Much of what Eugene Landy, founder and Chairman of the Board of UMH Properties (UMH) has to say in the video with transcript that follows in Part I raises keen points to those who are seeking a complete picture of why the manufactured housing industry is in a 25-year downturn. For instance, Eugene Landy, J.D., speaks about the Homes on the Hill portion of the Innovative Housing Showcase and what they are doing in their land-lease manufactured home communities as potential image builders that could open minds about manufactured housing as an option that potentially millions should be considering and turning to as an affordable housing solution. In some instances, notions Landy raised essentially undermine narratives put forth by the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) and/or several of their corporate peers in that organization. Opportunity Zones, the Innovative Housing Showcase, modest vs. aggressive costs to residents, and providing features to residents in turnaround communities instead of taking features away from residents are just some of the business practices he explores. Landy repeatedly makes the point that if they make their residents happy can mean more profitable longer term with residents truly willing to invite their neighbors and friends to explore the manufactured home option. Without naming so-called predatory firms or MHI by name, Landy makes the case that others at MHI are by their actions and inactions are undermining the industry’s potential. Through such examples what Eugene said in the video with transcript that follows is similar to what his son Samuel “Sam” Landy, J.D., President and CEO of UMH has said and done that similarly takes a subtle but discernable tone that undermines the MHI and predatory consolidators narratives, perhaps reasonably illustrated by the national class action price fixing antitrust suit case linked here and here.
Clearly, the Landy/UMH video is promotional. That said, there are nevertheless multiple keen industry as well as corporate insights in what follows.
Some of Eugene’s remarks in the following merit edits, like the statement that “we need four million homes” [a year]. While the number of millions is questioned, that the national need is in the millions of units is widely agreed on. The National Low Income Housing Coalition puts the need for affordable rental housing at some 7.1 million units. That said, the thrust of his commentary is arguably keenly insightful for those seeking to better understand the behavioral and rhetorical divides in the manufactured housing industry.
Intentionally or not, Eugene Landy arguably dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on several points previously reported by MHProNews.
Per xAI’s Grok, noting that the word “draft” below was manually linked by MHProNews to the document Grok was responding to in its facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) check. See Part II #2 for context and more details.
No glitches — draft is accurate, evidence-based, and insightful.
This MHVille facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) is underway.
Part I. From the YouTube page linked here are the following items provided under fair use guidelines for media. Highlighting and some minor corrections are added by MHProNews.
Eugene Landy Video youtube.com
The vision of UMH Properties Inc with Chairmen [SIC] of the board Eugene Landy showcases the company’s strengths and vision for the future. This video goes over a variety of aspects in running a successful company in the manufactured housing industry. Eugene Landy is the founder of UMH properties inc. Since 1968 Eugene has instilled great values into UMH Properties quoting “good faith, and fair dealings” as the way to conduct a successful business. This video emphasizes the quality of manufactured homes, efficiencies in the industry, and government entities helping solve the housing crisis. Eugene emphasizes the accolades of UMH Properties Inc with high quality communities and dedicated employees. Alongside impactful statements from our founder Eugene Landy we have drone videography. This video gives you an overview of UMH’s goals and visions for the future with long term plans to be a dominant force in solving the housing crisis. Thank you all for supporting UMH Properties Inc.
Transcript
Intro
0:00
Hello, I’m here with the founder of UMH properties, Eugene Landy. Um[h] has great
0:06
values and I see it with our employees and and with everyone in the company
0:12
that leadership has started from the top with you. How have you orchestrated such good values that that ring true
0:19
throughout the entire company? Um[h] is a different company because we see
0:26
things differently and that has allowed us to do things that other companies don’t do. First of all, we see clearly
Understanding affordable housing crisis
0:34
the affordable housing crisis that that crisis affects the middle class and the
0:40
people who live paycheck to paycheck. But people that have enough money to buy
0:45
a house and have the down payment and can make the payments on those $500,
0:51
$600,000 homes, they really don’t have a housing problem because the homes have
0:56
gone up in value 50% in the last 5 years and will continue to go up and they do
1:03
very very well. So, we’re in a situation where often the people who make decisions say they
1:09
understand what the crisis is, but the people who don’t have the down payment and have to have three kids in a
1:16
one-bedroom apartment with one bathroom, they they have the uh the problem and
1:22
the problem is getting much worse. And believes it has the solution and we we
UMH Properties has the solution
1:29
do it in various ways. First of all, we’re very proud of the fact that we can produce housing per square foot much
1:36
cheaper than conventional construction. But in addition to that, we have the
1:42
ability to tap financial markets, particularly the government sponsored entities, and have a lower cost of
1:48
money. Not only that, but we design everything, one type of product that we
1:55
don’t have to redesign and do uh build a home one at a time. It’s very inefficient the way the present homes
2:03
are built. Built in a factory, they take 45 minutes to put on a roof. Built next
2:09
door to you outside, it can take six months. We we can build a from a factory
2:16
and use solar solar panels or solar shingles and
2:22
put on a roof that generates electricity for you. In 45 minutes, they put on the
2:28
roof. So, and and that’s just the beginning of we’re only at the beginning
2:33
of uh the efficiencies of building in factories. Everyone knows we’re
2:38
approaching the uh the age of AI and and people are doing robots. You can’t put a
2:46
robot out in the outdoors in the rain and the sleep and you can’t even set it
2:51
But when you have a a factory line, you can set up the robots. The auto
2:58
industry uses one robot for every seven people and and the the manufactured
3:03
housing industry is going to introduce the their robots and further reduce the
3:08
