Skip to main content

Ten Things Every Landlord Should Know About Fair Housing

 

 

Sounds pretty simple if there are just 10 things to advise Landlords about with regard to fair housing law. Unfortunately there are more than just the 10 items listed in this article. However, these 10 are an excellent start, and knowing about fair housing will help lead to understanding what should and should not be done when renting property. Understanding fair housing is the best protection against a claim that a fair housing law has been violated. If you are an attorney advising a landlord on what to watch out for, the following items are a good start.

 

 

Community Financing: The Outlook for Owners in Mid 2018

By Zach Koucos, Senior Director, HFF

 

The financial headlines during the first few weeks of the new year were dominated by political, stock market, and interest rate volatility. Nonetheless, 2018 is positioned to be another very strong year from a real estate capital markets perspective. Providers of capital across the industry are planning to match or exceed their lending and investment volume from last year. 2017 saw the manufactured home community (MHC) industry continue to benefit from a growing shortage of affordable housing in markets across the United States. Furthermore, demand increases have outpaced supply for MHC assets, a trend that should continue throughout 2018. 

 

Most investors and capital providers believe that 2018 will be an excellent time to consume and deploy capital, either by selling assets, acquiring value-add acquisitions, or taking advantage of attractive fixed and floating rate financing. Capitalization rates (the rate of return) for well-located, quality manufactured home communities remain aggressively low, as relatively slow deal flow cannot keep pace with the amount of desired equity deployment from institutional and private investors. Thus, we continue to see more flexible investment strategies across the board, as groups struggle to deploy a plentiful amount of capital.  

 

As an example, we have seen institutional and private investors with a traditional focus on Class A (top quality) MHC's in major U.S. metro areas expand their focus to include Class B and C properties in these same markets, or in secondary or smaller U.S. markets. The continuing disappearance of distressed acquisition opportunities, and the unwillingness of owners of Class A MHC's to sell, has forced certain investors to look at value-add deals that require more complex business plans to achieve acceptable investment returns. Buyers acquiring MHC's are still benefitting from very attractive fixed and floating interest rate financing, and interest-only payments, which help support higher transaction price points. Furthermore, investors understand that most assets will continue to benefit from additional revenue growth over the course of the coming years, and are often willing to factor this growth into present day valuations.

 

From an MHC financing perspective, liquidity continues to increase and various capital sources are showing more flexibility and aggressiveness as they try to keep pace with their dollar volume allocations. This translates to a very favorable financing environment for owners and buyers of MHC's. Life insurance companies are generally increasing real estate allocations, and can offer extremely attractive non-recourse long term financing solutions (up to 40 years) for owners looking to lock in today's still low interest rates. 

 

We have seen life company lenders reduce credit spreads (the method by which loan interest rates are priced), lengthen amortization schedules, and provide interest-only payment options before amortization kicks in. Since they are on-book" or "balance sheet" lenders

Eugene Registered Guard Article MHCO's Response How Not to Conduct Consignment/Sale of Resident's Home In a Manufactured Home Community

Editor's Note:  Last month the Eugene "Registered Guard" ran an article on the front page on a manufactured home community - Falconwood Manufactured Home Community.  The article has caught the attention of Oregon Legislators who are demanding more protections for residents.  Many of the protections that may be proposed have already been passed into law (HB 3016 - passed in 2015).   MHCO asked our legal counsel Phil Querin to review the article and advise members how to to CORRECTLY sell a resident's home.  

Here is a link to the orginal Eugene Register Guard Article:

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/36552747-75/state-investigates-sa...

Phil's article is attached - simply click the attached file ABOVE.

What We Do for You

 

 

You do a lot for your communities' residents. The question is: do we make a mistake by not reminding them from time to time about all of the things they would truly miss if these things went away or were even curtailed? And while it is true that most of the things we do to operate and manage our parks are for reasons like the bottom line, they for sure benefit the residents. Take rent increases, as an example. No one likes them, of course. The sting of a rent increase may be lessened if the residents realize all of the things the owners and managers do with the residents' best interests at heart. Residents rarely think about what an inviting mobilehome park you provide and what it takes to keep it that way. And, why should they? It's the owners' and managers' job to keep things running smoothly. The next time you: raise the rent, amend a rule, change a policy, reframe it in your own mind and think "what's the benefit to the resident?". Everyone's favorite radio station is WIIFM (What's In It For Me). We need to adapt our mindset a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

What We Do for You

 

 

You do a lot for your communities' residents. The question is: do we make a mistake by not reminding them from time to time about all of the things they would truly miss if these things went away or were even curtailed? And while it is true that most of the things we do to operate and manage our parks are for reasons like the bottom line, they for sure benefit the residents. Take rent increases, as an example. No one likes them, of course. The sting of a rent increase may be lessened if the residents realize all of the things the owners and managers do with the residents' best interests at heart. Residents rarely think about what an inviting mobilehome park you provide and what it takes to keep it that way. And, why should they? It's the owners' and managers' job to keep things running smoothly. The next time you: raise the rent, amend a rule, change a policy, reframe it in your own mind and think "what's the benefit to the resident?". Everyone's favorite radio station is WIIFM (What's In It For Me). We need to adapt our mindset a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

Phil Querin Q&A: 72 Hour Notice and Partial Payment

 

Question: A resident stops by the manager's office on the 5th of the month and offers to pay $150 of the $350 of rent that is due, and promising to pay the remaining $200 by the 15thof the month. The tenant claims that the landlord mustaccept the partial payment. What are the landlord's options? Can the landlord refuse the partial payment? Where do you draw the line - say a 72 hour notice has been issued - does that change the partial payment scenario?

 

Phil Querin Q&A: 72 Hour Notice and Partial Payment

 

Question: A resident stops by the manager's office on the 5th of the month and offers to pay $150 of the $350 of rent that is due, and promising to pay the remaining $200 by the 15thof the month. The tenant claims that the landlord mustaccept the partial payment. What are the landlord's options? Can the landlord refuse the partial payment? Where do you draw the line - say a 72 hour notice has been issued - does that change the partial payment scenario?

 

Subscribe to