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What is this thing called Marketing?

Let's first look at what Webster has to say about the meaning of "marketing" - (1) the act or process of buying and selling in a market; and (2) the commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.  A more commercial definition of marketing that might be found in a high school or college text could read something like this: "creating a sale with the consumer for your product and/or service."

         Then, let's look at Webster's definition of "promoting" - (1) to forward or further, to encourage, to advance; (2) to raise to a more important rank, to contribute to the progress or growth of, to urge adoption of or advocate; and (3) to attempt to sell or popularize by advertising or by securing financial support.  Again, a more commercial definition of promoting might be something like: "bringing the consumer to your product and/or service."

         These definitions tell us that we need to be involved in both promoting and marketing!  It is the act of promoting that creates enthusiasm and brings us the traffic.  It is the act of marketing that defines the sale of a home or signing of a lease.  Without both of these tools in your toolkit, you would have a really hard time filling, re-filling, or upgrading your community.

Deciding Why you Want to Market

Do you want to promote because you have a new development?  Or will it be to fill vacancies within an existing community, or to upgrade (and turn around) an older community?  Each of these three stages of a community requires a different marketing plan, a different focus, different promotional strategies, and differing amounts of involvement.

Marketing has been the subject of many volumes of material, college courses, high school courses, and numerous articles in literally thousands of magazines. There are many facets of marketing for whatever business you try to promote.  It depends on the type of market you are in, the general state of the economy at the time you decide to start a promotion and marketing program, whether you are creating a demand or meeting a need, and several other variables.

Who are your Partners in Marketing?

Media Sources

• Motif
• Residents
• Employees
• Retailers
• Curb Appeal
• Vendors
• Personal Development
• Professionalism
• Industry Knowledge
• Civic Involvement

The Mental Picture of Marketing

Every minute of every day in every dealing you have with each person, you are promoting yourself, the company you represent, your community, and the industry as a whole.  Picture a diagram that consists of a huge wheel.  There is a hub in the very center. It is a small circle.  You are this hub.  Radiating outward from this hub are eleven spokes that then connect with a huge wheel on the outside.  Each of the eleven spokes is one of the areas of promotion we are going to discuss in this handbook.  The huge wheel on the outside is your market: the general public, the planning and zoning officials. 

In other words, this huge wheel is a never-ending stream of potential customers.  This huge wheel also makes up the members of the general public at large.  Everyone has an opinion.  On this huge wheel, everyone has an opinion about manufactured housing and manufactured home communities.  Part of a successful promotion and marketing program is to create more and more favorable opinions of the general public that is part of that huge wheel. 

When the one of the eleven spokes joins the wheel, a direct line of vision, understanding and agreement is created between the hub (you) and the wheel (your market).  Both ends of the spoke (you in the hub and the general public on the wheel) then see things the same way.  The conduit that enables this "coming together" of opinion is the spoke that links you in your hub with your potential customer on the huge wheel.  When this happens, you have successfully created a promotion (being noticed) that may result in effective marketing (a sale or lease).   The other positive side effect is usually the creation of a more favorable image of the manufactured housing industry as a whole.

When the public that is represented by the wheel is comprised of elected officials, your promotional efforts may result in positive zoning decisions or approval of expansion plans for a new community.  When that public represents your customer, you will have created a sale of a home or a lease of a homesite.  We need all kinds of people from this public arena on our side.

This illustration gives you a visual image of the way a successful promotion can take you where you have never been before - or leave you spinning around in circles.  You are in the center ring.  Take charge of your promotional efforts.  Create new markets.  Realize new growth opportunities.  Change the image of manufactured housing.  It all starts with you!

A successful promotion and marketing program will affect your staff, your community, your residents, their friends, their co-workers and families, the surrounding business community, and the industry as a whole in a positive way.  It will help change the perception of manufactured housing in the eyes of the uneducated public, the elected officials, and increase the number of homeowners.  Your successful promotion and marketing program will generate a continued bottom-line growth for your community and your company while providing housing that is perceived as a true value by your customers.

And, by the same token, an unsuccessful promotion and marketing program - or the total lack of one - can keep your community frozen in time.  It can perpetuate a negative image of the industry.  It will hamper your efforts in expansion, fill or upgrade.  It will prevent you from reaching the highest level of personal and professional excellence that is obtainable.  To be more blunt, the lack of a promotion and marketing program that does good means you, your community, and the industry will suffer.  It means that more people will neither believe nor share the positive messages the industry has to offer.

