Prefabricated housing is an industry on the rise in Europe.
Over the coming years it is projected to grow significantly, and more companies are setting their sights on this expanding market. Due to Europe’s growing need for affordable housing, cheaper and more energy-efficient options are being explored. This rise in demand is driving the industry toward an increasingly lucrative but also increasingly competitive market.
Some have begun to tap into the European market’s potential, with groups such as Volumetric Building Company, ilke Homes, and Ecoworks all taking steps to grow their presence there.
In the United Kingdom, manufacturing of prefabricated homes has taken off, too, with British manufacturer ilke Homes announcing 100 million euros in new equity investments, equivalent to $106.86 million. That is on top of the explosive growth the company has seen in the last few years. Tophat, another British builder, is establishing a massive new facility that, once it is completed in 2023, will produce up to 4,000 homes a year and employ up to 1,000 people. Running smoothly, this facility could produce one home every hour. Once completed, it will be the largest modular home facility in Europe, covering an area of 650,000 square feet.
Europe’s demographic and economic landscape is changing, with an influx of migrants into the continent coupled with its ongoing energy crisis. This has produced a demand for more homes, as well as demand to make them more energy efficient. Not only is the demand for factory-built housing rising, but European homeowners and landlords are looking for ways to make their pre-existing homes less of a financial burden.
For example, German construction company Ecoworks has begun retrofitting homes to retain heat better. It replaces old facades and roofs with prefabricated segments, ones that insulate much more effectively. In June 2022, Ecoworks raised 7.7 million euros in funding, which is equivalent to $8.23 million. With Germany’s high inflation rate and energy prices, demand for affordable and efficient homes is likely to grow substantially in the coming years.
As a manufactured housing industry insider, you understand that staying updated is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. But with countless resources vying for your attention, how can you identify the most valuable ones?
I’ve handpicked a few of my podcasts on community ownership, operation and investing. These exceptional podcasts can provide invaluable knowledge, expert perspectives, and innovative strategies from thought leaders who shape the manufactured housing landscape.
As an active community investor and operator with over 2,500 homesites, these podcasts have helped me avoid costly “beginner mistakes” that could’ve equated to thousands of dollars.
So, plug in your headphones, relax, and allow these gems to guide you toward even greater success.
The Mobile Home Park Lawyer Podcast’ — Hosted by Ferd Niemann IV
Ferd Niemann is a soft-spoken experienced mobile home park investor and owner/operator based in Kansas City. He’s also a top-notch real estate attorney. This combination of business and legal knowledge gives The Mobile Home Park Lawyer Podcast a unique listening experience compared to the others on this list.
In addition to excellent investment advice, mini-series, case studies, and interviews with industry experts & property owners, Ferd dives deep into the less glamorous, yet no less important, legal topics like tax filings and business structuring. This combination of information has helped listeners succeed in their businesses while saving money on legal fees by learning from one of the foremost mobile home park lawyers in the country.
Mobile Home Parks In Real Life — Hosted by Ryan Narus
Ryan Narus started the Mobile Home Parks In Real Life podcast to share the “raw truth” about the MHP industry. As principal of The Archimedes Group, Ryan has spent more than a decade operating parks from the front lines. He felt that most voices were only sharing the “hyped up” version of the industry and wanted to give listeners a complete understanding of the affordable housing industry they’re getting into.
As you listen to Ryan, you’ll notice the self-help industry heavily influences him, and he loves sharing the skills he’s learned through that work. The show mixes monologues and interviews with short-form Mid-Month Wisdom (MMW) episodes, sharing the real-life challenges and tools needed to build a strong investing foundation. Ryan also offers one-on-one mentoring programs to new MHP investors serious about their investing goals.
Passive Mobile Home Park Investing — Hosted by Andrew Keel
I may be biased here, but this one is my favorite of the bunch. I target my podcast toward passive investors, you know, those looking to invest without being on the ground running what amounts to a small town or even city! We go through four key questions on this type of commercial real estate investing:
Why invest in communities?
How to invest?
What to look for when investing in manufactured housing?
How to vet a community operator?
And then, we end with a series of interviews with other rockstars active in the business. The listeners on Mobile Home Park Investing continually report how appreciative they are of the structure and tangibility of the information my guests and I share, plus they love that we’re actually in the trenches practicing what we preach. If you stop in to listen, I’m sure you’ll find as much value as they have!
