Editor's Corner | MHMarketingSalesManagement.com

If it isn’t broken, let’s not break it

February 15th, 2012 joe No comments

Let's briefly review some facts:

Shipments in manufactured housing have been rising for about half a year now.
Month over year prior month increases have been at double digit growth rates in recent months.
This new pattern counters prior declines, so that 2011 finished up about 3% over 2010 shipment levels.
Thanks to efforts by MHI, MHARR and supported by state associations, two Congressional hearings have taken place focused on manufactured housing related issues.
Attendance and orders at the Louisville Manufactured Housing Show were up.

We are not out of the woods as an Industry by any means. But we are clearly on a modest upward trajectory. So it would seem to me logical to say that American Maxim:

If it isn't broken, don't break it

The good news above aside, an email came in this morning that linked to a brand new on online missive. If you read that missive, you wouldn't know that the above good news is taking place. A series of 'cures' were recommended – that in some cases if implemented as that writer suggested – would be worse than the ailments. Further, real problems are not mentioned in said missive, much less possible solutions proposed.

If it isn't broken, let's not break it

Let's mention some issues that are indeed real challenges:

The industry remains quite segmented, and is not as unified as it could be when advocating for regulatory or legislative solutions at the local, state or national levels.
We have an estimated 250,000 (one source pegs it at closer to 500,000) vacancies in manufactured home land lease communities (MHCs) today.
Solutions such as 'buy here, pay here' financing in MHCs to fill homes sold by community owners in their locations has yielded an estimated 5-8 billion in manufactured home paper being held today of such 'self financed' MH loans.
Fears of SAFE Act and Dodd-Frank has sparked many community owners to do rent-to-own and lease-to-own programs on MHs to fill vacant homes/sites in MHCs.
But legal, finance and association leaders routinely voice concerns that rent-to-own and lease-to-own-purchase-option contracts – depending on their terms and conditions – may be viewed by regulators as 'disguised credit transactions.' If so, the 'solution' to 'escape' Dodd-Frank and SAFE may in fact lead to fines by regulators of up to $25,000 per incident.
Chattel financing (home only, personal property lending) still makes up some 60% of all manufactured home finance contracts. As Jason Boehlert at MHI recently said in addressing attendees of the Louisville Show, about 55% of all the loans of a top MH personal property lender could vanish under the expected implementation of Dodd-Frank regulations. That negatively impacts retailers, communities, lenders and current MH owners when it comes time to sell, and all those businesses (insurance, installation, suppliers, etc.) who supply products or services to new and pre-owned MH sales.

Are there potential solutions for the above? Are they on the horizon?

In a word,yes.

Sales and Profit Growth Solutions available for MH business professionals TODAY

Those solutions will require real efforts on the part of each segment of the Industry. In some cases, it will require changes in current practices. Being involved in discussions with various industry business and association leaders suggests to me that we can navigate the challenges, and profit and accelerate growth as a result of goal and solution oriented efforts.

Many issues that we face in fact have their solutions close or at hand, given some changes in approaches.

For example, we have a growing number of manufactured home financing resources and opportunities today, for sales by MH Retailers and MH Communities.

In Tulsa, during the Great Southwest Home Show, there will be a free finance forum on the wide variety of financing options available right now, TODAY, in manufactured housing. The following lenders are already scheduled to be a part of that finance panel.

21^st Mortgage
Triad Financial
CUFBL
US Bank
First Guarantee Mortgage Corporation
CIS

Industry finance veteran, Dick Ernst, has agreed to moderate the panel discussion. Each lender will in rapid fire succession present their new/best programs that are available NOW for retailers and communities! These include:

Legal no down payment loans in fee simple sales (no, I'm not talking about 'land in lieu) that is non-recourse. This is a 'no-brainer' loan program that every MH Retailer needs to learn and use.
VA loans in fee simple sales with no down payments (yes, this is different than the loan program noted above) that is non-recourse. With a rising number of vets, this is a another no-brainer to learn and implement.
Chattel loan rates that approach conventional housing rates, for qualified buyers on specialized MH loans from a variety of personal property lenders. These programs are good in communities or for street retailers.

This popular presentation and question and answer discussion that followed packed a standing room only crowd in Louisville, as the photos on this page demonstrate. We expect retailers and community operators to come far and wide to see this in Tulsa – free – at the Great Southwest Home Show. Register online free at this link or call 1/800-234-6426 to sign up or for information.

