Make no mistake. There is a terrific need for manufactured housing to see Dodd-Frank amended along the lines of the MHI sponsored bill. The need exists for home owners, as well as for industry pros, as the link above demonstrates.
My professional view is that protecting MH home owners resale values is crucial for the long term growth and thus success of HUD Code Manufactured Housing. So the bill promoted above is a part of that process.
The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) and the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) are each taking their respective paths to pushing implementation of the Duty to Serve (DTS) MH. That DTS was mandated for the GSEs by HERA 2008, but put on hold by FHFA. Getting both of GSE reform and HR 650/S 682 passed are important.
Book Ends
But lets briefly make the case as to why MH Education and MH Image are at the heart of all that we should be doing to grow our new home HUD Code MH sales, and thus the bottom lines of retailers, communities and all sorts of firms from coast to coast that support and supply them.
A good image – the proper understanding – of MH will boost our legislative, zoning and every other outreach you can name. Why do we suffer in the first place? Because of dated views or an improper presentation and understanding of our product. What much of the media has is de facto, the other image campaign; the negative one. Its the other educational effort, the misinformed one.
The reality is that good media want to get the facts right. No one in serious journalism wants an NBC News/Bryan Williams moment.
It is up to us to define, educate and promote the MH image. When people understand the amazing value proposition, regulators and public officials will be more responsive. When the exit strategy for MH improves for finance companies and existing MH home owners, that too will draw more lending into MH and more MH home buyers.
With educating the public in mind, please check out the video linked below. We’ll be tweaking it just a bit in the days ahead, but it is ‘close enough’ to have drawn the following actual comments from our MH Pro focus group:
— actual comments from Video Viewers below —
I think that the video looks great, with a strong message.
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The video is great. You have set the vision and captured the interest of manufactured housing buyers, dealers and brokers. And the affordability of owning a manufactured home. I look forward to seeing the finishing touches when you are done. Have a great weekend.
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I like it – at first I was looking for the term manufactured housing verses MH. I then realized MH was part of your title and you did a good job of interspersing both terms appropriately. Nice job.
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The quality is excellent. I like the pacing and narrative and images. Looks great to me. Thank you for all you do to put out positive messages.
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I think the video looks great! I am going to watch it a few more times to see if I can find anything specific for tweaking.
— end of comments from Video Viewers —
The ideas behind this new video include (but are not limited to):
- Set the Vision
- Create follow up Interest (teaser, promo)
- Suggest Capabilities while Inspiring Interest and Participation
Your feedback is valued. We’ll strive to have a few modest refinements done on this before the end of the weekend, but most will never notice the difference between the current version and the final one.
The bottom line is that with the forward-looking, solution and goal oriented MH pros pulling together, we can create an improved image and educational experience. That in turn will sell more homes, support MH home owners values and be useful to those reaching out to public officials or the mainstream media in your market. More on this in the days ahead.
Reflecting…
Since we’re posting this on 9.11 – let me end by violating a rule of writing taught in most any good grade school. I’m switching subjects at the close. The rainbow over New York City that seemed to end at the site of the Twin Towers (depending on your ‘camera angle’) is a reminder of what happened 14 years ago, and that after that tragedy, that hope sprang eternal for the eventual recovery.
Hmmm…MH needs a recovery too. We’ve had our “9-11 disaster” style moments too. Maybe the finish of this blog post is not so off message after all?
To all those who died or were touched by the losses 14 years ago, we bow our heads in a moment of silence. ##