Mobile Home Park Investors — Hosted by Jefferson Lilly
Mobile Home Park Investors started in 2015 and pushed out a ton of great content from 2016 to 2018. What sets this podcast apart is the combination of Jefferson Lilly’s experience and Brad Johnson’s expertise in financing, providing a comprehensive exploration focused on the business’s acquisition and financing aspects.
The Mobile Home Park Expert — Hosted by Glenn Esterson
How often do you hear from novice mobile home park investors? The MHP Expert Podcast provides that. The podcast follows the experience of potential investor Jason Sirotin – under the guidance of expert Glenn Esterson – where they discuss the meaning of investing in this space and the management aspects.
The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks To Investing — Hosted by Cole Phillips and Maxwell Baker
This podcast is a treasure trove of mobile park investing insights, hosted by the owner of the Mobile Home Park Broker, Maxwell Baker. Besides sharing insights as an investor in the space, Maxwell interviews seasoned investors in the industry, providing tips and tricks helpful to inexperienced and experienced investors alike.
The Immense Value of Manufactured Housing Industry Podcasts
Staying informed and connected is crucial for success in the dynamic world of manufactured housing investments. Podcasts have emerged as a powerful tool for listeners and hosts in the mobile home park space, offering unique benefits that can elevate your investment journey.
Let’s take a closer look at the immense value of podcasts for manufactured housing investors, highlighting how they serve as a catalyst for learning, networking, and growth in this niche asset class of commercial real estate investing.
Value for Listeners
Podcasts provide access to free education from industry experts who share their wisdom and insights, enabling listeners to expand their understanding of the sector and learn from the experiences of successful investors. Additionally, podcasts often present actionable information that can be applied to investment strategies, helping individuals enhance their skills, improve decision-making, and succeed in the competitive mobile home park investing world.
Value for Podcast Hosts
By sharing valuable insights and demonstrating expertise, hosts can connect with potential investors interested in the industry, attracting new investors who can bring time, money or a live deal to the table. Additionally, podcast hosts have the unique advantage of networking with current active operators and vendors. Conducting interviews with different perspectives and niches allows hosts to expand their network, learn from others, and discover new opportunities.
How to Select the Best Educational Podcasts as an MHP Investor
Podcasts offer a fantastic opportunity for real estate investors in the manufactured housing space to expand their knowledge and stay informed. To ensure you’re listening to the best content, consider these tips for finding high-quality podcasts that are worth your time:
Curate Your Podcast Playlist Mindfully: To prevent overwhelm and information overload, select podcasts that align with your interests and goals as a mobile home park investor. Focus on one or two and dedicate specific times for listening and learning. Take notes and allow yourself to fully absorb the information and apply it to your investment strategies.
Look for Credible Sources and Verified Information: While podcasts may not always undergo rigorous fact-checking, you can still find those with accurate and reliable content. Look for podcasts hosted by industry experts or feature knowledgeable guests who have a proven track record in the mobile home park investment space.
Consider Production Quality and Consistency: Although starting a podcast is relatively easy, not all podcasts will meet high-quality standards. Pay attention to the production value, consistency of episode releases, and overall professionalism of the show. This can indicate the host’s dedication to providing valuable content for their listeners.
Evaluate Objectivity and Balance: While it’s natural for podcast hosts and guests to have opinions, it’s essential to find shows that present balanced perspectives and avoid excessive bias. Look for podcasts that discuss various viewpoints and encourage critical thinking in their content.
By following these guidelines and listening to leading experts in the mobile home park investing space, you can confidently navigate the world of educational podcasts and make the most of this valuable learning resource as a manufactured housing investor. I’m confident that regular listening and application of the information these experts share can accelerate your growth exponentially.
From left, Sr. Operations Manager Donja Robbins, Administration Team Lead Brandy Readling, Director of Communities Troy Suggs, Director of Business Development Elizabeth Smith, and Operations Manager Gaurav Patel.
In late 2022, a small group of seasoned professionals within one of the manufactured housing industry’s largest lenders took on a new task to help expand its volume of business with communities.
One of the first questions Troy Suggs asked this team after being moved into the director of c communities role at 21st Mortgage was “What can we do to expand the program?”
The lender was exploring opportunities in the segment, one which Suggs had minimal previous exposure. One area of opportunity quickly became apparent was related to targeting new community operators.
