Three Manufactured Housing News topics today:

1. Post MHI DC meeting comments
2. Reality Check/Getting Mad, and
3. Business Building in the Spring of 2011

So let’s jump in and get started.

1.  Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) Winter Meeting and Legislative session

Duties here in Chicagoland kept me from attending the Manufactured Housing Institute’s (MHI) Winter session and Legislative Meeting in Washington, DC. The good news is that multiple attendees have thoughtfully shared their comments for you, our reader’s, benefit.

Comments from attendees received here ranged the gamut from enthusiastic to nonplused. Some snapshots of comments from attendees included:

• Best MHI meeting I’ve ever attended, outside of MHI’s annual Congress in Vegas
• Smallest turn-out for the MHI legislative meeting in years
• Important speakers, topics and issues addressed
• You were wise to stay home, focused on your core business
• Concern was expressed over more dark clouds over housing in general, and manufactured housing in particular
• Note was made of a possible new wrinkle in how the SAFE Act might treat lease purchase programs *
• Discussion among NCC members regarding inclusion of ‘mom and pop’ MHC operators **
• Briefings, meetings and the reception with members of Congress and federal staff seemed to please many.

You can see the meeting agenda and topics covered here.

We will be looking forward to the official reports from MHI, which should be available on our site by this weekend.

* While there was discussion about a possible ‘loophole’ for the SAFE Act using lease-purchase, it should be noted that it would not be available in all states, and may not be available without risks.  The wise move would be to consult a SAFE Act expert or expert attorney before proceeding on any strategy that uses lease purchase as a ‘long term’ strategy.

** While the idea was floated of creating a two-tier system in NCC to allow smaller community owner/operators to become members, this idea may be DOA.  Stay tuned.

For future reference, events and meetings like this are on our MHMSM.com Events Calendar. To add your association or industry event, please email it to Catherine@mhmsm.com and Tony@MHMSM.com – thanks.

2.  Manufactured Housing Industry Reality Check

I went through my meeting notes from last year’s legislative session meeting, and ran across this note. Thayer Long made the statement that every HUD Code Manufactured home built represented one job. At first that statement surprised me; does it you? But let’s take it at face value.

Using that formula of 1 manufactured home equals 1 job, our Industry has lost about 1/3 of a million jobs since 1998 in manufacturing alone.

Most economists talk about the ripple effect of a dollar lost or gained and a job lost or gained through the U.S. Economy. The loss of a manufacturing job hurts suppliers, sellers, community operators and so on through the Industry list. Arguably, the most stable part of our Industry today is in the Manufactured Housing Communities (MHC) segment.

Half way through our Associations Issue month, we need to take another look (or if you missed it, the first look) at last weekend’s Masthead post, Madder Than Hell…

…because we need a fire in our bellies to effect needed change. Association members and leaders often mention apathy these days. Others speak of changes needed. Consensus is often lacking.

What is certain is that few industries can suffer an 85% decline over 12 years and make it. No wonder we have lost so many hundreds of factories, retail centers, suppliers, vendors, jobs and businesses in the last dozen years.

FYI, for those aficionados of the MH land lease community business, you will want to see the exclusive interview our Industry in Focus reporter Matthew Silver did with George Allen that is live on our Industry Voices Guest Blog: George Allen Sounds Off in Exclusive Interview on Key MHC and Industry Issues.

3.  Business Building in the Spring of 2011.

Are there bright spots?  Yes.

Parts of the nation, like the Dakotas, are experiencing their own mini-boom, with HUD Code manufactured home shipments going up. I’ve spoken with upper-end modular builders who say their business is strong. Some MH community operators and retailers in various states are learning how to navigate these turbulent waters, and are seeing more sales, filling vacancies and are making more money.

If they can, you can. Not all of the success stories are connected with an energy boom or localized demand phenomenon.

One major place to learn how to earn more is in the upcoming manufactured housing shows in and around the country!

Tunica – a new line of business-building Manufactured Housing Community Focused Seminars has been added to the Wednesday line up in Tunica!

• “Grow Your Market Share with Easy Community Upgrades!“ by Don Westphal. Don is one of our popular featured writers, see Don’s latest article linked here. As an MHC owner himself, Don can show you how this is done! Don’s presentation will begin Wed at 1 PM.

• “Generate additional income from your community – at no cost to you!” by Grant Kitching, Connexion Technologies. If this sounds too good to be true, then let Grant show you how! In these days when maximizing appeal and revenues for MHCs is ‘in’ – community owners and operators won’t want to miss this topic.

• “Dominate your Local Market!“ – Bob Stovall and Tony Kovach. Our seminar attracted the following comments from George Allen, who introduced us by saying, “These guys are the future of manufactured housing!’” at the Louisville Show. George reported the following after the show about our presentation:

Tony Kovach and his team of marketing specialists, introduced the day’s largest audience, of more than 60 LLCommunity owners/operators, to the exciting new world of online marketing, of new and resale homes, via web site design, blogging, social networks, and much much more.

All of these seminars are free to attendees. Out thanks to Dennis Hill and the Tunica Show for making these business-building events possible.

Beyond Tunica, you will find the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa OK. This is the largest show of its kind west of the Mississippi, and the largest Indoor manufactured housing show in the nation!

You will also find HOMExpo 2011 in York PA.  HOMExpo 2011 (also shown in places as Home Expo 2011) feature the largest manufactured housing show in the mid-Atlantic and New England states.

Mark your calendar for one or more of these great events. We will see you In Tulsa, Tunica and Vegas! # #