cost of housing. But you have to analyze all the different things that come into reducing the cost of housing. We we buy
Reducing the cost of affordable housing
3:16
land and scale. We we we have ad access
3:21
to long-term capital. We’re very very efficient in everything we do. and we’re
3:27
planning ahead for the future and we’re thinking about the housing crisis and
3:32
how to solve it. We’re working with the government every day. The one concept
3:37
that’s working very well and we’re going to use it more and more. The only free lunch in economics that is the thing
3:44
that makes saves everybody money but doesn’t cost any anybody money is that
3:49
when the government guarantees our loans. In the many years I’ve been in the industry, I’ve seen so few failures
3:57
and so few foreclosures. It’s simply amazing because housing is a good
4:02
investment and manufactured housing communities are an even better investment. And so when the government
4:08
guarantees our loans and we’re able to borrow at lower rates, they’ve guaranteed it and they don’t lose any
4:15
money on it and we save money which gets passed on to the homeowner and to the
4:20
resident of of our communities. So I I can go down and talk for hours on all
4:26
the things that are changing to make us a a better company and to make us uh a
4:32
company that can produce housing at lower and lower cost. We we we want the
4:37
government to go back and have our customers be able to to borrow money and borrow it
4:44
with loans that are low rate, low down payment and 80% guaranteed by the
4:50
government and the government won’t lose any money from those loans. It isn’t that the people are perfect and that the
4:56
people might default, but the product we produce has value. We we own uh 10,800
5:04
homes that we rent out to uh tenants and and the people who lend us money on
5:09
those homes don’t have to worry about uh defaults because the homes have value
5:15
and the homes have such value that that that they are increasing in value. We bought the homes years ago for 50 60,000
5:23
and today they’re worth 70 80,000. So, it’s nice to have a tenant who pays the rent and we use that money to pay the
5:30
bills, but the homes can be sold and at o almost any time for more than the
5:35
mortgage amount. So, what I’m trying to say is that it it takes a lot of
Understanding UMH Properties approach to building more housing
5:41
expertise to see what we’re doing and where we’re going. And it’s important
5:47
that people understand that we we are taking advantage of uh the all the
5:53
government programs that are designed to have new helms [homes] built. If you want to
6:00
solve the affordable housing crisis, the most fundamental thing is to build housing. And we we we
6:08
um is a pretty sizable company. We own 26,000 sites and 11,000 rentals and uh
6:16
we measure our total size in the billions. But uh we’re a relatively small size small company in the industry
6:24
yet we’re able to do all these things to to get housing built. We build a
6:29
thousand homes a year. We continue to help solve the housing crisis. And for a
6:35
company our size, it’s disproportionate what we do. But we want to do much more.
6:40
And we have such grandiose plans that are beginning to fall into place. We’re
6:46
going to do uh an opportunity zone uh financing and we’re going to build
6:52
communities in opportunity zones. And the key to that is that we believe in the opportunity zones. We can get zoning
Opportunity zones
6:59
for manufactured housing. And as we said, there’s a big shortage of housing. So if we get the zoning, we can build
7:06
the housing. The company is very interesting. The the new developments
7:11
are so new that nobody’s really put them to work yet. We have twostory homes. We
7:17
have uh duplex homes. We have uh the most interesting thing to me because I
7:23
think there’s 5 million people a year turning 65. And these people need one-bedroom apartments, one-bedroom
7:31
homes. And we take a conventional unit and we cut it in half. And we can produce for less than $100,000,
7:38
a a residential unit for one single retired person where he has his own
7:44
driveway, his own kitchen. And he he lives alone, but he has all the benefits
7:50
of living in a community. And we think this will be a tremendous success because our cost will be lower, the
7:56
management is better, but it’s in its infancy because the government just allowed it uh this year and it won’t be
8:03
till next year that we can put in twotory homes and we can do the uh duplexes and we have uh prospects the
8:12
opportunity zones we think will go into the billions of dollars. So I’m here telling you how optimistic I am about
Optimistic about the industry
8:19
the industry. the the resident in our community saves $10,000 a year over what
8:25
he would pay to live in a in a apartment
8:31
where there’s only one bedroom or maybe two bedrooms and one bathroom and there’s 650 square ft and we provide
8:38
double the area, double the bathrooms and extra bedrooms for $10,000 a year
8:45
less than than he’s paying now. Even though we’re fair well occupied and
8:51
doing well, we think there should be a line outside the door because people need to save that $10,000 when their
8:58
rent is 40 50% of their income. They are living from paycheck to paycheck and
9:04
barely able to make those checks good. And when we provide the housing and save
9:10
them $10,000, that should be very significant. So we we’re we’re waiting
9:16
to see whether business is appreciating even more and that we can really
9:22
increase the size of our company and build uh new communities. But my theme
9:27
and the theme of this meeting is that we’re a different company and one way we
9:32
keep our rents down is we only look at making our rents they have to be not
9:40
just competitive with apartments and competitive with our rooms. We have to be substantially better and we really
Satisfied customers with decision to live in our communities
9:46
take the basic business principle to heart that our residents, our customers
9:52
have to be satisfied. That’s not a controversial idea, but people have lost sight of it. And some people think that
9:59
they have to raise the rents to the maximum amount they they can get. They
10:04
have the odd notion that if they leave, if they don’t get the maximum rent, they’re not managing their business
10:09
right. And we think that’s absurd. We we think we don’t push the rents. Uh when
10:16
when other people were raising rents 10 11% because of inflation or rising
10:21
expenses, we kept our rent increases to 5% because the basic idea is that our
10:27
tenants should feel satisfied with the decision they’ve made to live in our communities and own homes that are
10:34
placed in our communities. And that’s working fairly well that that we are able to get that story across. And the
10:41
government officials when they give us these advantageous mortgages, they know that we’re different than some of the
10:47
other owners who have pushed [rents] vents so far that it’s created a poor atmosphere.