“In recent years we had gained the tendency to go for the ‘big fish’,” Suggs said. “The community lending program originally was designed to address the needs of the small community owners, actually, and we really wanted to get back to that.
“While our larger operators are greatly appreciated and critical to our success, what we decided was that no community was too small,” Suggs said. “We don’t need to go out prospecting just for clients who have 50 spaces to fill.”
The team revisited lists of potential customers that hadn’t been contacted in some time, and began calling prospects that operate fewer communities, prospects that manage fewer homesites, and have less turnover.
Meeting Market Demand
To help energize the sales efforts, Suggs brought in Elizabeth Smith as the director of business development to help work through some potential solutions.
Smith said it felt refreshing to reconnect with the smaller, privately-held community operators that make up so much of the affordable housing landscape in the United States.
“We had not been serving a good portion of the community space,” Smith said.
The results were immediate and dramatic.
“Year-over-year we did about 220 percent in January of ’23 compared with the previous January,” Suggs said. “We set a record, and we had the best Q1 we’ve ever had.
“There is a lot of opportunity for those smaller or midsize operators,” Suggs said.
Operational Adjustments to Save Time, Open Up Opportunities
In order to make time for the new sales efforts, and to ensure any loans originated could be serviced to 21st standards, there was a need for a broad operational analysis
“We had to dig into daily processes,” Suggs said.
One of the primary changes the community lending group made was to streamline the processing of applications and working with approvals.
“It’s not just a yes or no question,” Suggs said. “Too many requests from the community operators required a ‘director level’ or higher authority to make a decision.
“We expanded the team to elevate a pair of operations managers and empowered them with the ability to approve these requests on a more regular basis,” Suggs said. “They were already making recommendations into the process, so it kind of felt like the right thing to do. We are now well positioned to provide the best in service to both our larger operators and now a new set of smaller, to mid-sized operators.”
Working on Purchasing Homes
There also were obstacles on the purchasing end, working with manufactured home builders.
A manufacturer builds and ships a new home to a community, then it receives payment for the home. Approval for payment was taking a significant amount of time since approvals were not reviewed daily.
“Again, we wanted to expedite this process. We’re going to do this every day,” Suggs said. “We don’t want this house sitting at the yard for a week. No one does. This has made the plant-level operations so much better.”
Suggs said it felt like a lot of rapid change, but it all was managed by gaining consensus and making subtle adjustments, like getting more accustomed to traveling with the laptop and security devices required for approval.
“I’m all about service,” Suggs said. “It can be easy to focus on specific areas and lose the attention to detail on what’s needed for all parts of the business.”
Each incoming phone call will be answered within four rings, Suggs said. And each overnight call that is missed will be returned the following day.
“We re-committing ourselves to it and we are confident our community clients will receive the best possible service,” Suggs said. “We knew we needed to make some operational changes, and we’ve been successful in figuring out some of these efficiencies that have really paid off.”
New Information from Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin
Datacomp, the publisher of JLT Market Reports and the nation’s #1 provider of market data for the manufactured housing industry, has published October 2023 mobile home park comps with occupancy, pricing, and other vital data on manufactured home communities from 13 markets in Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
Recognized as the industry standard for manufactured home community market analysis for more than 20 years, JLT Market Reports provide detailed research and information on manufactured home communities located in 187 primary housing markets throughout the United States. This includes the latest occupancy trends and statistics, marketing programs, and a variety of other useful management insights.
Datacomp’s manufactured housing market data is updated continually throughout the year, with the latest updates from specific markets and regions published on a monthly schedule.
What’s in JLT Market Reports?
Each JLT manufactured home community report from Datacomp has occupancy, pricing, and other detailed information about investment-grade communities in the major markets. The detailed information includes:
Number of homesites
Occupancy rates
Pricing and average increases
Community amenities
Vacant lots
Repossessed and inventory homes, and much more
Established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of October 2023 data to October 2022. In addition, JLT Markt Reports include a historical recap of pricing and occupancy from 1996 to the present date in most markets.
The October 2023 JLT Market Reports for 13 markets in Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Report, or they may be ordered by phone in electronic or printed editions at (800) 588-5426.
Each fully updated report for mobile home communities is a comprehensive look at investment-grade properties within a market, enabling owners and managers, lenders, appraisers, brokers, and other organizations to effectively benchmark those communities and make informed decisions.
