There was plenty of discussion about financing mechanisms, a conversation that runs up to Washington D.C. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in talks with government oversight committees to provide greater access to personal property. Otherwise called “chattel loans”, this type of lending helps feed manufactured home sales.
The Congress & Expo was held at Caesar’s Palace, May 2-5.
MHVillage exhibitor booth in Vegas
MHVillage had a front and center spot in the exhibit hall, greeting longtime advertisers and partners, as well as gaining new ones.
“We get about 45 to 50 leads a month from MHVillage. We do a lot of business with MHVillage, and it helps,” said James Reitzner, who owns manufactured home communities in Wisconsin and Northern Michigan. “About 45 percent of our leads come from MHVillage.”
Many of the attendees at this year’s show were investors, who have honed in on the trend toward manufactured housing as growing stock in the affordable housing market, and as a stable and long-term solution to diversify real estate holdings.
Tyler Gordon, of West Partners, an investment group in Carlsbad, Calif., chimed in.
“There has been a lot of movement in the industry. There’s a lot of consolidation, and eager sellers. It’s a matter of finding the right property to buy, which is why many of us are here,” he said.
SECO17 will draw more than 350 small- and mid-size manufactured home community owners and other industry personnel Oct.11-12, 2017 in Marietta, Ga.
New location for SECO17:
Hilton Atlanta/Marietta Hotel and Conference Center Marietta, Georgia
This year we will meet at the idyllic, and historic, Hilton Atlanta/Marietta Hotel and Conference Center. The grand structure and idyllic location warmly welcome guests traveling for SECO17. Stay at this hotel in Marietta, Ga., and be near hiking, mountain trails and the on-site City Club Marietta Golf Course.
Other Notable Program Highlights for SECO17:
Network with Fellow Community Owners and Managers.
Hear the Good, the Bad & the Ugly from Fellow Community Owners
Explore New Ways to Run Your Community
Acquire the Knowledge to Better Your Bottom-line
Get Tips from the Experts – Steps to Becoming More Efficient
New Ways to Finance
Walk Through Affordable Community Series Manufactured Homes & Interact with Manufacturers
Share Ideas and Best Practices to Ensure Greater Success.
501(c)(3) dedicated to community education
Attendance at SECO17 will include community owners, managers, vendors and other industry personnel from more than 25 states. Additionally, we offer educational workshops, presentations and panel discussions to complement three days of networking.
Who should attend?
Anyone who owns or has an interest in the health and operation of manufactured home communities. The program focuses on tactics that can benefit professionals who own anywhere from one to 100 communities. This includes the owners and investors, but SECO17 also is beneficial for general managers and managers.
The networking opportunity with owners/operators will be beneficial for lenders, suppliers, home manufacturers and corporate property managers as well. But there is no mistake – this is a gathering directed by community owners for community owners.
Your Sales Center page on MHVillage is a place to include all relevant information about your company. This page offers details such as location, hours, contact options, and an “About Us” section.
Customers will see this page first when they search for Retailers/Dealers on our site.
With the array of professional specializations in our industry, MHVillage offers features and benefits across the board. Our services are set in such a way that you can pick and choose, mix and match, and create a truly customized advertising platform – sure to generate the best results possible.
The questions is, are you getting the most out of your professional account with us?
Our top priority is ensuring you understand the wealth of options you have at your fingertips. We’ve found that professionals who know all of the features, and apply them as needed, get the best results. Nicholas M. makes a great example;
Blue Island, IL Thank you so much, when I posted my ad on this website I got an offer an hour later and sold it the next day! I work amongst investors and I will use this site for advertisement again in the future. – Nicholas M., January 2016
Let’s Get Back to Your Sales Center Page!
It is incredibly important to keep your Sales Center page updated. In effect, this page represents your company brand, and tells potential customers about the value of your organization. For customers looking to make a purchase, your entire inventory is in one convenient spot. Your first impression may be your last, so make it a good one!
If you haven’t tried our Pro+ upgrade yet, give it a try. Customers enjoy incredibly high traffic year round, but especially so in the first couple months. This upgrade does not lock you in: you can apply and remove this enhancement at any time.
With the Pro+ upgrade your Sales Center page gains a spot for your own company website, a banner logo and a square logo with a bolder and higher appearance in Retailer/Dealer searches.
All you need to do to update or upgrade your Sales Center Page is log in to your account, and select the “Edit Sales Center” option. From there immediately edit any necessary fields. You can even upgrade to the Pro+ on this page by adding your logos, and/or website!
