UMH Properties Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Properties First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Craig Coster, Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

Operator

Mr. Coster, you may begin.

Craig Koster
Craig Koster
Executive VP, General Counsel & Secretary at UMH Properties

Thank you very much, operator. In addition to the 10 Q that we filed with the SEC yesterday, we have filed an unaudited first quarter supplemental information presentation. This supplemental information presentation, along with our 10 Q, are available on the company's website at umh.reit. We would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this conference call, which are not historical facts, may be deemed forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward looking statements that we make on this call are based on our current expectations and involve various risks and uncertainties.

Craig Koster
Craig Koster
Executive VP, General Counsel & Secretary at UMH Properties

Although the company believes the expectations reflected in any forward looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, the company can provide no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations are detailed in the company's first quarter twenty twenty five earnings release and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any obligation to update its forward looking statements. In addition, during today's call, we will be discussing non GAAP financial metrics. Reconciliations of these non GAAP financial metrics to the comparable GAAP financial metrics as well as the explanatory and cautioning language are included in our earnings release, our supplemental information and our historical SEC filings.

Craig Koster
Craig Koster
Executive VP, General Counsel & Secretary at UMH Properties

Having said that, I would like to introduce management with us today: Eugene Landy, Founder and Chairman Samuel Landy, President and Chief Executive Officer Anna Chew, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Brett Taft, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jim Mickens, Vice President of Capital Markets and Daniel Landy, Executive Vice President. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to UMH's President and Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Landy.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Thank you very much, Greg. First, we are devastated by the passing of our Director, Casey Conway. Casey was an exceptional friend, father, director, economist and so much more. He positively impacted every organization he was involved in, and he will be greatly missed by all. Is pleased to report another solid quarter of operating and financial results.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Our communities continue to experience strong demand, which is resulting in increased occupancy and improved community operating results. Normalized FFO for the first quarter of twenty twenty five was $0.23 per diluted share as compared to $0.22 per diluted share last year, representing an increase of 5%. Our strong financial and operating results have given management and the Board of Directors the confidence to increase our common stock dividend by $04 per share annually to $0.90 per share. This represents a 4.7% increase over last year. We have now increased our dividend for five consecutive years for a cumulative annual increase of $0.18 or 25%.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Our business plan has been proven to provide investors with enduring long term value. The acquisitions and investments we have made in our communities have improved the overall quality of housing we provide, which has allowed us to increase occupancy through the successful implementation of our rental home and sales programs. We are optimistic that we will continue to increase earnings and value through the occupancy of our 3,400 vacant sites, development of our 2,400 acres of vacant land, the increased profitability of our sales division and through the acquisition of existing communities and development of new communities. Given the housing shortage and our position in the industry, we believe we have positioned the company for success for many years to come. Our same property results continue to meet our expectations.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Rental and related revenue increased by 8%, expenses increased by 8% and community NOI increased by 8%. Our expenses in the first quarter were elevated as a result of the difficult winter throughout our entire portfolio. That being said, we are pleased with the performance of our communities in this environment. Same property occupancy increased by 113 units year to date and two twenty seven units over the first quarter of last year. The demand we are seeing at the community level should result in further occupancy gains throughout the remainder of the year.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Gross home sales for the quarter were $6,700,000 as compared to $7,400,000 last year, representing a decrease of approximately 9.5%. Included in last year's sales was the liquidation and sales of inventory at a sales center that was leased to a third party operator. Excluding these homes liquidated or sold in the sales center, sales of manufactured homes for the quarter ended 03/31/2024 amounted to $6,400,000 or 88 homes and cost of sales amounted to $4,200,000 Our gross sales profit for the quarter was $2,300,000 and our net profit from sales was approximately $618,000 During the quarter, we sold 71 homes, of which 26 were new, averaging $151,000 per sale and 45,000 were used, averaging $60,000 per sale. Our sales results should continue to improve throughout the year as we enter our peak selling season and generate increased sales at our recently opened expansions. We continue to make progress obtaining approvals for expansion sites on our vacant land.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

We anticipate the development of over 150 sites this year. These sites are well located in markets where existing communities experience high occupancy levels, rental rates and sales profits. Our vacant land and these expansion sites give us a long runway to deliver organic growth for the foreseeable future. Expansions improve the community operating results as many of the community expenses are fixed. These expansions greatly increase the value of our communities while generating sales profits and improving our community operating results.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