Attorney Kurt Kelly will be presenting two programs, one for Retailers another for Communities:

MH Park Management/ Risk Control Presentation:

"Here's How Me, Daryl, and My Other Brother Daryl Ran Our Park and Why We Got Sued So Many Times"

"Great Ways to Get Sued and Lose Your Park"

"Smart Management: How to Avoid Lawsuits and Losses in Your Park"

MH Retailer Management/ Risk Control Presentation:

"Toting Toward Gomorrah: Great Ways to Get Sued at Your Dealership and Lose it All"

"Smart Management: Loss Control is The Best Investment You'll Ever Make"
"Really?! You Did That?!? A Retailers Top 10 Dumb Management Ideas"

In this sue happy culture, you can't afford not to come and learn what Kurt has to share with Retailers and Community operators to protect your business interests! When you register above, you are already have access to these presentations too.

SBA Wholesale Inventory (Floor Plan) Lending program for HUD Code and Modular homes. The SBA has renewed the financing opportunities for retailers and communities to tap into wholesale inventory. An SBA official has agreed to present the facts in Tulsa during the GSWHS.

How to Attract More Customers With Cash or Good Credit. Did you know that some 58% of Americans have a credit score of 700 or higher? Do you know how to attract them to your street retail center or manufactured home community? This seminar will show you proven how-to strategies.

The dates and times for the above should be available on this upcoming weekend's blog post. So check back then for more.

There are two other seminars previously announced that you can see at this page:

Most certainly, there are other ways, means and solutions out there. But what is it that drives more sales in our Industry? Isn't it financing? What is it that drives more sales? Isn't it savvy marketing?

Scientia potestas est

The above is Latin for Knowledge is Power. But the truth is that knowledge is only potential power, it must be learned, it must be vigorously applied. Then, knowledge is power.

Let us be solution oriented. Regular readers know that we look the facts in the eye here, but we also seek and present solutions. If it isn't broken, let's not break it. If it needs mending, let's dig in and fix it. ##

post by

L. A. “Tony” Kovach, MHM

www.MHProNews.com
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals

Office – 815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

L.A. 'Tony' Kovach, MHM - Publisher, Marketing Director and Industry Consultant
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com aka MHMSM.com aka MHProNews.com
tony@mhmsm.com
815-270-0500

Rising Shipments, can we fuel an ever Rising Sales Tide?

February 11th, 2012 joe 2 comments

Let's start with the Good News.

Virtually everyone in our industry likes to hear that new manufactured home shipments are rising. This is good news. The seemingly modest 3% rise of 2011 over 2010 masks the more impressive double digit rate growth in shipments month over month for about half a year now. For those who doubted that a turn around could occur, this certainly is proof that it can take place.

29 states showed shipment increases, with 14 stable and 7 decliners in December. Here are the top gainers and slider states in terms of shipments:

Top Ten Increased Shipments

	State	12/2011	12/2010	increase
1	Texas	738	481	257
2	Louisiana	341	238	103
3	Alabama*	207	106	101
4	Maryland*	86	15	71
5	North Carolina	196	136	60
6	Pennsylvania	128	72	56
7	North Dakota*	98	57	41
8	Arizona	84	52	32
9	Kentucky	140	109	31
10	New Mexico	96	65	31

	State	12/2011	12/2010	decrease
1	Missouri	29	50	-21
2	California	82	102	-20
3	Oklahoma	98	110	-12
4	Illinois	53	61	-8
5	Nevada	6	14	-8
6	Delaware	7	14	-7
7	Oregon	21	28	-7

You can get the link to the complete shipment report, right here.

What most agree upon is the importance of access to financing, jobs to support purchases and other common sense factors, like having the right product, services and marketing. Those are all factors that professionals going to the Great Southwest Home Show can access and learn through business building seminars, see the link here.

I have to draw your attention to the fact that the area in and around Texas is mostly growing or stable. Community owners looking to grow their business and retailers wishing to do the same should make the trip to the Great Southwest Home Show, see the links above.

Here is the latest heart ache.

The regulatory/zoning environment certainly impacts all of this too. State associations, MHI and MHARR routinely deal with and work on such issues. At the recent Congressional hearings, a topic of interest to Manufactured Home Communities arose, that MHI is asking for community owner input on.

The negative testimony that has concerned MHI, is linked here.

The road ahead is not going to be easy for many, but the solution is well known. It takes some time and effort to learn more to earn more, but it pays off. There is strength in numbers, so there is no substitute for association/political engagement with your peers. Armed the the facts and teamed up with your peers as needed, you can improve your business and the business climate in your area. # #

post by

L. A. “Tony” Kovach, MHM

www.MHProNews.com
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals

Office – 815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: decliners, louisiana, Manufactured Home, masks, new mexico, north carolina, north dakota, pennsylvania, proof, slider, stable, top gainers

Asking Questions?

February 8th, 2012 joe No comments

1) It may not seem like it to regular readers of this column, but the way I begin my writing preparation is by asking questions.

What are the hottest topics?
Is there good news to share?
Is there a threat on the horizon that needs to be mentioned?
How can we do more to spur a businesses' or the industry's growth?