10:53
And a poor atmosphere is bad business. We find that the most valuable communities have happy residents who
11:00
recommend the the community to their sister-in-law, their brother and three
11:06
or four members of family be in the same community and the park will have a reputation for being a great place to
11:14
live and if it gets that reputation then a house in that community has greater
11:19
value. So in the long run, uh, we do very, very well. And the other thing we
11:25
do very well in is we’ve had people look at us and say, “Well, you don’t charge
Long term approach
11:30
enough. You put a you put a new house on a lot and you instead of charging 7800
11:36
for the lot plus another $1,000 for the house, you only added a $500
11:43
$600.” and they say that doesn’t make any sense to them because we’re not making enough money on the additional uh
11:50
the additional investment. And I sometimes smile about that because we look at it differently. The amount of
11:56
money we get this year on the rent is one thing. The amount of money we get next year is another. And the amount we
12:03
get in 10 years is a further expansion. And so we don’t look at just what we
12:09
make this year, but we will what we will make over on average over the next 10 years. And that’s a very satisfactory
12:16
number. It’s something called straightlining of rents that if you think your rents are going to double
12:22
over 12 years, your current rent is will be 50% higher per year. And and we we we
12:30
look at that income to come as real income because it will will in fact
12:35
come. and and the value of our community will go up and we’ll be very satisfied.
12:41
And that tenants even though they get these increases, they will know that the value of their home has gone up because
12:48
their increases are less than the market and less than the replacement cost of
12:53
the home. And so they will find out that their investment in a in a home if they
12:59
buy it or if they rent it, that that’s been a good investment. and they can
13:04
look at their uh neighbors in con conventional homes and say, “Yes, I made the right decision for the family
13:11
because we’re saving money and the home, if I bought the home, is worth more today than it was when you bought it.”
13:18
So, this difference, it it really makes a difference in the company. It makes a
13:24
great difference with our employees because our employees know we’re considerate considerent of the residents and their
13:31
attitude of for the residents. It’s contagious and they have the attitude
13:36
that the tenant should be happy. We try to fix everything. We try to fix everything promptly and we’re appreciate
13:44
the resident because the resident is the most important thing in the business. Something that I feel like you’re
Quality of life enhanced
13:49
emphasizing is the quality of life.. And me visiting the communities, I see how good of a quality of life we provide
13:57
with excellent amenities with lease with option to purchase with all of these
14:02
things. Do you think that you that manufactured housing is heading in the direction of getting the same benefits
14:08
as apartments because we have a higher quality of of life that we provide? Well, we we don’t understand fully
14:16
what’s happening in the housing market because historically the American dream
14:22
is to have your own home. And by having your own home, you have your yard. You
14:28
have your own unit. And there’s nobody neighbor close to you. You don’t have to
14:33
get in an elevator and go up to the fourth floor and walk down a hall to the
14:38
apartment. It doesn’t take you 15 minutes to take the carriage out to take
14:43
your kids your your children for for a walk or pushing the baby carriage. It’s
14:49
so much nicer. People who have lived in an apartment think that everything’s fine till they
14:56
move into a house and they realize then how much they’ve been missing. How much better life is when they have their
15:03
their own home. particularly in a neighborhood where your kids can meet the neighbors kids, play at the local
15:11
park. You have a basketball court. In some places, you have a swimming pool. Uh you have a a dog park. Uh you’re in a
15:20
community. And the beauty of our residents, we can create a community, a
15:26
very small town. And the wonderful thing about creating a community is if you
15:31
have a great community, the value of your house goes up. People want to live in a wonderful community and nobody ever
15:38
raved about an apartment house and apartment house is someplace you lived
15:44
for one two three years until you can get a home. That has been the traditional thing and yet today because
15:51
housing is not affordable. People are moving into apartments who who before
15:57
would never live in an apartments. It used to be at 23 24 you got a house.
16:03
Today, the average home buyer gets his first home at the age of 40. This is
16:09
amazing. And it used to be we we were hitting a goal that 75% of the people
16:15
owned their own home. And it was wonderful because 20, 30 years later, they owned their own home free, free and
16:22
clear. And they built up assets and for their children to inherit and they
16:27
created value. and today they live in an apartment and they all they have is rent
16:32
receipts to sell for. So I I just think the housing shortage and and the
16:38
affordability problem has forced people to live in a mode that they really don’t
Opportunity to share the future growth with our residents
16:43
want to live in. And that creates a terrific opportunity for us to to create
16:49
a community of manufactured homes where the tenant has an interest in the home.
16:55
If he doesn’t own the home itself, he has an option to buy it. And that we
17:00
share by keeping the land, we share both in the future. And that ability for us
17:06
to share in the future is the ability for us to make money in the long run.
17:12
And so the fact that we value making money in the long run allows us to keep our prices low today. I don’t know if
17:19
people understand that, but we don’t make enough money in the early years. And sometimes we lose money for two,
17:25
three years because it takes time to fill the community, but we look at the money we’re going to make 10 years from
17:32
now and it turns out we’ve been in business 55 years. It turns out that we
17:37
make a lot of money over the years and we feel we’ve shared it with the tenants. And that whole concept of
17:43
sharing housing is a great investment. It’s a great thing to invest in and sharing some of it with a resident is a
17:50
really smart move and gives us the opportunity to build new communities.