We have over $45,000,000 invested in expansions that are not yet generating our expected yield on cost. As we sell homes and fill these sites, our occupancy rates, income and NOI should rise accordingly, resulting in our 2,400 acres of vacant land becoming valuable. We will continue to work on expanding our existing communities in addition to exploring selling our vacant land to single family homebuilders or for other higher and better uses. Our rental home program continues to perform as expected. We have strong demand throughout our portfolio and in many cases have waiting lists.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Our rental home occupancy rate increased from 94 at year end to 94.6% at the end of the first quarter. During the first quarter, we converted 109 new homes from inventory to revenue generating rental homes. We anticipate adding 800 new rental homes to our portfolio this year. Our turnover rates remain low between 20% to 30%. Our rental home repair and maintenance remains at approximately $400 per home per year.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

On the acquisition front, we closed on the acquisition of two communities located in Mantua, New Jersey for a total purchase price of $24,600,000 or $92,500 per site. These two communities contain two sixty six sites of which 100% are owner occupied. They are five star age restricted communities that we are proud to add to our portfolio. Our current acquisition pipeline contains two communities in Maryland that we hope to close in the second quarter consisting of 191 sites that are approximately 76% occupied. The purchase price for these communities is $14,600,000 or $76,600 per site.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

We continue to evaluate future acquisitions and hope to grow our acquisition pipeline in the near future. We are still assessing the impact of tariffs on our business, but early indications are they will have a minimal impact on our business. We currently have over six fifty homes on order with more than 500 homes delivered to our communities. The 500 homes are paid for and we don't anticipate large price increases on the balance. These homes should allow us to rapidly increase occupancy at our communities.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Additionally, our rent collections remain strong and in line with our historical collection rates, application volume is up and sales demand is strong. We will continue to monitor the impact of tariffs and geopolitical issues on our business, but at the moment all appears to be business as usual. Over the past one, five and ten years ending 12/31/2024, has been the top manufactured housing REIT. Our total shareholder return in 2024 was approximately 30% for one year, fifty one percent over five years and 234% over ten years. We have a proven track record of executing our business plan.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Since 2020, has increased its dividend by 25%. Our business plan has positioned us with 3,400 vacant sites and 2,400 acres of vacant land to continue our organic growth. This organic growth should allow us to generate similar earnings growth and operating results for years to come. Additionally, with our strong balance sheet, we are prepared to execute on compelling acquisitions as they become available. The fundamentals of manufactured housing are strong and is well positioned to continue to grow through our established long term business plan.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

And now Anna will provide you with greater detail on our results for the quarter.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Thank you, Sam. Normalized FFO, which excludes amortization and non recurring items was $18,800,000 or $0.23 per diluted share for the first quarter of twenty twenty five compared to $15,000,000 or $0.22 per diluted share for 2024 resulting in a 25% cumulative increase and a 5% per diluted share increase. Rental and related income for the quarter was $54,600,000 compared to $50,300,000 a year ago, representing an increase of 8%. This increase was primarily due to an increase in same property occupancy, the addition of rental homes and an increase in rental rates. Community operating expenses increased 9% during the quarter.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

This increase was mainly due to an increase in payroll costs, real estate taxes, snow removal and water and sewer expenses. Our same property results continued to meet our expectations. Same property income increased by 8% for the quarter and despite the 8% increase in community operating expenses, community NOI increased by 8% for the quarter from $30,000,000 in 2024 to $32,500,000 in 2025. As we turn to our capital structure, at quarter end, we had approximately $6.00 $6,000,000 in debt, of which $476,000,000 was community level mortgage debt, dollars 29,000,000 was loans payable and $101,000,000 was our 4.72% Series A bonds. Total debt was 99% fixed rate at quarter end with a weighted average interest rate of 4.39%.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

The weighted average interest rate on our mortgage debt was 4.18% at quarter end compared to 4.17% at quarter end last year. The weighted average maturity on our mortgage debt was four point two years at quarter end and five point one years at quarter end last year. In this volatile interest rate environment, the weighted average interest rate on our short term borrowings was 29 basis points lower at 6.5% at the current quarter end as compared to 6.79% at quarter end last year. In total, the weighted average interest rate on our total debt was 17 basis points lower at 4.39% at the current quarter end compared to 4.56% at quarter end last year. At quarter end, had a total of $322,000,000 in perpetual preferred equity.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Our preferred stock combined with an equity market capitalization of over $1,500,000,000 and our $6.00 $6,000,000 in debt results in a total market capitalization of approximately $2,500,000,000 at quarter end as compared to 2,100,000,000 last year, representing an increase of 18%. During the quarter, we issued and sold 515,000 shares of common stock under the twenty twenty four September common ATM program at a weighted average price of $18.21 per share, generating gross proceeds of $9,400,000 and net proceeds of $9,200,000 after offering expenses. The company also received $2,600,000 including dividends reinvested through the DRIP. During the quarter, we issued and sold 49,000 shares of Series D preferred stock under the 2023 preferred ATM program at a weighted average price of $23.3 per share, which generated gross and net proceeds after offering costs of $1,100,000 On 03/05/2025, the company terminated the use of the 2023 preferred ATM program and entered into the 2025 preferred ATM program, under which we may offer and sell shares of the company's Series D preferred stock having an aggregate sales price of up to $100,000,000 At the time of such termination, approximately $16,500,000 of Series D preferred stock remained unsold under the 2023 preferred ATM program.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