Key Concepts to a Successful Marketing Program 

• A successful promotion is a successful perception of value
• Every day is Open House
• Curb appeal is your job
• Use white classifieds
• Use reverse classifieds
• Create a comparison grid for your community
• Look at your community honestly - through the eyes of a video
• Enforce your Guidelines for better curb appeal
• Remember that word-of-mouth is your best advertising
• Utilize business cards in new and creative ways
• Everyone forms an opinion and every opinion matters
• We are no better than others perceive us to be
• Help retailers understand the values of your community
• Allow them to use the amenities
• Invite them to activities
• Offer a special tour for new salespeople
• Allow them to install model homes
• Hang a lifestyle picture in their sales office
• Visit on a regular basis
• Use custom labels for bags of donuts or candy
• Color code a map with vacant sites and sizes of homes
• Send gift certificates to a salesman's spouse
• Call to thank them for sending prospects
• Consider using resident referrals
• Free rent
• Certificates for dinner
• Mention in the newsletter
• Create a win-win promotion
• Give a shed, plants, gift certificate from nursery, deck, patio furniture, lawn mower, lawn care for six months, snow removal for a season, sod for the lawn, reduced water bill for watering
• Take brochures to area businesses
• Join the chamber of commerce and volunteer on committees

Editor's Note:  Recently came across this article.  Although it pertains to Seattle this could just as easily happen in Salem, Medford, Bend or Newport.  Make sure you know your Fair Housing Laws!!

The Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR) recently filed charges against 23 property owners after its latest round of fair housing testing allegedly showed that prospective renters experienced different treatment from Seattle landlords based on familial status, disability, and use of a federal Section 8 voucher.

Housing discrimination is real in Seattle--not something that just happens in other places

Political Lay of the Land for Oregon Business Community in 2016 - It is Not Pretty

IP28 - Business Tax Initiative will be the big driver of this year's election.    May cost the business community $22 million to defeat.  Dilemma for business community is we may defeat IP28 but lose more seats in the Oregon House - in which case the Democrats would have a Super Majority and pass IP 28 in the 2017 Legislative Session.  They only need to pick up one more seat (flip a Republican seat to a Democrat) and they will have a super majority in both the House and Senate.  Financial resources will be tight because of IP28 - in the end the business community and the Republican caucus expect to only fully fund" four or five of the House seats "in play".  Priority will be to protect incumbents.

No one knows how the national ticket will impact Oregon Legislative races.  In the 2016 Oregon Primary Election Democrats turned out 66% of the vote

A New Jersey landlord recently agreed to pay $5,000 to settle allegations that he refused to rent to a prospect after she expressed her intention to pay her rent using federal Section 8 housing vouchers, according to an announcement by New Jersey Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy and the Division of Civil Rights.

The federal Section 8 housing voucher program provides financial assistance to eligible persons for the rental of privately owned housing. New Jersey fair housing law bans discrimination based on source of lawful income used for rental or mortgage payments, including Section 8 housing vouchers.

According to her complaint, the prospect saw an apartment rental advertised on Craigslist in February 2012, but when she called, a woman told her that the landlord didn't accept Section 8 housing vouchers. When she called back a few days later, the prospect said she spoke with the landlord, who allegedly said that he used to accept Section 8 vouchers, but no longer did.

When later questioned by investigators, the landlord said he didn't recall speaking with the woman, but he allegedly acknowledged that he didn't accept Section 8 vouchers because of difficulties with a prior resident who paid with them.

Under the settlement, the landlord and his company will be subject to monitoring by the Division for two years to ensure compliance with fair housing laws. Among other things, the settlement requires them to keep detailed records of all applicants, including contact information, the type of unit they sought, whether they were offered an opportunity to rent, and the reason for any applicant rejection. In addition, the landlord, who is an attorney, agreed to attend continuing legal education on the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, including a module on fair housing laws. Under the agreement, failure to comply with any aspect of the settlement will result in reinstatement of a $5,000 civil penalty that was suspended.