17:56
And coming back to the beginning of my court talk and it’s the most important
18:01
point to solve this problem of the affordable housing shortage. We have to build housing. And what we’re telling
18:08
you is, um, everybody in the company knows that we want to build housing and
18:15
solve the problem. We need 4 million homes a year. And we think we should
18:20
build another 100,000 homes from in factories and ultimately maybe another
18:26
200,000. So that we have a big percentage of the market and we make buy
18:31
the product because it’s affordable. it uh uses a le less land and it’s a great
18:37
new product. We’re on the cusp of being appreciated by people, but we do have to
18:43
live with uh people don’t understand us and don’t understand what we’re doing.
18:49
And that’s why we have this story to tell people. I I wish I could spend an hour telling you all the ways we save
Saving money for consumer
18:56
money for the consumer from buying land in bulk, from getting great mortgages on
19:03
the property, the insurance program we have. Everybody complains about the cost
19:08
of insurance. We run our community so well that the insurance companies keep the the premium cost down and we save
19:16
money for our residents. Everything in in it is is is designed so the residents
19:22
gets the lowest cost. And we love to put amenities in because you have a 200 home
19:28
community and you put in a small park you the cost is divided by 200. You put in a swimming pool it’s divided by 200.
19:36
You have a wonderful person in the office that’s a concierge and helps the
19:41
the residents and you divide her cost by 200 and we can give people value and the
19:48
more value we give people the more our community is worth and again in the long run that makes our community a great
19:56
place to live and then it increases the value of our parks and that’s where
20:01
people look to see that we’ve made a lot of money for everybody. One of the things I’ve noticed showing people
Efficiency of manufactured homes
20:07
houses or going to any showcase, they walk in a manufactured house and they can’t believe how efficient it is, how
20:14
upto-date it is with new features, how you can design and build a home of your own. And I feel that is changing the
20:21
perception of manufactured housing, especially how we buy parks previously
20:27
poorly ran and we revamp it. And you know, we go into an area where they think this used to be the place where
20:33
people didn’t want to live and we make it place they want to live. And through opportunity zones and other things,
20:39
we’re really helping change the perception. What else can help change people’s idea of manufactured housing?
20:46
Well, Jeremy, uh, your videos do a great, uh, job in that regard. Jeremy
20:52
does the drone videos and people don’t fully understand how great our
20:58
communities are. And I I call the drone videos uh Walt Disney Productions
21:03
because the communities look so great on a sunny day to fly over these
21:08
communities and see the cars parked and the parks and the green areas and the
21:13
residents lawns immaculate. Uh it it helps get us the our image across. We we
Washington Homes on the Hill
21:23
exhibit three homes this year on the Washington Mall and thousands of people,
21:28
many of them dignitaries, governors, senators, congressmen came to
21:34
see the homes there and they always come into the homes and they’re a[w]ed by the
21:40
low cost and the quality of the homes. Everything is quality and because we
21:45
again we take a long-term view. We want that last the the home to last 50 75
21:51
years just like a conventional home. So we go first class in everything. The
21:57
homes are built to last and they they’re built to withstand storms. They’re just
22:02
a a great place to live. And what we try to do is make the community a great
22:09
community. And if there’s a if it’s a great community, the home can have double the cost value. The value of the
22:17
home is with the what what people put on it because they live in it. They have
Security
22:22
schools security. We we’re the one of the only companies we have a wonderful security leader and he’s just been
22:29
absolutely great. We put in these license readers. You you drive through
22:34
our park and the machine reads your license plate and it goes directly to
22:40
police headquarters. So if the car is stolen or or or the insurance is outdate or
22:47
there’s problems, it shows up and you you you’ll be amazed that bad people
22:53
drive bad cars. So the bad people come into the park, we find out about it. The
22:59
good tenants and the the good residents and the the others come in, they they never have any problem. But somebody
23:05
driving in a stolen car or a car that is all worn out, he will never drive into
23:12
our park again because they’re picking him up at another half hour after he’s pulled into the park. The local police
23:19
force gets to know our managers, our residents, and the problems we have. And
23:26
we we measure how many visits we get. I visit them with actually calls where the
23:32
police are called. And parks that used to have seven before we bought them had
23:37
seven, eight calls a week, don’t have seven calls a year because we security
23:43
is so much better and people value security highly. And we try to give uh
23:49
all our communities uh a high degree of uh security and uh it’s it’s uh one of
23:56
the goals we have and we’re meeting it. Yeah, your environment is is very
24:01
important and we create a great environment for people and we also are creating the potential for people to own
24:08
their own home. I know we do something where if you prove 12 months of rent consistently paid that can help you with
24:15
your mortgage. What are some ways that we help people get the access to money to buy their own home in our
24:21
communities? We’ve been working on eliminating barriers that never should
Eliminating barriers to own homes
24:27
have been there in the first place. The the
24:33
uh people come in, they drive up in a nice car, and they have two well-dressed
24:40
kids. They’re well-dressed, they have a job, and they want to either buy or rent
24:45
a home. And we take the application, and we find it rejected, and we try to look
24:52
at what what in the world is it rejected for. And sometimes it’s a it’s a
24:57
waitress who hasn’t booked on her income tax returns the income from tips. And as
25:05
a result, she has a higher income than she’s reported and can be justified. and she used to get that turned out that
25:12
turned out. Now we had the latest development. The government’s gone to the no tax on tips and we’re very happy
25:19
with that because waitress is making 60 70 80,000 a year working in a busy first