Stats: MonthlyPro+ accounts receive on average 4 times more page views than MonthlyPro accounts since they show higher in the search results and have bolder appearances than their counterparts. Customers also enjoy the option to visit your website and with the upgrade you get to include a link, which we track in your statistics.
As always, if you would like one of our account reps to walk you through your account and ensure you are getting the most out of your MHVillage options, please email or call us! We are happy to help!
Let us help you find ways to better advertise your home
Monitoring your leads and other vital information is the perfect way to ensure you advertise your home, company or community at the level that will provide the most exposure to our consumers.
Within your account we offer a few different ways for you to see how your ads are performing on our site.
If you are a professional, you can log into your account and from your account page, select the “Account Statistics” option for the overview of all of your stats, and then break them down by advertisement type (Listings, Sales Center, Community). Our goal is to provide maximum control over how you advertise your home.
Both professionals and individuals can see the statistics for a specific home in their account by choosing the “Edit Listing” or the “View/Change Listing” option from the account page. To the right of the home of interest, click the “Statistics” option.
When looking at the graph, it’s important to note the Viewsand the Searches.
The view count will tell you how many page views your ad received. The search count will tell you how many searches your ad appeared in. By reviewing both, you can get a feel for how effective you are in the manner you’ve chosen to advertise your home. Also look at how many consumers in your area are searching, and then how many of them chose your ad.
It’s also important to note that when we count your page views we do not count when you are looking at your ads and we also only count each customer one time per day.
Thank you for using MHVillage, if you have any additional questions please let us know!
MHVillage Offers Sales Professionals New Text Feature to Improve Lead Response Time
If you’ve been in the sales profession for any amount of time you understand the importance of lead response time. How fast you respond is a key factor in closing a deal. You want to be the first to talk with a potential customer. And you want to ensure the original response time for a query is as short as possible.
MHVfastLead™ is yet another resource available for MHVillage.com advertisers who want to improve lead response time. This generally helps a sales professional to have better communication with potential customers.
Professional account holders receive a text message when there is a new sales lead from the site. This allows industry professionals the opportunity for a more immediate response than alerts sent via email, particularly when you’re out in a community.
Enable text lead notifications at no additional charge. It’s a simple change of settings within your account dashboard. First login, then click “Update Your Account Information” on the right side of the page. Days of the week and hours of each day can be designated for receipt of text messages on sales leads from the site.
MHVillage unveiled the new service to improve lead response time, in BETA form, during the 2017 MHI Congress & Expo in Las Vegas.
The Research Says
Here are a few bits of information we considered during the development of MHVfastLead.
The odds of making a successful contact with a lead are 100 times greater when a contact attempt occurs within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes
Odds of the lead entering the sales process, or becoming qualified, are 21 times greater when contacted within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes
43 percent of sales go to the sales professional who was first to respond
The odds of a call resulting in a contact with a lead decreases by 10 times within the first hour following lead notification
MHVfastLead text notification works on Android and Apple devices.
Email lead notifications will continue uninterrupted regardless of participation in the MHVfastLead program. Leads received via text will provide the date and time of the inquiry, name of the interested person and a reminder link for home location. Often, other details on the home will be included.
So, now you can contact that hot lead, even while they’re still browsing MHVillage. Be the first to register for MHVfastLead, and be the first to land that sale!
We have been watching the consumer market trends when it comes to online shopping and there has been a huge spike in the use of mobile devices being on our site over the last few years.
The numbers above are from last year and it’s only growing higher, because let’s be honest, we all use our phones for practically everything now. If not to check our email or social media outlets, it’s to look for a good place to eat for dinner that night, or send a quick text to the friend you are meeting.
Let’s also remember that online shopping is taking over too. Buyers are not only shopping for clothing, home goods and power tools, they are shopping for their next home via their phone as well!
98% of home buyers found mobile devices to be valuable tools in the home search process.
So, how do you ensure you and your company are ready for this trend?
Make sure your website and your online content are mobile-friendly.
These days most website development companies or platforms include the mobile version, but if you are having your website designed or maintained by a professional company then you will want to check with them to insure your site looks great on mobile devices too.
MHVillage has been working on this the last few years by launching our MHVillage App for professionals (if you haven’t tried it yet, you should!) and our site now offers mobile-friendly services to home shoppers and buyers.
Also, remember that while the design of your site and its capabilities with mobile devices is important, your content is key too. Making sure your phone numbers, website and email contacts are up to date is essential. Another big one is keeping your home descriptions and photos current. Out of date information can turn off online shoppers.
