Manufactured Housing Life

As a Lifestylist®, I love to decorate for the holidays. It doesn't have to big a huge expense or time challenge - just bringing out the things you love and creating new memories makes that special day one to remember.

This is a home that we LifeStyled for Patriot Homes back in 2002 - where has the time gone! It was at the Tunica show, and I love that Patriot always let me merchandise our homes to show lifestyle, including holidays and special events.

The home was their least expensive model, but we reminded people that every home is a place where the new owners can create their own special memories.

Happy Easter from all of us at The Lifestylist Brands and American Housing Advocates.

There is a reason Texas is so strong in factory built home  sales - they have a great organization that makes sure that the facts get out to their members and consumers. We got this press release today:

TMHA is pleased to announce our newest member resource with today’s launching of our Owner-Finance Resource webpage.

We have long known a portion of our membership has engaged in some form of individual lending.  Typically this is referred to as “owner-financing.”  Admittedly lending operations were never simple, but the complexity and education needed in the new regulatory environment has had an exponential impact on the demands of any would be lender, especially smaller owner-finance lenders.

The cry for help, education, resources, and direction is a common request we hear these days.  The high turnout at TMHA’s Dodd-Frank Implementation Workshop further demonstrated the demand in our industry for more help and more education.

Today we are launching a new, completely dedicated resource page focused on owner-finance lending.  In conjunction with the webpage launch we are publishing three new articles below in what we expect to be the first three installments of an on-going series of articles dedicated to this area.

 

For more information about the Texas Manufactured Housing Association you can visit their website or email them at: info@texasmha.com

The Louisville Manufactured Housing Show was held this week, and hundreds of manufactured housing buyers attended the event that had 48 homes showcasing what's new in home design.

It motivated me to revisit the homes that Lifestylist Design had merchandised for Patriot Homes over the years and I came across this one. It's the perfect example of timeless design, or even deign ahead of it's time. Drapery panels instead of fussy valances? Yes. High flat ceilings? Yes again. Soft muted colors accented by fabrics and accessories? Exactly what we are seeing today. Believe it or not, this was a home that was shown 8 years ago!

This is a perfect example why great design will never go out of style. When looking for your new home look for ideas that aren't trendy but are something you want to live with for a long time. By adding color in items that can easily be replaced like fabric, furniture and accessories you'll always be in style.

2013 was a great year for the Lifestylist Brands. We were honored to be asked to speak at some large national conferences, new clients joined our family and we continued to be more active in social media.

Flipagram is an app that lets you choose photos that you used in Instargam and make a flip book movie out of them.

Take a look at our Flipagram movie and see some of the people, events and places that made 2013 a year to remember.

Happy Holidays from all of us at The Lifestylist Brands. May your holidays be bright and beautiful, and 2014 be a year of love, laughter and compassion.

All of us at The Lifestylist Brands would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. May it be filled with family, friends, love and great food!

When I trademarked the term Lifestylist® over 10 years ago I had no idea what I was in for. I thought by registering the name and going through the proper channels I'd be protected - unfortunately it wasn't that easy. You have to constantly monitor all of the media that is out there and be the  intellectual property cop which can be very time consuming, but the only way to protect what you have built. I've found that some people honestly didn't know that Lifestylist is a trademarked term and will remove their usage of it, but there are others who insist on getting lawyers involved.

Through all of this I've become increasingly more aware that there are some really stellar, ethical bloggers out there that really know their stuff and share great information and then well... there are others. Today I noticed a tweet from someone I follow and respect - Courtney Price of Courtney Price Design and sure enough it was full of great information that every blogger needs to be aware of.

Her article on Copyright Issues for Bloggers shows how to do the right thing - she contacted Susan and William from the House of Brinson about an online class they gave on copyrights,  got quotes and permission to use their photography and credited them in the article. Blogging should be about celebrating all of us - not just your own domain.

We teamed up at the beginning of our Lifestylist journey with Lisa Stewart of Lisa Stewart Photography so we would have the photos we need to tell our story with. I have a photography page at the top of my blog that credits her and states all photos are copyrighted.

Words to the wise: if you don't own the rights to a photo, got permission in writing to use it or took it yourself, don't use it. This is becoming an issue that more photographers and writers are taking seriously and winning in the battles that make it to court.

If you don't know if a term or service is trademarked you can go to the USPTO website, do a trademark search and anything that has been filed will be shown as well as who the owner is.

If you haven't discovered them already, be sure to visit The House of Brinson and Courtney Price Design to see examples of how to share ideas and make a house a home beautifully.