Sunday, April 20, 2025

IBS ’22 & KBIS in Orlando Offer Solutions for Small Spaces

February 10, 2022

IBS '22 KBIS show Suzanne Felber the lifestylins — Suzanne Felber, far left among the press corp, gets a sneak peek of the newest kitchen and bath solutions on the market.

Home 3D Printed On-Site, Genesis Homes Returns to ‘Village’ Joined by Franklin PreFab

The International Builders’ Show and associated Kitchen & Bath International Show are back in person, this time in Orlando. MHInsider contributor Suzanne Felber, The Lifestylist, is perusing the Orange County Convention Center for solutions that fit the floorplan and anticipated lifestyle for most factory-built homes. She also is keeping a keen eye for housing innovation, including the on-site home building process with a 3D printer, and new homes from modular builders.

IBS ’22 kicked off on Feb. 8 and continues through Feb. 10.

Small Appliances and Luxuries at IBS ’22

LG came to Orlando with a North American test product. Manufactured homeowners, particularly those who live in manufactured home communities with defined common areas, can start the gardening a few months earlier with a 24-inch indoor gardening appliance. Growing light, climate control, and connects with LG ThinQ smart technology.

All photos by Lisa Stewart of Lisa Stewart Photography.

Under Counter Small Appliances at IBS ’22

Smaller appliances like undercounted dishwashers, microwaves, and refrigeration drawers are trending. Copper and rose gold metal finishes are being seen in a lot more places in the kitchen and bathrooms. The under-counter dishwasher shown below is part of the GE Cafe line.

Shower Walls Clean Themselves

Airmada uses treated air that is piped into a shower through the nozzles to dry a shower after use to prevent mold and mineral buildup.

Microvisor Brings New Hood Exhaust to Orlando for IBS ’22

The hood addition from Microvisor takes lost exhaust from a range and helps direct it back to the fan with a microwave fan combination.

Black Buffalo Constructs 3D-Printed Home at IBS ’22

Black Buffalo 3D’s NEXCON™ construction printer used to construct a tiny home at IBS ’22 is designed to help developers, contractors, governments, and non-governmental organizations with technology and materials to save time and money compared with traditional building methods. The NEXCON family of printers was developed in global partnership with mechanical engineering and construction experts to address the needs of tomorrow, today. Based in New York, the company can print multiple stories high, for homes or buildings. It also can print standup walls and modular components faster and more cost-effectively than when framed lumber, precast, or block methods are used.

The tiny home built in 12-hours in Orlando used 12 “superstacks” of Black Buffalo 3D structural concrete mix, 540 gallons of water, and a series of horizontal reinforcements, one every five to seven stacks. It takes three workers to operate the machine, one each at the controller, pump, and nozzle.

Genesis Homes Returns to the Builder’s Show

Felber said she feels Genesis is succeeding in their plan to become disruptors in the building industry.

“I think they can do it,” she said. “I really appreciate the new management I met, and I am more optimistic about the future of this company than ever.”

Felber said the company seems to be hiring more often corporate professionals with backgrounds outside the manufactured housing industry.

“They have their eyes set on developers and doing more communities that compete apples-to-apples with site built homes, except they will be able to offer all of the advantages of factory built housing,” Felber said.

Genesis, which is a brand or Champion Homes, last had a home at IBS in 2020.

Franklin PreFab Joins Genesis in the IBS Village

Franklin, from Russelville, Ala., chose a home from its prefab line to bring to IBS. Franklin PreFab provides style and design that mirrors conventional on-site built homes and offer the advantages and efficiencies of factory-produced homes.

The line provides a broad selection of designs and styles, and each floorplan and set of home interior options can be customized for the buyer. Though many prefab buyers intend to install the Franklin series on a foundation and with the local modular code, Franklin PreFab also can be built to the HUD code and can be placed as a manufactured home.

Franklin sells all of its homes from homebuilding facilities, through a network of retailers, and in partnership with residential developers.

Bookmark MHInsider and come back for more manufactured housing news.

Dallas Builder Plans 700-Home Community

Patrick Revere

February 8, 2022

megatel houses throughout north texas dallas builder

A large Dallas-based builder, Megatel Group, has developed a new line of homes built for community living that will be set in a series of three Golden Gate Communities, including one with 700 new homes in the Dallas suburb of Weston.