As a businessman myself, I know that manufactured housing business owners, executives and leaders have to think in terms of issues such as loss mitigation and profits. How can those two sides of the coin best supported?

When it comes to sales process training, I routinely counsel clients sales professionals to 'ask questions.' Not in an interrogation/FBI fashion, but rather, in a natural conversational way. Questions lead to communications by the customer or prospect. Questions that seek understanding via sincere listening with an angry customer or friend is a way of 'lancing the boil,' releasing the poison and starting the process of healing.

Questions are the professionals ally.

2) This week has already been busy beyond belief.

Some highlights:

New Manufactured Home shipments continue to rise. This is good news indeed for all segments of the Industry: manufacturing, suppliers, retailers, communities, lenders, insurance and other vendors. Half a year of rising shipments that have taken us a few points up over previous years.
FEMA is calling for new bids for more homes. Another potential brights spot for manufacturers willing and able to make this happen.

3) Knowledge is Power!

Saturday a message came in for me to lend a hand in organizing additional business-building seminars for the Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa. Starting Monday to the time of this writing, the outreach for the above is well underway. The line up of new profit-power presentations are taking shape. With new manufactured home shipments rising, and the Tulsa Show moved to a better date earlier in the year in a great indoor facility, there are a growing number of reasons for retailers, developers and manufactured home community owner/operators to prepare for more business.

On the seminar/workshops 'Knowledge is Power' front, here is what is shaping up for those forward looking business pros who attend the Tulsa Show at the Indoor (all season) Quik-Trip Center, a free event admission for most industry pros. The topics include:

Get Access to More Third Party, non-recourse, Manufactured Home Financing. MH Financing pro Dick Ernst will moderate a panel discussion made of manufactured housing's top lenders. Each lender will each present in rapid fire rotation their 'best of the best' financing programs for personal property (chattel, home only) and fee simple sales! The presentation will be followed by a Q&A. We did a finance forum presentation/discussion like this in Louisville that drew a standing room only crowd of pros like you, as the photos at the link above will demonstrate. We have written commitments from 6 MH lenders already, and expect one or two more to confirm and toss their hat in soon.
Floor Plan Financing made easier! We have an SBA official who will explain to attendees how to use their new and improved floor plan financing program. The SBA is keenly interested in making this user friendly for our Industry, and many in the business are looking for ways to access the program.

Protect yourself! Attorney and loss mitigation expert, Kurt Kelly, who has graciously agreed to make 2 separate presentations focused on the needs and concerns for MH Communities and MH Retailers. This will be info and solutions packed content, so you won't want to miss it.
Attracting More Customers with Cash or Good Credit! This seminar was a big hit for the IMHA and at the Louisville Show. Learn proven ways to be more of a magnet for good credit customers!
Legal Zero Down manufactured and modular home (no, not land in lieu, true zero down payment financing) Financing for fee simple sales. Learn how to earn more, by selling more homes with this amazing program.
You can learn about two previously planned seminars on finance and a how to on appraisals (by Sherrie Clevenger) and get more Show information at this link. You can pre-register and sign up for free admission at this link.

Updates on the above will be presented as it comes in, so stay tuned to this twice weekly blog posting for more details.

Lois Starkey at MHI and M. Mark Weiss at MHARR both sent me updates on their successful 1-2 effort to get a federal agency to take down negative, outdated information off their website about manufactured housing fire safety. A reader brought this outdated info to our attention. We in turn contacted MHI and MHARR, who both acted immediately. That's team work. So thanks to you or all who let us know about topics via our

Make sure you read MHI and MHARR news updates here, both carried here along with our exclusive Daily Business News briefs, Industry in Focus Reports and the Cutting Edge marketing and sales insights. Let's not forget Words of Wisdom, Industry Voices, which features a new column by Dick Ernst of importance to Manufactured Home Community Owners and the latest Hall of Fame inductees.

Plus don't forget to check out the new Feature Articles for February 2012. You can see them all on the MHProNews.com home page, scroll down the center column past the news briefs. In fact, this is a good time for you to spend 5 minutes seeing all the news, tips and view you can use, free here 24/7/365 at the new and improved MHProNews.com.

Phew! Do you see what I mean about asking questions? There is never any lack of topics to talk about.

4) The one point you will find in common in all that you see above is that you can get 'all the news that is fit to (digitally) print' in manufactured housing, right here at your #1 industry news source. We (YOU) set a new record here in January, when over 100,000 professionals like yourself logged onto our pages, visiting an average of some 7 page each visit. We logged over 2.3 million 'hits.' Those numbers makes us larger and more popular than all other similar industry business to business resources online combined.

Thanks to our sponsors, news/support team and featured writers, we can do it all for you. I hope to see you in Tulsa March 1 and 2. Please stop by our booth, check out our presentation or one of the many other good ones for building, protecting and growing your business and bottom lines.