My father is my hero. He moves with a dedication to provide for his family in a way I believe is unmatched. I’ve seen him fill every role he possibly could to keep our family healthy, safe, and happy. Buying and selling homes, home sets, skirting, repairs, property management, trade shows… He’s done it all.
But perhaps his greatest achievement is this: He did it all without allowing himself to burn out.
Burnout is common in the labor market, including in the manufactured housing industry. Owners, managers, maintenance workers, and any other community roles are vulnerable to it. The impact is devastating and does not start and stop at your work. It invades every aspect of your life.
How Does Burnout Work?
The real danger of burnout is that it works quietly and in a cycle. It is easy to ignore feelings of burnout until it becomes insurmountable. By learning the cycle, you can learn to break it.
Stage 1: Fervent Commitment to Career
Burnout is a paradox. It is a phenomenon that hits the most committed and passionate workers, rendering them unable to remain committed and passionate to their work. Those who care the most, burnout the most. Stage 1 is idealistic and full of hope. Those ideals lead to an unstoppable desire to work harder and bring more value.
Stage 2: Overwork & Overwhelm
The most dedicated workers have a constant drive to improve. While that dedication is impressive, it quickly leads to overload. The balance between work and home life disintegrates. There is always another task to complete, another skill to learn or improve on, and another idea to implement. Overwhelm sets in with the feeling of never doing enough, no matter how much you have done.
Stage 3: Cynicism Sets In
What do the best workers get? More work. Stage 3 of burnout is the first moment where a person might physically and emotionally feel that they are burned out. The cynical community owner/worker begins to feel that their efforts are not paying off. Each initiative makes little difference. Extra work is met with more tasks while others slack. Each gain in profit seems to be met with another expense. This stage can be marked by a strong sense of pessimism and isolation. There also is a noticeable increase of sickness and hospital visits.
Stage 4: Quit or Recommit
While the other stages may last for months, years, or even decades, stage 4 is rapid. At this point, the person is completely depleted on a physical, mental, and emotional level. There are only two decisions left: will they quit, or find a way to recommit to the manufactured housing field?
We have all heard stories of mom-and-pop communities that sold even though they seemed to have the potential to move forward with ease. Or property managers who walked out with hardly any notice, even though they were incredibly talented and dedicated to their community. When burnout has completely drained someone, it takes a drastic change in perspective or environment to make a turnaround.
How to Beat Burnout
Positive Coping
What do you do when you are stressed? Negative coping mechanisms eat away at your health and give space for burnout to grow. It may be taboo to discuss, but drug and alcohol abuse harms many community owners, workers, and their families. It is easy to slip into dangerous routines to avoid the demands of a job.
It is time to lean on positive coping strategies. Exercise, nutrition, passion projects, active hobbies, and other healthy stress relieving activities are vital to reducing burnout.
Self-Efficacy
Studies show that self-efficacy impacts levels of burnout in a similar way to resiliency. The more you believe in your abilities, the less likely you are to burn out. Do and say things every day to build and reinforce your confidence in your work. Doubt creates overwork and lack of efficiency. Self-efficacy creates targeted work and optimistic fueled objectives.
Mentors
Did you know that burnout is contagious? Vent sessions among burned out peers make it more likely for you to become burned out. It can be a literal lifesaver for you to find an experienced mentor. If you are an owner, this is your cue to find a mentor for yourself and also place your employees with mentors who can help them. The cost of a solid mentorship program often is less than the cost of turnover, attrition, hiring, and training.
Reduce Roles
The most committed workers hate delegating roles. They thrive on accountability and take pride in their work. That seems great, until the impact on their health becomes greater. When you begin to reach the later stages of burnout, it may be time to cut back on your roles. Find your strengths and the greatest sources of your joy at work, then hire and delegate the areas that bring you the most stress. Protecting your headspace may be more valuable to your business and life than the value of doing it all yourself.
Crushing Burnout for Good
The largest barrier to burnout is that most people do nothing about it. The manufactured housing industry has a wide variety of stressors from every angle. If you take one of these burnout busting strategies and apply it today, there’s no telling the positive gains you may have personally and professionally. Reduce burnout to empower yourself to make a larger positive impact on your communities.
Loma Vista, a Roberts Communities property in Austin, Texas.
By Kellie Speed
Roberts Communities has set out to prove home ownership should be an attainable goal within everyone’s reach.
They offer affordably priced manufactured homes throughout Texas and Colorado. With in-house financing and homebuyer incentives, they are able to help prospective buyers achieve their dreams of becoming homeowners.
