The Manufactured Housing Institute Honors Recipients with Annual Professional Awards
MHI has announced the 2020 award winners for its Excellence in Manufactured Housing, honoring organizations in the areas of manufacturing, retail, community, supply, lending, and design.
Excellence in Manufactured Housing awards manufactured housing professionals from every corner of the industry, chosen by peers and an independent panel of experts for leadership and dedication.
“This year we had over 100 entries from industry partners who are thinking outside of the box to improve the manufactured housing industry,” said MHI President Mark Bowersox. “This year’s award winners show the dedication and expertise that this industry needs as we push forward. On behalf of MHI, I’d like to congratulate all of this year’s winners.”
Winners of 2020 Excellence in Manufactured Housing Awards
Manufacturer of the Year Awards
• Manufacturer of the Year – Two Plants or Less: Adventure Homes
• Manufacturer of the Year – Three Plants or More: Clayton Home Building Group
Retail Sales Center of the Year Awards
• Retail Sales Center of the Year – East: UMH Properties, Sunny Acres Sales Center in Somerset, Pa.
• Retail Sales Center of the Year – West: Family Homes in Chino, Calif.
Land-Lease Community Awards
• Community Operator of the Year: Hometown America Communities
• Land-Lease Community of the Year – East: Beach-Cove Properties, Inc.
• Land-Lease Community of the Year – West: Oak Tree Ranch in Ramona, Calif., Hometown America Communities
Parke Place Estates in Elkhart, Ind., a UMH Properties community.
Communities Work with Residents Who Need Time, Help to Pay
While reports come in from various sectors of the housing market that up to a third of renters have yet to pay April rent, early feedback from the manufactured housing industry shows a more promising trend.
Much more inquiry is warranted and underway, but owners and operators who oversee tens of thousands of homesites in nine states report that more than 90 percent of residents in their communities paid April rent during the first week of the month.
“As of the end of the week 86.6% of April rent has been paid, and we’re allowing anyone who has lost their job because of the virus, they don’t have to pay their rent extending into May as needed,” Landy said. “Thereafter, when things get going again, we’re going to allow residents to pay the back rent through 25% installments each of the following months, as needed.
“We’re making it as solvable as we can for the resident and there won’t be any real receivable issues for us,” he said. “We’re pretty confident about that.”
UMH Properties owns more than 115 manufactured home communities in Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Those properties include residents who pay lot rent to UMH, as well as 18,000 residents who rent a home at an average cost of $700 per month.
A Positive Sign from Manufactured Housing Communities
Holiday Village in Nashville, Tenn. Photo courtesy of UMH Properties.
Manufactured home owners historically have had a more difficult time than other buyers in obtaining home financing, because they generally have been considered a higher risk for those who extend and secure home loans.
“The fact that 82% paid today is a good illustration of what we’ve been saying all along,” Landy said. “This is a very stable housing stock with good customers who care about where they live.”
“You can do better in the short-term not looking for black swan events, but we’ve always been cautious in that way, which allows you to weather a time like this,” Landy said. “Clearly we have the staying power to get through this and maintain our dividend and perhaps be able to trade at a premium given the stable nature of our organization.”
Landy said sales have continued through the company website and UMH is conducting remote closings.
“So, it’s painful because we are concerned about our residents, and from operations, we’re a growth company and it’s hard to grow in this kind of limited environment, but we have no concerns about maintaining our value, paying the dividends, and getting back to normal business as soon as it makes sense.”
April Rent at Five California Communities
On the other side of the country, Newport Pacific’s Maria Horton manages four communities in Southern California. She said even among communities with the area’s most affordable rent, residents have paid April rent or have communicated when and how they would pay. Of 479 homesites in the parks she oversees, 448 residents — or 93.5% — had paid during the first week of April.
While April has seen unprecedented changes in the market, and produced a great amount of uncertainty for residents and owners, May rents could be more of a concern.
“We want people to pay as soon as they can, but right now residents can pay any time during the month without a fee,” Horton said.