As of 03/31/2025, the company has not issued or sold any shares under the 2025 preferred ATM program. Subsequent to quarter end, we issued and sold an additional 1,200,000.0 shares of our common stock under the twenty twenty four September common ATM program at a weighted average price of $17.89 per share, generating net proceeds after offering costs of $21,500,000 As of 04/30/2025, dollars '50 '8 point '5 million of common stock remained eligible for sale under the twenty twenty four September common ATM program. From a credit standpoint, we ended the quarter with net debt to total market capitalization of 23.1%, net debt less securities to total market capitalization of 21.8%, net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 4.9 times and net debt less securities to adjusted EBITDA of 4.6 times. Interest coverage was 4.1 times and fixed charge coverage was 2.4 times. In the beginning of twenty twenty five, we had 23 mortgages totaling $115,000,000 due within the next twelve months, of which 10 mortgages totaling approximately $46,000,000 were due in the first and second quarters of twenty twenty five.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

During the quarter, we paid off one mortgage totaling $6,400,000 with cash on hand. Subsequent to quarter end, we paid off nine mortgages totaling $39,300,000 and drew down $40,000,000 on our unsecured revolving credit facility. We are in the process of refinancing these mortgages with Fannie Mae. These mortgages are expected to close in the coming weeks. We believe that proceeds from these refinancings will significantly exceed the $45,700,000 in mortgages that were paid off.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

From a

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

liquidity standpoint, we ended the quarter with $35,200,000 in cash and cash equivalents and $260,000,000 available on our unsecured revolving credit facility with a potential total availability of up to $500,000,000 pursuant to an accordion feature. We also had $192,000,000 available on our other lines of credit for the financing of home sales and the purchase of inventory and rental homes. Additionally, we had $30,300,000 in our REIT securities portfolio, all of which is unencumbered. This portfolio represents only approximately 1.5% of our undepreciated assets. We are committed to not increasing our investments in our REIT securities portfolio and have in fact continued to sell certain positions.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Our guidance for full year 2025 remains unchanged. We expect normalized FFO in the range of $0.96 to $1.04 per diluted share, a 7.5% growth at the midpoint compared to twenty twenty four's zero '9 '3 dollars per share. We are well positioned to continue to grow the company internally and externally. And now let me turn it over to Gene before we open it up for questions.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

Thank you, Anna. Is off to a solid start in 2025. Our communities continue to deliver stable and growing returns. We have access to equity and debt capital to invest in our long term business plan and may be able to rapidly grow the company if compelling opportunities become available. Demand for affordable housing in our markets and across the country remains incredibly strong.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

Our communities continue to fill sites with homes for rent and sale. Our long term business plan has favorably positioned the company with 3,400 vacant sites to fill and 2,400 acres of land to develop. These vacant sites and vacant acres are increasingly valuable as the affordable housing crisis continues to intensify. These vacant sites and vacant acres are the key to driving organic growth for the next five years. Within the next five years, we believe our community should be full, and there will be limited lots available for additional expansion sites on which to place homes.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

The housing crisis and the inability for conventional builders to deliver housing at an affordable price point highlight the tailwinds between and our industry. Should achieve nearly 100% occupancy and make continued progress developing our expansion land. All of these items could translate to substantial earnings improvement, a stable income stream and an attractive valuation. UMH is a leader in the manufactured housing industry. We have worked with MHI and our manufacturers to improve our product and provide housing solutions in both rural and urban settings.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

We have championed the duplex manufactured home, which allows us to increase density and provide affordable housing in more expensive markets. We've also worked with CAF to pilot a solar home with solar shingles, unlike solar panels, are installed at the factory and do not require drilling holes for mounting hardware as panels do. In addition, installing shingles at the factory greatly reduce the cost. Our country is 4,000,000 homes short, and last year, we only built 1,300,000 homes. Therefore, we need an affordable housing solution.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

We are working diligently to do more to help provide this housing and position manufactured housing as the preferred solution to the problem. We are proud of the progress we have made, but we must do more to combat the affordable housing crisis.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And your first question comes from Gaurav Mehta with Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.