“We have a lot of pride in being able to create opportunity for people to own their house,” Scott Roberts, chairman and chief executive officer of Roberts Resorts and Roberts Communities, recently said in a phone interview. “A lot of our success has to do with the fact that we are breaking the mold with a heavy amenity package that creates a real sense of community.”
When they initially started, Roberts Communities had a mission statement of “Building communities and fulfilling dreams.”
“That was our mantra for a couple of years,” Roberts said. “We then took a closer look at it and decided to change it to ‘building community and fulfilling dreams,’ which has a very different meaning. Everyone here is family.”
Through difficult times, they stood by their residents.
“When Covid hit, we asked our clients to tell us their situation and we would customize a plan to help them stay in their home,” Roberts said. “It was a better offer than many, who, at the time, were offering a blanket $50 off rent. One person’s job might be impacted where another one’s isn’t. It proved to be a better business decision for us and better for our customer.”
Creating a Family
Roberts Communities has been in business for more than 55 years. Now in its second generation of operation, the Roberts family prides itself on maintaining long-term relationships not only with their residents and visitors, but also employees.
“When you walk into our sales communities, we promote the fact that our company has such longevity,” he said. “Most of the residents know me by face. We have such great home consultants on our team as well. They are so passionate. Many started from humble beginnings but are now making a great living. It’s a very different non-corporate environment.”
“The exteriors of manufactured homes are still lagging but once you walk inside, people are wowed by what they find,” he said. “There is also a big barrier to get people to consider manufactured housing because of the stigma often associated with it. We want people to know that our housing offers a quality community lifestyle.”
While they have a proven successful business model, about 30 to 40 percent of Roberts Communities’ sales have been through word-of-mouth.
“Our properties sell themselves,” Roberts said. “What makes us different is that you have to own the property, not rent it. Our customers come in with a minimum $10,000 downpayment. They are interested in becoming a part of the community. Many people cry when they are handed over the keys to their new home. It’s a very powerful thing to see.”
With the increased cost of living, Roberts says his communities offer significant savings to the homeowner.
“In Texas, there are incredibly high property taxes, but we pay the property tax for the homeowners,” he noted. “The housing market has gone up in price so much and with interest rates around 6 percent, it can be difficult for people to get into a home. The world is changing due to affordability. Manufactured housing offers a great opportunity for an affordably priced home.”
Giving Back, Building a Future
Roberts Communities knows the importance of giving back.
“We have been very fortunate to have a great track record,” Roberts said. “As a result, we give back to a lot of local charities, including senior communities. We offer back-to-school backpacks for residents’ kids that, filled with notebooks and crayons. We host a Christmas event where Santa has gifts for the kids. Right now, we are super motivated to create a strong after-school program where we help children get their homework done. They can work through math problems or spelling issues with tutors and teachers.”
This year, Roberts anticipates spending $20 million in new development. They focus their development efforts primarily in Texas in the markets of Austin, Dallas, and Houston, as well as in part of Colorado. He and his team also currently are looking to expand their development opportunities to other communities in Arizona and Utah.
“Our biggest challenge right now is being able to develop new communities with the cost of everything going up,” he said. “We used to be able to build a site for less than $10,000. Now, that site is $70,000. It’s still sticker shock. The cost of development and the ability to get capital from lenders or equity today is a challenge that faces the industry as a whole.”
Despite the challenges, Roberts Communities has a bright future ahead.
“We are looking at about 7,000 properties this year with another 2,500 in the pipeline,” Roberts said. “By 2033, our goal is to be 30,000 units to be built, not acquired. We will be the most active, privately owned company in the development space, and we are not lowering our expectations on sales. As long as there are great communities out there and the markets need us, we will keep developing.”
New Leadership Pursues Community Business, Strategic Partnerships
Sunshine Homes for 52 years has been selling spacious floorplans for land-home deals through its multi-state dealership network.
But times change.
Gary Dobbs is the new president of Sunshine Homes, taking over leadership of the Red Bay, Ala., builder in mid-2021 upon the retirement of his father-in-law John Bostick. He had been in sales, worked as the sales manager, and GM. He now finds himself operating in a market that’s transitioning from the traditional dealer network toward a greater number of home sales through communities.
“We just started this a few months ago,” Dobbs said. “We started a new plant in February of 2022. It’s been up for about a year. We were able to double our production, doing four to six a day, and the new plant can do four a day.”