“This development project in Weston marks the launch of our prefabricated home park product line,” Megatel co-founder Zach Ipour said. “Within the next five years, we plan to build and develop 10,000 prefabricated homes across the nation through this platform.”

Megatel’s other Texas communities are in Prosper and Celina.

The Dallas Business Journal reports area home prices had increased a record 23.7% in the previous 12 months, among the largest surges in the nation.

Megatel constructs apartments, townhomes, and houses throughout North Texas. It also develops lagoon communities, including one under construction in Forney. It has more than a dozen additional lagoon communities planned for six regional states. Founded in 2006 by brothers Aaron and Zach Ipour, Megatel Homes has become a prominent homebuilder in the Dallas Fort-Worth metroplex.

The company posted record-breaking sales results in May 2021, with more than 300 home sales and over $120 million in gross contract sales in that month alone.

“Recently, our focus has been on targeting the more affordable end of the housing market with higher density products,” Ipour said. “Additionally, we are hyper-focused on providing homebuyers with more value through the development of our new lagoon communities that offer world-class amenities, ultimately revolutionizing the typical residential subdivision.”

New Affordable Housing in Texas

Homes in the new, affordable Golden Gate Communities will range in size from 550 square feet to 2,400 square feet. Golden Gate Communities will feature a unique amenity center with a café, fitness areas, and resort-style swimming pool, pickleball, bocce ball, volleyball, and a playground.

Five acres at each community will be dedicated to amenities such as a farmers’ market, which will provide residents access to local produce and will ultimately support small business owners and agricultural workers.

“We are pleased to develop our first of many prefabricated home parks and to provide a modern, yet affordable housing option for individuals with low to moderate income levels,” Ipour said.

He said the use of prefabricated homes will help reduce the negative and costly impact of supply chain shortages and material scarcity.

“As material costs and labor shortages continue to negatively impact the industry, fabricated home parks will offer quality affordable housing options,” Ipour said. “Through our Golden Gate Communities, we will change the perception of ‘trailer parks’ and provide innovative and modernized communities that are attainable for people with all price points, budgets, and lifestyles.

“Nationwide, there are approximately 250,000 construction jobs sitting vacant and prices, as well as lead times of building materials, have skyrocketed,” he said. “Our new prefabricated home park platform is an innovative approach to provide affordable housing options and to ultimately expand our customer base.”

Rent-Back Program Boosts Homeownership

In March of 2019, Megatel launched its Rent-Back program in an effort to create a bridge between renters and homeownership. In partnership with select apartment communities, the Megatel Rent-Back program rebates up to a year of rent payments at lease-end to renters who choose to purchase a home.

“Our rent-back program has directly contributed to our success as renters search for more incentives that can help them achieve homeownership in today’s surging market,” Ipour said. “This is a concept that no other home builder offers, and one that will serve as a solution to one of the biggest hurdles that would-be homeowners face. We have been investing in this program for two years and are now able to see the extraordinary results of this pioneering concept.”

MHInsider, the leading source of manufactured housing news, is a product of MHVillage.

Michigan Manufactured Home Community Rents Show 5% Growth

Patrick Revere

February 2, 2022

michigan rents occupancy jlt reports oaks of rockford — Photo courtesy of Zeman Communities/Oaks of Rockford.

February JLT Market Reports from Datacomp Cover Manufactured Home Community Data in 17 Michigan Markets

Datacomp, publisher of JLT Market Reports and the nation’s #1 provider of market data for the manufactured housing industry, announces the publication of its February 2022 mobile home rent comps, occupancy, and other vital data on Michigan manufactured home communities.

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 rent trends and statistics, marketing programs, and a variety of other useful management insights.

Datacomp’s manufactured housing market data published in the February 2022 JLT Market Reports includes information on investment-grade “all ages” and “55+” manufactured home communities. Altogether, the Michigan reports include data representations for 124,717 homesites.

Midwest Trends in Manufactured Housing Community Rent, Occupancy

Midwest region manufactured home communities show a year-over-year 4.7% increase in adjusted rent
Midwest region manufactured home communities show a year-over-year 1.1% increase in occupancy

“Adjusted rent throughout Michigan increased moderately, with only a pair of counties showing double-digit increases among the retirement communities,” Datacomp Co-President and Chief Business Development Officer Darren Krolewski said.

What’s in JLT Market Reports?