“I have a park I manage where the owners sent a letter to residents to let them know they’d be eligible for a raffle of a $500 gift card if rent was paid prior to April 10,” she said. “They’re also providing $25 gift cards for those who successfully set up online payment for the first time. And these incentives likely will carry through to May.”
A resident at Garden West Estates in Gardena, Calif., wears a mask while walking her dog. Photo courtesy of Newport Pacific.
Social security recipients who receive checks at a later date in the month and notify the office of the date of receipt for payment of their rent also will be entered in the drawing if rent is paid in full, Horton said.
Outside of rent collection, business continues if not face-to-face. Horton is making remote appointments and conducting regular drive-throughs of the manufactured home communities she oversees.
“We are calling and checking in on people all the time to see if there’s anything they need,” Horton said. “People come out little by little to walk their dogs for instance, and they wear their masks. There’s less activity in the senior parks, but people seem to be doing well.”
Georgia Owner Expands Assistance Program
David Roden owns Mountainview Estates in Ross, Ga. He has 75 homesites occupied and said he’s given residents until the 15th of the month to pay in April. All but five residents were able to pay April rent, and the others have indicated when and how they will pay.
“We are very pleased with our residents and their willingness to work with us and communicate to us their needs and problems so we can work out a solution with them,” Roden said. “We expect more non-payments in May, but if the stimulus checks come in, I may be surprised.”
Roden and other southeast community owners involved in the annual SECO event have expanded a program that was initiated to help armed forces veterans in need of assistance. Roden said the Veterans Assistance Fund has been expanded to include health care workers who are on the front lines fighting coronavirus.
“We believe they are the real heroes at this time, the ones who have stepped up to save lives,” Roden said.
MHI Notifies Members, Industry 2020 Congress & Expo Canceled, Planning Begins for 2021
The Manufactured Housing Institute sent a message to members and the industry as a whole that out of safety and health concerns, the 2020 Congress and Expo is canceled.
MHI’s Congress and Expo is a keystone among manufactured housing industry events and meetings. The annual event had been scheduled for April 6-8 at the MGM in Las Vegas. Congress & Expo will be held at the same venue on those same dates in 2021.
It previously had postponed the event and had been looking for alternate 2020 dates.
“After weeks of monitoring the COVID-19 situation MHI has made the decision to fully cancel the 2020 Congress & Expo,” the statement read. “This was a difficult decision to make but our highest priority is the health and safety of our attendees, exhibitors and staff.”
The statement said MHI will roll 2020 registration to the 2021 event. Those who registered for the show and have no plans to attend in 2021 can get a refund. All registration refund requests must be received by May 5, 2020.
“As we navigate these unprecedented times, we want our attendees, members and industry professionals to know that we are here to help each of you,” the statement said. “We look forward to the future and we are confident that the 2021 MHI Congress & Expo will be the best one yet!”
JLT Market Reports from Datacomp with updated information on rent and occupancy trends for manufactured home communities in Alabama and Georgia are available for order, including immediate download today.
Datacomp’s JLT Market Reports provide detailed research and vital information on communities in 184 major housing markets throughout the United States. Along with the latest rent trends and occupancy statistics, the manufactured home community market reports include information on home types, amenities, community infrastructure, as well as general management insights.
Datacomp is the nation’s top provider of manufactured housing data. JLT Market Reports are recognized as the industry standard for manufactured housing community market analysis.
April 2020 JLT manufactured housing market data includes information on 69 “All ages” and “55+” manufactured home communities in Alabama and Georgia.
Altogether, the reports include data representations for 15,702 homesites, including those in a new report for Birmingham, Ala.
Market Trends from April 2020 JLT Rent & Occupancy Market Reports
Birmingham, Ala. adjusted rent for all-ages communities increased by 4.53% between 2018 and 2020.
Occupancy in those communities during that time rose to 92%.
Savannah, Ga. adjusted rent for 55+ communities increased by 3.98% between 2018 and 2020.
Occupancy in those communities dipped a single percentage point in that time.
More About 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
JLT Market Reports also include management insights that rank communities by the number of homesites, occupancy rates, and highest to lowest rents. Established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of April 2020 rents and occupancy rates to April 2019, as well as a historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to present date in most markets.
