A view from 360 Chicago atop the John Hancock Building.
The National Communities Council, a program of the Manufactured Housing Institute, reconvenes for the Fall Leadership Forum Nov. 1 – 3 at the Westin in downtown Chicago.
NCC offers strategic content to explore new ideas, examine trends and offer unique networking opportunities. The Fall Leadership Forum is organized for executive-level professionals in the manufactured housing industry.
Check-in and networking for NCC in Chicago begins Nov. 1 at 4 p.m. The following two days are programmed with not-to-be-missed speakers and seminars beginning 9 a.m. Nov. 2 and continuing through the afternoon of Nov. 3.
The deep and strategic seminar schedule includes…
Sneak Peek at NCC in Chicago
Wednesday Nov. 2
9:15 – 10:15 a.m.
“The State of the U.S. Economy & the Role of Housing”, with in-depth analysis and discussion from Keynote Speaker Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel Inc., who was named “Best Online Real Estate Expert” by Money Magazine.
1:15 – 2:15 p.m. David Funk, director and senior lecturer in the Baker Program in Real Estate at Cornell University, will provide “An Economist’s View on Chattel Lending Trends”.
3:30– 4:30 p.m.
“Creating and Maintaining a Positive Brand in a Digital World” looks at how digital business profiles mean the difference between success and failure. Beth Monicatti-Blank, president of All Seasons Communications, highlights effective ways to respond to both positive and negative reviews while maintaining and growing a positive online business profile.
Thursday, Nov. 3
9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
“The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership” is the creation of author and speaker Mike Figliuolo, who will describe how to articulate your leadership philosophy in the form of personal leadership maxims that work as an everyday reminder on your personalized leadership approach.
Legislation Aims to Preserve Access to Manufactured Housing
The House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 1699, the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act, by a bipartisan vote of 42 to 18. H.R. 1699 addresses federal regulations implementing the Dodd-Frank Act that fail to recognize the unique nature of the manufactured home financing and sales process. This legislation ensures manufactured housing financing remains available and affordable, without eroding important federal consumer protections established by the Dodd-Frank Act.
H.R. 1699, the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act, is bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives Andy Barr (R-KY), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Bruce Poliquin (R-ME), Terri Sewell (D-AL), David Kustoff (R-TN), and Kathleen Rice (D-NY). Companion legislation S. 1751 was introduced in the U.S. Senate Aug. 3, 2017 by Senators Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Gary Peters (D-MI).
During the Committee’s consideration of the legislation, Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), H.R. 1699 sponsor Representative Andy Barr (R-KY), and original cosponsors Representatives David Kustoff (R-TN) and Bruce Poliquin (R-ME), delivered strong remarks about the federal regulations that have impeded consumers – particularly those living in rural areas – from obtaining financing for manufactured homes and urged their colleagues to support this important bill.
Testimony on Access to Manufactured Housing
Rep. Barr emphasized the importance of manufactured housing as an affordable housing option.
“If this legislation was to pass, we will no longer face a situation where the federal government is protecting people right out of their home. Instead, more Americans will have access to affordable manufactured housing again. And, I believe greater access to affordable housing should and can earn the support of both Democrats and Republicans. Affordable housing in rural America is not a Democrat or Republican issue – that is an issue of the American Dream.”
Of the 60 members on the Committee, only two members spoke out against the bill.
Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), whose districts include 1.7% and .5% of manufactured homes respectively, expressed concerns that the bill will remove consumer protections.
Additional champions of H.R. 1699 speaking in support of the bill rebutted these concerns: Representatives Keith Rothfus (R-PA), Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN), French Hill (R-AR), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Robert Pittenger (R-NC), and Steve Stivers (R-OH). H.R. 1699 currently has 58 bipartisan cosponsors.
MHI’s Role in providing Access
H.R. 1699, the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act, seeks to modify the definition of “high-cost” loans so that manufactured home loans are not unfairly swept under this designation simply due to their small size. It also amends the SAFE Act and the Truth in Lending Act to exclude manufactured housing retailers and sellers from the definition of a loan originator so long as they are only receiving compensation for the sale of the home and not engaged in financing the loans.