Each JLT manufactured home community rent and occupancy report from Datacomp has detailed information about investment grade communities in the major markets. The detailed information includes:

Number of homesites
Occupancy rates
Average community rents, and increases
Community amenities
Vacant lots
Repossessed and inventory homes, and much more

Established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of February 2022 rents and occupancy rates to February 2021. In addition, JLT Market Reports include a historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to the present date in most markets.

The February 2022 JLT Market Reports for 17 markets in Michigan are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Reports, 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.

Death of a Salesman… And the Impact of Denial

John Ace Underwood

February 2, 2022

This article isn’t about a play written by Arthur Miller in 1948, about the life and failures of a salesman by the name of Willy Loman. While the play revolves around success, failures, delusions of grandeur, I will focus on his perpetual cycle of denial and draw some parallels between this character and a reality in which so many sales professionals find themselves cemented in, usually totally unaware.

More and more major purchases are made by the consumers without the assistance or interference of a “salesperson”. One only has to look at the auto industry, conventional site builders, and the evolution of online representatives to see evidence of this shift.

In the factory-built housing industry, the profession of selling, as we know it, is a dying profession. If one chooses to ignore changes in technology, changes in marketing, changes in how people think, shop, and buy, this profession has no significant future, and for many of you, this will be a hard pill to swallow, but no less accurate. Knowing that you are becoming obsolete is never good news.

Manufacturers have discovered that sales organizations, independent or not, have always been the weakest link in the distribution chain. Poorly hired, trained, and managed sales organizations providing an underwhelming customer experience have been a primary culprit in our inability to take our rightful place in the affordable housing space.

For years, manufacturers have been trying to address this shortcoming and the evolution of technology has given manufacturers the hope that they need not be so critically linked to this weak link in their distribution. I know this to be a fact as I was one of the people that was called upon to see if we could make a difference.

Technology is continuing to make it easier and easier for consumers to do most of their research, product selection and design, all from the comfort of their living room.

Before most prospective buyers ever pull out of their driveway, they will have already, in a broad sense, determined what product(s) they’re looking for, what such homes should cost and what options they are interested in.

Furthermore, they will have a shortlist of places they would like to visit, view product, and narrow down the field to whom they would consider buying their home from. If you’re not on that list, the likelihood of you seeing that prospect is minimal at best. All of this is a process of elimination. They eliminate the rest until they’re left with what they feel is the best.

Here is where we circle back to Arthur Miller’s play. Willy Loman was in perpetual denial as are so many salespeople in our industry still trying to make a living in their dying profession.

Is this to suggest that all salespeople will become obsolete in the years to come? Yes, if we’re talking about salespeople who sit and wait for walk-in traffic. Yes, if we’re referring to salespeople who are of the belief that leads generated by internet marketing campaigns are worthless. Yes, if we’re talking about salespeople that IF they respond to leads, they do so after a few days and then only once. Yes, simply because those salespeople serve no meaningful purpose.

My own statistics collected over the last 10 years clearly show that 75% of all website-generated inquiries are never responded to, save perhaps an autoresponder sent out by a CRM. My own statistics show that less than 44% of all inbound sales calls go to voicemail. When you can’t even manage to answer the phone when prospective buyers call, why would we then wonder why manufactured housing still represents 9% of all new housing starts, a few points less if you take out community sales.

What Can the Sales Team Do to Thrive?

Let’s talk about the three primary skills that are absolutely critical if you wish to succeed in the immediate future.

First, you need to recognize that the sales process starts when a lead is generated, not when someone shows up on your location.

Second, you need to have a fundamental understanding of how digital marketing works and the role that immediacy and frequency play in your success. Immediacy is the speed at which you respond to a lead, measured in minutes, not days or weeks, and frequency is how often you try to reach out to a prospective buyer. Most studies confirm that you must respond to leads within the first 14 minutes, and you have to do so at least 8+ times in the first 72 hours if you want to increase sales.

Third, you need to have the ability to build a personal relationship with your prospective buyer over the phone. Literally intercepting that prospect as early in their buying process as possible and be willing to work with that individual until they recognize the importance of coming to see you in person. In short, you must be able to convert leads into conversations, conversations into visits and visits into commitments.

That is the only way you will survive and thrive. Or, like Willy Loman, you can continue to live in denial that the world around you has changed, unwilling to adapt to a technology-driven world, and your remains will be found on the mountains of bleached bones from those who waited by the front door for their next “up”.