The homes at the new plant will be more compatible with what a homesite in a manufactured home community can take, at a good price and built to last.
Dobbs said Sunshine is working with National Capital Group and Brent Harris of Southern Housing to arrange for sensible partnerships on the community side of the business that will augment their retail sales.
The new Arc line will be made in a 30,000-square-foot facility.
“We have both ends of the spectrum with big kitchens and bathrooms, but we were missing out on that lower price point,” Dobbs said.
Sunshine started in 1971 with Fred G. Bostick, and was carried through the decades by his aunt Harriet and then his son, John.
Michael Huffaker, who had been in sales and the CFO at Franklin Homes joined Dobbs to help run the company.
“We’re not looking to go sell to every developer or park owner out there, we’re looking for the right three or four relationships throughout the year. We can do something that’s very simple, it works for them and allows us to keep up with our dealer base,” Huffaker said.
Sunshine has beefed up the infrastructure on the homebuilding teams and the offices to help support the expanded business. They upped resources in training and salary for the homebuilding team, but also in the customer service team on the back end. Dobbs said they completely revamped the customer service approach, separating out efforts into three-state areas to make the queries more manageable.
“If I’m a sales guy and I know that it’s a better quality home and will have the best service on the back end, that’s a pretty easy decision,” Huffaker said. “We have to keep our identity. Quality has to be the first consideration.”
The company also added Brad Wit, an industry veteran.
“He’s an engineer, a problem solver,” Dobbs said. “He’s someone you can kick ideas around with.”
Sunshine has shown its commitment to innovation with the recent partnership with Beko, a top-selling appliance maker in Europe with that an expanding presence in the U.S. in recent years.
In a home the company showed at The Biloxi Manufactured Housing Expo the utility room included a stand-alone Beko freezer.
“It was a good fit for us when it came to appliances, and they have been a great partner,” Huffaker said. “We can see that we’ll be using more and more of Beko appliances over time. It’s a sleek-looking product, and it is priced right when you compare it against the higher-end options.”
Village Green, a manufactured home community in Sacramento.
Datacomp has published the September JLT Market Reports, mobile home park comps for manufactured home communities in California, Oklahoma, and Texas, which include occupancy, home details, pricing specifics, and other vital data.
JLT Market Reports provide detailed research and information on manufactured home communities located in 187 primary housing markets throughout the United States. Reports include the latest trends and statistics, marketing programs, and a variety of other valuable management insights.
Datacomp maintains and provides the JLT Market Reports and is the nation’s top market data provider for the manufactured housing industry. JLT Market Reports are recognized as the industry standard for manufactured home community market analysis.
The manufactured housing market data published in the September 2023 JLT Market Reports includes information on investment-grade manufactured home communities. Altogether, reports from the three states include data representations on 981 “All ages” and “55+” manufactured home communities with 203,394 homesites.
What’s in JLT Market Reports?
Each JLT manufactured home community market report from Datacomp has detailed information about investment-grade communities in the major markets. The detailed information on manufactured home communities includes:
Number of homesites
Occupancy rates
Community pricing
California rent control and next increase data
Community amenities
Vacant lots
Repossessed and inventory homes, and much more
JLT Market Reports also include management insights that rank communities by the number of homesites, occupancy rates, and pricing detail. Established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of September 2023 rents and occupancy rates to September 2022, as well as a historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to the present date in most markets.
The September 2023 JLT Market Reports for California, Oklahoma, and Texas manufactured home communities are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Report website, or they may be ordered by phone in electronic or printed editions at (800) 588-5426.
Each fully updated report for mobile home communities is a comprehensive look at investment-grade properties within a market, enabling owners and managers, lenders, appraisers, brokers, and other organizations to benchmark those communities and make informed business decisions effectively.
Everything about Google Analytics is changing, and for marketers — especially those who haven’t been paying attention — the changes will be profound
“The king is dead, long live the king” is a historical proclamation in many parts of the world to simultaneously acknowledge the death of a sovereign and announce the transition to a new monarch.
This time, the announcement is not referencing some distant king in a faraway land, it’s about the passing of Google’s Universal Analytics platform, the de facto standard for measuring website performance and user behavior since its introduction in 2005.