Gaurav Mehta
Managing Director at Alliance Global Partners

Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to ask you on your rent growth expectations. Are you guys still expecting to see 5% rent growth that you have talked about in the past this year?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Yes. At this moment, yes. We the 5% rent increase notices get sent and

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

Yes. And we've had no issue year to date sending out the notices, achieving our 5% increases. As we go throughout the year, our plan is still to push out a 5% increase. We're seeing strong demand at our properties. Rental demand is strong.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

Our sales pipeline is growing and we don't think the 5% is going to be an issue.

Gaurav Mehta
Managing Director at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. Second question, I think you talked about tariffs and it seems like you guys have pre ordered six fifty homes. But I was wondering if you were to order new homes today, are the prices up versus the prices that you guys ordered for pre order?

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

The prices are up a little bit, but not substantially yet. We've seen 3% to 5% price increases for manufacturers. But I think over the next month or two is where we'll really start to see the impact of the tariffs. As we always point out, we've done okay with higher prices even though we prefer prices to be lower and it increases our return expectations etcetera. Our bigger concern here is supply chain disruptions and the inability to get the homes.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

We're renting homes for $1,000 12 hundred dollars 14 hundred dollars a month. We're earning over 10% on our rental investments, which is clearly accretive. If prices went up a little bit, we'd still have an accretive use, but we'd carefully look at the locations we're putting rentals in and make sure that we're selecting the right product, the right lot, and the right market.

Gaurav Mehta
Managing Director at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. And then lastly, rates for refinancing the mortgage, I think you talked about looking to refinance the mortgage in twenty May this quarter. What kind of rates are you guys seeing now?

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Well, the ten year to our rates are based on the ten year treasury because we anticipate doing a ten year loan, And those rates have stabilized a little bit. It's come down as a matter of fact a little. And because of that, we believe that the rates will be around the 5.5% to maybe 5.75%, but in that range. But we should know within the next few weeks because we will hopefully be closing within the next few weeks.

Gaurav Mehta
Managing Director at Alliance Global Partners

Okay. Thank you. That's all I had.

Operator

And your next question comes from Rob Stevenson with Janney. Please go ahead.

Rob Stevenson
Managing Director - Head of Real Estate Research at Janney Montgomery Scott

Good morning, guys. Brett, just a follow-up on the same store revenue question. On the expense growth on the same store portfolio, are you seeing any notable upward pressure on real estate taxes or any other place on the expense side at this point in

Rob Stevenson
Managing Director - Head of Real Estate Research at Janney Montgomery Scott

year?

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

There's definitely been an increase in real estate taxes, a small increase, increase alone. There are some other properties we're looking at potentially appealing to hopefully reduce that number, but we're working on that currently. Just to go over the same property numbers for a minute, we're pretty pleased with our 8.1% growth. We think that as we continue to go through the year and occupy that inventory that we previously discussed, rental and related income should grow in excess of 8%. The community operating expenses were 7.8% increase over last year.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

And this was a very tough winter. I know Sam mentioned it during his portion of the call, but snow removal expenses alone were up over $250,000 Add to that, you have overtime related expenses, repairs and maintenance increased a little bit as well. So, you know, snow removal really drove this number from what I expected to be in the 6% range up to 7.8%. Going forward throughout the rest of the year, we do expect that number to come down a little bit with the one caveat that we're assessing the impact of tariffs on the business.

Rob Stevenson
Managing Director - Head of Real Estate Research at Janney Montgomery Scott

Okay. That snow removal is going be my next question. And then I guess the question you guys talked about duplexes and smaller units as well as solar shingle homes. Have you guys put any considerable numbers of those in the portfolio today? And how is it being if so how are they being received by prospective tenants or buyers if they're going to be ones for sale rather than rent?

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

Yes. So on the solar shingles, we had our first twenty homes delivered to Friendly Village in Perrysburg, Ohio earlier this year. They have the first ten just completed being set up and I believe seven of them are occupied. We've got deposits on the other three. The product looks great.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

There is demand for it. We'll assess the impact of the energy savings and how our tenants ultimately do as time progresses and we get some real data there. The other 10 should be ready for occupancy soon. And in that location we shouldn't have any issue filling them. We've got approximately five duplexes that are fully set up at our at some of our Pennsylvania properties.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

They are mostly occupied. We're finalizing setup on one of them, but we haven't had any issues filling that. And we're working on some duplex orders for a location in Indiana and potentially that Friendly Village location.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

If I can add, manufacturing homes in a factory is much better than building in the field. And when we work with GAF, they they put things on in the field where they're dealing with individual homeowners. When you deal with the factory and you build in the factory, the cost is cut in half and the time is forty five minutes to put on an entire roof with solar shingles. So it's the most efficient way to do it, and it makes a lot of sense. And we've done it as a test and so far the test is going well.

