It’s a sad day when a good and necessary product or service gets sullied by the bad behavior of certain businesses.   At the end of this fact check and exposé will be a video with happy manufactured home customers, but they are not customers of SSK Communities, who recently changed their name to Flagship Communities. Keep in mind that …

We’ve begun to explore on MHLivingNews the connections between past and present U.S. Presidents and mobile and manufactured homes. A prior article on the topic is linked below. Note these are fact-and-evidence based reports, not partisan ones. Affordable living ought to be a nonpartisan issue, because everyone needs a good place to call home.   U.S. Presidents Carter, Nixon, and …

When this human writer for MHLivingNews and MHProNews and my colleagues launched this platform, there was at that time nothing else quite like it in the manufactured housing industry. Frankly, that there was nothing quite like what we had in mind doing should have been a wakeup call to yours truly. How could it be that a multiple billion-dollar industry …

Millions of Americans rely on manufactured home communities (MHCs) — sometimes called “mobile home parks”—as one of the few proven paths to affordable housing. But across the country, residents of such land-lease communities operated by specific firms that may be members of the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) or that follow the ‘teachings’ of Mobile Home University (MHU) are under mounting …

Perhaps 75 to 80 percent of manufactured home communities are owned by local owners who are often in a good working relationship with their residents. But the other 20 percent or so may fall into a different category, and that segment will be part of the subject of this report with expert analysis. “My name is Tim Sheahan and I …

It is important to note as a preface to this shocking report that there are scores of honorable companies that operate in the manufactured housing industry. For that reason, this fact- and evidence-supported MHLivingNews editorial report ought to be disturbing to honorable manufactured home professionals, to current and prospective manufactured home buyers, residents, and customers seeking the affordable quality lifestyle …

The “No Shame” part of the headline will be explained near the end of this report and analysis. That said, flashback to 2015 when The Guardian reported that Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS) had “nearly” 140,000 homesites for their residents who owned either a pre-HUD Code mobile home (MH) or a post-HUD Code manufactured home (MH).  Needless to say, ELS has …

Prior to diving into Ariana Figuero’s insightful report on how mobile and manufactured home residents are “sitting on a time bomb,” let’s be clear. There are two facers and bad actors in pretty much any walk of life one cares to mention. So, it should be no surprise that those who communicate in a different fashion than their behavior occurs …

Preface. As a disclosure, this writer has spent about half of my adult life living in manufactured homes. From Texas to Wisconsin, Illinois to Oklahoma, I’ve owned and lived in several HUD Code manufactured homes I was happy to have my friends and colleagues come to visit. I’ve also spent numbers of nights in later model mobile homes (late 1960s …

“It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you‘ve been playing all your life.” – Mickey Mantle per BrainyQuote and opening quote in hit Moneyball.   “I didn’t even want to meet Warren [Buffett] because I thought, ‘Hey this guy buys and sells things, and so he found imperfections in terms of markets, that’s not value added to society, that’s a zero-sum game that …

As a disclosure for new readers and as detail-minded and longtime readers here know, Manufactured Home Living News takes a dim view of predatory, illegal, and unethical business practices. Then what explains this evidence-based viewpoint on making arguably notorious Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds the new leaders for the Arlington, VA based Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI)? Simple. Because birds of …

Realtor.com says that Kristina Smallhorn goes by the moniker, “Your Real Estate Whisperer.” She tells those pondering the housing markets ‘secrets’ and insights that others may not realize. Manufactured Home Living News (MHLivingNews) stumbled across Smallhorn’s video last night, and we knew right away that we had to share it. Not because we think she’s made is a perfect video, …

Imagine for the new few minutes that you are a detective trying to solve a mystery. Detectives look for clues and examine evidence. Investigators ought to be objective. Like a doctor seeking the cause for an ailment, there are tests, results, facts, and reason that should to be the drivers for solving any puzzle.   Investigators ask questions, such as …

The executive summary of this article could read something like this.  Accurate housing or other fact checks are useful.  Pulling back the curtain on popular reports, to see what’s not stated, can be beneficial too.  When affordable housing shoppers hear about reports like the ones posted or linked below, its wise to step back to look anew at what the …

“Mobile homes were perfected by humans, but invented by snails,” John Oliver on HBO’s Last Week Tonight, per Time. “The homes of some the poorest people in America are being snapped up by some of the richest people in America.” Really? Let’s explore these and other claims in the fact check that follows, because some is true, some is spin, …