This settlement represents a fair resolution to a troubling matter

Before adjourning for the summer recess last week, the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), which includes language allowing Section 8 vouchers to be used for the purchase of manufactured homes.  MHI was a part of a coalition of more than 40 housing and advocacy groups supporting Senate passage of the legislation, which was already passed unanimously by the House of Representatives in February. Congress sent the bill to the President for his signature on Tuesday, and he is expected to sign it into law.

The provision increasing the flexibility for low income families to use a Section 8 voucher to purchase a manufactured home was added on the House floor in February by an amendment offered by Representative Peter Welch (D-VT).  Passed by a voice vote, the amendment allows Section 8 vouchers to be used not just for the cost of leasing the land (which is currently permitted) but also for other monthly costs of purchasing a manufactured home, including mortgage payments, property tax, and insurance.  This change would allow families that receive a tenant-based Section 8 voucher to help pay for an alternative to renting an apartment - allowing them to actually purchase a home.  The language does not provide any direct funds or require anyone to use a voucher to live in a manufactured home. However, with this change, the approximately 2.1 million Section 8 voucher holders in America will now have the option to use their Section 8 voucher to buy a manufactured home. 

The amendment was supported by Financial Services Committee Chairman Hensarling (R-TX) and Ranking Member Waters (D-CA). 

Overall, H.R. 3700 reforms federal housing programs to improve families' access to high-opportunity areas, improve public housing residents' quality of life, cut program costs, encourage work, expand homeownership opportunities, and reduce homelessness.  The MHC industry worked as a part of a coalition of housing and advocacy groups urging passage of these reforms.  MHC advocates played a major role in first getting an identical manufactured housing provision passed in the 2007 Section 8 reform bill (H.R. 1851) and in Section 8 reform bills in subsequent Congresses. While Congress has vetted most of the bill's provisions over the years as part of previous proposals that have had broad support in Congress and from stakeholders, the reforms never became law.

Section 8 Housing will be a major topic at this year's MHCO Conference - October 24-25th in Eugene.  We are receiving an increasing number of phone calls on Section 8 vochures.   Make sure you know your rights and responsibilities as managers and landlords when it comes to this important affordable housing program!

Editor's Note:  This article appeared in the "Oregonian" earlier this week.  Although the article's focus is Seattle and Portland and apartment rent this debate on rent will likely generate several rent control bills in the 2017 Oregon Legislature that will likely impact manufactured home communities.  MHCO continues to monitor the political situation and educate Oregon Legislators.  However, articles like this make it certain that urban legislators will seek some form of rent control.

A Seattle city councilmember has proposed severely curtailing the amount of cash new renters need to plunk down to move in, The Seattle Times reports.

The bold move is sure to hit on a hot-button issue for renters in the Emerald City - as well as up and down the West Coast, where rents have continued to rapidly climb in recent years.

Over the past year, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco have led the nation in greatest percentage growth. Seattle's year-to-year rents increased 9.7 percent, which was four times the national rate. Portland ranked second at 9 percent and San Francisco at 7.4 percent, according to Zillow.com. Denver was fourth at 5.9 percent.

In Seattle, the average rent in June was a scorching $2,031 per month, according to Zillow.com. In Portland, it was lower, but still a sizzling $1,764 per month.

Think that's high? Keep in mind that in San Francisco, rents last month averaged nearly $3,400 per month.

Take a second for all of that to sink in. And now, back to Seattle, where City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has proposed limiting move-in fees -- including a security deposit and any nonrefundable, one-time payments -- to no more than the cost of one month's rent.

Sawant's proposal, made last week, also would require landlords to allow renters to pay their move-in fees in installments rather than immediately and in full. Landlords asking for last month's rent up front would also likewise be required to accept that sum in installments.

Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Mike O'Brien will support Sawant's proposed ordinance, they said. But Washington's Rental Housing Association, a trade group for landlords, will not.

In Oregon, state lawmakers haven't legislated any restrictions on the amount of money renters have to come up with in order to move in, according to the rental law tracking site Landlordology.

But Portland leaders have talked about other ways to help out renters.

In 2015, Portland began requiring that owners of rental properties give tenants 90 days of written notice before raising their rents by 5 percent or more, or when terminating a lease without cause.

But hitting the problem head-on - that is, putting a cap on rents - hasn't been an option in Oregon. Oregon forbids cities and counties from enacting rent control laws. But changing state law has been talked about - as recently as a 2015 town hall discussion in Portland.