Price of Homes Continues to Rise at Slightly Slower Rate

Patrick Revere

January 25, 2022

The latest report from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices show home prices continue to increase across the U.S.

As a set of indices, Case-Shiller are regarded as the leading measures of U.S. residential real estate prices, tracking changes in the value of residential real estate nationally. A list of the indices can be found and viewed at the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index Methodology web page.

The indices reported Jan. 25 cover all nine U.S. census divisions and reported an 18.8% annual gain in November, down from 19% in the previous month. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 16.8%, down from 17.2% in the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted an 18.3% year-over-year gain, down from 18.5% in the previous month.

Phoenix, Tampa, and Miami reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities in November. Phoenix led the way with a 32.2% year-over-year home price increase, followed by Tampa with a 29% increase in and Miami with a 26.6% increase. Eleven of the 20 cities reported higher price increases in the year ending November 2021 versus the year ending October 2021.

The charts on the following page compare year-over-year returns of different housing price ranges for Phoenix and Tampa.

MHInsider, the leading source of manufactured housing news, is a product of MHVillage.

A Look at Cavco’s Durango Facility, Tour Nearby Dolce Vita

Patrick Revere

January 24, 2022

cavco durango phoenix jensen deroo — Paul DeRoo and Todd Jensen of Cavco.

Paul DeRoo and Todd Jensen from Cavco stroll through the company’s central manufacturing facility in Phoenix, the Durango plant, and talk about what it takes to meet demand amid supply disruptions and labor shortages.

Cavco Durango opened in 1978 and employs 180 people, about 50 fewer than the builder had in the plant prior to Coronavirus mitigations. They put out about 5 ½ floors per day. It’s all HUD Code product, single through multisection, including a triple-section home, the Montessa, that is being shipped to a resort community nearby.

“It’s an exciting plant, we’re really diverse in this facility,” said Jensen, who is the GM for the facility. “But labor was a challenge before COVID, and after it’s been our biggest obstacle throughout the supply chain.”

The facility supplies the development and home sales efforts to a long list of manufactured home community customers in Arizona and has a select retail presence including a Cavco-exclusive home center in South Tucson.

Jensen and DeRoo, the regional manager who works out of the park model facility in Goodyear, Ariz., stand in front of a three-section home under construction. It’s about 1,900 square feet and will have an attached garage, too.

“It’s stuccoed on-site and most of the communities will have them pit set,” Jensen said. “It gives the home and the entire community a more highly designed, residential look.”

“We have about 600 floorplans we build out of this facility,” DeRoo adds. “It can slow production a little bit, but it’s something we’ve become accustomed to doing for our customers, and something we’ve gotten good at as well.

“Now if a customer wants a certain look, we can go through what we have and see what fits best. We can make relatively minor adjustments that will make a big difference for the homeowners,” DeRoo said. “And if the customer wants something they don’t see, we will find a way to make it work. We’ll design a new floorplan in some cases.”

The ability to customize diminished slightly as material disruptions and cost became more of a challenge through 2021, but company culture doesn’t change because of a greater than a normal number of shipping containers off the coast.

“It can be made to order, that’s I guess how you get 600 floorplans in one facility,” DeRoo said.

Jensen said the company has a knack for building a house that’s heavier than most, with more hardwood and thicker decking, for instance.

“This is really a home to compete against the lower to middle market site-built homes,” Jensen explained. “Many people in California buying this home have a household income of $250,000, but oftentimes cannot afford or do not want to pay the asking price for even older site-built homes where they want to live.”

Dolce Vita is a 55+ Resort Community in Apache Junction, Ariz.

In a mountainous, red rock setting of Southern Arizona’s Sonora Desert sits Dolce Vita, a treasure that was built by Sydney Adler in the late 90s and is now owned by Equity LifeStyle Properties. Cavco has supplied homes to Dolce Vita for 15 years.

There are 700 homesites at Dolce Vita, and the community is about ⅔ full. There is a 33,000 square foot clubhouse with billiards, a library and computer center, a gym, craft and card rooms, a movie theater, and central ballroom. Outside, residents can enjoy water aerobics classes in the 3,000 square foot ocean-entry, heated pool, as well as a pair of spas, tennis courts, pickleball, bocce ball, horseshoes, shuffleboard, and a putting green.

