. We walk the talk, so we can look you and others in the eye and say, if we can do this, you should too!

The 64 Billion Dollar Questions…DUH?!

How about you? Be objective. Are you doing daily those things that make you:

• part of the problem or part of the solution?

• How about your team?

• How about your location, company or association?

It can all start by simply sharing the good news that is already out there. We have readers on our email list who forward links on topics to their email lists, or post it on their blogs, community newsletters, or share them via social media. There are those who forward our 2x weekly emails news updates to 100 or more others on their contact lists. They’re clearly taking that step to be promoters of facts that lead to solutions.

But sharing good news once – as important as it is – that’s only the start. You have to repeatedly keep sharing it. Why?

As an analogy, what advertiser runs a single ad on national TV, and then never advertises that product or service again?  Duh, right?

The rule is you promote, promote, promote. You may and should from time to time tweak and change up the message. You may add to or refine it, but you keep hammering away. Otherwise, as a once-in-a-lifetime promoter of X, you are part of the problem.

Once is not enough.

Again, we strive to model what we say; we walk the talk. Example. We did not stop 3 years ago with our first MH Tornado and Windstorm video. We watched the feedback, engaged with those giving it. And then we prepared for an even better version 2.0. Version 1 had not 50,000 or 100,000 views, it had over 200,000 views and counting. Some of those viewers, we are told by MHPros like you, bought homes after seeing the earlier version of the video.  How many may buy a home from your operation once they see the myth shattering facts found in this powerful, fast-paced video?

This new version of the tornado, hurricanes windstorms is even more powerful, and addresses questions and concerns raised through hundreds of comments posted on the first version of the video.  It is a tool to sell more manufactured homes, and it was made possible by supporters of our twin platforms. Please make sure you support those who support this important work we do on behalf of the factory-built housing Industry.

Join the MH Solution Movement

Duh, the obvious place to start is by sharing the good news of MH. Share it with your team and then those you know.  Make it a habit to get and stay informed on the topics we tackle that can help you sell more homes.

Then, support those who support our work.

 

Finally, be part of the solution in supporting our work too. Together, we can change the MH industry for good. That’s our story – we’re telling yours, so be sure you are sharing in the load of our industry building work too! That’s enlighted self-interest! ##  

By L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach

One of the educational sessions at the 2016 Tunica Show, to see the recap video, please click here or the image above.

 

Part III – Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary

In no particular order of importance are the following facts and observations.

1) There were twelve items (or a bonus ‘baker’s dozen’ of “Satisfaction”) identified. The first twelve were these: “Information. Education. Understanding. Inspiration. Aspiration. Advocacy. Engagement. Enforcement. Jujitsu. Profits. Ethics. Repetition.”

For example. “Enforcement” is a reference to ‘enforcing’ existing federal laws. Specifically, laws that needed to be enforced included these.

a) The Manufactured Housing Improvement Act (a.k.a.: MHIA, MHIA 2000, 2000 Reform Act, 2000 Reform Law) and its “enhanced preemption” provision.

b) The Duty to Serve (DTS) Manufactured Housing made federal law as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008.

Are either of those two federal laws being properly enforced? MHI itself has repeatedly said, no, they are not being properly enforced. MHARR has made similar points on their website.

c) Put differently, MHI despite consistently being exposed for its lack of results on what their own leaders claim are key issues reveal just how ineffective they are at what they claim are priority issues. Perhaps more starkly, an MHI 2022 “Priorities” document linked here no longer mentions either DTS or “enhanced preemption.”  So, have MHI leaders quietly admitted by omission that they are no longer pressing for the full enforcement of those laws that they previously asserted they were working to get full enforced? Hold that thought.

 

d) So, per MHI’s own document linked here, MHI’s priorities have quietly changed.