Rob Stevenson
Managing Director - Head of Real Estate Research at Janney Montgomery Scott

What is at this point, what are you looking at as a potential premium for the solar shingle homes over normal shingle homes? And then what's the potential discount or lower pricing of duplexes versus the single wides in your portfolio?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

It's not so much that we're looking for the return on the solar, but, you know, our residents earn between, you know, predominantly 40,000 and $80,000. And so, you know, what they can

Operator

Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen. It looks like we have lost connection to our speaker line. Please stand by while we reconnect. Thank you for your patience. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is the operator.

Operator

We have reconnected the speakers and we will continue. Rob, please proceed with your question again.

Rob Stevenson
Managing Director - Head of Real Estate Research at Janney Montgomery Scott

So sorry, didn't know whether you got me before it cut off. But the solar shingle homes, the premium there and how much cheaper are the dupe are you renting out duplexes versus the normal sort of single wides?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Yeah. So the the purpose of the solar shingle, our residents are in between 40,000 and $80,000 per year. So if we can reduce their utility costs, we increase, you know, what they could pay for new homes, what they could pay for lot rent, and what they can pay for home rental. So it's not really so much that we expect to earn direct additional income from the solar, but we expect to increase our customer base, which, you know, the increased demand translates to increased profits. And in the case of the duplex home, there's, you know, there's an amount you can get per lot.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

But if you reduce the cost per unit so that we can provide these thousand square foot homes that are now two five hundred square foot one bedroom units. Instead of that lot in the house generating a thousand dollars per month, it can generate 1,516 hundred per month. So, you know, the the the duplex, you're gonna you're gonna get a higher return, per lot. The solar shingles is predominantly to increase the consumer base by increasing affordability.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

If I can add a single, an apartment for a single bedroom is about 325,000, 3 hundred 50 thousand to build. And as Sam pointed out, it's 625 feet or maybe less. And we're talking about producing a comparable 500 to 550 square foot apartment. And the the the the cost may be substantially less. It's just amazing at what what price would come in when we buy a unit for $75,000 and put it on our site.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

And we basically cut it in two, so it's around 550 square feet, one bedroom, and the the the the the cost is cut in half. So we're very excited about it, but it's a really a new development that we helped pioneer a year two years ago, and we're going to the major shows this year to see the newest, bottles of the single single unit duplexes. And that could be a major, major, housing breakthrough.

Rob Stevenson
Managing Director - Head of Real Estate Research at Janney Montgomery Scott

Okay. Thanks guys. Appreciate the time and have a great weekend.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Thank you.

Operator

And your next question comes from Craig Kucera with Lucid Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Craig Kucera
MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets

Hey, good morning guys. I appreciate the color on the new versus used home sales this quarter. Can you give us a sense of what the gross margins are on sale for those two types?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Percent, and there's places that can be substantially higher. But sales are remarkably strong, predominantly because of the number of people who downsize, who could sell their existing home, pay off their mortgage, and have cash to retire to, you know, a a downsized house for them, but a great house for us. And we've built expansions in the right locations. We're building new communities in the right locations.

Operator

Pardon me, ladies and gentlemen. It appears we have lost connection to the speakers once again. Please stand by while we reconnect. Thank you for your patience. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have reconnected the speakers and we will proceed.

Operator

Craig, please continue.

Craig Kucera
MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets

Yes, I'll just repeat the question. It was a follow-up on sales, just that you'd mentioned that they were very strong, but they were down year over year for the first time in a few years. And I just would be curious if you attribute that to a more difficult winter and sort of what you're seeing here in the second quarter as far as traffic and volume and sort of interest?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

The decrease was solely due to the fact that last year at this time we had liquidated the Port Royal sales center. So that resulted in a high gross number, but there was no net on those sales. So it didn't affect the net. And at this moment, we believe sales are going to be better than ever for the year and the reason being the number of 55 and older people downsizing. We've built expansions in great locations.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

We're building new communities in great locations. And all of this is going to translate into what we believe will be higher sales for 2025 than we've ever had before.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

I just wanted to add, if you take out the sales from the sales of the liquidation of the sales center, actual sales for the quarter was up approximately 3%, four %.

Craig Kucera
MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Anna, just changing gears, you mentioned that you thought you'd be able to refinance these mortgages that you paid off here in the first half of the year at 5.5%, maybe 5.5%. Can you talk about the interest rates on what is maturing both here in the first half of the year and during the remainder of the year?