The April 2020 Alabama and Georgia JLT Reports for 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 effectively benchmark those communities and make informed business decisions.
Set up your new virtual open house and virtual home tours today!
A Real Homebuying Experience in the Virtual World
MHVillage, the top marketplace for mobile and manufactured homes, is making all virtual home tours available for free, and has added virtual open houses to its home selling toolkit.
Home sellers nationwide — in communities and street retail settings — have experienced a dynamic shift in face-to-face customer contact. Many have had to alter or temporarily shut down operations.
The consumer/retailer interaction has changed dramatically during what could be prolonged measures to help slow the rate of coronavirus infections.
MHVillage has specialized in the digital home buying experience since 2004.
Today, the company announces a wide expansion of its virtual home tour application, as well as a new tool that allows manufactured housing professionals to hold a virtual open house.
“Virtual home tours on MHVillage have always been available to sellers using premium home listings. We now will open up that option to all home listing categories, free of charge,” MHVillage Co-President and Chief Business Development Office Darren Krolewski said. “Additionally, with the Virtual Open House, we’ve created a new product that marketers and sales professionals can use to show a home, develop the buyer interest, and have the conversations they’ve relied on to be successful in person.”
Each virtual experience helps fill the pipeline by providing MHVillage home sellers a customer lead with the buyer’s name and contact information. The lead form allows home sellers to understand what home or community the customer is interested in as well as the ability to quickly be in touch to further the sales process.
Get MHVillage’s Virtual Home Tour for free.
How to Implement Virtual Home Tours, Virtual Open Houses
Sign in to your MHVillage account dashboard, go to your home listings, and click Edit Listing. The field to enter a Virtual Tour is on the Contact page of your listing. Then follow instructions to link your YouTube video, or Matterport, VPix, 3DVista files from your website.
Virtual home tours are available for free to all listing categories at no additional cost
You also can add a virtual tour of your community. Just add the link in the Features section of your community, go to your account, click to view your communities and click Edit Community.
Set Up Your Own Virtual Open House
The MHVillage Virtual Open House works in much the same way as a traditional Open House, by scheduling the dates through your MHVillage account. MHVillage customers can log in, choose a listing, and click to add an Open House. On that page, you will see a checkbox for making it a Virtual Open House. In the description section of the Open House, you can add a link to your Facebook account for a Facebook Live event. Or add a link to your website to set up a virtual appointment or offer other relevant information.
List a home for sale today, and use the new and expanded virtual applications at MHVillage to continue serving your customers and selling homes.
Original research and data from MHVillage show a great majority of manufactured home buyers remain in the market to buy a home. Of 1,859 self-identified manufactured home buyers who responded, 72% said they continue their search to rent or buy a manufactured or mobile home. More than 16% of the respondents halted the search to buy a manufactured home because they’ve already made the home purchase.
For the survey, MHVillage contacted more than 49,000 homebuyers nationwide. More than 13% of those who opened the survey form participated in the manufactured home buyer survey.
For all the results, see the buyer infographic the MHVillage team created with data from the survey.
Legacy Title in Blaine, Minn., offers drive-thru closings for homebuyers and real estate transactions.
During Busy Time for Homebuying, Legacy Title Clients Use Curbside, Drive-thru Closing
Legacy Title, a full-service title insurance and real estate closing company is using a safe and unconventional way to close real estate transactions during the coronavirus outbreak.
On the heels of Governor Tim Walz ordering Minnesotans to stay at home until April 10, except for essential duties, the advent of a drive-thru service at Legacy Title’s Blaine location is being met with open arms and even accolades from competitors.
Connie Clancy, president of Legacy Title, said the idea came out of necessity.
“We recognized immediately that this situation would cause a shift in the traditional way of doing closings and began implementing changes,” Clancy said. “We started with separating parties into different closing rooms, offering curbside service and then saw the opportunity to offer the drive-thru option and acted quickly to make it happen for our customers.”
Since commencing this innovative service customers have sung its praises.