“We have a very good relationship with the residents here, largely because we’ve been here through staff and management changes,” DeRoo said. “We try to be good neighbors when we’re bringing homes in, we want to be respectful of the setting and keep the noise and dust down as much as possible.

Ronda Learned and her husband Randy moved from Nebraska to Dolce Vita in 2018. They are full-time residents.

“We liked that it was far enough out,” Learned said. “There’s not a lot around us. We came from a rural town in Nebraska, so this makes sense for us.

“And we really love the home,” she said. “I said if we’re going to move and make it permanent, that it had to be my dream home. And this did it.”

Ronda Learned works in front of her home at Dolce Vita, Apache Junction, Ariz.

Development Is Back!

Contributed Content

January 20, 2022

yale advisors manufactured home development communities

Should You Develop an MHC? If So, What Does It Entail?

By James Cook and Mitch Gonzalez

First off, how did we get here? There was virtually no development for the manufactured home community property type for 20+ years!

The MH & RV Class has attracted a lot of attention lately from the institutional investment world, but the “smart money” has been quietly acquiring these properties for years. Today, it is estimated that more than 70% of the larger, institutional communities are owned by an aggregator that rarely sells, thus creating a scarcity of opportunities to invest in the industry. Due to the increased demand, coupled with this scarcity of product, investors have been forced to start bidding on mid-size and even small communities just to place raised or allocated capital seeking a safe home. Today, even the 75- to 150-site communities are becoming very sought after.

The good news is the increase in value and demand per space have finally made it feasible to develop new communities and turn a profit.

In the heyday of development in this sector, the 1970s and 80s, you could sell 75-100 new homes every year and generate a large enough profit on each home sale to cover the cost of development of the site itself. Since then, and especially since the recession, the cost of site-built homes has been artificially depressed and too low for new manufactured homes to offer a competitive price. In addition, the relatively low value of a developed space was further suppressing the new manufactured home development and to a lesser extent RV resorts.

We abruptly turned the corner sometime in 2019 as prices per developed pad reached $80-200k per site in prime markets, and suddenly, development started to spring up around the U.S. Then, the pandemic and government shutdowns came, which caused people to flee cities and multi-family housing and rush to more rural settings. This rush to detached housing fits the MH & RV industry perfectly. The rapid mass migration, combined with a shortage of construction workers, has created urgency to build. Single-family rentals are selling at record highs and the delta between site-built and factory-built housing has never been wider.

With construction rapidly on the rise, we felt it necessary to launch a dedicated land and construction division to better understand and facilitate new manufactured home community development.

Enter Mitch Gonzalez, the national land and development director for Yale.

Land Development for New Affordable Housing

Existing mobile home communities are selling at record-breaking prices per pad as institutional investors continue to consolidate the sector. As such, a new generation of feasibility for manufactured housing developments has arrived. New manufactured home developments offer significantly higher than existing returns compared with other communities. Investors can expect to see 20% – 30% stabilized cash-on-cash returns compared to high single digit/low double digit returns for existing properties.

Seeing how attractive they are, let’s break down the steps of development for a new manufactured home community.

Site Selection

It’s important to dial-in the necessary buying metrics for your investment, such as population and market rents. Different metrics should be used to prequalify the property based on the property type. While an RV Resort will benefit from traffic count on a major interstate, a Manufactured Housing Community will benefit from local employment centers and single-family home prices.

Acquisitions

Once we have selected a possible development site, we are ready to dive into the due diligence. Third-party Reports such as feasibility studies, drainage reports, and environmental assessments will be necessary for the evaluation. Buyers and Sellers can expect purchase agreement terms to include 90-day due diligence and 45-day close with contingencies on third-party reports and zoning hurdles.

Entitlements

We will then do a full evaluation of the current zoning and adjacent parcels. In most cases, the property will not have the necessary zoning and a Land Use Change will be needed. The best way to go about this will be to engage a designer and local engineering group for conceptual drawings. These will be very helpful for the pre-application meeting with Planning & Zoning when you are expected to sell them on your idea.

Construction

Construction costs are on the rise in all asset classes. Material costs are up 19.4% in the last 12 months according to the Product Price Index and labor is slowly coming back as government assistance runs out. It is critical to staff the right general contractor for the project that will be able to build at a competitive rate. A new manufactured home development can expect between $30k and $45k of hard costs per pad across the U.S.