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Yes. I mean, the interest rates are, of course, a lot better because it was ten years ago. And the ones that we are paying off or that we have already paid off as of April 1, the average interest rate there was about 4% and the remaining is about 4%, I think 4.1% for the remaining for the year. Again, we believe that even though we will have a little bit more of an interest cost, we believe that our operations, our rental income will all make up for the increase in interest costs.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

And just to go back on the sales, you can't take one month to predict the year, but Brett tell us

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

how April was. April was fantastic. It looks like we closed about 4,400,000 in home sales in April, which is up $2,500,000 over April of twenty twenty four. And as we look forward and look at our sales pipeline, we've got about $4,400,000 in our sales pipeline. Typically, it's between 3,000,000 and $3,500,000 given everything Sam mentioned about new home sales and our expansions and where we're opening and being in the right locations, we're starting to see some real good evidence of those sales occurring at profit margins that we're very happy with.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

And hopefully we'll be able to achieve results like this throughout the rest of the year.

Craig Kucera
MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets

Got it. And just when you think about the appreciation in the properties that you are refinancing here in 2025. I guess how are you thinking about mortgage debt as more of a primary source of funding here in 2025 versus the last couple of years where you've leaned a little bit more on common and on the preferred?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

So and I'll let you answer one second. But the the, you know, the appreciation is fantastic doing exactly, you know, what we've always stated at the end of ten years, the property is doubled. It's proven by the appraisals for the refinance. And so that doubles the amount of money you can take out of the same properties. But we've always been a conservative company, non highly leveraged and we have very substantial internal growth plans through the addition of 800 rentals approximately $70,000,000 the financing of 50% of our home sales, the construction of our expansions, potentially acquisitions and capital improvements.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

So all of that means we always need common equity, preferred equity and debt. But go ahead, Ann.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

You are absolutely right. Regarding the value of the communities, they have doubled in value. If we look at what we did in 02/2023, we added, we obtained mortgages of, a total of a hundred and I guess it's about a hundred million dollars. I'm sorry. $58,000,000.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

But the communities that were in those mortgages appraised for over a hundred million dollars, about a hundred and $8,000,000. Our total investment in those communities is only $52,000,000, so we more than doubled the value of the communities based on appraisals. Now we believe that the new appraisals for this upcoming refinancings will also show a large increase in the valuation of the communities. We always look at the best possible ways to finance our needs. And that is, as Sam said, a combination of preferred, a combination of common and a combination of debt.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Now it all depends on what we need, when we need it. We always need about 120,000,000 to $51,000,000 a year to finance our business plan, but that doesn't include acquisitions. If we have additional acquisitions, we may need more. So we may that's why I said it all depends on the rates at the time. It all depends on what's going on in the market at the time.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

So we will assess what we need at the time we need it. And we love the ATM and that's a great way of also raising capital when we need it.

Craig Kucera
MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets

Great. Just one more for me. I feel like over the last few quarters you've been saying that this might be the year where you saw some larger acquisition opportunities out there, maybe some operators that were financial buyers and really didn't know what they were doing and there might be a great opportunity for you or something along those lines. I guess, are you seeing any of those present themselves at this point?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Well, without without being specific, you know, there there is a certainty that many, people went into real estate since COVID, bought properties. I've heard about people buying properties, you know, just just looking, at Zillow and buying properties without physically inspecting the property. So there's a lot of reason to believe, it's going to be a good time to be a property buyer.

Craig Kucera
MD - Equity Research at Lucid Capital Markets

Okay. Thanks, guys. That's it for me.

Operator

And your next question comes from Merrill Ross with Compass Point. Please go ahead.

Merrill Ross
REIT research at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC

Good morning.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

Good morning.

Merrill Ross
REIT research at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC

I have two questions. The first one is on the Mantua acquisition of the two age restricted properties. I think that's the first time in the many years that I've been following UMH that I've ever seen you buy a % occupied property with no expansion sites available. Can you tell us if that was a one off and what return expectations and what the drivers of those returns are Brett. As you incorporate it?

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Thank you, Brett. Brett will tell you about the returns and the current return expectations. But but the giant reason to do this deal, you know, they're they're a % occupied communities in great condition right in our market, right right where we, you know, already operate, and they're just outside of Philadelphia. And and market rent there is easily $800 per month, but they're they have municipal rent control. But there's vacancy decontrol, and then and and us as the operator will broker home sales and and by by brokering home sales, you'll get the existing resident a price that they're happy with.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

And so nobody will care that you're raising the rent to the new customer to market. So, you know, by by taking care of the existing customer, you'll be able to bring the rent to the new customer to market. So there's a lot of upside in the deal. And Brett, go ahead about the current returns and what you expect.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

