A blogger in our industry has begun a new campaign of sorts. But as all too often seems to be the case in our industry’s other trade media, there are those who shoot first, and aim to understand or report accurately later, if ever.
It should be self-evident that manufactured housing as an industry needs better public relations, which ought to begin with better resident/homeowner relations.
That’s not a new thought on MHProNews, as an upcoming report will remind readers of an initiative that occurred some years back that state association executives found had merit, but the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) failed to get behind. Shocking? Hardly, but watch for that in the days ahead.
That said, prior to the leadership at MHI in recent years, a prior MHI president stressed something quite similar. His parting message to the industry can be read as a polite slap in the face of the association he was leaving. See how prior MHI President Chris Stinebert wrapped up his advice to the industry, at the report linked below.
Perhaps it was revolutionary for Stinebert to advocate that the industry – often a code-phrase for MHI – focus on increasing the value proposition to homeowners and customers. But to white hat professionals, isn’t that just common sense?
Perhaps it is telling that MHI’s own website no longer features Stinebert’s name in a site-search?
As MHLivingNews and MHProNews has reported for years, while homeowner satisfaction is routinely high, residents living in a land-lease community are arguably increasing in the numbers of their sobering concerns.
After reportedly ripping MHI’s now outgoing President and CEO, Richard ‘Dick’ Jennison, Mark Bowersox took a vice president’s role at the Arlington, VA based trade group. As prior reports reflect, MHI’s current – and scheduled to depart around year’s end – president has not been popular with several on staff. A revolving door at MHI has existed during much of Jennison’s tenure.
But in fairness to Jennison or others at MHI, their job essentially depends on doing what the MHI executive committee wants them to do. So, while MHI has paid to research consumer sentiment, which they then hide behind a firewall while MHAction provided their research free to the public with devastating effectiveness, an obvious measure of consumer thoughts is being ignored.
Beyond the low number of new manufactured homes sold – which is the acid test – what homeowners and consumers write or say to local or other media is revealing and insightful.
That is noted as backdrop to the letters that follow.
The Grand Rapids, MN Herald Review is the source of the first letter to the editor, published below and original found at this link here.
‘THERE’S PROBABLY A LITTLE MORE TO IT THAN THAT’
Sep 11, 2019
This letter is in response to the September 4th “Policing the Rapids” column by Scott Johnson, Grand Rapids Police Chief. I read this column hoping throughout the reading that I would come across some compassion or at least some recognition of some of the factors that might lead people to be at a residence they were not supposed to at in the middle of the day as reported by the resident. Since this is our beloved police chief I really had hoped for a more balanced reading but I was disappointed to the end.
Chief Johnson had to mention that “the call was at a manufactured home park in town,” (Odd since the resident who called had “phoned the dispatch center from work” so how is the call from a manufactured home?) Obviously the mention of a manufactured home is code for “trailer” and we are all then supposed to make the jump to “trailer trash.” Okay we get it, now what else have these low-lifes done? Apparently they’ve used drugs, come from out of town, come to attend a friends funeral and are also ripping all of us off because they’ve gotten free government phones by signing up for Medical Assistance.
The gross generalizations of people who likely are suffering chemical dependency addiction issues and/or mental health issues as well as of those living in manufactured homes and those on medical assistance is nothing new or shocking. What is shocking to me is that a police chief would be so ignorant as to write this column. Chief Johnson talks about asking one of the men why he had two phones and the man told him to go ahead and sign up for Medical Assistance so the chief could get a free phone too. The chief states that “there is probably a little bit more to it than that but not much” without giving us any context on how he might know this.
When our own police chief has no compassion for people affected by mental illness, drug addiction, lack of affordable housing, medical care, and a host of other ills, then what must the other police officers learn from this? And what are we citizens to learn from this?
There is an old song by Bruce Hornsby called “Just the Way It Is” and part of the lyrics are:
“The man in the silk suit hurries by, As he catches the poor old ladies eyes, just for fun he says ‘get a job…’”
If we change the first part to the man in the police chief uniform it fits right in. I guess some things will never change, especially when our own chief of police has beliefs such as expressed in the column.
Lisa Whelan
Grand Rapids
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Next is this letter published by The GJSentinel at this link here. Above and below, nomenclature or other errors are in the original.
Mobile home owners: Consider collectively owning parks
Tuesday’s story about the manufactured home parks highlights the precarious position manufactured home owners find themselves in as both owners and renters.
The best solution to this dilemma is for residents to actually buy their parks and manage them collectively. This may seem impossible to imagine but there are nonprofit community development financial institutions that exist just to help residents do this.