Lease Up

The last barrier of entry will be setting up an allocation to fill the community. Many manufactured home builders are 6-12 months out on orders. It is important to be timely and strategic in making sure model homes are available when sites start to come online. A great sales team will need to be assembled to ensure lease-up coordinates well with home allocation.

Zoning continues to be a big hurdle for Manufactured Housing Developments, yet all states need more affordable housing. As more 5-star communities are built, there will be more great examples of what affordable housing can be. The development of manufactured home communities is gaining traction in states like Arizona, Texas, and Florida and I expect the southeast coastal markets will see the next wave of new development in the space.

Yale Realty & Capital Advisors can be a resource at every step of the development process. We have clients and partners that specialize in manufactured housing and RV resorts.

About the Authors
Mitch Gonzalez is the director of land sales and development for Yale finding the highest and best use of a property leveraging a diverse background in real estate investment. He previously ran a construction company providing general contracting services for brands such as Emcure Urgent Care, Jonna Properties, and Safeway Oil Company, overseeing $70 million in closings.

James Cook is the national director of brokerage for Yale Realty and Capital Advisors. He entered the manufactured housing and RV property asset class in 2005 as a licensed agent listing homes for a local investor. In 2012, he founded the fully-integrated finance and brokerage shop and has accumulated transaction exceeding $1 billion in value. He offers perspective at a national level, providing insight into the niche industry.

How to Design a Healthier Home

Suzanne Felber

January 11, 2022

felber lifestylist healthier home — Having solid surface flooring helps keep less dust and allergens in your home. The right appliances also makes for a healthier home.

Are you leaving money on the table every time you sell a home?

Suzanne Felber The Lifestylist manufactured housing design — Suzanne Felber, The Lifestylist

The past few years have been challenging, to say the least. Now we are at a point that it isn’t just about cost, it’s about being able to get materials in a timely fashion to be able to build the homes that you have sold. Rebranding our homes and getting even more consumers excited about them is something that, as an industry, we have been working on, and it is starting to work. People are understanding that we are a viable solution to the affordable housing crisis.

With the pandemic came a renewed interest in healthy living, along with what we all can do individually and as a community to help save our planet and ourselves. As a Lifestylist, this has always been my focus, and it is now even more so today.

A healthy home and embracing a health-and-wellness lifestyle mean different things to different people. It can be as simple as recycling, or it can be about updating your plumbing fixtures and appliances to save water and to be energy efficient. The less we waste, the healthier the planet will be for everyone.

A well-designed kitchen is the heart of the home in many ways. Having energy-efficient appliances is an important part of the design. Photos by Beko Appliances.

Here are five easy ways to promote a healthy lifestyle in your homes.

Recycling — It is often overlooked, but factory built housing is one of the efficient forms of construction. For anyone who has ever toured or worked in one of our plants, you know that there is little or no waste created in the construction of our homes. Everything that you can repurpose or recycle is, and many companies are putting a lot of thought into what happens to a home when it is updated down the road. The Shaw Carpet Cradle to Cradle Recycled content carpeting can be infinitely recycled keeping millions of yards of carpet out of landfills. Offering recycling centers in communities is an easy way to truly make a difference.

Energy Efficiency — If you have ever been in one of our homes in winter, even with no heat on I am always amazed how well insulated many of our homes are. As an industry, we have also started using more energy-efficient heating and air units, and the Nest style thermostats can play a big difference in keeping down a homeowners utility bills. It is not just about the initial cost of the home, it is also about how much it will cost to maintain it and how expensive the utility bills will be. If we can help our customers understand how the extras that we add in our homes will help cut their monthly expenses, they will be more secure in investing more to buy their dream home.

The Right Appliances — When asked which rooms are the most important to homeowners, time and time again consumers choose the kitchen and the bath. Appliances are a big expense, but they are also so important to the health and well-being of the homeowners. We often put in stainless “pretty” appliances, but how efficient and functional are many of these long term? Are you buying look or function?

An appliance company that is one of the leaders in Europe has landed in the United States, and they are going to change the way that people use and think about their appliances. Beko has already been named the Energy Star® Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence, and its focus is health and wellness. The company’s Everfresh® technology will keep produce fresh for up to 30 days. Imagine how much healthier a family would be, and how much money could be saved through fresh fruit and vegetables that last more than a week. And the technology comes at many levels of Beko’ offerings, not just on the high end. I anticipate the brand will be seen and talked about in our homes very soon, and customers will be asking for them.