“They are relieved and appreciate the ability to close safely from their car,” said Executive Closer Carmen Jorgensen.
“We began offering drive-thru service on March 23. We have had several closings in this drive-thru already and have it booked for the next several days,” Jorgensen said.
Busy Time for Residential, Real Estate Transactions
Clients who are refinancing or purchasing a manufactured home depend on the ability to close on a transaction while the rates remain favorable. Many of these pending refinances will allow consumers to potentially save hundreds of dollars per month in mortgage payments, which is very valuable especially now.
“All of our 12 locations have curbside closing services available, but this drive-thru concept is unique,” she said. “We are taking many precautions to ensure we are always keeping a safe distance and using best practices to ensure everyone remains healthy and safe.”
Safe, Convenient Closings
While closings usually are very close gatherings with all parties around a table, this new and necessary concept allows for the same transaction to be completed without putting clients and Legacy Title employees in potentially harmful situations.
“Some of our clients need to have their children with them because school is closed. Doing this in the drive-thru ensures we are adhering to the social distancing orders all of us have been given,” Jorgensen said. “A few clients told us they were considering canceling their closing for safety reasons until they found out about this convenient option.”
Clancy recognizes in the present constant state of change that teamwork and collaboration are critical.
“Is this the new normal? Probably not. But it is the right thing to do right now,” she said “Closings are usually celebrations. But even in difficult situations, essential business like this must happen. Whether someone is buying, selling or refinancing we recognize the importance of their investment and want to continue to make this experience as positive as possible for all involved.”
Sean Geehan was at a father-daughter weekend at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, when he was struck by a notion that would stick with him and change the course of his career.
That was the spring of 2016.
“I couldn’t get a hotel room and started doing some research on apartments, or hotels around colleges in rural areas and I didn’t see much,” he said. “I came across modular, and felt like it would be a great solution. “But it became clear we wouldn’t want to get into apartments or hotels, and we really wanted to get into residential, which continues to be the real need.
“I worked on this for a year and a half before I even told my wife,” he said. “My background is in technology, and merger and acquisitions. I have no background in building, so I needed to do my research. I didn’t want everyone to think I’m a fool, which they probably still did.”
Geehan found some investors and began to put a team together that would provide the much-needed trades and industry experience.
“None of us were in modular two years ago,” Geehan said. “We were at 15 people at the end of 2019, and we’re bringing on another 10. We want to continue with all on-staff labor.”
Slate Homes launched at the end of 2018, closed its first deal a year ago, and did three more projects through 2019.
In 2020, Slate Homes is in full production.
What Type of Home Does Slate Build?
Slate produces limited-run modular homes that fit the aesthetic of the neighborhood or area where the new homes will be placed. The first home for Slate was infill for an empty parcel in Walnut Hills, a neighborhood in Cincinnati.
Slate also is working on 11 duplexes for a resort town in Colorado, with the capacity to do another 40 duplex homes as needed.
The cost of construction is about $450 per square foot and sell for $1,200 to $2,000 per square foot, depending on the market.
“It’s not just Aspen and Vale, it’s Basalt, Winter Park and other resorts,” Geehan said. “They just can’t get any labor to build homes, and when you do it’s very pricey. It’s a commute and you have to bring the materials in. So they’re looking at what we do, and it meets the need. We’re having a lot of success with it.”
The company also is working with developers on residential infill projects in Detroit. The Ford Innovation Center is ramping up, with the hiring of 5,000 new employees.
“So we’re working with a developer who’s buying land right around there to put in a good mix of ‘build to rent’ homes and others that are being built to sell,” Geehan said. “We have our own interior designer. Customers can come to our main office and sit down, look through the floor plans, material options and all of our offerings.”
Finding the Balance
The company sells to developers who are interested in thoughtful design and have a strategy that brings affordable homes quickly to the market.
“I wanted to do a more high-end home, and saw some of the stuff that’s being done out west,” Geehan said. “We started to think about how to do mid-to-high-end finishes in batches of 40 or 50 homes.”
The moderate-sized runs are enough to build in needed efficiencies but maintain the custom-look of each home.