Did I mention, you can always 'ask questions?'

Thanks for dropping in. See you again soon.# #

post by

L. A. “Tony” Kovach, MHM

www.MHProNews.com
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals

Office – 815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: ally, angry customer, boil, business building, business owners, businessman, counsel clients, fbi, FEMA, horizon, interrogation, knowledge is power, lenders, Manufactured Home, outreach, poison, previous years, sales professionals, segments

First Down!

February 4th, 2012 joe No comments

It is Super Bowl weekend, and so it is easy to think in terms of football analogies. In this past week, we had a vivid reminder of how important it is to get a “first down” in our lobbying efforts that yield a fresh set of 4 more downs to advance the ball so we can get more points on the board for our Industry. I'm talking about the latest Congressional hearings focused on Manufactured Housing. Thanks to the ongoing ground work by state associations, MHI and MHARR, there is steady progress being made in getting bi-partisan support for efforts to provide regulatory relief for our industry.

It is good to see the enhanced level of cooperation between the two national manufactured housing trade bodies, and while still imperfect, the good efforts on both sides deserves mention and encouragement by all of us.

The testimony and legislative efforts underway can only help our Industry. In these often difficult times, it is important to give that public pat on the back to all those involved who make such advances possible. You can stay informed of such matters with our Daily Business News briefs, but it is equally important to stay in touch via your state's association. They need your time, talent and treasure to do what is needed for your business and others.

When I look at a news article such as this recent effort in CA, that would require manufactured housing communities who want to sell to pay market rates for every home in the community, we have to realize that there is on way to understate the need for associations and their 'protect and promote' efforts.

To me, the 'competition' facing us in our Industry is more those outside of our ranks than between our ranks. Learning to keep our own businesses advancing while working with others through associations to protect and promote our mutual causes is just common sense.

Growing your Business Through Events

I've been given word that more business building seminars are planned for the Great Southwest Home Show coming up soon in Tulsa, OK. The idea is to something similar to what happened in Louisville that attracted and made hundreds of attendees their smile and walk away armed with information that can grow their business and profits.

Events take time and money on the part of everyone who participates. There is no question that 'free' attendance by a retailer, community, installer or developer at a show such as the Great Southwest Home Show (GSWHS) in Tulsa has a cost in time, meals, etc. But that investment of time and a little travel money can be more than recouped from the first additional sale that is made from what you can learn at the event! One man called me to say that the seminars at the Louisville Show made it “…the best show I've attended in my forty years in the business.” Wow! Now that's a powerful testimony. Not everyone has been in the Industry for 40 years, but many made similar calls, emails or sent a text to that similar effect.

The same can happen for you and others who attend the Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa. We plan to be there, and we will provide you with updates on the specifics for the speakers and business building workshops that will be available. Never forget that the products and services you find at a trade show or event can also make you or save you money. The mixers and networking at such events can also yield an idea or insight that is worth many many times the cost of time and travel.

New Lending/Finance Opportunities

For those seeking new financing options or opportunities, I have advanced word that you will be able to learn about plans, programs and even companies that will be rolled out or that you may not have used or worked with previously that will be available in Tulsa's indoor Quik-Trip Center during the GSWHS.

Staying plugged into news, tips and views you can use here and by supporting associations and events, you can advance your own business and professional cause in 2012. The more you know, the more you can move the ball down the field, ppick up those first downs and score more. We will be in Tulsa for the Show, and we hope to see you there too. Please stop by our booth or come to a free, live business building workshop and say hi. # #

post by

L. A. “Tony” Kovach, MHM

www.MHProNews.com
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals

Office – 815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Leap Year 2012

January 31st, 2012 joe No comments

February is here, it is leap year, and that means presidential election primary season. It is also time for our new February issue, and we have brought you another strong line up of topics from experts across the country.

It is always tempting for me to point out columns that may have particular importance to people in this or that segment of the Industry. I'm sorely tempted to do so again this issue!

Then it hits me…when our readers are looking carefully at each category and article, it really should be pretty self evident. Maybe I'll circle back during the month, because some of these seem particularly important, handy or time sensitive.

As always, my personal thanks to our feature writers, staff and to the sponsors and advertisers who make each issue a reality.

Without further ado, let's jump into the line up for the February 2012 issue!# #

Featured Articles and Reports for Vol. 3, No. 5, 2012

Alphabetically by Category

COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT & FAIR HOUSING (LEGAL)

• Fair Housing 2012 – The Two Most Important Words!

by Nadeen Green

nadeen-green-50

I thought about holding a contest to see who might be able to come up with what I believe may be the two most important words for fair housing in 2012. But being generous of heart and spirit, I am simply going to tell you the two words, and then – not so simply, but still understandably, I hope – I will explain my rationale.

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