Yes. So the in place cap rate on that was about 5% which is honestly a good rate for such high quality properties. They're up there with just about any other properties in our portfolio or anybody's portfolio. First class five star communities, the average rent at the communities to Sam's Point is only $629 a month right now. You've got a certain number of sites in there with rents in the 400 to $500 range, some in the 500 to $600 range.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

So, you know, working carefully with our tenants will, you know, help them broker their home sales and increase those rents to market over time. Over Over five years and again a lot of it's dependent on exactly how many people decide to sell, move, leave the community for whatever reason and our ability to resell those homes, but we should be yielding in the 6.5% to 7% range. That does not include potential sales profits. This is a very strong sales market. On occasion, we may get a home back that we can resell at a very nice profit margin.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

They're selling single section homes for over $150,000 at the property and multi close to 200. So and those are used homes. So it's just really opportunity driven. It came to us. They they were first class properties in a market or in a in our home state.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

So we took advantage of that and went forward with the acquisition.

Merrill Ross
REIT research at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC

Great. So it could happen again, but it's kinda like lightning. Right? Well, strike.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

The the the reason it could happen more, you know, our equity cost of capital has gone down. Right? So, you know, Sun and ELS used to have all the advantage over us in the world because, you know, their equity cost of capital was 3% and ours was about 6%. But now our equity cost of capital has gotten into the 5% area, and so we can be a bidder on these, you know, perfect communities that are a % occupied, as long as, you know, we stick to wanting to see upside. But as long as we see upside, we can do that.

Merrill Ross
REIT research at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC

Right. I had one more follow-up on the refinancing. I was just interested to know if the property is being refinanced at the GSEs also include rentals as well as owner occupied, you know, because the I think that that is part of that innovative financing structure that you had a couple of years ago, and maybe there's some follow through with this refinancing.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Unfortunately, right now, the rental homes are not going to be financed. However, the rental the income from the site underneath the rental home is included in this refinancing. So although the homes are not included, the income from the site of these rental homes are included. So we believe that, there was a change in the GSE thinking, but hopefully we can change their minds again because we did win that battle a few years back. Right.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

And hopefully, we will be able to do that again.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

You wanna talk about this is the week of MHI in Florida and the potential HUD code? Well, who had a HUD?

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

We're going to have the industry meeting in May in Florida, and we're honored to have the secretary of housing come to speak. And I'm sure when he comes, he's going to tell everybody what the new administration, the housing policies are. And, traditionally, he's not gonna break bad news. He's gonna break good news. So we're looking forward to that.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

First of all, though, I must say that our relationship with HUD and the government sponsored entities are excellent, and it is an amazingly good program for the country. The housing is a national need, and there's nothing better than having the government guarantee a good loan, and there is no category of loans that have a better history than more first mortgages on manufactured housing communities. So we, our main source of financing will always be a 50% or 60% loan on our portfolio. And as our portfolio grows, we only have about $600,000,000 in mortgages now. And if we were $2,000,000,000 we'd be able to borrow $1,000,000,000 1 point 2 dollars And so we will have sources of capital under existing programs.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

We're looking forward to the Secretary of Housing announcing new programs. We think that the rental homes included in our community should count as well. We have about 500,000,000 in rental houses, which we own with some exception, but we own it free and clear, but with just minor exceptions on that. And we add that to the value of our communities. We have a great base for being able to increase our debt for the purpose of buying new communities.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

So we're very optimistic about our strength and the ability to build new communities. So we look forward to the information we gather from the national meeting occurring, what, May 9? Next week. Yes. Next week.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

Yes.

Merrill Ross
REIT research at Compass Point Research & Trading LLC

Great. Well, good luck. Thank you.

Operator

And your next question comes from John Massocca with Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

That's the wrong bank there. It's B. Riley Securities. But anyway, going back to that last question a little bit, as I'm kind of thinking about the GSE financing and rentals, is it just that you you lose some of the LTV on that financing because you can't include the homes, or does it exclude all kind of communities with rentals in them or portions of communities with rentals in them?

Operator

Pardon me, John. It looks like we lost connection to the speakers. Let me bring them in again. Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, the speakers have reconnected.

Operator

And John, you may re proceed with your question.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

Hey, how's it going? So yes, just kind of going back to the last question on GSE debts, just to clarify, you can still get debt on communities with rental housing on them. It's just the LTV would be lower because you can't include the actual physical home in kind of the loan value. Correct?