Finally, If you have any questions or would like more assistance with your home, company or community listings on MHVillage, we are here to help, so don’t hesitate to give us a call!
Datacomp Releases 2017 JLT Manufactured Home Community Rent and Occupancy Reports for Florida Markets
Datacomp published its May 2017 manufactured home community rent and occupancy reports for the state of Florida.
The Florida reports now include communities 31 major markets, including new counties of Bay, Escambia and Leon. Datacomp is the nation’s #1 provider of market data for the manufactured housing industry.
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 communities located in 130 major housing markets throughout the United States, including 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 May 2017 JLT Market Reports includes many of the major markets for mobile homes in Florida. Together, these manufactured home rent and occupancy reports track 752 “All Ages” and “55+” communities. This encompasses a total of 208,881 homesites.
Details on JLT Rent and Occupancy Reports
Each JLT manufactured home community rent and occupancy report includes detailed information about investment grade communities in the major markets. Information includes homesite numbers, occupancy rates, average community rents and increases, amenities, vacant sites, and repossessed and inventory homes.
The reports also include insights that rank communities by number of homesites, occupancy rates and highest to lowest rents. Detailed reports show trends in each market with a comparison of May 2017 rents and occupancy rates to May 2016. Additionally, the reports provide an historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to present date in most markets.
The May 2017 JLT Market Reports for Florida are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Report website at http://www.datacompusa.com/JLT, 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. This enables owners and managers, lenders, appraisers, brokers and organizations to benchmark communities and make informed decisions.
About JLT Market Reports For more than 20 years, countless professionals have trusted JLT Market Reports for timely and accurate management reports on land lease manufactured home communities. JLT Market Reports published for 90 markets nationwide are the industry standard for MH industry data. In 2014, JLT & Associates merged its resources, skills and expertise with Datacomp, the industry’s oldest and largest national manufactured home appraisal company and number one provider of market data for the manufactured housing industry, and MHVillage, the premier website for advertising mobile homes for rent and sale nationwide.
OKEMOS, Mich. — Michigan ranks fifth in the nation in new home shipments for the first quarter of 2017, with 1,261 new homes shipped, an increase of nearly 80 percent from the 702 Michigan home shipments recorded in the first quarter of 2016, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI).
“Our members are seeing interest and sales of new homes like they haven’t experienced in almost a decade.” – Darren Ing, director, Michigan Manufactured Housing Association.
For comparison, in 1996, Michigan received more than 12,000 new home shipments. In 2010, 325 new homes delivered to the state.
“The Michigan market has come back tremendously over the past years and communities are playing a large role in that,” said Tim Kuhn, sales manager for Clayton Homes.
One MMHA member in particular — AJR Development — is especially pleased with the renewed interest in manufactured homes.
“In 2017, we licensed a 90-site expansion called Emerald Park in our flagship community, Ridgewood, located in Milford, Michigan. We opened in May of 2017 with more than 20 lots pre-sold. Demand remains very strong. We are seeing double digit monthly home sales in the $85,000-100,000 range.” – Jerry Ruggirello, managing member, AJR Development.
Reverberations of increased sales go beyond community expansions. For example, HomeFirst, in Birmingham, Mich., needed to hire more people. “As a result of the large increases in traffic across our entire portfolio, we added three home specialist staff to our sales offices to meet the demands of the incoming traffic,” said Danya Mallard, vice president of sales and marketing for HomeFirst.
“With the level of quality product being presented by manufacturers, we expect interest and sales to continue to grow,” Ing said.
MMHA is dedicated to educating the public about the benefits of manufactured and modular home living, connecting people interested in finding a community or home with its members. The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association is one of Michigan’s oldest trade associations. MMHA is a nonprofit association representing the manufactured home industry in Michigan. MMHA works to improve the image of manufactured and modular housing by educating consumers, media and government about the quality, affordability, design and beauty of the homes. For more information, visit the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association at www.michhome.org. Contact MMHA by mail at 2222 Association Drive, Okemos, MI 48864-5978 or by phone at (517) 349.3300.
Press Release Provided By:
All Seasons Communications
Gretchen A. Monette, gmonette@allseasonscommunications.com
Phone: (586) 752-6381
May Shipments increase 15.2 percent year-over-year
In May 2017, 7,848 new manufactured homes were shipped, an increase of 15.2 percent from May 2016, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute, the national trade organization representing the factory-built housing industry.
Shipments decreased month-to-month, down 8.9 percent from April 2017, a difference of 643 homes.
