You’ve heard the term “Investment Grade Property”. That label increasingly is being applied to entities in the manufactured housing sector.
In our new series on community investment in today’s market, MHVillage will shed some light on the dynamics at play in conducting due diligence on a property.
A general surge in employment, rising home prices – particularly in sizable metro areas – and the largest demographic of aging Americans are all playing into the demand for affordable housing. This has professionals involved in mobile home park investing eyeing a wide range of manufactured housing options. From massive trusts to the niche investor, mobile home parks and manufactured home communities have become the apple of the eye for many.
Manufactured housing real estate investment trusts in the U.S. during 2016 posted a return of 28.5 percent, 9.7 percent better than apartment REITs and more than 15 points better than single-family home REITs during the same period.
Big Mobile Home Park Investing Moves Toward Finding Best Deals Before Market Levels
From Bellingham, Wash. to Newnan, Ga., Jon Harrison scans the map for just the right patch of land. He talks to brokers, owners and investors, scours county records and relies on whatever information he can gain from inside sources.
All in the name of finding the prime manufactured home community.
Harrison isn’t looking for his retirement place. He’s not looking for the simple yet ideal coastal getaway for the family. He works for Inspire Communities, not the largest of the community owners, but certainly entrenched in the top quarter of the industry.
A former broker himself, Harrison is in acquisitions, and always is looking for the perfect mix of placement and amenities that can be a great home for 200 hundred residents or more – and no less important, a stellar portfolio addition for the company owners and investors.
Start your summer sales strong by advertising your Open Houses on MHVillage.
Are you or your community having an Open House? Open Houses can bring a lot of potential buyers through your door, but they do require a fair amount of work. Make sure you are getting the most foot traffic possible by adverting your event on MHVillage.
Here’s how it works:
You can add an Open House to any of your MHVillage listings for just $2.95 per day.
We’ll display a bright red banner showing the dates of your event. When buyers click on your listing, we show the times, dates and an additional section for your specific details about the event.
Plus, we move your listing to the top of the page in that area and send an email to buyers who have been watching your listing to let them know about your event.
To add an Open House to your home listing:
Log into your MHVillage account and go to View/Change/Remove Listings section. Click “Add Open House” on any home. You can select the days and times of the event, and when you would like to start advertising it. Your home will appear at the very top of all searches in your home’s area until your open house is finished. Once the event is finished, there is nothing to do. The extra advertising falls off automatically.
If you have questions, please contact our customer service team. We are happy to help!
We all know the age-old saying “Location. Location. Location.” Are you promoting all the location benefits of your Homes or Community in your ads?
Know Your Location Benefits
For instance, if your community is in a great school system, that can appeal to families. If your community or home is located near a popular urban city or a shopping center, or even popular restaurants and bars, those can be valuable features to a home buyer who wants to be social and on the scene. Access to bus lines can also be important.
And don’t forget about those retirees looking for a nice quiet place to call home!
If your community or home has access to a beautiful body of water, or is a short distance from a relaxing park or hiking trail, you’ll want to be sure and include that information too. Even if you aren’t an “age qualified” community – you just might have the perfect home for a home buyer looking to retire. All of these details give the buyer a better idea of what their day to day would look like, which might be the little extra nudge they need to give you a call!
How to Advertise Your Location Benefits
MHVillage has Description sections for both home listings and communities. (Sales centers too, but that’s for another article all together!) This is the perfect place to tell people the wonderful features of your area. There is no word limit and home buyers on the site really do read them. The more information you provide, the easier it is for a buyer to sell themselves right from your online ad!
As always we are here to help, so if you would like to have one of our account reps review your home or community ads for you, just give us a call or email and we can set up a time to go through it all!
Make Your Sales Caption as Effective as it Could Be
MHVillage offers a space for a “Sales Caption” on Pro+ Sales Centers, Showcased Communities, Featured Home Listings and Premium Home Listings.
Each one of the above listing types will allow you to enter a sentence that will show above your listing. This is a space for you to offer something that is eye-catching, inviting and will get the customer to click on your add from the search result.
Often, I come across some Showcase Communities or Pro+ Sales Centers in an area that simply are not entering a Sales Caption at all. These are missed sales opportunities.
Actual Premium Listings that are Missing Sales Captions on MHVillage:
Then there are the Featured and Premium Listings sellers who enter a caption, but it’s not as effective as it could be. While “Best Value”, “Great Community” or “Beautiful New Home” as a sales caption sounds okay, it’s not really all that inviting or unique. Plus, you would be surprised how many times I have looked at a search result on our site and seen basically the same simple caption on all of the listings in an area.
Also: If you have one of the more expensive homes in the area, a sales caption can help you explain why. There should be a good reason if your home is priced significantly higher than others in the area. However, browsers might skip the most expensive home – unless there is a caption line to explain why the home costs more, whether it’s on land, is newly renovated, fully furnished or the like.
So how do you ensure you are getting the most out of your caption?