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

That is correct. The my apologies. Our phone is kind of cutting in and out. But, anyway, the number of rental homes is not an issue right now. The if you look at a rental home, you have the income from the home itself and the income from the site rent.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

Combined, it's on average about a thousand dollars per month in our portfolio. What the GSEs are taking right now is the income from the site, which is approximately 50% of that total thousand dollars. And then that is what they are using as part of the collateral for the loan.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

So but that does not affect the value of the community. It just means they are not financing the home itself at this moment, which is a whole separate value. But but the value of the community, goes up because of the rental unit and because the vacant lot is now earning income.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

It's basically impact on TV.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

I'm sorry. Couldn't quite hear that, but say it again. Don't

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

It impacts on the value, effectively.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

I'm sorry. The connection is bad, so I can't figure out what the question was.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

No worries. It is a question. Can hear me now? Yes. K.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

Kind of a bit of the next question. Is anything about kind of the mechanics of the refinancings. You know, you got another roughly $5,070,000,000 of debt maturing in the back half of the year. Are each of those kind of tranches, the maturity debt can be refinanced separately, or would you end up taking out, kind of all of it at once, if you will, in the next coming weeks? So we kind of, you know, prefunding it, if you will.

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

What we are doing is we are already starting to talk about refinancing in the latter half of the year, in the third and fourth quarter. The ones that are we we believe that we will be able to get GSE financing, but, of course, these are communities that already have GSE financing on them. So we don't believe we should have a problem with getting GSE financing.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

But, I mean, essentially, it's not gonna be is it gonna be one big slug of debt here coming in the next couple of weeks, or is it gonna be kind of tranches over the course of the remainder of the year?

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

It may be tranches because they have different, payoff dates, but it may be, in one suit. It depends on what the market is going to bear at that time.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

Yep. That's fair. And then lastly, as I think about, you know, adding new, rental homes to existing communities, you know, the 800 target you have out there, it kind of implies a pretty big ramp versus 1Q. Should we expect that to be concentrated maybe in kind of 2Q and 3Q just given that's traditional rental season? Or could it be a little more variable over kind of the remaining nine months of the year?

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

Yeah. It's a good question. And in the first quarter, we did about a 15 rental conversions, you know, which we were happy with. But going

Anna Chew
Anna Chew
EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director at UMH Properties

in That's net.

Eugene Landy
Eugene Landy
Founder & Chairman of the Board at UMH Properties

Yes. No. That yeah.

Brett Taft
Brett Taft
Executive VP & COO at UMH Properties

But, going into the second and third quarters, we've got all of that inventory delivered and being set up right now. As you mentioned, the second and third quarters are our strongest quarters of the year. Given the demand we're seeing at a property level, given the, April numbers and the demand we're seeing with some of the waiting lists at our properties. We think we'll continue to see that ramp up through the second quarter into the third quarter and then have a stable fourth quarter. We still think we'll be able to hit the 800 number, but as time goes on, we'll update everybody accordingly.

John Massocca
Senior Research Analyst at B Riley Financial

Okay. Thank you very much for that. That's it for me.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Samuel Landy for any closing remarks.

Samuel Landy
Samuel Landy
President & CEO at UMH Properties

Thank you, operator. I would like to thank the participants on this call for their continued support and interest in our company. As always, Jean, Anna, Brett and I are available for any follow-up questions. We look forward to reporting back to you in August with our second quarter twenty twenty five results. Thank you.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. The teleconference replay will be available in approximately one hour. To access this replay, please dial U. S.

Operator

Toll free 704-0529 or international (412) 317-0088. The conference access code is 3811796. Thank you, and please disconnect your lines.

Executives
    • Craig Koster
      Craig Koster
      Executive VP, General Counsel & Secretary
    • Samuel Landy
      Samuel Landy
      President & CEO
    • Anna Chew
      Anna Chew
      EVP, CFO, Treasurer & Director
    • Eugene Landy
      Eugene Landy
      Founder & Chairman of the Board
    • Brett Taft
      Brett Taft
      Executive VP & COO
Analysts

Key Takeaways

  • First quarter normalized FFO was $0.23 per diluted share, up 5% year-over-year, and the Board raised the annual dividend by 4.7% to $0.90 per share, marking five consecutive years of increases.
  • Same-property operations delivered robust results with rental and related revenues up 8%, expenses up 8%, driving an 8% increase in community NOI amid elevated winter operating costs.
  • The development pipeline remains strong with 3,400 vacant sites and 2,400 acres of land, including approval to build more than 150 new expansion sites this year and plans to add 800 rental homes.
  • On the acquisition front, UMH closed two age-restricted communities in New Jersey for $24.6 million (266 sites) and has 191-site Maryland communities pending, targeting mid- to high-single-digit yields.
  • The balance sheet is conservatively financed with 99% fixed-rate debt at a 4.39% weighted average rate, ~$295 million of liquidity, and unchanged 2025 normalized FFO guidance of $0.96–$1.04 per share.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
UMH Properties Q1 2025
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