Reaping the Consequences from the Past…the Outcome is no surprise

As you can imagine, I am hardly surprised (that MH failed to get S 682/HR 650) included in the Congressional Omnibus Appropriations bill, and failed to get chattel lending okayed by FHFA with the GSEs).

This industry ran roughshod over consumers for many years. Too many LLC (land lease community) owners acted as dictators. Millions of people losing their homes, and the litany continues.

The good the industry has achieved was insufficient to balance the past damage. As those in power watched these results, an ingrained animus arose which may well be resistant to be overcome, and it colors every decision regarding MH. That puts our supports at a constantly defensive position.

That does and will continue to dog the industry,  getting help from on high will be ever-difficult,  no matter how needed and logical. 
I’m not sure there is any easy cure to our dilemma, but staying the course on good product, superior consumer treatment, and building value can be the only logical course.

Politicians may help, but their help is uncertain and unreliable. As we saw with DTS (Duty to Serve, part of the HERA 2008 bill), passing a law hardly forces the matter to happen. Bureaucrats, commissions and boards are the true powers. They have not been with us. ##

MARTIN V. (Marty) LAVIN
att’y, consultant, and expert witness
350 Main Street
BURLINGTON, VT 05401

winter address: Nov-May
PO Box 545927
MIAMI BEACH, FL 33154

(Editor’s Note: the parenthetical statements abvoe are not in the original, but were edited in to make clear this expert’s statements, which are otherwise faithfully reflected as sent to us for publication. Headlines are typically supplied by the editor, as is the case in this OpEd too.  Please note that Marty Lavin, JD, took a strong, pro-HR 650/S 682 stand via video, see that, linked here.  Marty worked with one of the GSE’s for years, learn more about that in the same video previously linked.

Other comments on the failure to get Preserving Access included in the Congressional omnibus appropriations bill have come in, a sampling off the record comments, linked here, and on the record thoughts from Triad’s CEO, Don Glisson Jr, linked here.)