Move Industry Forward

“Change We Can Believe In” has been a popular saying lately. In fact those five words helped propel an unknown nominee into the national spotlight. Regardless of your politics, change is something we can all relate to since the manufactured housing industry overall has had to make some significant changes in the past decade. Change can be difficult, painful and often unwelcome. Some, but not all, change is good, and some is done only out of necessity. For those of you that have survived, the question is do you want to change BACK to what got us here in the first place, or do you ultimately want to change FORWARD to put your business on a path to sustainable growth?

Thayer Long, MHI Executive Vice- President, believes we are at a point now where changes in expectations and perspective are an absolute necessity to succeed, not just to survive. If we choose to continue to push for status quo, we will surely stumble along and survive—but only barely. We need to look to the future and not attempt to live in the past. We can emerge as a dominant force in America’s housing. First, there has to be a real change in perspective by the industry that we are in this together and we need to trust each other in order to make it work. No industry is successful with a bifurcated message to decision makers. We need to be pulling in the same direction to get things done. We must work together for what is best for us and for our customers. Consensus and compromise is essential in obtaining real results, particularly with politicians in Washington, DC. We do not need the federal government playing referee for the industry. We need to handle our business in the locker room and come ready to play ball.

Second, there has been a general change in expectations. Some folks place too much blame on Washington for all our problems. There is no question that federal policies have great impact on our industry, but ultimately decisions at the federal level did not get us where we are today. Our experiences have shown us what the lack of financing can do to an industry and that abandoning sound lending practices is not sustainable in the long run and is fraught with peril. Sensible underwriting criteria has resulted in manufactured home loans now performing better than ever. We also know that the HUD code is a performance based code created to provide flexibility to build higher quality homes. We must evolve to improve our industry and re-establish our dominance in the housing market.

Lastly, because of positive changes, Thayer believes that policy makers and consumers are changing their attitudes towards manufactured housing. This is evidenced by many successes in recent Title I reforms, the “duty to serve” by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and more positive press. Positive change will help us move further forward, not back.

Linda Lindholm