The Manufactured Housing Institute’s efforts to aid in passing the Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act are multi-pronged.
MHI seeks opportunities to move the legislation through the regular legislative process and also to attach the language to other legislative vehicles. MHI has succeeded in having the House of Representatives vote in favor of this language numerous times with bipartisan support.
The number of successful votes in Congress on this provision, and the inclusion of similar language in the House Financial Services Committee Chairman’s Dodd-Frank reform package (H.R. 10) and the Fiscal Year 2018 Appropriations package, are the result of MHI’s persistent efforts.
Please contact MHI’s Government Affairs Department or MHIgov(at)mfghome.org with any questions or concerns.
Jefferson Lilly presents on manufactured home community management during the 2017 event in Marietta.
Park Street Partners’ MH Pro Jefferson Lilly Counsels Community Owners to Stay Ahead of the Curve with MHP 2.0 Talk
The manufactured housing market abounds with seminars, tutorials, books and boot camps on how to acquire properties. Community owner Jefferson Lilly offered SECO17 attendees an overview of the next steps with MHP 2.0.
“Many of us have attended or been through a self-taught boot camp,” Lilly, of Park Street Partners, said. “We’ve bought a park or two, and we’ve read books that tell us why this is a good business.
“I don’t know anyone who’s really teaching how to grow an organization for this business,” he said.
Lilly started in the manufactured housing community business in November 2005, and founded Park Street Partners with Brad Johnson in 2014. He told the SECO audience that business has been good, but 2017 has proven to be the year of organizational growth.
Park Street Partners has more than a dozen properties and 2,000 home sites, including a pair of new communities in Kansas that recently closed.
“I found myself really buried in paperwork,” Lilly said. “We were fundraising, handling asset management, answering calls from managers and some tenants.”
The People for Mobile Home Park 2.0
“We didn’t start hiring people until this year, and frankly, we should have done it earlier,” Lilly said. “I urge everyone to hire ahead of the curve.”
Jefferson Lilly shows the MHP 2.0 hiring strategy he would follow if he a do-over.
This year, Park Street Partners has hired a chief financial officer, an asset management professional, an accounts payable clerk, an acquisitions associate and currently is hiring an inside sales manager.
The CFO is a $100,000 per year salaried position, and so are the asset and acquisitions managers, the latter two positions based on varying degrees of performance-based income.
“Our asset manager has deep experience managing managers, and deciding how much we’re going to be investing back into the parks. As we get ramp up buying houses, she’s going to do some of that too,” Lilly said. “The acquisitions associate is any Ivy League graduate who came to us from the military and having served overseas.
“He’s responsible for outreach to brokers and mobile home park owners,” Lilly added. “That’s also a six-figure compensation position, but more of a 30-percent base and 70-percent variable on performance. I think he’ll make more than I do this year, hopefully.”
The inside sales manager position pays in the $30,000-plus range and will round out Park Street Partner’s hiring for the short term.
“Dawn from MHVillage has talked about how important it is to return a call in five minutes or less, and I can say we have not done that,” Lilly said in regard to the inside sales person’s responsibilities. “What we’d like to do is answer the call on the first or second ring.”
Project Management for MHP 2.0
Owners and Investors listen in on community ownership strategies at SECO17.
Lilly warns that a cell phone is not a system, and neither is an email account. As a business grows, these common components become unwieldy and “can be a disaster”, he said.
Park Street Partners works in cloud-based Asana, a widely used project management platform.
“Every park is a project with tasks associated,” Lilly said. “We have a Monday call and we talk about all of these assigned tasks and where we are with them, and what needs to be done for the most direct path to profitability.”
The group also uses Slack for communication Q&A and knowledge sharing across their properties.
MHP 2.0 Accounting
Rent Manager is a solution for a wide variety of accounting tasks, more than many owners may realize.
“How many vacant pads do we have, who’s paid what, are the late fees in? This is not just for rent accounting, it’s for everything including paying the plumber,” Lilly said. “Everything but our appreciation tables are in Rent Manager.”