When Google Analytics came onto the market, it was a paradigm shift from the old website counters that simply tracked website “hits” with little or no context about the underlying traffic. For the first time, and at no cost, website owners could take advantage of analytics tools previously available only in expensive enterprise-level software. By bringing website analytics to the masses, Google empowered a generation of professionals to make more informed decisions about their internet marketing.
But time waits for no one, not even a king.
After nearly two decades of analytics dominance, evolving worldwide privacy regulations related to consumer data, increasing use of web browser privacy settings and today’s varied environment of computers, mobile devices and apps have made it considerably more challenging to track online user behavior. Enter Google Analytics 4, or GA4 as it is more commonly known. Although it’s not exactly brand new (it first hit the scene in 2020), and with some lingering concerns that it may not be completely ready to assume the throne from its predecessor, the transition to GA4 promises to bring a host of predictive analysis and machine-learning empowered capabilities to more than 28 million websites that rely on Google for website analytics.
Designed for a Cookieless Future
Google developed GA4 in preparation for the “cookiepocolypse”, the planned phasing out of third-party cookies, which are small snippets of data placed on a user’s device to identify the user for the purposes of advertising. Several web browsers such as Safari and Firefox have been blocking third-party cookies for years, and Google’s Chrome browser has promised to phase out cookies by 2024. This is good for consumers, but challenging for advertisers who rely on robust user profiles to ensure ad networks serve up relevant advertising.
GA4 offers several advantages over the legacy Universal Analytics platform in preparation for these changes:
Greater Emphasis on Consumer Privacy
GA4 is designed to provide website visitors more control over their data and how it is utilized, including the ability to opt out of tracking and deleting any collected data entirely.
Better Tracking of the Customer Journey
GA4 collects data across devices, including websites and apps, for a more complete picture of the customer journey.
More Complete Data
GA4 relies on machine learning, or artificial intelligence, to predict consumer behavior and fill in the gaps that will invariably exist as the consumer privacy landscape continues to evolve.
Better Insights on Conversions
GA4 is organized around events, rather than user sessions, and those events can include multiple conversion activities. In Universal Analytics, only one conversion could be counted per session, making it more difficult to measure all the touchpoints that resulted in a transaction to occur.
The End is Here. No, Really
While Google has been heralding the end of the existing Universal Analytics platform for over a year now, and warning website owners to make the switch sooner rather than later, there will undoubtedly be marketers who fail to make the transition by the July 1 deadline.
That is why beginning in March of this year, Google began automatically creating GA4 properties for Universal Analytics users that had not yet migrated to the new platform. So even if you were not aware of the transition to GA4, or delayed taking action, Google has at least done some of the work for you with a basic GA4 setup, though it may not be ideal for every user.
So what happens now that the July 1 deadline has passed?
Universal Analytics Won’t Collect Any More Data
For websites that haven’t been upgraded to GA4, as of July 1, Universal Analytics will stop collecting new data. That means no more website traffic will be recorded. It will be like someone turned off a switch. Essentially, you’ll be flying blind. Month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons will be impossible because there will be no more data going forward.
You’ll Lose All Your Historical Data (Eventually)
In addition to no longer recording new website data in Universal Analytics, Google will be clearing out any historical data. Fortunately, not right away, but soon (Google has said they will make the data available until Oct. 1, 2023). So if you want the ability to access past performance or make comparisons, you’ll want to back up those reports soon or lose them forever.
You’ll Have to Learn a New Platform
The reporting interface for GA4 compared to Universal Analytics is very different. Many of the reports you may be used to reviewing may have changed or no longer have a comparable equivalent in GA4. You’ll have to take a crash course on GA4 to get up to speed.
You May Need to Set Up Integrations Again
Some third-party software, including CRMs like Hubspot, link to Google Analytics. If you connect your Google Analytics data to outside tools, those integrations will need to be set up again within GA4.
Your Digital Ad Campaigns May Become Less Effective
If you previously linked Universal Analytics to your Google AdWords account, conversion data will stop flowing into your digital advertising campaigns, which could have a significant impact on your campaign performance, and increase your costs.
You’ll Have to Worry About Your Data
In Universal Analytics, you could store historical data indefinitely, but in GA4, the maximum retention period is 14 months. In other words, you can only retain 14 months of historical data unless you backup your data to a warehousing solution, such as Google’s own BigQuery product, which adds additional complexity.