“For us, everything is a smooth finish. You’re not going to find popcorn ceilings or seams. It’s almost like we’re putting up a custom home but we’re building 20 or 30 of them,” he said. “That middle layer is where we play. How do we take something we can run 25 times that will have the features that really draw people in. Cedar with a solid stain, maybe a different color Hardie Board and other features that are eye-catching and pleasing.”
The strategy started with a conversation Geehan had with his nephew, Travis Wilson, who is a high-end home builder and now serves as senior vice president of construction for Slate Homes. Wilson oversees all of the building and site work.
“What if we could take the assembly-line mentality and apply it to what you do?” Geehan recalls asking Wilson. “It’s all the detail like Amish custom cabinets and high-end control systems throughout.”
The strategy seems to have worked. Slate had its 2020 calendar year filled in the first month of last year.
“And we’ll be looking to add a second production facility probably in mid-2021 or early 2022,” Geehan said.
Even in the best of times, the level of responsibility on manufactured home community operators is a grand task. However, the global outbreak of coronavirus/COVID-19 adds to the equation considerably.
Help ensure the safety of residents with the following protective measures.
1. Communicate
Communication is critical during crises. Whether through email bulletins, park signage, or other means, keeping park residents up to date with can help ease uncertainty and fear.
Current guidelines, for example, recommend no gatherings of more than 10 people and that everyone maintains a distance of at least three feet. (Such guidelines may vary state-to-state; make sure you’re aware of your state’s recommendation.) Signs posted in or around clubhouses, pools, and play areas can help remind people of this recommendation.
2. Clean Common Areas
To the best of your abilities, ensure clean surfaces in all common areas. The following list covers disinfectants that are effective in killing the coronavirus: Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)—Fighting Products
The Centers for Disease Control Control (CDC) shares guidelines about how to use such disinfectants to combat COVID-19: Clean & Disinfect
3. Leverage Available Resources
An increasing number of sites provide signs that encourage good hygiene and other safety practices.
This site offers downloadable elements for digital signs that work just as effectively when printed.
You may consider printing or otherwise distributing the informative document, “The President’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America 15 Days to Slow the Spread.” It is available as a download here.
If you need to communicate with park employees, here is a sample letter you can use to address the virus and related issues.
4. Look Out for Seniors and Others
COVID-19 does not discriminate between potential victims. However, experts consider anyone over the age of 60 as well as those with certain pre-existing conditions especially vulnerable.
In many communities, residents looking out for one another is a way of life. However, there may be some residents without friends, family members, or neighbors available to check on them. If you’re aware of any such residents, outreach as simple as a phone call can make a tremendous difference.
If possible, adding any essential items they need to your work-related shopping list will help them. Residents should shelter in place and away from settings where they can more easily become infected.
Most organizations today understand the importance of having a dedicated digital marketing program. Many companies realize the value that a well-optimized website and online presence have as a modern sales tool.
However, it is worth a reminder that the biggest advantage digital marketing can offer a business is measurement. The ability to track, monitor, and evaluate the performance of any effort is what allows you to eliminate as much guesswork in your operation as possible. From a marketing perspective, a large part of this is getting to know your customers on a deep level.
This means understanding what their needs are, where they spend their time, what topics resonate with them, and how they interact with your brand. To strategically invest your time and money in the right areas, you need to know what’s working, what’s not, and why.
This is where web analytics comes in.
What Are Web Analytics?
Web analytics can seem overwhelming for anyone who is unfamiliar with the terminology, metrics, or what to look for in the marketing results. The sheer amount of available information can feel like a sea of data points that you’re unsure about jumping into.
However, when you can make sense of it, the data will help you better understand your web traffic and gain deeper insights into what your customers care about.
Quick Tip:
When choosing an analytics tool for your business, go with Google Analytics. Google Analytics is the industry standard for web measurement platforms. It’s a highly capable and effective tool that’s free for all businesses. If you’re just starting out, it is an ideal solution to get up and running quickly. There are dozens of authoritative, free resources readily available to help you learn more about the platform at any level.