A check scanner function allows Park Street Partners to deposit, report and track rent checks, and updates associated accounts.
“I also understand utility readings can be brought in, and that’s the goal and where we’re going,” Lilly said.
Property Management for MHP 2.0
Each park has a Dropbox account and invitation for managers who need access, uploading leasing agreements and sharing photos and videos.
“We can see pretty accurately the condition of our parks without having to get on a plane,” Lilly said. “You can see what the park looked like a year ago and what it looks like now, and hopefully you’re making progress.”
Lilly said the platforms they use are cloud-based, typically are free or very low cost. They built a website with Square Space for $100, use Grasshopper for a centralized phone network, and are getting property details loaded to Google, Bing and MHVillage.
Park Street Partners also has a BYOD policy – Bring your own device. They do not have an IT department.
“The vision is that we build Park Street Partners to be a very responsive organization. Part of that is the organization remains flat. We don’t want to have too many meetings. We’re driven by results,” he said. “It is so important that you have the data to measure results. You need to be able to see what the occupancy rate is and know that it’s right.”
Nicely Made Media Produces High Flying Drone Footage for Manufactured Home Communities, Events & Products
Carson Nicely founded Nicely Made Media as a photography agency in Los Angeles in 2011. It was no time at all before he was off, and flying, with state-of-the-art drone footage.
Drones and drone-created media material is big business today, and Nicely has shot and produced marketing materials with a drone more than 1,000 times. His customers include Habitat for Humanity, Next Step Homes, more than 50 manufactured home communities nationwide, Havaianas footwear, Leap Foundation and Beauty Blender.
“It’s like playing a video game. They’re a lot of fun,” Nicely said. “That’s the way I sell it. I ask a potential customer to watch a video, and they will sit and view the entire thing. Then I can say, ‘Imagine if you had that on your home page’.”
Still shot of drone footage from SECO17
Drone Footage is a Storytelling Medium
But drone video involves more than a fly-over or two.
“I like to help tell a little story,” he said. “We’ve come a long way since we started. We work with a lot of event planners who would like to have footage of the event while it’s going on.”
Carson Nicely and his drone
Nicely’s drones operated by remote control send a signal back to a tablet that enables live streaming footage and still photography. The 4k camera captures 30 frames per second. It can fly as much as two miles from the origination point, and stays in the air for 30 minutes on a single charge.
This week Nicely is working on documenting SECO17, a gathering of manufactured housing community owners in Marietta, Ga. He has a history in the industry. Nicely’s father Chris Nicely worked for many years with Clayton Homes and presently is CEO of Next Step Homes.
Clients can schedule a shoot as much as six months in advance. Nicely can work nationwide, and prefers two weeks of lead time for a project.
“We’ll get you a finished product within three business days. It’s something that’s quick, but it’s still high quality,” he said. “We can provide raw files in a day.”
In addition to photo or video, Nicely can modify the file to add information. For instance, on a home flyover, he can have price points, makes and models, or square footage cues pop up from individual homes as a video progresses.
Rent, Sell and ‘Seller Finance’ Your Way to 100 Percent Occupancy
Manufactured housing community owners at SECO17 on opening morning provided quick tips for community owners who want to fill vacant sites.
Moderated by community owners and industry leader George Allen, the panel included community owner and operators Maryuri Barbean, David Roden, Joe Lahore, Michael Power and Chuck Meek.
Speaking to a full room of seasoned, new and prospective owners, Michael Power quickly advised to focus on the property itself as a first step, rather than putting too much early emphasis on buying new homes.
“It is profitable to be a good steward of your property,” Power said. “You first have to take
an inventory of things you need to do on your property, whether you need to pave road or whatever else.
“If you really want to sell new or used homes, you have to create 100 percent compliance,” he said. “We clean up the community and enforce the rules.”
Creating the standard for a clean, safe place for residents will generate more lease agreements and homes sales in the long run than putting in two new model homes. However, a pair of new models will serve a purpose once a community is stabilized.
SECO17 attendees gather for a panel on how to fill vacant sites
On the topic of community feel, and safety, David Roden, president of Mountain View Estates and co-founder for SECO put an emphasis on quality lighting.
“Our community is lit up like a Christmas tree,” he said. “A lot of people who are looking for a place to live drive through at night, and this makes a big difference.”
Home Types to Fill Vacant Sites
A question from the seminar audience of 200-plus people asked about the preference toward smaller or larger homes.
“Our residents like doublewides, and that’s most of what we’re doing. When they walk in, they feel like it’s a conventional house,” said Maryuri Barbean, of Pentagon Properties. “That’s what we’re hearing most often. If we set up a single- and double-wide, we are selling the double-wide first.”
However, other community owners at SECO said the size of the home depends largely on community design, keeping consistent with the nature of existing homes.
“We have a limited amount of space, and really are only interested in single-wides,” Meek, of Calhoun Homes, said.
Power pointed out that there are gray areas to consider, with the availability of larger single-wides that fit both bills. “Look in your local market and see what’s available,” he said.
The Southeast Community Owners Symposium assists community owners in making business decisions in a non-competitive environment. This year’s event is held Oct. 11-12 in Marietta, Ga.
Also, Barbean noted the importance for owners and community managers to reach out to the wider community. It helps to build relationships with the schools, churches, local business and law enforcement, for instance. It does help to fill vacant sites, but does so much more.
“We had a church come in an provide 100 kids in the community with Christmas gifts,” Barbean said. “It was amazing, and so important.”
How to Screen Prospective Tenants
Community owners agreed that a prospect should have no criminal record, no evictions and no large or aggressive pets. Also, the prospect should monthly income that equals or exceeds three times the amount of monthly payments.
“Get a good application, but it’s just as important to meet and talk with the prospect. Shake hands, walk them to their car and thank them for coming in. After a while in the business, your gut instinct will not fail you,” Roden said.
The MHVillage/Datacomp team is involved in various aspects of SECO17, including sponsorship, seminar presentation, and vending. The MHInsider blog for Professionals will continue through the next two days to report items of interest from SECO17.
Featuring Six fully decorated and furnished manufactured homes displayed by the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association.
VIP Event Details
Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017
Suburban Collection Showplace
46100 Grand River, Novi, Michigan | Hall A, Exhibit Center
3-5 p.m. Homes open for tours and viewing
5-7 p.m. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres
This event will be held the day before the show opens to the general public (Friday 10/13 at 2 p.m.). It’s a great opportunity for the professional community to have an exclusive tour of the newest designs in manufactured housing!
Some of the represented home manufacturers include:
Champion, Skyline, Adventure, MHE and Clayton.
Please RSVP for this event to:
Meagan Mosher – 517-999-6878 or mmosher@mmhrvca.org
The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association (MMHA) is a nonprofit trade association representing the manufactured and modular housing industry in Michigan. MMHA works to improve the image of manufactured housing by educating consumers, media and government about the quality, affordability, design and beauty of the homes. It also works to protect the interests of the industry and the owners of manufactured homes.
The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association (MMHA) assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in this content. The information contained herein is provided on an “as is” basis. The manufactured housing manufacturers may make improvements and/or changes in products and services at anytime without notice.
Are you getting the most out of your Community ad?
MHVillage offers advertisement for Communities free of charge. This is the “Basic Community” option that allows you to get a listing that includes two photos of the community. However, if you are interested in additional photos, features and contact options for your ad, try Showcasing your community on MHVillage.
Here are the benefits of Showcasing your community on MHVillage:
Bolder Appearance
The Showcase upgrade will give your community ad a bigger and bolder appearance and will place it on the first page within our search results. On this page there will also be a space for an eye-catching sales caption.
Unlimited Photos
Photos are an incredibly useful advertising tool especially when it comes to shoppers looking for their next home. We found, statistically, the listings on MHVillage with 30 or morephotos are the highest clicked ads. The Showcase upgrade allows you to upload an unlimited number of photos, each with a spot for a photo caption.
Details, Features & Description
This Showcase includes a space for your features and a full description without a word limit. This a great spot for you to be able to walk your customers through all of the benefits your community has to offer, all in your own words.
Company Logo & Website
The Showcase upgrade includes a space above the listing to upload your community logo. This space is 690 x 125 pixels displaying at the top of the community page. Additionally, Showcased communities have a spot for a link to your website should you want to direct your customers to a space with additional company information.
Vacant Sites
When home buyers search for vacant sites on MHVillage, we show them the communities in their area that have included a vacant site count. With the Showcase feature you can not only highlight your vacant sites via selecting the option you also can describe the sites available within the above-mentioned description.
Additional Contact Options
The Basic community will include a space for your email contact, while the Showcase community allows multiple email addresses, and multiple phone numbers.
What does Showcasing a community cost?
The Showcase upgrade is currently $34.95 per month. This upgrade can be applied and removed at any time. We have found the flexibility of this feature to be great for multiple types of communities.
2017 WMA Convention and Expo
Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno, Nev.
Oct. 16-19, 2017
It’s a great time of year for industry professionals! We’ve been hitting the road, meeting you at industry events. We’ve been to the George Allen’s Roundtable, MHI’s Annual Awards, FMHA Association meeting in Orlando, and, of course, we’re headed to SECO in Marietta, Ga.
We like nothing better than meeting you face-to-face and getting the opportunity to shake your hand. That said, MHVillage is excited to exhibit again at the WMA Convention and Expo.
Actually, we’ve attended the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association’s Annual Convention and Expo for years, and this has always been a fantastic event. This event is a “can’t miss” for MH professionals who do business in the Western states!
Manufactured Housing, The Biggest Little Industry in the World
Owners rely on managers to find opportunities to ensure the successful operation of their communities. Here, you will find everything for you, on a professional level. We’ll blend educational programs with entertainment and networking forums so that you’ll have all you need to succeed in this business. We will feature seminars with industry experts focused on shaping our future and our communities; sessions covering practical business issues; opportunities to network with other industry leaders, and a dynamic Expo to make your attendance worthwhile!
Of course, the convention offers a number of great seminars for community owners. It will include material on legal and management advice, park improvement strategies, and even a presentation on “What To Do in a National Disaster”.
But, the WMA Convention isn’t all work!
The WMA Convention also has a number of fun networking opportunities. There is a Golf Tournament, a Dinner Dance, and a wine-tasting reception.
So, if you would like more information on this event and details on how to register, go to www.wma.org. In addition, if you are attending, please be sure to stop by the MHVillage booth and say hello!
Nonprofit Leverages Connections to MH Leadership for Relief and Support of People Living in Poverty in Haiti and Abroad
As owners of thirteen manufactured housing communities across Illinois, Iowa and Tennessee, Katie and Ken Hauck have seen affordable housing change lives — not only for their residents, but for the people their nonprofit has helped across the world.
“We’ve been very blessed in our company,” Katie said, “And we believe in helping others become successful.”
Katie Hauck and Haitian children say ‘cheese’.
About 132 million children around the world are orphans, 61 million have no access to school, 17,000 per day die from preventable diseases, according to UNICEF. With statistics like these, it’s easy to become overwhelmed.
“It’s easy to wake up every day and forget about all of these people, these real people, living in poverty,” Katie said. “But when you talk to them one-on-one, it’s different.”
Katie described meeting an orphaned 7 year old who said she had lost all hope for the future. Later, she was able to attend boarding school, thanks to MHGives.
This hits home for the Haucks, parents to nine children, three of them age seven. “Kids shouldn’t feel hopeless,” said Katie. “They should be wondering what dress they’re going to wear or who they’re going to play football with later today.”
Education, Job Training, Housing, Shoes, Backpacks & Smiles from MHGives
Two and a half years ago, this belief led them to seek sustainable solutions for people living in poverty, and MHGives was born. Built on the intersection of housing, business and family, MHGives hopes to eliminate situations that cause people to need charity in the first place.
During the past two years, MHGives has partnered with Lifesong for Orphans to a build an orphanage in Haiti. This past year, they opened a boarding school. To do so, the Haucks combine the brainpower of their supporters — many from the MH industry.
The Haucks believe change begins when people living in poverty can access housing and the skills needed for employment. Often, families have no job prospects, forcing them to drop kids off at orphanages.
Many nonprofits sponsor a child, but MHGives and Lifesong provide sponsorships for the head of a household, often a father. Doing so provides him with a job and trade. This enables him to fill the gaps and give his children a home and education with his own money.
Katie describes MHGives as a “charity from” instead of a “charity for” the MH business.
“We want to make sure we are doing something that doesn’t benefit us in return,” she explained. “We aren’t trying to sell our homes and communities.”
What a Supporter Says about MHGives
On a bus ride to a Haitian village, Ken and Katie Hauck sit front right.
Chris San Jose, a supporter of MHGives who works on the finance side of the MH business, recently went on a weekend “vision trip” to Haiti to check out the program’s progress.
Americans often are eager to serve by going on trips, spending thousands on travel in order to build a school or orphanage themselves. However, the Haucks make it a priority to employ locals in their building projects.
Supporters instead have the chance to travel on weekend trips to see, touch and hear what their money has done. They often then take what they’ve learned and return to the U.S. with problems to solve and ideas for how to do so.
San Jose described visiting a village of houses and meeting the people residing there.
Before MHGives, they had squatted on the land, without proper housing. For him, the trip was a huge reminder of how people need affordable housing around the world.
“We’re blessed in our country that affordable housing is still in nice, comfortable homes,” he said. “We forget that in some places, if people aren’t building concrete homes for them, they’re making them out of tin and sheets and trash bags, and sleeping on the floor.”
He was encouraged to know how efficiently the Haucks allocate funds for the cause. “They don’t just throw money at these problems, but are searching for sustainable solutions,” he said.
Training & Skills for Success
A few members of this Haitian village have learned trades and begun micro-businesses, such as raising goats and growing plantains. The community isn’t quite self-sustaining yet, according to Katie, and MHGives likely will spend another year in service there. But the project is well on its way.
San Jose was impressed with the collaboration among the people on his trip. He brought economic knowledge, the former CEO of Butterball brought food preparation expertise and an executive at Verizon brought ideas for helping the village and its people establish better communication.
The nonprofit’s partnership with Lifesong, which has its a 501(c)3 status, has enabled MHGives to donate 100 percent of their proceeds directly to programs, instead of to covering salaries and other administrative costs.
MHGives Provides for Hondurans Living in Poverty
In 2015, the organization’s first year, they raised funds to build four homes for widows and children in Honduras.
When they began MHGives, Katie was encouraged by the willingness of those in the industry to help.
“A lot of people were so excited and jumped on board right away,” she said.
Ever since, they’ve presented at nearly every national manufactured housing show.
Katie’s husband Ken has been in the business for 26 years, and both believe in having close relationships with other leaders in the industry.
At their business, Hauck Homes, Ken and Katie involve residents in the nonprofit efforts. A percentage of a home sale provides for a second home for someone living in poverty in another country. The Haucks readily suggest that other community owners get involved in this way, as well, by donating on behalf of their residents.
“It helps your customers feel involved and helps the company get involved,” Katie said.
In the coming years, once MHGives feels the Haitian village is self-sustaining, the organization likely will support another Lifesong project, perhaps in Zambia or the Ukraine.
Five Annual Manufactured Housing Institute Awards Bestowed on Members Who Have Performed as Industry Leaders
ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 27, 2017 — The Manufactured Housing Institute honored five individuals for their outstanding achievements, dedication and service to the industry. MHI announced the honors during its Sept. 18 Annual Meeting in Orlando.
MHI Chairman’s Award
Don Westphal, Principal of Don Westphal Associates — In over fifty years of work designing manufactured home communities, RV resorts, and subdivisions, he has participated in the planning of more than 400,000 individual lots in nearly 500 communities. A testament to his work, seven communities that he planned have been recognized with Land-Lease Community of the Year Awards at the MHI National Manufactured Housing Congress & Expo. In 2006, he was inducted into the Manufacturing Housing and Recreational Vehicle Hall of Fame.
Westphal created the MHI Developer Seminars which resulted in many new developments utilizing HUD-Code and modular homes and would not have been possible without his initiative and participation. He also has co-authored two books for MHI that are sold through MHI’s online bookstore – Navigating the Manufactured Housing Zoning Process and Renewing your Manufactured Home Community.
He has served on the MHI Board of Directors through his leadership positions as Vice Chairman and Chairman of the MHI Suppliers Division and Chairman of the Manufactured Housing Educational Institute. He has represented the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association on the board of governors of the MHI National Communities Council and the Federated States Division, served as Chairman of MHI’s Site Development Committee and Co-chaired MHI’s Urban Demonstration Project.
Frank Walter Standards Award
John Weldy, Director of Engineering for Clayton Homes — Weldy received the award selected by the MHI Technical Activities Committee to recognize one individual from an MHI-member company for their dedication in advancing the professionalism of the federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards and the industry.
Weldy has more than 22 years of experience working in the manufactured housing industry. He is a registered professional engineer in 39 states and holds the International Code Council certifications for residential inspection for all disciplines.
By sharing insights and experience, he has helped guide MHI’s and the industry’s regulatory initiatives. He is a member of HUD’s Manufactured Housing Consensus
Committee where he has served as Chairman of the Technical Systems subcommittee and provides the industry with excellent representation in this important component of the regulatory system.
State Association Executive of the Year Award
Betty Whittaker, executive director of the Kentucky Manufactured Housing Institute — This is a peer award from the manufactured housing state association executives. Whittaker, a 20 plus year industry veteran, worked tirelessly this year on one of her most challenging issues: the passage of a bill that allows a home to be severed from the land and then get a new title to the home. This new law became effective in July 2017. She was up against 120 County Clerks who opposed the bill. She also worked with the Governor’s office and other groups to tirelessly lobby for sales tax reform for manufactured housing and to change regulations to eliminate water testing requirements for communities that sub-meter. She continues to keep these topics on their radar screen and has proven to be a great source for the Governor in drafting updates to state manufactured housing regulations.
The AMHA created a video series to educate consumers and dispel myths, misconceptions and stereotypes about today’s modern manufactured homes. They held focus groups to identify concerns potential homebuyers had about the quality, value and safety of manufactured homes. AMHA took those insights and addressed them in videos highlighting construction standards and techniques, enhanced affordability due to bulk purchases of building materials, and the advantages of a controlled factory environment, as well as recent improvements in safety and durability. Association member manufacturers provided video and photos reducing the overall production costs for the project. Since completing the series last fall, the videos have been viewed on the association’s Website more than 22,000 times.
Totaro Award
Dick Ernst, President of Financial Marketing Associates — MHI’s Financial Services Division created this award to recognize outstanding individual accomplishment, lifetime support and outstanding contributions to the manufactured housing financial services industry. It is named for Richard “Dick” Totaro, who was a driving force behind the creation of the MHI Financial Services Division. Totaro worked tirelessly, acting in the best interest of the industry.
Ernst has dedicated his entire career to the manufactured housing financial services industry. He’s had a consulting firm for 34 years, which specializes in factory-built housing finance and regulatory matters.
Ernst is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the industry about the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) regulations regarding consumer financing for manufactured homes, and the GSE’s Duty to Serve requirements related to chattel lending. He attended numerous meetings with FHFA, participated in FHFA’s listening sessions, and served as a critical resource to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHFA in advancing MHI’s efforts. He’s also led MHI’s efforts to improve lenders’ ability to access and participate in both the FHA Title I and Title II Loan Insurance programs for manufactured housing.
In addition, he has worked to help ensure manufactured housing is a part of Administration and Congressional discussions about improving access to credit for affordable housing.
Ernst has also held several roles at MHI including serving three terms as Chairman of the MHI Financial Services Division, two terms as Treasurer of MHI, 19 years on the MHI Board of Directors and Chairman of the Government Relations Committee.
MHI is the only national trade organization representing all segments of the factory-built housing industry. MHI members include home builders, lenders, home retailers, community owners and managers, suppliers and 50-affiliated state organizations.
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Are you getting the most out of your Community ad?