Most of All, the End of Simplicity
Perhaps the biggest change in the transition to GA4 is the loss of simplicity. Google Analytics in its previous incarnations was an incredibly powerful tool for marketers that was relatively easy to configure and utilize. At the same time, there were plenty of additional features and customizations for more advanced users.
GA4 works very differently than its predecessor, and with these changes come some technical requirements that may call for a new skill set. At the very least, marketers may need some time to learn the GA4 platform and ensure everything is configured correctly for their needs.
Fortunately, Google offers a robust support section for GA4 including free, online courses, developer support and documentation, and a series of instructional videos on its @GoogleAnalytics YouTube channel.
Google Analytics, at least as marketers have come to know it, is dead. And while its successor is very different in many respects, GA4 promises to continue a legacy of delivering actionable insights for marketers. Long shall it reign!
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The new Phoenix Lift is used to raise a manufactured home above flood plain level.
When Gerard Hungerford of Texas-based GH Lifts took charge of moving manufactured homes into a community in Dickerson, Texas, the challenge of meeting city-mandated base flood elevation quickly arose. He found that he had to raise some homes as high as 10 feet to meet local compliance requirements.
Then, a new problem emerged: GH Lifts was told they couldn’t use cranes to move the homes into place. They’d have to come up with a new solution for moving the homes while adhering to the heightened base flood elevations.
“It only took me a few minutes from there to think to myself, ‘Huh, I can come up with that,’” Hungerford said.
As a result, GH Lifts has patented an all-new type of mover for manufactured homes. The mover is designed to drastically reduce the footprint required when siting a home in a park while increasing efficiency, speed, and safety.
Phoenix Lift Can Be Quality Replacement for Crane Work
This new mover, dubbed the Phoenix Lift, uses an electric-overhydraulic system to lift the home on a series of I-beams. While the Phoenix Lift secures the home on its I-beams, hydraulics are used to lift the home to the desired height.
“These homes that we’ve been moving with this method average seven, eight feet in elevation,” Hungerford said. “These would take way more time with a crane, taking into account the setup, delivery, and the footprint of the crane itself.”
The Phoenix Lift, which GH Lifts worked on with Alabama-based Trans Lift, enables Hungerford and his team to move two single-section manufactured homes in one day, far faster than previous methods. The Phoenix Lift is added onto a Trans Lift unit to achieve this. Hungerford’s engineering and transportation history led to the design of the Phoenix Lift, while Andy Hill of Trans Lift handles new sales of the mover.
“The biggest positive of using this lift is the time saved versus, say, bringing in a crane,” Hill said. “This house lifting system is very precise, and very safe.”
Lift Put to the Test
According to Hungerford, setting a home into place using this method can take mere minutes, compared to hours using a jack-lift.
The two pillars of this new innovation that Hungerford and Hill both emphasize above all else are precision and safety.
Hungerford first tested the Phoenix Lift on his ranch in Texas with a fully furnished multi-section home. He said the home was sited with enough precision so that not even the front porch had to be re-adjusted.
The increased safety of using the Phoenix Lift over a crane or jack-lift is significant as well. By keeping workers from being under a home that’s several feet above the ground, movers can more easily do their job, often at a faster pace that doesn’t compromise workplace safety.
Implementing a new mover like this one into communities keeps community operators from having to wait on orders for home transport equipment and avoids empty lots due to restrictive zoning laws that keep cranes from being able to move homes in some areas, Hungerford said.
“It keeps them from having an empty lot with no income,” he said. “It’s a win for everybody.”
Though the Phoenix Lift is a relatively new invention, both Hungerford and Hill have high hopes for the future. After showing off the lift for the first time at the Biloxi Manufactured Housing Show & Expo in March, moving pros are already asking for live demos. Hungerford is even going to Florida himself to deliver and test the Phoenix Lift for a new customer.
New modifications to the system, such as add-ons that can further increase the height, speed, efficiency, and safety of the home moving process, are in the works. Yet with how much promise the Phoenix Lift shows in its current form, Hungerford and Hill are ecstatic for what this means for home movers.
“I really believe in this product,” Hill said. “I believe it’s going to be the industry standard for lifting houses.”
More than 1,500 manufactured housing professionals are expected in Las Vegas April 7-9 as the Manufactured Housing Institute’s Congress and Expo returns to the...
With more homes, more exhibitors, and more buzz than ever before, the 2026 Biloxi Show is expanding, and fast.
The Biloxi Manufactured Housing Show &...