Here are a few tips:
Research: You want your listings to stand out above the rest in your area. Do a few searches on MHVillage in your area. Make sure you are using different language than another seller.
Unique Details: Try to find something unique about your ad that you can highlight in the caption. Here are some examples for…
a home – “Fully furnished, renovated home, with open floor plan” or something similar
the community – “Retirement Community with brand new waterfront homes available”
your Company – “Family owned company, with previously owned homes and new homes in stock!”
Current and Updated: One of the benefits of online advertising is you can update your information at any time. So, be certain to keep the information updated and current. If you have a sale or an incentive highlighted within the sales caption on a listing, make the change when the promotion ends.
This feature really can make the difference for your traffic on our site. It can be the detail that turns a shopper into a buyer!
And, if you you would like assistance updating your sales captions, please feel free to contact our customer service.
Aspen Skiing Company Enters Contract for Employee Tiny Housing
Sprout Tiny Homes has entered a new contract with Aspen Skiing Company to build commercial-grade tiny homes. The contract is in effort to meet expanding need for affordable employee housing.
There now will be more than 40 tiny homes for employee housing deployed in ASC’s Basalt, Colo., location. Furthermore, the deal may send a message to the manufactured housing industry that new, niche markets are emerging.
The new homes will feature state of the art construction methods and climate control technology to meet the extreme weather conditions of the Aspen valley. Furthermore, Sprout homes feature chemical-free interiors. Energy recovery ventilation provides fresh air and a healthy living environment for residents.
Second Wave of Employee Housing
Aspen Skiing Company previously contracted and collaborated with Sprout to design and provide six prototype homes to ensure it could meet the needs and requirements of employees and the region in which they work.
The new models will house a minimum of three Aspen Skiing Company employees.
Homes have living room furniture, a pair of furnished sleeping lofts and a complete main level bedroom. Also included are window coverings, flat screen smart TV, full kitchen and 1¼ baths. In addition, the workforce housing has fixed storage lockers and floors have infrared radiant heat. Finally, the homes have temperature control and fresh air systems.
Also, the homes are move-in ready and connected to local utilities.
“We delivered on our first contact with Aspen Skiing Company and are very pleased to be awarded what we believe is the largest single contract of tiny homes to date in the country,” Rod Stambaugh, owner of Sprout Tiny Homes, said of the project in July 2017.
Consequently, Sprout, of La Junta, Colo., opened a 45,000-square foot facility in Pueblo, Colo., to meet the local demand.
“Having local affordable employee housing solutions in the valley is extremely important as we compete for employees and try to reduce our impact on the environment,” Philip Jeffreys, Director of Planning & Development for Aspen Skiing Company, said.
Update on Aspen Workforce Tiny Housing: Project Wins Award
Sprout’s workforce housing project with Aspen Ski Company has earned a prestigious honor from the Urban Land Institute at its fall meeting in Boston, Mass.
The Kemp Award jury recognized the Aspen Skiing Company’s innovative workforce housing project in Aspen with the Chairman’s Award, a special recognition bestowed this year for a creative project designed specifically to address the critical shortage of affordable housing for resort workers in Aspen, Colo.
Sprout designed, manufactured and delivered 40 high quality tiny homes with innovative floor plans and HVAC systems to Aspen Ski Company that house nearly 120 employees.
“Sprout is very honored and pleased that SkiCo was acknowledged with this prestigious ULI Kemp award as it clearly brings light to the kind of high-quality innovation we are delivering for our commercial clients,” Stambaugh said. “The evolution of housing is escalating at a rapid pace and we have a clear vision of the kind of design, technology and desire for zero energy ready homes that will completely change the approach builders must take to compete in an evolving market.”
Stambaugh pointed to some of the aspects of smaller, high-efficiency housing that makes it worthy of note:
Smaller footprints
High-quality construction
Chemical free interiors
Innovative floor plans
State of the art HVAC/air quality systems
Smart home automation delivered at an affordable price
Add to that, the added benefit of certified Zero Energy Ready status
“This is the future of housing and we are delivering it today,” Stambaugh said.
Finally, the receipt of a third order of our homes further validates the success of the partnership. With that, the new home orders to those in place at housing SkiCo employees.
MHVillage would like to send a huge congratulations to all the 2017 MHI Awards winners! We were honored to be a sponsor of the Congress and Expo for Manufactured and Modular Housing, and were in attendance when these awards were presented.