Compared with the same month last year, the trend reflected gains across the board, with shipments of single section and multi-section homes up by 15.1 percent and 15.3 percent respectively. Total floors shipped in May 2017 were 12,156, an increase of 15.5 percent compared with May 2016.
Adjusted annual shipments also up
The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of shipments was 89,412 in May 2017, up 9.4 percent from the adjusted rate of 81,767 in April 2017. The SAAR corrects for normal seasonal variations and projects annual shipments based on the current monthly total.
The number of plants reporting production in May 2017 was 129 and the number of active corporations was 35. Compared to the previous month, both the number of plants and active corporations were unchanged.
Kevin Bupp will tell you he’s in a better place today than he was just three years ago.
That’s saying something for a guy who’s spent two decades in real estate and has learned to find the right seller so he can buy and capitalize on single-family homes, commercial properties and apartment buildings.
There are worse fates.
Sales consultant Ken Corbin and community owner Brian Spear chat during opening day of the Networking Roundtable.
And, Kevin wears a big smile, readily sharing his joy about where he and his associates have landed.
“We’re still small fish in a medium sized pond, because the industry is still not as large as it could be,” said Bupp, a resident of Clearwater, Fla., and co-owner with Charles DeHart and Brian Spear of Sunrise Capital Investors. “Manufactured is all we focus on now.”
Bupp and his partners who invest in mobile home parks look to purchase and improve communities.
Some of the communities Sunrise purchases have homes that pre-date the 1976 HUD regulatory change. However, most are small- to mid-size communities with homes from the 1980s and ’90s, some newer.
Their mobile home investment targets represent a middle-market niche that larger investors and owners overlook, though less so in recent years. And a good portion of how they get there is by focusing on how to find the right seller.
Value-add Niche in Mobile Home Park Investing
“We’re really value add guys,” Bupp said. “We are really good at taking a community that is in distress, but in a good market, and taking out the bad elements, bringing in some improvements and making things work.”
It’s a niche that’s gaining stability and wider recognition all the time, largely because the ROI doesn’t lie.
“It took us a year to buy the first park, then it’s been one or two in those in between years,” Charles DeHart said. “In the last 18 months, we’ve purchased six parks.
“We have five more parks currently in contract (pending sale) that represent 430 spaces,” he said.
Sunrise has raised more than $2 million in cash during the last two years from the attraction of 10 dedicated outside investors, and they look to raise $3-5 million more to purchase another six parks – perhaps 800 land-lease spaces – during the next 12 months.
It’s not BIG business investing, but it’s been shown as a way to steadily grow wealth. And, if you ask the Sunrise and similar mobile home park investors, it’s a way to improve affordable housing stock – for the metro area and for the park residents.
“We’re in a niche that allows us to earn a very reasonable return for our investors,” DeHart said. “And also provide quality housing for people who may be coming into home ownership for the first time in their lives or even in their family’s history.”
Find the Right Seller – How it’s done
They don’t buy through a broker. Brokers typically want to work with higher volume investors, and also make sizable commissions. Rather, Bupp and DeHart delve into county records within a geographic area of interest. They find out where the communities are and who owns them. If they’re fortunate, they find a phone number for the owner.
After that, its sales 101; they make cold calls, employ heavy use of direct mail and sometimes put out bandit signs.
“We typically have five or six unique owners in the system at any given time, and check back with them three to four times per year,” DeHart said. “It’s not just finding the right seller, it’s about finding the right seller at the right time.”
Often, they’re in front of a prospective seller before the owner of a property realizes they’re in a good position to sell. So, checking back often is key to being in the right place at the right time.
Help From a ‘Trainee Broker’
They work some of the prospects themselves, but commonly put out a post to acquire a “trainee broker” who can visit communities of interest, take photos and notes, and possibly make an introduction to get talks underway. That trainee broker also learns how to access county records that are unavailable online, and does this on their own time and earns a commission when a sale is made.
In training these brokers, Sunrise is creating more than a strategy, more than a company brand. They’re helping to build an industry. Along those lines, the three operate Mobile Home Park Academy, which teaches others how to do what Sunrise does. Charles and Kevin host a podcast on the topic, and also are in the final throes of writing a book on how to invest in mobile home parks.
“At Sunrise Capital, we intend to be in the business for a long time. We really enjoy it, it’s lucrative and we appreciate being able to provide a critical affordable housing segment,” Bupp said. “We only buy stuff that makes sense. If we only buy one community in a year, that’s good with us. It will be the one we want to buy.”
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...