Induction ranges remain a bit more pricey than what you’re likely to see in our homes, but the price is coming down. Induction is one of the most energy-efficient ways of cooking, and on many of the ranges, you can boil water in 90 seconds. It might take a couple of years, but I see this as the new frontier for ranges and cooktops.

Water Works — Every year fresh water is getting more scarce, and finding ways to use water more efficiently in our homes and plants needs to happen. Believe it or not, and newer, well designed dishwasher save gallons of water every time someone uses them, is a more sanitary way to clean your dishes and is a huge time saver. Making sure that you use faucets that won’t be dripping and wasting water a few years out is also a great water and maintenance saver, and there are beautiful bath faucet sets that are major water savers without having to sacrifice stream strength. Make sure that your outdoor faucets can be protected or shut off during chilly weather to prevent freezing.

Bringing In the Outdoors — Air quality has become a huge topic of concern. We need to talk about how we protect the indoor air quality of our homes, and how we use insulated windows, bath fans and ceiling fans to keep the air moving, to filter out unwanted particles. Making sure that you change your filters and use better quality filters when you do is an easy way to improve the air quality in a home.

Spending more time outdoors also is very beneficial for our health and well being. An inviting outdoor space, maybe even with an outdoor kitchen, is a great way to blend indoor and outdoor living. A large front porch not only adds to the curb appeal of a home, but it is a great way to be a more active part of your neighborhood while enjoying friends and family. Even if an expansive porch isn’t something that can be done on all homes, making plans available to consumers for site-added porches and decks is a great way for consumers to realize the unlimited potential of our homes.

If you have noticed, a lot of these ideas are things that we are already doing to some degree. Some have been done for so long that we forget to talk about them, or we are talking about them in a value-added sense instead of them being about improving the customer’s quality of life long term. Try adding in a product or idea that is focused on health and well-being, then use this as a talking point to educate homebuyers and residents on all of the things that you already are doing in your homes. I think you will discover that there may be hidden profit in your home that cannot be overlooked.

Bookmark MHInsider for the latest in manufactured housing news, and to keep up on all of the manufactured housing industry trends.

The ‘Jessup Way’

Patrick Revere

January 6, 2022

Business Partners Team to Grow New Texas Builder

Jessup Housing set up a nicely branded and comfortable networking lounge at a hotel and conference center for the Texas Manufactured Housing Association annual meeting. The space served as a prearranged spot for Jessup employees, clients, and partners.

Scott Cannon, the company’s vice president of sales, sits forward on one of the many bench-style sofas in the networking lounge and talks about the origins of Jessup, its roots and culture, and the homes it builds for customers in nine states.

“Every person in the business builds as if we’re building for our own family,” Cannon said. “Each home is like a new baby.”

In barely four years, Jessup Housing, out of Waco, Texas, has become a destination employer and a vital housing provider in the central and western U.S.

The company was started by David and April Jessup with a small group of investors at the end of 2017, leveraging the industry veterans’ 50-plus years of experience with multiple builders. Together, they selected a location to build homes and pulled in a team to make it happen.

Cannon came aboard in May 2018. Casey Peacock and his sister-in-law, Meghan Roller, joined the team having been running a collection of manufactured home dealerships, Hench’s Homes, in central Texas. Lance Inderman was “the land guy”. Donnie and Jack Brewer, signed on with dealerships in North Louisiana, and Todd and Marvin McDonald rounded things out with dealerships in Jasper, Texas. Finally, April Jessup was set to draft and design homes, manage payables and receivables, and order materials.

But first, they needed a new facility.

Jessup I in Waco

“David leased the old plant, a shell really, with no planks and no cover and no plumbing or wiring or anything else,” Cannon said. “The shell of the building was there, but really nothing else.”

A member of the Jessup team, Jose Rivera, gives a thumbs up while building roof trusses.

They had the advisers in place and hired contractors to build out a factory to manufacture homes the way Jessup intended. The Jessup team held a job fair at the factory and 381 people showed up. They were overwhelmed with the response. They hired 80 people the first week and have been ramping up a bit more every quarter.

“It’s a modern plant in an old shell,” Casey Peacock said. “We put a lot of money in on the front end to save on the backend, and it’s worked.”

