S. 2155 is poised to pass the House today. It’s styled “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.”
Should the bill pass – and Skopos Labs/GovTrack say there is a 56 percent chance of enactment – then the following is what you can expect from the Arlington, VA based national manufactured housing association and their surrogates.
There is a 100 percent chance of celebration and back slapping by the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI). I don’t blame them, it’s natural.
But there’s a back story. MHI don’t want the focus to be on the back story.
Indeed, as a matter of record, repeal of the onerous MLO rule is one MHProNews has supported for years.
In spite of what some consumer groups claim, the MLO repeal provision only levels the playing field for manufactured home retailers and communities. It allows them to do what real estate agents can already do. We supported both legs of the original bill, so logically, we supported each one too.
“Tony, What’s the Beef?”
We’ve had some pros – skimmers, not readers – who’ve asked why we don’t support the bill. We have supported the measure, and did for years.
Our “beef” – as one writer put it – has been that MHI spiked this MLO-only deal years ago.
If the MLO rule is OK now, why wasn’t it OK then?
Mark my words. MHI wanted to do this, because they and their puppet masters were desperate to be able to claim a victory on anything of substance.
Mark my words. MHI and their puppet masters are feeling the heat.
MSM = Mainstream Media
Once more, the mainstream media (MSM) has numerous reports and commentaries coming out just before the House vote. They are slamming the measure, slamming Clayton Homes, and Berkshire Hathaway’s MHI association mouthpiece.
Part of the point is that even when they ‘succeed:’
- the manufactured housing industry must remember this could have been done years ago, as the Daily Business News exclusively reported.
- Clayton and their Berkshire lending brands were winning either way. They benefited if S 2155 and/or Preserving Access passed or not. This is a nuanced but critical point to understand, long after 2155 is forgotten. An MHI insider first told me about that insight, and then another did. It was MHI types that explained that the big companies benefit regardless if MHI backed bills pass, or not. Burn that one into your mind, it frankly took me time to get it. But once that sank in, it became an eye-popping insight.
Look at this MHI Pattern
MHI’s EVP Lesli Gooch proudly told the Washington Post they did not weigh in on the removal of Pam Danner.
Recall, that MHI was on the wrong side of the DOE energy rule, until pressure from this publication, MHARR, the SBA and others made them switch course.
We could go on and on like the above. But the bottom line is simple, and tragic.
Independents who are paying dues to the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) are arguably paying to feed the hand that bites and fails them.
There are reasons why state associations and others have dropped their MHI membership.
Pulling the Head Out…
There are some MHI loyalists who think we’re just sore because MHI gave us the boot. Hardly, that’s reversed. MHI gave us the boot because they didn’t know how to deal with all the myriad of revelations we were publishing about their ‘alleged’ favoritism, failures, and flaws.
All of that has cost the industry, IMHO, billions of dollars a year in new home sales. That in turn has cost manufactured home owners, billions of dollars in higher resale values.
It is time for more in the industry to dig deeply.
It is time to pull the head out of the sand, and look.
As a closing thought, please note that not everything about MHI, not everything about Berkshire Hathaway draws our concerns. We strive to be objective.
The best example is from Monday. Please check that article out. We give credit where it is due, period. We are evidence, reason, and fact-based. We are pro-industry. We’re not against big-business. We are against big business that behaves in monopolistic, crony capitalists, or otherwise behave in unethical ways.
See the first take on MHARR’s related report, linked above. Enough said for today. ## (News, analysis and commentary.)
(Third party images, and content are provided under fair use guidelines.)
UPDATE 6:27 PM ET. As expected the bill has passed. Let’s see how the prediction above plays out. Details of the passage are found at the link below.
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Whatever one thinks about their political leanings, the Washington Post is one of the most important and influential news publications in America. They decided to publish an article recently about the HUD Code manufactured housing program. More specifically, the Washington Post (WaPo or WP) wrote about the inner workings of HUD under the Trump Administration, with Secretary Ben Carson at the helm.
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – Masthead commentary, for MHProNews.com.
Tony is the multiple award-winning managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
Office 863-213-4090 |Connect on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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