-- Aimee Green and The Associated Press

Good evening everyone. This story just broke in "The Oregonian" this evening. We have been talking about this since the February 2016 Legislative Session. Clearly this is a brutal reality that we all will be facing in 2017. If you were not concerned - you certainly should be now. In all likelihood we will have a long, vicious legislative fight on our hands. MHCO will definitely be in the trenches and will need all of you to be involved.

By Dana Tims | The Oregonian/OregonLive 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on September 13, 2016 at 12:45 PM, updated September 13, 2016 at 6:38 PM
House Speaker Tina Kotek, signaling fresh urgency for tackling Oregon's housing crisis, said she will push next year to end no-cause evictions, lift the state's ban on rent-control laws and ban all rent increases above a "reasonable" percentage for the foreseeable future. 

Kotek laid out those policy goals in an address Monday night to the Oregon Opportunity Network, a supportive advocacy group that lobbies for affordable housing and renter protections. 

But Kotek, according to a transcript of her remarks, said she fully expects the proposals will spark controversy. 

"Frankly, it means things are going to get uncomfortable," the North Portland Democrat told the gathering of housing advocates. "Discomfort and determination are necessary when dealing with a crisis. We all need to be up to the task." 


Kotek and House Democrats had considered pushing further, before deciding to wait to try policy ideas such as extending notice periods for no-cause lease terminations. 

At the time, Kotek told The Oregonian/OregonLive she was warning lawmakers, "you're coming back in 2017 and we're going to talk about no-cause notices and evictions. We need to level the playing field for tenants." 

She then, she said Monday, things have only gotten worse, both in Portland and across the state. Rents have continued to rise, even as builders add thousands of units to address a longstanding shortage of supply. Demand has further been stoked by affluent workers, some arriving from out of state, willing to pay a premium to rent in high-end buildings. 

"Whole apartment buildings are seeing rents go up by 20 percent, or 30 percent, or more," she said. "Evictions have skyrocketed as some owners make way for new tenants with bigger salaries, or evict entire buildings with plans to renovate and join the luxury apartment market." 

Kotek explicitly called for lifting Oregon's ban on letting local governments pass rent-control ordinances, calling the practice "rent stabilization." 

Rent control is a controversial tool that lets local or state governments impose a price ceiling. 

"We can no longer avoid this discussion," she added. "We need to prevent property owners from making excessive profit and protect tenants from economic eviction and displacement." 

She also promised to fight for a statewide ban on "rent increases above a reasonable percentage until the housing crisis subsides." 

"Frankly, it means things are going to get uncomfortable," House Speaker Tina Kotek said. Kotek's office said the specifics of what constitutes a "reasonable percentage" or how long such a measure might be in effect will continue to be refined between now and the January start of the 2017 legislative session. 

Some immediately took issue with Kotek's housing initiatives, arguing such steps would make it more costly for builders to meet the state's housing demand. 

"It's almost textbook that any form of rent control ultimately harms consumers, as well as landlords," said Eric Fruits, an economist and editor of Portland State University's Center for Real Estate quarterly reports. "It may benefit some in the short term, but in the longer term, there will be fewer units available to rent, which will only make matters worse." 

Instead, Fruits said, the free market should be allowed to work, with higher prices sending signals to developers that more units are needed. 

Affordable-housing advocates disagreed, saying a surge in evictions of lower-income people is serious enough to demand a policy solution. 

"We are seeing signification numbers of folks having to move farther and farther out from the metro area to find affordable housing," said Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. "I talked with one member last night who can't even find a place in Gresham. Places long thought to be affordable for renters and first-time buyers are disappearing." 

Santos-Lyons said he'd like to see Kotek's call for a temporary cap on statewide rent increases made permanent. 

"The average family could certainly understand that something like a 3 percent increase would be reasonable," he said. "But as it is, what we're seeing is unfettered speculation." Katrina Holland, interim director of the Community Alliance of Tenants, said her office just learned that rents in one Southwest Portland apartment complex are scheduled to increase by 350 percent. 

"This is clearly something that we need to address," she said. "It's time to act." 
-- Dana Tims 
 

September 19, 2016
J. Kent Pearson, Jr.
Attorney
Bullard Law

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