Like its production space, the leadership team for Jessup requires each home to have an added element of integrity that will serve the homebuyer well. They use cross members throughout, state-of-the-art plumbing systems, enhanced insulation, and a number of other measures to build the best possible home in each price point.

The company has worked hard, Cannon said, to organize a package of floor plans and homes built to satisfy 80% of Jessup’s market.

“We want to be the best builder on the planet,” Cannon said. “This is all above and beyond what HUD code requires…We to do it The Jessup Way.”

Start Simple, Do It Well

Jessup team members Johnny Salinas and Nicolas Licea take a break for the photographer and the company’s plant in Waco, Texas.

Jessup spent most of 2018 getting the home building facility, the key players, and the partnership worked out. They built oil field units to get the factory ramped up and systems in place. In 2019 the company began building a multi-section home to bolster its lineup of single-section floorplans. In July of 2019, Rick Michalak rounded out the team, with 35 years of management experience, as vice president of production.

“We were able to increase our production 25% in a relatively short period of time,” Casey Peacock said.

“We show up each day at 6 – 6:30 so we can be there to shake each employee’s hand each day to thank them for being there with us.”
— Jessup Housing Vice President Scott Cannon

It wasn’t long before Jessup was producing 30-35 homes each week. When a need for expansion arose, the company expanded into an adjacent facility on the same site.

In July of this year, Jessup acquired its second plant in Waco, and production continues to ramp up at “Jessup II”. Now with more than 300 employees between the sites, its central Texas workforce is poised to optimize production towards 50 floors per week.

“We’re just ramping up,” Peacock said. “We are adamant about avoiding overtime, to manage labor expenses while providing our team members with work-life balance. We’re getting into a rhythm, and that’s what you want. That’s how we’re going to consistently get 45-50 floors a week.”

And, of course, the demand is there to support production. In March 2020, they sold 100 homes in a week.

“It was 140 the next week. It just keeps going up and up,” Peacock said.

Jessup’s 9-State Sales Territory

Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming

90 Independent Retailers

50 Community Locations

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New Organization to Advance Women in Manufactured Housing

Patrick Revere

December 30, 2021

women advancing manufactured housing maria horton justine natalaie — From left, Maria Horton and Justine Natalie are among the industry professionals organizing Women Advancing Manufactured Housing.

A new organization formed by manufactured housing professionals is recruiting members and building partnerships to organize on a single platform for an important voice in advancing the industry.

Women Advancing Manufactured Housing is the result of years of casual conversation about organizing a coalition for women in the industry and came to fruition during a roundtable discussion among Justine Natalie from Dynamic MH Solutions, Maria Horton from Newport Pacific, Sherrie Clevenger from CoreLogic, Maryuri Barberan from Pentagon Properties, and Kim Shultz-Rainford from Affordable Casa Group at the recent SECO Conference.

The five primary organizers comprise the executive committee for the new group. While the group focuses on the support and advancement of women for the industry, the organization is open to any manufactured housing professional who wants to be involved.

“WAMH is a movement that has been discussed for many years,” Horton said. “The group that has come together to see it come to life has a combined 150 years of experience in all aspects of the industry, and we remain excited to honor, recognize and learn from all industry professionals who want to join.”

Horton said the organization will partner with an existing nonprofit while it continues to organize its legal and operating structure. WAMH’s mission is to support women in the industry, improve the perception of manufactured housing, and collaborate and expand each member’s knowledge and network.

Organizers for WAMH have been meeting weekly since October, and are planning quarterly member meetings with subject matter experts, including at in-person events as the organization grows. WAMH already has a modest number of supporters who have committed to membership as well as providing startup funding.

WAMH Key Goals

To provide a supportive network to increase the presence and voice of women in the manufactured housing industry.
Consistently strive to improve the perception of manufactured housing.
To create a collaborative effort for general industry answers and to share and expand the knowledge of each and every member of WAMH.

“Although it’s been a relatively short time since WAMH was formed, this phenomenal group of women has already contributed fantastic strategic ideas to drive positive momentum within manufactured housing,” WAMH co-founder Justine Natalie said. “ I am honored to be on the executive committee and to partner with industry professionals as we work toward our WAMH mission statement. We are looking forward to spreading the word of WAMH and are excited about what we are striving to bring to the industry in terms of knowledge, support, and mentorship.”

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