Financing in the CFPB Era and the Path to Full Manufactured Home Communities

Tony,

Great articles and comments made by others. 

I agree with 99% of what is said. The issues I see our industry has are: 

1. People are so scared of the Dodd-Frank and Safe Act. Our industry needs to deal with this as the new reality and figuring out how to do business with these new regulations. 
2. Lenders and community owners getting together on a win-win community home financing program that requires community owners to repurchase the homes that default and requires the lenders to originate loans at lower rates. 
3. Community owners making their communities more appealing to today’s buyer:
   1. Updating their community amenities (Signage, clubhouse paint and carpet, pool furniture, road repairs, etc.)
   2. Enforcing communities rules to ensure that all homes are maintained and clean and neat
   3. Finding ways to improve the community lifestyle by organizing community events that enrich the residents lives.
   4. Moving in new homes and having 2 or more fully decorated models that will help prospects visualize how nice a manufactured home can be.
4. Community owners should NOT jump into the rental home model so fast. Many markets can support true home sales business model by offering financing options that make sense to their customers. This does take more work but the full community with home OWNERS rather then renters is worth the extra work. 
5. Community owners offering outside retailers attractive move in programs. 

We have implemented this in all our communities and are selling anywhere from 30-100 homes per community per year. 

Thanks for sharing this article. ##

Scott Roberts
Chief Executive Officer
Roberts Resorts
8350 E. Raintree DR. Ste 220
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
480.425.8696

(Editor's Note: The articles Scott's letter to the editor refers to are ones by Ross Kinzler and Jay Hamilton.

For those who may not have met Scott or know the progressive work being done in his communities, Scott was the recipient of the Manufactured Housing Institute's “Community of the Year” at the 2014 Congress and Expo.

The head shot above is actually part of a larger photo, that shows him holding his Community of the Year award.)