Here are a few of the winners:
MHI Awards – National
Manufacturer of the Year: Three Plants or More: Clayton Home Building Group, Maryville, TN
Manufacturer of the Year: Two Plants or Less: Adventure Homes LLC, Garrett, IN
National Lender of the Year: 21st Mortgage Corporation, Knoxville, TN
Regional Lender of the Year: Cascade Financial Services, LLC, Gilbert, AZ
Floor Plan Lender of the Year: 21st Mortgage Corporation, Knoxville, TN
Manufactured Home Community Operator of the Year: YES! Communities, Denver, CO
Manufactured Home Community Lender of the Year: Wells Fargo Bank, Carlsbad, CA
Manufactured Home Community Broker of the Year: ARA Newmark MHC Group, Denver, CO
Supplier of the Year: Style Crest, Inc., Fremont, OH
MHI Awards – Land-Lease Community of the Year
Northeast/Mid-Atlantic: Port Royal Village, Belle Vernon, PA
South: Eagle Creek, Tyler, TX
Midwest: Millstone Pond, Lenox, MI
West: Kloshe Illahee, Federal Way, WA
MHI Awards – Manufactured Home Design
New Single-Section Manufactured Home Design: Astro Single Section 1A135A by Commodore Homes of Pennsylvania
New Single-Section Manufactured Home Design: Balboa Island Series Cedar Ridge by Clayton Sacramento
New Manufactured Home Design (Small Home) 320-600 Square Feet: The Vista by Champion Home Builders, Inc.
New Manufactured Home Design: 1800 Square Feet or Less: Kingsbrook Contempo Series Model KB-66 by Champion Home Builders, Inc.
New Manufactured Home Design: Over 1800 Square Feet: Diamond Springs by Clayton Sacramento
Champion Home Builders, Inc. to open new Kentucky Production Facility
TROY, Mich., May 4, 2016 –Champion Home Builders, Inc., a leader in the manufactured housing industry and one of the largest modular homebuilders in North America, is expanding its production capabilities with a new facility opening late summer in Benton, Kentucky.
The move allows Champion to:
Better serve customers with a wider variety of cost-effective homes.
Increase capacity to meet growing demand.
Provide product to customers that the company currently does not reach.
Offer greater convenience to customers.
Extend available designs and price points to both manufactured housing communities and private property owners in Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.
“Our new Benton facility isn’t powered simply by Champion’s continued growth and expansion plans,” said Champion CEO Keith Anderson. “It also feeds off of the increasing success our customers are having with the Dresden, Tennessee, product.”
Operating Efficiency for Champion Home Builders
Just as Champion’s manufacturing process streamlines homebuilding, the Benton facility will help the 63-year-old company realize greater efficacy in their sales model.
The plant in Benton will focus solely on manufacturing, whereas the company’s Dresden site includes production facilities and business responsibilities. Those programs include sales, service and accounting, as well as comprehensive employee training.
“Though the distance between the two cities is just a little over 50 miles, they’ll be as inextricably linked as next-door neighbors,” said Champion Sales Manager Tandy Roberson. “It’s all about efficiency, which we’d like to think is a Champion hallmark.”
Champion Home Builders Positioned for Skilled Workforce
Another hallmark for the homebuilding company is a skilled workforce. Many companies today face talent shortfalls. Yet, Champion feels it can buck that trend in Benton. The company anticipates many strong candidates for the 150 jobs its facility will inject into the local economy.
“Our Tennessee location has shown us what we can expect from workers in the region. Skill, dedication and an uncompromising work ethic,” said Champion General Manager Thomas Stoneburner. “Those men and women will help us deliver wonderfully designed, value-engineered homes that are as attractive as they are livable.”
Along with the deserved thank you to the people of both Benton and Dresden, Anderson cited another group as making Champion’s expansion possible.
“We owe a great deal to our customers for their continued support,” he said. “Thanks to our sales growth — spurred in no small part by our success in Tennessee — we’re building a great future for our company, employees and all those who can proudly say their home is a Champion.”
About Champion Home Builders
Founded in 1953, Champion specializes in a wide variety of manufactured, modular and park model homes, as well as modular buildings for the multi-family, hospitality, senior and workforce housing sectors. Champion started as a single manufacturing facility in rural Michigan and grew to offer factory-built housing and other structures throughout the U.S., United Kingdom and western Canada. The company operates 28 manufacturing facilities throughout North America and Europe, and employs more than 4,200 people worldwide.
Time to Put it in Your Calendar for The Louisville Show
“The Louisville Show will treat you to a spectacular array of NEW HOMES, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES. Whatever your inventory requires, you’re likely to find the most exciting single-section and system-built homes. It will be a feast for the eyes for all of you, with endless possibilities and combinations. It’s also an excellent opportunity to cut great deals; be the first to see new product/home introductions; talk with R&D and marketing execs; compare prices, service and follow-through…and network with industry professionals.”
The Louisville Manufactured Housing Show is the Midwest’s Premier Event for Manufactured Housing Professionals. Make sure you save the dates for this fantastic event!
January 17-18, 2018
Kentucky Exposition Center
Louisville, Kentucky
Get more information and sign up to get email updates about the Louisville Show 2018 at the website: thelouisvilleshow.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is an industry trade show. Not a public show. The public will NOT be admitted to the show.
Log into your MHVillage account and go to View/Change/Remove Listings section. Click “Add Open House” on any home. You can select the days and times of the event, and when you would like to start advertising it. Your home will appear at the very top of all searches in your home’s area until your open house is finished. Once the event is finished, there is nothing to do. The extra advertising falls off automatically.
location benefits of your Homes or Community in your ads?