Federal Policies Should Promote the Affordability and Availability of Manufactured Homes

• 1) FHA Should Support Manufactured Housing Financing
• 2) HUD Should Regulate Manufactured Housing Energy Standards
• 3) HUD Should Support Preservation of Land-Lease Communities

Each of those are telling. HUD has provided funding for manufactured housing “preservation,” see screen capture below.

 

 

2) But what about the creation of more manufactured home communities (MHC) which could logically be accelerated if MHI actually achieved “enhanced preemption” enforcement?

Imagine if the production of new apartment complexes (multi-family housing) were halted. What would happen to the value of existing ones? It isn’t rocket science, to apply a quote by the Florida Manufactured Housing Association (FMHA) executive Jim Ayotte.

Deliberate underproduction is a business ploy that Marketplace reported on, as did MHProNews, several years ago.

 

 

Applying that principle (without agreeing with it) that underproduction presses existing housing values higher. There will be more on this in the days ahead, because new research by a major nonprofit has emerged that applies. MHProNews/MHLivingNews plans to unpack those insights in the near term.

3) MHProNews has reviewed and published hundreds of articles (likely thousands, no time for an exact count) that include some other person’s, organization’s, or other’s remarks and then unpacked them to see what can be learned from that process. The routine result is that articles or research reports are a mix of strengths and weaknesses.  To critique one’s own work (as this post will briefly do), it is fair to say that the above reveals the evolutionary nature of our reporting and analysis from 2016 to 2020 and now 2025.

4) More specifically, efforts were made to mobilize individuals in or beyond manufactured housing to resist the steady trend of industry consolidation. There was evidence then that the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) was part of the problem rather than part of the solution. For example, MHLivingNews carefully viewed the viral HBO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver video inappropriately named “Mobile Homes” that pointed out the most if not all of the firms named or otherwise revealed in that video were members of MHI. Even then, MHProNews was calling for antitrust action in the manufactured housing industry.

Problems with the behavior of MHI’s Lesli Gooch were pointed out back then. Why did MHI leaders keep her all these years when documentary evidence of her behavior was made public back then? But since then, multiple antitrust suits have emerged.

 

 

5) It is MHARR’s president and CEO, Mark Weiss, J.D. that recently said in an on the record remark that no one else in manufactured housing trade media has had the stomach or integrity to report on and expose these ongoing issues.

 

 

6) Has MHI responded to such concerns? Have they reported on issues that MHARR, MHProNews, or MHLivingNews have recently reported on? Once again, as of about 11:51 AM ET, the answer is still ‘no.’

 

 

7) Since those posts in 2016 and 2020, a body of evidence has emerged that consistently served to confirm the concerns that were being raised then. So, while someone can take a hit on us (we are mentioning it ourselves) for style, the thrust of the substance was an appropriate then as it is today. But what has changed is that the annual production of manufactured housing vs. the historic trends continue to decline. Who says? Champion Homes (SKY), the same MHI member firm that under the Skyline Champion (SKY) name produced the graphic that said the historic average for manufactured housing stood at 222k per year. It is down significantly since.

 

The same MHI member firm reveals that produced the base image above that indicated that the average production went from 222K per year in 2018 to about 200k by May of 2024.

 

 

8) So, the thrust of the arguments being made by MHProNews in 2016 (note: well prior to MHARR being a sponsor) and 2020 are still true today. What has changed?

• a) Average annual long-term production has declined since then (see Champion graphics above).
• b) Still no progress on getting Duty to Serve (DTS) or “enhanced preemption” enforced.
• c) MHI’s own priorities 2022 fails to even mention DTS or enhanced preemption enforcement as a priority.
• d) MHI’s priority of getting HUD/taxpayer funding for preservation (not expansion, preservation) of existing manufactured home communities (MHC) was achieved. So, an evidence-based argument can be made that MHI clearly can get something done when they want to do so.
• e) Can anyone honestly assert that the image of the manufactured home industry has improved since 2016 or 2020? Given that MHI leaders have talked about doing an image/education program similar to the multi-decades of success in the RVIA’s GoRVing campaign.
• f) There is a spreading push for rent control in various states and other jurisdictions across the U.S. Prominent MHI member Frank Rolfe has been specifically named in such legislation. So, what about MHI’s so-called Code of Ethical Conduct?