25:26
class restaurant. Now all of a sudden qualify when we couldn’t get them qualified before. The the the same is
25:33
true of uh other measures. People have a hospital bill. If you get a hospital
25:39
bill, I’ve gotten some hospital bills. They always find some reason that uh it
25:45
doesn’t get paid by the insurance company and it goes on your credit and you wind up a year later straightening
25:52
it out and then then when the credit agency looks at you, uh there’s a there’s a bad mark on it. You can’t get
25:58
the credit through. We’re spending a lot of time now to get these credits approved. For example, if we have a a
26:06
resident that is paid for two years on time every time and they want to buy a home,
26:13
I think that res is I would approve them almost automatically because that person
26:19
is shown that they’re a good credit. But we have to go through because the law
26:24
requires a credit checks and credit ratings. But we do everything we can to
26:30
get people approved. And we have a a very low default rate. I think it’s
26:35
about 2% or less. And it’s it’s wonderful because people who own their
26:41
own home, one, they take care of it. Two, they take care of it better than we can take care of it. So, we want people
26:48
to own their own home. And by the way, I didn’t say three. Three, people that own their own home generally stay in our
26:53
community seven years. People who rent stay at two to four years. We like it
26:58
better if they stay seven years. We want people to stay forever and have their parents there and their children live
27:05
there because we’re trying to create a full community where everybody is is happy with their decision of where to
27:13
live. What have you done to in to orchestrate such good values in um
Values of UMH, good faith and fair dealing
27:20
well first of all a graduate of military school and in a military school you
27:26
follow all the rules and that’s something that stays with you your whole life that you you follow the rules. The
27:34
the other thing is I went to a great law school and uh the they taught you that
27:39
in every agreement is a a nonwritten cause of good faith and
27:46
fair dealing. And uh that has stood with me as the best way to run a business.
27:52
Good faith and fair dealing. You do every business transaction not as if
27:58
it’s a a game where the you you have to win and get the most out of it in that
28:03
transaction, but every business transaction is just one transaction that
28:08
you’re going to have future transactions and you’re going to have a future relationship. So your relationship with
28:14
your customer, your relationship with your employees, your relationship with
28:20
your contractors are all built on good faith and fair dealing. And you find if
28:25
you go through life uh producing good faith and fair dealing, you become
28:31
successful. And that that’s been the the key to what we’ve done. Uh we’ve run
28:37
several companies and the customer always appreciates that. It’s good faith
28:42
and fair dealing and that the negotiations are always pleasant and
28:49
considerate and that’s the that’s important to us. And it’s so much easier
28:55
to run the company by the way because it goes to your employees understand that
29:00
and uh everything you do in the company is is is that the customer the resident
29:07
should should be should be satisfied and because we do that we have very low
29:13
turnover. Now I gave you that figure. We we have people staying four years on
29:19
average and that’s the four years of on the 10,000 I guess it’s close to 11,000
29:25
homes we rent. Imagine that they stay four years. It used to be they stayed a
29:30
year or two years but they they stay because we have the best deal in town
29:35
and we try to make it a an experience that they appreciate and that they say
29:41
nice things about us. I know. Uhuh. We tried at one park renting for for
29:48
vacations Airbnb and we got uh five star ratings. What was the other thing they
29:55
rated us? How do they rate us? We were one of the highest one of the best performing in the county, Highlands
30:02
County in Sebring, Florida for rentals. Yeah. And that’s what we try to do. And and the the other thing, you know, we
Rent collecting today is not our measure
30:09
have investors and sometimes we don’t make as much money as people would think. And because again, we take the
30:16
long view. The rent we’re collecting today is not our measure. I really don’t
30:23
like measuring your income quarter by quarter when it’s year by year, decade by decade that really counts. It’s the
30:30
way to do it is to take the the long-term view on on performance and we
30:37
we do that and uh we’re very satisfied with the business. We what we want to do
30:43
though is build. We’ve got a good reputation. We want the towns to give us
30:48
approval to build. We want the federal government to give us the money to build. And we want to go out and build
30:56
more communities. We would like to build more than a thousand units a year, maybe 2,000 units a year. And that’s only five
31:05
parks. Five five parks of 200 to 400 spaces a year
31:10
is something we can handle. And we wind up being one of the three biggest
31:17
publicly owned communities, owning manufactured housing communities. And when we they become fully appreciated
31:24
for what they are, they are the future of housing. And uh because building
31:30
building onsite is become going to become obsolete. We’ll be able to build for half the cost of building it. The
31:38
factory built will be half the cost of building it on site and building in the
31:43
factory will be better and will be recognized and there’ll be more
31:49
construction in the way we do things. Everything we do is on a trying to get on a mass production. that my ideal for
31:57
a community would be to design it, get all the approvals, get ready to build
32:03
it, and sell it from the plants that there’d be so much demand. Because the
32:08
quicker you sell in full, fill up the community, the quicker you make money,
32:14
and the ability to quickly do the construction.
32:19
uh all those things save so much money that it’s something you want to do when
32:25
you plan uh a community we find now it takes four years I want to do it in 6
32:32
months and if we can do it in 6 months every this is the way we think every
32:37
time we can save money the resident benefits and we get the cost of housing
32:43
down there’s affordable housing crisis because houses cost too much and it
32:49
comes aren’t high enough. So, we’re dedicated to getting a great product out
32:55
and getting the cost of that house down and we do everything possible to reduce
33:01
the uh the cost to the residents and we’re succeeding in that.
33:07
Something U[M]H has pushed hard for recently is the opportunity zones and we’ve introduced communities in new
33:13
states like Albany, South Carolina. Where do you see the future of the opportunity zones?
33:20
This is important. The the the first thing is which people don’t realize
33:26
about the opportunity zones. The the whole problem and getting started with a
33:32
housing uh project is that’s not in my backyard. Everybody wants to live next
33:39
to a mansion. everybody with one acres zoning and you can’t uh you can’t do
33:45
that. The homes are too expensive. Uh we build our communities four or five to
33:51
the acre quarter acres only maybe even a little less. the towns are convinced and
33:59
it’s difficult to get the approvals and and the problem today and this is on
34:05
the highest level. People don’t understand this pe academic people think they can solve
34:11
the housing shortage by passing laws that the towns have to approve things
Town approval
34:18
and uh we found we’ve been doing it for years. It’s very difficult to get an
34:23
approval if the town doesn’t want you. There is so many laws and regulations
34:29
and you wind up uh taking 50 years to get an approval. you you you have to get
34:35
the towns to to to want you. And uh the
34:40
president of the United States now is uh not convinced at all that having the
34:46
federal government decide what the local government can build or not build is not
34:52
the way to go. Now that’s an issue. Uh so people some people are on the other
34:59
side of it and they think the state government and federal government should dictate to the town of what they can
35:05
build or not build. But we take a a a intermediate position because we’ve
35:12
tried to get approvals in hostile areas and we realize how difficult it is. You
35:18
can’t blame the town if if 200 residents show up to the meeting angry that you’ve
35:23
approved a project. uh it’s easier for the mayor to to institute a lawsuit
35:30
against the project and delay it two or three years and if you delay a project two or three years maybe effectively you
35:37
kill it. So uh we wanted how do we get a compromised position without the federal
35:45
government or state government taking over local zonings and what we’ve come up with is the opportunity zone. Now
Opportunity zone benefits
35:52
people think the opportunity zone is just a tax advantage to to build. But bu[t]
35:58
inherent in the opportunity zone is the ability of the town to approve
36:04
manufactured home communities and other apartments and other things in the community in just those select areas.
36:12
And those areas are usually areas of the town that that are not the high-end residential and where there’s less
36:19
opposition to it. We’ll see how this works in practice, but we’re very hopeful that the towns in the
36:26
opportunity zones and the opportunity zones are designated by the governor and it’s a huge percentage of the state and
36:34
in 2026 and 27 they’re going to redesate them.
36:40
U[M]H, by the way, owns 10 communities now in opportunity zones, and we want to buy
36:45
more of them because we think in the opportunity zone we can come into the town and get the approvals because the
36:52
mayor will be approving uh manufactured home communities in just one section of
36:59
town. And hopefully the residents will say, “Well, it’s not in my backyard. It’s in my community, but not in my
37:06
backyard.” And they’ll be favorable to it. We’re going to see how that works, but so far it’s worked very well. U[M]h has
37:13
been able to get approvals for two reasons. One is usually we have a community in the town and we are
37:20
expanding it or building a whole new green field production and the town has experience with us and they’re not
37:27
afraid of the stereotypes of the manufactured home communities some people operate. They know that we
37:33
operate beautiful communities with well-mannered residents who are great
37:39
citizens. And so when we come in for a uh an expansion, we get the approval.
37:45
And so that’s that’s one reason we do it. And we think in the opportunity zones, even if we’re not known there, we
37:53
hope we have the reputation for doing a good job and that the town will allow
37:58
the manufactured housing community into those areas. And here again, we we we’ve
38:03
got a lot of projects on the on the uh blueprints and we’re we’re a very
38:10
ambitious company and we hope to build uh a,00 200 2,000
38:17
units a year which is uh 10 years we’ll be a substantially larger company and
38:23
we’ve contributed to a partial solution of the affordable housing crisis. If we
Projected growth
38:29
can become a company that that owns twice as much, three times as much, four
38:35
times as much communities, look at the value we have for our shareholders in the nation and what good we’ll be doing
38:43
and we’ll be financially successful as well. We have every new development you
38:49
can think of. The way we want run the parks, we want them to be the finest
38:54
communities. So the the reputation is you’re the smart one for living in the
38:59
community because your housing costs are less and your kids have a better place to live. One of the things I’m so proud
39:07
about is the staff and people we have and that it’s nice to have a mission
39:14
statement on paper. It’s nice to have these plans to build communities. It’s
39:20
nice to go in to get the approvals. But it’s the people. We just went down to
39:26
Memphis, Tennessee, and we had a grand opening of a new section of a community.
39:32
And the mayor and everyone was there, and they were thankful that we came to
39:38
their town. They they just said, “This is what economic development should be.”
39:44
and they appreciated that we were building new
39:50
qual quality homes in their community. And what we’ve tried to do is instill in
39:57
everyone that works with the company, including our investors, that we’re more
40:02
than just a public company that makes money. We’re a public company that’s socially oriented. All of our income
40:10
comes from people who have need affordable housing. And so we’ve got
40:16
that through to our staff, our key people. And
40:21
I have to laugh because uh uh oh, it was 8:00 at 9:00 at night on a Sunday. I got
Dedicated employees
40:28
an email about what we’re working on. And I said, “What a wonderful company.
40:34
8:00 at 9:00 on a Sunday. people are still thinking of how we can make this
40:39
company work, how we can do the good things we’re trying to do. So, I’ve been
40:45
helpful in having progressive ideas and seeing things clearly that other people
40:52
don’t quite see and being right about it. But it’s the execution is just as
40:58
important and maybe more important. And we have an organization of 515 people
41:04
and people who have been with us for 30 40 years doing a great job. And now it’s
41:10
wonderful to see their children and grandchildren working there and see the residents are happy and when we have
41:19
these open houses and things you see uh uh what we’ve accomplished. So when you
41:25
invest in the um and uh you invest in a public company that pays dividends, but
41:31
you also invest in a company that you can be proud to be a shareholder of when you see the good work we do.
Part II. Additional Facts-Evidence-Analysis (FEA) from sources as shown including more MHProNews expert commentary.
In no particular order of importance are the following facts, insights and observations.
1) In response to a draft of this report uploaded to AI powered Gemini for facts-evidence-analysis checks that is found at this link here, was the following input-inquiry-response by Gemini.
1. Factual Correction: “4 Million Homes”
The transcript contains a key quantitative error that requires clarification for the final report.
-
The Claim: The transcript mentions “4 million homes” in a context that could be misread as annual production.
-
The Fact: U.S. Census and industry data confirm the national housing shortage is estimated at a deficit of roughly 4 million homes.
-
The Clarification: Eugene and Sam Landy have historically referred to this 4-million-unit backlog as the massive opportunity for the industry to double or triple its current output (which hovers around 100,000 units annually) to meet the “estimated 4 million homes” needed to stabilize the market.
2. Confirmation of Strategic Alignment
Much of Eugene Landy’s commentary in the video aligns with the FQ4 2023 Earnings Call and subsequent 2024-2025 remarks.
-
Operating at Capacity: Landy’s claim that UMH is “filling homes as quickly as we put them in” is supported by Sam Landy’s FQ4 2023 statement that they worked through a 1,300-unit inventory backlog and were aggressively ordering more.
-
Rental vs. Sales: The video emphasizes a “progressive” rental model. This is evidenced by UMH increasing its rental home portfolio by 10% (reaching 10,000 units) in 2023, while simultaneously increasing home sales by 23%.
3. The “Thunderclap” Analysis: Advocacy Gaps
Your assessment that the Landys have “politely raised” issues but stopped short of calling for full legal enforcement of Enhanced Preemption is supported by the evidence.
-
Duty to Serve (DTS): Sam Landy has publicly identified the lack of DTS enforcement for chattel loans as a “single greatest bottleneck” in a HousingWire op-ed and related interviews. He correctly notes that without Fannie/Freddie support for personal property (chattel) loans, the industry remains “throttled”.
-
Enhanced Preemption: While Eugene Landy speaks about “Innovative Housing Showcases” and “opening minds”, there is no public record of UMH (an MHI-affiliated firm) joining MHARR in a formal legal demand or lawsuit to compel HUD to enforce the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000‘s preemption clause.
-
The FEA Conflict: This creates a disconnect between UMH’s “progressive” public image and its participation in a trade organization (MHI) that has been accused of “strategic silence” regarding the very federal laws that would solve the zoning bottlenecks the Landys frequently lament.
4. Summary of Insights for the Report
-
Confirm: Eugene Landy’s vision of 100,000+ communities is a long-standing UMH goal linked to their expansion in “Opportunity Zones” and greenfield developments.
-
Confirm: The transcript’s mention of “8:00 or 9:00 on a Sunday” emails highlights a corporate culture of “execution,” but as Landy admits, “execution is just as important… maybe more important” than ideas.
-
Clarify: The “4 million” figure refers to the national housing shortage, not UMH’s annual production capacity.
Verified Documentation:
-
HousingWire: Sam Landy on Manufactured Housing as a Scalable Solution
-
Seeking Alpha: UMH Q4 2024 Transcript – Balancing Growth and Accretion
— MHProNews that the PDF of the Q&A that produced the response above was confirmed as accurate by Gemini at this link here. —
2) The Q&A with xAI’s Grok promised in the preface is shown below. The draft shown to Grok was the same as was provided to Gemini and is found at this link here.
Grok, it is time for a fresh facts-evidence-analysis check of the developing report that has been uploaded to you in that PDF. No need to refer to a prior Q&A thread UNLESS it specifically applies to this developing report, got it? To my eye, while there are some things in the video transcript that need to have typos fixed or facts (ESTIMATED 4 million homes vs. 4 million homes ‘a year’), much of what he said aligns with prior remarks by he and Sam during an earnings call. https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/umh-properties-fq4-2023-earnings-call-transcript-sam-landy-expansions-greenfield-development-significantly-outperform-stabilized-properties-eugene-landy-build-100000-communities-plus-mhm and https://www.housingwire.com/articles/a-thunderclap-unpacking-umh-ceo-sam-landys-statements-defines-the-failure-metric-in-road-to-housing-act-via-op-ed/ It seems to me that the Landy’s ought to come out publicly to call for the enforcement of the “enhanced preemption” provision of federal law under the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000. Sam Landy has already politely raised the lack of DTS for single family manufactured homes. Do whatever online checks are necessary to correct, confirm, or clarify the points made in the article by either Eugene or the human intelligence of MHProNews. Use plain text hyperlinks to support your findings.
Yes, the developing report (pre-publication FEA draft at the linked PDF) holds up well under a fresh facts-evidence-analysis (FEA) check. No major factual inaccuracies appear in the core reporting or MHProNews commentary — claims align with verifiable sources on Eugene Landy’s video remarks, UMH Properties practices, and industry context. Sources are properly credited (video/transcript as primary, MHProNews analysis as commentary, prior earnings calls referenced).
Key Verifications and Corrections/Clarifications
- Video content and Eugene Landy’s remarks: Confirmed via related UMH/MHI sources — Eugene Landy (founder/Chairman) discusses UMH’s participation in HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase (e.g., “Homes on the Hill” portion, land-lease communities as image-builders), Opportunity Zones, modest resident costs vs. aggressive pricing, adding features in turnaround communities (not removing them), and resident satisfaction for long-term profitability/referrals. He critiques (without naming) practices that undermine industry potential, aligning with UMH’s focus on customer-centric, sustainable growth over short-term maximization. Promotional tone is acknowledged in draft; insights remain keen (e.g., happy residents invite others, building trust in manufactured housing). UMH Showcase participation: https://www.manufacturedhousing.org/news/innovative-housing-showcase-recap (MHI recap, Landy video on vision/efficiency/satisfaction). UMH 2025 Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYM9wo4YpDA (UMH video, three homes displayed).
- Alignment with prior remarks (Eugene/Sam Landy): Accurate — echoes Sam Landy’s earnings calls (e.g., expansions/greenfield outperform stabilized properties, strong demand via resident satisfaction). Eugene’s “build 100,000 communities” vision (Q4 2023 call) ties to long-term growth; draft correctly notes similarity in subtle critique of rival/MHI-aligned approaches (e.g., aggressive rents undermining image). Q4 2023 transcript (Eugene on communities, Sam on outperformance): https://seekingalpha.com/article/4674953-umh-properties-inc-umh-q4-2023-earnings-call-transcript.
- “Four million homes” statement: Draft properly flags for edit — Eugene’s phrasing (“we need four million homes”) likely refers to annual need (common industry estimate for overall housing shortage), but draft clarifies it’s overstated vs. consensus. National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) 2025 Gap Report: shortage of 7.1 million affordable/available rental homes for extremely low-income households (not annual production target). Broader need often cited in millions annually (e.g., HUD/NAHB estimates ~1-5M total units/year to close gap). Thrust remains insightful. NLIHC Gap 2025: https://nlihc.org/gap (7.1M shortage for extremely low-income renters).
- Subtle challenge to MHI/”predatory” firms: Fair — Landy’s emphasis on satisfaction/modest costs/resident features implicitly contrasts with critiques of MHI members (e.g., aggressive rent hikes, consolidation focus). Ties to antitrust suit (e.g., price-fixing allegations) and Sam’s prior op-ed/earnings comments on barriers/DTS lack. No direct naming, but tone undermines narratives of status quo. Sam’s HousingWire op-ed (barrier removal): https://www.housingwire.com/articles/manufactured-housing-is-the-future-of-affordable-housing/. Antitrust context: Murex settlement (Case #1:23-cv-06715) cooperation provisions.
- Call for enhanced preemption/DTS enforcement: Valid observation — Landys (esp. Sam) have raised DTS gaps for single-family manufactured homes (chattel lending limits); draft reasonably suggests public push for enhanced preemption (2000 Act) to counter zoning discrimination would align with their resident-focused model.
The report brings value-added FEA: Promotional video yields corporate/ industry insights (e.g., behavioral divides, satisfaction vs. maximization), corrected for minor phrasing, and contextualized against MHI patterns (optics over enforcement). Useful for understanding UMH’s contrarian approach amid stagnation.
For RV/MH performance gap context: https://www.housingwire.com/articles/comparing-rv-and-manufactured-housing-data-sheds-critical-light-on-u-s-affordable-housing-crisis/ (Tony Kovach, February 2, 2026 — revisit for data on throttling/barriers).
No glitches — draft is accurate, evidence-based, and insightful.
— MHProNews notes that dozens of linked supporting articles and items were cited by Grok which are part of the PDF linked here. Grok confirmed that PDF as accurate via the screen capture found at this link here. —
3) Related articles to this topic include, but are not limited to, the following.
See also: https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/consolidation-of-key-mh-industry-sectors-ongoing-growing-concern-mhi-hasnt-addressed-because-doing-so-would-implicate-their-own-members-plus-sunday-weekly-mhville-headlines-recap/
4)
It is simply a truism that:
There is always more to know.
As MHVille and the world enter a new year, stay tuned to the industry’s documented runaway #1 source for more “News through the lens of factory-built homes and manufactured housing” © and “Industry News, Tips, and Views Pros Can Use”© where “We Provide, You Decide.”© This is the place for “Intelligence for your MHLife.” © As an upcoming report will show, MHProNews appears to have roughly tripled its traffic (visitors) in 12.2025 than in 12.2024. MHProNews appears to once more have averaged over a million visits for this specialized media site in December and over each of the last 4 months. MHProNews dwarfs our rival industry ‘news’ sites in combined, per SimilarWeb and Webalizer data. Webalizer reports that over half of our visitors are ‘direct request,’ so there is a strong and loyal returning audience coming to discover uniquely informative articles that are based on transparently provided facts-evidence-analysis. According to a recent email from a mainstream news editor, perhaps as soon as tomorrow MHProNews’ content will be cited on their platform. Stay tuned for updates on that and more.
Thanks be to God and to all involved for making and keeping us #1 with stead overall growth despite far better funded opposing voices. Transparently provided Facts-Evidence-Analysis (FEA) matters. ##
Again, our thanks to free email subscribers and all readers like you, as well as our tipsters/sources, sponsors and God for making and keeping us the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) See Related Reports. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
