What’s a community owner to do? Job layoffs everywhere. Company closings every day. Economic crisis looming around every corner. People abandoning more homes. Lenders losing performance quality of their portfolios. Rent collections decreasing. Delinquencies increasing. It’s enough to make you pull your hair out if you’re an owner, right? Or is it?
The basic rules of management still apply, as taught in the Manufactured Housing Educational Institute’s courses for community managers and owners. Collect the rent. Account for what you do. Lease the homesites. Maintain the community.
Collecting the rent may be tougher now that it was, but it still needs to be done. A community manager should know the laws in each state that govern the community business. Residents who live in your community signed a legally binding lease. They are still obligated to pay rent each month. They don’t pay if you allow them to not pay. Attitude on the part of the community manager makes a huge difference. You can have empathy for a resident, but not sympathy. You can understand their situation, and hate it for them, but you cannot feel sorry enough for them that you, as a community manager, allow your feelings to cloud the legalities of your position.
Account for what you do and it’s never been more important than it is now. A community owner somewhere is paying you for managing his/her community. How are you using those resources [personnel, budget, inventory] that you’ve been given? What are you doing to increase the value of the community? As manager, that’s a huge part of your job—especially in these economic times.
Lease the homesites. There are always people looking for a place to live. Housing is one of man’s basic needs. Yes, there has been a tightening with lenders and mortgages are harder to get. Some community owners have started to finance homes or begun to do more lease-purchases with their inventory. As a manager, your job is to work closely with lenders identified as your community partners by the owner to qualify prospects. Retailers who partner with your community should also know you are still leasing homesites.
Maintain the community. Even when times are tough, communities need to be attractively maintained in order to catch the attention of prospects. Infrastructure is aging, but still requires repairing and upgrading. No one wants to move into a community they would be ashamed to call home. Everyone wants to take pride in where they live. It’s more than a place to sleep, it’s a home.
Next week, we’ll look at the financial aspect of a community from a different angle. Add this blog to your regular Tuesday spots to visit!
