Please repeat after me. Boulevard locations, developers and most land lease communities are or ought to be Manufactured Home Retailers.

Retailers today come in all shapes and sizes. What was true yesterday is there for us to learn from. But the world we live in today is very different than 5, 10 or 15 years ago. We can't be stuck in the past if we are to profit in the future. Think about driving and your rear view mirror. You glance back, but you must focus by looking ahead.

The good news is, shipments are up 11 straight months. The forecasts are that we have a looming housing shortage just beyond this foreclosure glut. The good news is 10,000 people retire each day. All of these signal opportunities for factory built housing professionals.

The bad new is we still have regulatory, image, education, professional and other challenges that must be addressed if we are to tap into what could be the biggest housing boom America has ever known. It won't fall into our laps.

We will have to work for it. As an industry colleague who happens to own a manufacturing facility and other enterprises tells me, "If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it."

Evolve or Die

While we applaud and support the efforts at initiatives such as SNR Denton, HR 3849andS. 3484, there is a crying need to grow and diversify NOW.

Sometime on or before mid-to-late January, 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will issue their regulations. Warren Buffet has said, 'we will not be in the predatory lending business.' Translated, that means we will see 40% or so of the current loans being made by two of our largest lenders disappear in our Industry. How many other personal property lenders that will be impacted also needs to be explored.

Having all your eggs in the chattel lending basket could be courting disaster for many marginal retailers. So I applaud the TexasMHA for having a presentation on the USDA, VA and FHA Title II programs as part of their seminar line up next week in Houston.

Using more of those loans – which will meet all the Qualifying Mortgage requirements – could rapidly grow MH street retailers and developers performance. The potential is there to return to 6 figures of annual shipments! That is a move that factories, lenders, associations and other vendor/suppliers need to explore and promote in tandem with MHRetailers.

One of the forward looking execs I talk with tells me: "Tony, we have a unique opportunity." Many states have a little more money coming into their coffers, due to rising floor fees on increasing new home sales. That means companies that got it down to the bone – sometime down to just to mom and pop – are now getting some breathing room.

This is the time to act

Another seasoned, respected exec told me, "We are in a fragile recovery."

We must be engaged on the association and political levels. Clearly, much of what we are fighting against are regulatory hurdles.

No smart business person wants to oppress their customers, they want to care for them so they bring their friends! In the Internet and Social Media era, a business that "screws" customers routinely is punished by the market place!

Do we want smart regulation? A case can be made for that idea. But those who think that regulators are the only check on an industry or business are mistaken, that's a key take-away from the point above.

So we need to think about the national direction in the light of the boom that took place when a Republican Congress and a Democratic president worked together to balance the budget, create millions of jobs and establish a more business friendly environment than we have seen in recent years. "The era or big government is over," then President Bill Clinton said.

Does someone need to remind the folks in DC what the last Democratic president said?

But let's not get into those weeds too deep. Today, let's focus on some facts and business building opportunities.

75-25?

The Census Bureau survey tells us that some 75% of all Manufactured home loans are "home only," personal property or "chattel loans." I advise my street retailing clients to diversify into more land-home loan packages whenever possible. Thus the USDA, VA and FHA Title II, along with conventional land/home mortgages, must become a key part of the Industry.

When I look at successful MH Retailer Lance Inderman's column, an indirect take-away is to do more land/home loans whenever possible. With land/home, we can have similar rates to conventional housing, so our potential price advantages can come to bear.

But Lance's column also suggests more.

How to Have a Chattel Lending Renaissance

Those who do chattel loans need to think about a pain point that must become an opportunity point. Why do chattel loan interest rates run higher? There are many practical reasons. We can talk about no secondary market, the lack of implementation of the Duty to Serve by the GSEs and the FHFA, etc. All of those have some merit. But they still fail to hit the bulls-eye.

You could boil higher rates on personal property MH loans all down to the much higher loses for a lender when a default occurs!

Almost no one want to grab that bull by the horns and make that their own.

The solution tp our industry's lending meltdown over a decade ago was that MH chattel lenders have chosen one or more of the following: shorter terms, higher down payments and higher credit scores. While understandable, NONE OF THESE steps get to the heart of the matter.

The solutions, ladies and gents, is resale or "remarketing" that works for customers and lenders.

When the day comes that a manufactured home owner can sell their home readily – and a lender can sell a repo easily too – similar to what happens with conventional housing, that is the day that a true, sustainable ReBirth will take place for Manufactured Home Ownership.

The time to strike on all of the above is now.

If you haven't read Dan Rinzema's Industry Voices column on Unintended Consequences Can be a Good Thing, the time to do so would be now.

We can't operate like the only "future" is the next 30 days.

We have to also think 5, 10, 15 years or more into the future. We must partner with third party lenders in ways we never have before. We must work more closely with our associations than ever before. We have to enhance professionalism and best practices. All of this will enhance our image and will attract more customers with cash or good credit.

Sales growth now

The only thing that keeps most retailers from selling more homes now could be boiled down to current business practices. This is not a tag, it is a statement of fact that cries out for attention!

In various states and markets from border to border, the proper marketing and sales systems – combined with the right customer service – are proven to sell more homes.

But if YOU are a retailer, you can tap into these almost immediately. You don't have to wait for Congress or the state house to act.

What we need are more pioneers willing to prove to themselves what others have already proven before.

We can attract and sell more clients, better qualified ones and sell more homes. I've been a part of this in the real world of communities and retail centers for decades. You can Attract More Customers with Cash or Good Credit too.

At events last year and this, we have shared this message to enthusiastic professional audiences. This is proven, common sense and profitable.

But beyond that, of we can add Re-Sale/Re-Marketing, we set the stage to become the first choice for home buyers, not third or fourth choice housing.

Are you a Retailer Hungry for new sales?

Then:

• Be engaged politically and with your association
• attend the next or nearest event or conference where we present on this topic.
• Learn about the profitable ways to make resale and remarketing a reality.
• If you are a factory, lender or other supplier/vendor, get behind this effort with your clients too.

It takes a little time and effort to make these realities. But doing so TODAY will pay off for hungry retailers. It will bring more sales to factories. More contacts for lenders. More floor fees for Associations. Let's build that brighter future, together. ##

L. A. "Tony" Kovach
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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford