Act I: Life as we like it

ith near-record sales and production, good national press and widespread business prosperity, what more could the sometime whipping boy of U.S. housing ask for these happy days? Not much, except for a little more respect.

The manufactured home industry is even standing up for itself in regional markets that haven't yet caught the manufactured housing fervor. Gallen & Associates, on behalf of the WMA throughout California, effectively keeps negative press at bay. And local variants of the popular "Oops, You Slipped!" postcard are popping up in Alabama and elsewhere.

A particularly bright picture has to do with how industry insiders talk and write about the manufactured home industry. All but one REIT (real estate investment trust) and all five national MHTrade publications consistently refer to our unique real estate asset type as a manufactured home community, or MHCommunity for short.

Best of all, the HUD Code manufactured housing shelter product is now so homelike in appearance and application, that permanent installations are indistinguishable from traditional site-built homes. In fact, a few HUD Code manufacturers are so committed to effecting safe and secure initial permanent installations that they've acquired large numbers of retail sales center operations, in part, to properly train and supervise local staff in the field to perform this critical task properly.

Several metaphors seem to apply in compounding fashion. As the cartoon character Pogo has been wont to say: "We have met the enemy and he is us." And we indeed are parodies of the gang that couldn't shoot straight, when it comes to the ways we market, install, finance, value upon resale, tax, and service our otherwise affordable and attractive housing product.

How many HUD Code housing manufacturers still pander to retailers based solely on gross sales volume, ignoring questionable local reputations for D&R (drop and run) installations, and marginal, at best, post-sale service? A hint: Look to see who continues to use the vestigial terms "mobile home" and "dealer" in his everyday advertising, signage and conversation.

Then there's the too-hazy line between some retailers (a.k.a. dealers in the negative sense) and credit lenders writing chattel or personal property loans on obvious credit risks and worse. This playing fast and loose with credit worthiness of lower-income home-buying prospects, as well as those with past credit problems is ultimately self-defeating for the MHIndustry. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if future MHRetail salescenter owner/managers were required to be state-licensed real estate brokers, and their sales staff mandated to be RE salesperson licensees. This isn't a bad idea anyway, as land and home packages continue to make up an increasing percentage of retail salescenter business.

Even the investment real estate component of the HUD Code MHIndustry has its share of skeletons in the closet. Just look at the large number of manufactured home communities coast to coast that are nothing more than trailer courts at worst, mobile home parks at best. Granted, there will always likely be homebuyers and renters who, for one reason or another, opt for such shelter arrangements. But that doesn't excuse the owners/operators of particularly odoriferous properties to do everything in their power to improve these marginal living environments through capital improvements, rules enforcement, home upgrade incentives and education.

Until the day comes when sincere and widespread efforts are effected in such areas, these individuals (investors) will be as guilty of holding the MHIndustry back from its full potential, as the HUD Code housing manufacturers who refuse to take full responsibility for the safe and secure, initial, permanent installation of the very homes they produce.

Will HUD Code manufactured housing, as an industry, take the high road, the low road or continue as at present, down both roads simultaneously? That is the pivotal question that begs answering and commitment, even as a new millennium dawns.

The high road: Optimum housing. This has been recommended before. What is optimum housing? HUD Code manufactured housing of any grade and configuration, featuring a homelike exterior (horizontal lap siding and pitched/shingled roof, for starters), safely and securely installed in a value-enhancing environment, whether landlease, subdivision or private parcel, which in time is financed, titled, and valued upon resale, in such a fashion as to be all but indistinguishable from traditional site-built shelter products in the same local market.

The low road: Most likely business as usual, as described in Act II, or skeletons continuing to live prominently in our closets. To summarize, low-end manufactured homes are typically single-section homes (low roaders call them singlewides) with slick metal sides, a rounded metal roof and standard accessories throughout. Such units will be towed to sites, too often left unskirted and not sufficiently secured, let alone installed properly. And let's not forget, they'll almost, without exception, be financed as chattel, titled and taxed like a vehicle and valued upon resale according to one or another book value certainly not relative to any local housing market comparable sales.

Which housing road will you take during the Decade of Manufactured Housing and the Manufactured Home Community? What should the HUD Code MHIndustry do?

The first question is simpler to answer, since it's an individual and corporate decision and commitment. I hope you take the former road. The second question is far more difficult, because it involves many more people and business entities. And the rub is this: Right now our industry is all but devoid of leadership willing to even sit down and discuss its collective future beyond the year 2000. Repeated calls have been published for an industry-wide summit meeting. Unfortunately, beyond a political coalition to endorse certain federal legislation and encourage increased regulation of our industry, the calls have gone unheeded and unanswered.

The ultimate solution can and will only come, it appears, from the very grassroots of this unique American-bred housing industry. If you're content with business as usual and not interested in a happy ending, then do nothing about this. If you, however, would like to deal with these 50-year-old skeletons in our collective closet, then tell your state MHAssociation board representative and elected officers, tell your peers and tell me your thoughts.