They offer training, support and financing. One such organization is ROC-USA. I have worked in the non-profit affordable homeownership sector for 15 years and have seen what these impressive organizations can do to help people take control of their own financial security.
Anyone living in a manufactured home park should check this option out and discuss it with their neighbors. Manufactured homes are an important part of the housing spectrum but when they are in rental parks, they are on shaky ground.
EMILEE POWELL
Grand Junction
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The next letter is a Q&A to Ryan Poliakoff, Condo guru from Florida Today, part of the USA Today network.
Dear Poliakoffs,
I have never lived in a manufactured home before, and when my cousin bought this place for me, the lot rent was supposed to be $325 per month. After we signed and I moved in, it all of a sudden jumped to $570 per month! They said it would possibly be a 5% increase every year.
I don’t understand how it could increase so much. What could possibly cause this? I live on a fixed income and this makes it quite difficult. I didn’t get much of an explanation as to why — could you explain this?
Signed, E.B.
Dear E.B.,
The way I read your question, you have purchased a lot in a community governed by a homeowner’s association, made up of mostly pre-fabricated homes. When you purchased the lot and home, you were told that the monthly assessments would be one amount, but when you finally moved in, you were informed the amount had gone up dramatically, and you are wondering how and why that would be the case.
Every community association governs and is responsible for the maintenance of common areas. When a developer first creates a community, they will usually estimate the yearly budget for those maintenance costs. But, in my experience, those developer budgets are frequently underestimated, whether due to the passage of time, or unanticipated costs, or sometimes due simply to inaccurate guesses (the budgets may have been prepared before the community was actually constructed).
It is common in both condominiums and HOAs for the post-turnover operating budget to be significantly greater than the initial estimated budget. This is not true all the time, but a large portion of the time.
And, remember, that costs go up on a regular basis. Landscapers may charge more when the cost of gasoline rises. Employee costs may go up when the employment market tightens. Operating expenses are estimated, but variable. A 5% annual increase is not that unusual, although I know of plenty of communities that are able to maintain a stable operating budget for many years (sometimes by gradually and regularly reducing their services in the face of increasing vendor prices).
No buyer should ever rely on an estimated budget, or even an existing annual budget in an established community, as a guaranteed and
fixed cost. Most boards have broad authority to increase budgets on an annual basis as may be needed.
The most you can do is ask questions about the budget and how the various categories have been estimated, and make sure, when you are choosing a home, that if the budget increases it will not be catastrophic to your personal budget.
Ryan Poliakoff, a partner at Backer Aboud Poliakoff & Foelster, LLP, is a Board Certified Specialist in condominium and planned development law.
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While MHProNews doesn’t claim to be an attorney, much less give legal advice as an expert in Florida law, it is possible Ryan Poliakoff’s reply to that the letter above from E.B. is a misread of the issue that shocked new manufactured home resident raised. We asked the Florida Manufactured Housing Association (FMHA) for comment, but it was after-hours and thus perhaps unrealistic to expect a response tonight.
Let’s note that those letters quoted verbatim above were the first recent ones located from a simple Google search. Perhaps it is no surprise that people are more likely to write about a complaint than about praise, especially in the legal Q&A column.
That said, these are being read by others that could be prospective buyers now or in the future for our industry.
What do each of these letters have in common?
Plenty, and it is largely problematic.
That’s not a surprise, given the results of the Zillow homebuyer trends research, previously reported at the link here and at a related report found below. ICYMI, interest in manufactured housing is declining.
While all sorts of theories have been floated by bloggers and ‘insiders’ as to why the industry’s shipments are in decline for 10 of the past 11 months, is a more likely explanation that interest in manufactured homes has dropped? Is there any chance that was a serious and candid discussion at the MHI annual meeting about declining interest during an affordable housing crisis?
As the MHI annual meeting draws to a close, with a ‘new’ executive committee elected, on several levels, the industry is faced with troubling realities. Many of them can be arguably be traced back to issues that emanate from the so-called Omaha-Knoxville-Arlington axis and their ‘big boy’ allies. In fairness, there are white hat firms at MHI, and white hat team members even at black hat led operations. The principle of wheat and chaff must be routinely applied to all.
Resident-leaders like the one below love their manufactured home, but they are troubled by discoveries regarding the community sector of our industry.
That said, perhaps the reason the Chris Stinebert’s name is missing from the MHI’s website is because of that polite lecture he gave them on his way out the door. Ouch. But that same lecture is coming from thousands of homeowners. Many are complaining about behavior that often traces back to MHI member companies.
That’s your final look on this almost midnight edition of manufactured home “Industry News, Tips, and Views Pros Can Use” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
Soheyla is a managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com. Connect with us on LinkedIn here and and here.
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