But before you spend too much time looking in your analytics account and drawing conclusions, it’s crucial that you begin with a correct understanding of what these numbers represent and how they differ from one another.
Let’s start by defining a handful of basic but fundamental metrics for measuring web traffic in Google Analytics.
Sessions
Users
Pageviews
Sessions
When looking at sessions, think total visits, not people.
Every time someone visits your website a session begins. It starts immediately when the first page loads and ends after there has been 30 minutes of inactivity.
If a user leaves your site, then returns again one hour later, a new session begins. One person can log multiple sessions on a website, so it is common for sessions to be significantly greater than users when looking at analytics.
Sessions are a useful metric for understanding how your website traffic is changing from month to month, or during key periods throughout the year. When you have marketing campaigns running at certain times, sessions can help you evaluate how these efforts are impacting traffic.
Users
When looking at users, think individual people, not visits.
Usersrefer to the number of new and returning visitors to a website. It’s best to think of users as individual people, but there are a few nuances to be aware of.
Any time a new person lands on your site, Google Analytics assigns them a unique ID that gets stored in a cookie in their web browser (like Google Chrome). When they return to your site using the same browser and device, they are recognized as a returning visitor.
It’s important to know that users are tracked separately on different devices. So if the same person visited your site on a desktop and smartphone, it is tallied as a new user.
Users are an optimal way to measure unique web traffic. However, like most things in digital marketing, a single metric only offers so much intel when analyzed by itself. Users are helpful for understanding how many people visited your site in a given time period, but it’s best to look at users alongside sessions, pageviews, and other engagement metrics to really get a sense of the biggest factors driving your traffic.
Pageviews
More straightforward than the above metrics, a pageview is counted every time a page on your website is viewed, as you may have guessed. If someone lands on the homepage, goes to the About page, Contact page, then back to Home, that’s four views. If they reloaded the About page five times, it’s counted as five pageviews. Pageviews are counted very generously in analytics and will always be much higher than both users and sessions.
Hits
To be honest, there won’t ever be much to infer with hits as a metric for traffic. Hits are irrelevant for measuring web traffic. Hits represent too many actions, often repetitive or misleading actions. Some marketers reach for the biggest number and showcase hits as a measure of site visits or users. This is a hasty and inflated representation of actual traffic. Equating hits to a metric like sessions is misguided and ill-advised. Hits always will be much greater in volume than users, sessions, or pageviews.
Hits may be a good measure of overall server usage, but it doesn’t tell you much about your audience.
Platform Comparisons:
Google Analytics vs Webalizer vs AWStats
If you have yet to adopt a traffic measurement tool, there are several platforms for your business to consider. As mentioned, Google Analytics is by far the most widely used tool today. We recommend it against a few others for key reasons.
Alternative analytics platforms like Webalizer and AWStats are known to overestimate traffic data and report inflated numbers. This is because these programs collect data differently than Google Analytics.
Webalizer and AWStats are “Server-side” analytics platforms, meaning they gather data from a website’s server logs to report traffic. Instead of only showing activity from actual human visitors, the data contained in these log files includes activity from both humans and bots. The server responds to human visitors, but also to automated requests made by bots. These requests can include anything like image files, graphics, audio files, and HTML pages.
This significantly skews the data and thus shows much higher numbers than the more refined results from Google Analytics.
Overall, platforms like Webalizer lack cookies to recognize real, unique visitors, so they use data from server logs to give it’s best guess at how many actual people visited the site. Server-side collection is an inferior way to measure website traffic, especially for any sites that receive a sizable volume.
Getting Onboard with Analytics
In this article, we really just scratch the surface of what is possible with web analytics. If all of this sounds new or vaguely familiar to you, it’s a topic worthy of further investigation. Strengthening your knowledge of analytics will provide new insights about customers, how they shop, and how they buy. Without a professional analytics program, you won’t truly have the information you need to adapt your marketing strategy. Sure, you can make changes to your website, run new campaigns, continue creating content, but if done blindly the success of your efforts will be limited.
In August, the RV/MH Hall of Fame will celebrate the 2025 class of inductees, five from each industry.
“Our selection committees held meetings to review...