  

• g) There appears to be a pattern. Several of MHI’s leading members seem to use or capitalize on negative media as part of their ‘moat.’

• h) One group of readers contacted MHProNews recently in part to say that they concurred with the notion that the Hobbs Act, as well as antitrust and RICO, are at play. A description of the Hobbs Act is shown below.

• i) It is clear that Obama-Biden (D) and Biden-Harris (D) failed to enforce enhanced preemption even though then Senator Joe Biden (D) was a cosponsor. Biden was also involved in DTS. It is arguably akin to border and immigration law enforcement. Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0 (R) both made efforts to enforce the border and immigration laws, and they have enjoyed notable success when compared to Democrats before them.

• j.) Three different AI systems have been used since May of 2023. When the right questions and specific examples are provided, they routinely come to the conclusion that MHI is failing at its own stated claims. They are failing at transparency. Their leaders (staff and corporate) are failing in their fiduciary duty. These evidence-based allegations have consequences.

9) MHARR, MHProNews, and MHLivingNews – each in their own ways – have effectively ‘boxed MHI in’ with their own claims and behaviors. That’s a key takeaway from those posts in 2016 or 2020 shown in Part I and Part II above. No wonder a growing body of evidence is emerging that documents the difference between MHI’s claims and MHI’s actions. Those are actionable. The question is, will local, state, or federal officials act? They did not under Biden Harris (D) or Obama-Biden (D). In fairness, Trump 1.0 didn’t enforce federal preemption or DTS either. That said, MHARR is documenting their specific efforts with HUD Secretary Turner, and presumably, other federal agencies too.

 

 

10) Two judges have been arrested for ‘aiding and abetting’ illegal aliens. Trump 2.0 seems to have learned from the past 8 years. The FBI/DOJ has singled that public corruption and white-collar crimes are going to be a priority. Will that priority reach into MHVille? Time will tell.

 

11) Corruption in the federal and other governments arguably run wide and deep. Corruption in the way that business is conducted is arguably also a failing of consistent and robust antitrust enforcement, and the same might be said about RICO and the Hobbs Act. MHProNews and our MHLivingNews sister site have led the charge for such accountability.

MHI has demonstrably NOT been part of the solution, save as a solution for the ‘big boys’ of the industry.

What comes next? Time will tell.

But by documenting step by step what has been occurring in manufactured housing, should public officials decide to act, the start of their case may be found on our websites. Because consolidation seems to be the true goal of MHI’s dominating members and thus MHI itself. That doesn’t mean that everyone involved in MHI is corrupt. But it does mean that there is enough corruption to warrant a serious set of probes, charges, and prosecutions. It is no longer a matter of inference as it is a matter of looking at the actual remarks made and the actual behaviors taken. That, per a range of AI fact-checks, is fact-evidence-pattern that warrants legal action. To see the image below in a larger size, click here and follow the prompts.

‘Monopolists Exploited Covid and Tariffs;’ Golden Age or Stone Age? MHARR-Dept of Energy Extends Tier 2 Manufactured Housing Energy Standards Compliance Deadline-MHI Page Mute-Why? MHVille FEA

 

 

 

 

There are FEA reasons why AI has said that MHProNews has more than 6x the traffic and even higher pageview levels of engagement than MHI and its allied bloggers/publishers combined.

 

There are reasons why AI has said that MHProNews has more than 6x the combined readership of MHI and its affiliated bloggers and trade media.

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. 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

 

 

https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/nahb-praises-trump-grok-the-affordable-housing-crisis-isnt-just-market-failure-its-an-orchestrated-squeeze-mhi-playing-both-sides-and-hud-asleep-at-the-wheel/