Preview:
Sudden rent increases. Maintenance jobs ignored. And eviction notices that catch tenants by surprise.
People living in mobile home parks across Michigan say those issues have become commonplace since a secretive hedge fund bought up their parks.
Rose White is a reporter with MLive who's been investigating the tenants concerns. She spoke with Michigan Radio Morning Edition host Doug Tribou.
Doug Tribou: You spoke to a lot of residents of these mobile home parks. What are some of their main complaints?
Rose White: One of the main ones is big rent increases. Some of them are seeing their rents go up $130 at a time. And a lot of homeowners...
Read MoreOur thoughts on this story:
This woke journalist contends that private equity groups buying mobile home parks are “vulture capitalists” ... “an investor who buys up distressed companies and makes a profit by aggressively cutting costs or selling the business for parts”. Let’s try and put some common sense to this statement:
- Yes, private equity groups raise rents because they’re ridiculously low and not supported by market forces. If the apartments are $1,200 per month, then lot rents don’t need to be $350 per month but rather $1,000+ per month to align with supply and demand. These groups are being nice simply raising rents in more moderate amounts, even when it’s 100% legal to go up in larger increments.
- No, private equities make zero money cutting costs. What’s there to cut? Can’t shut off utilities, stop paying property taxes or drop the insurance. Can the writer please elaborate and give a single example?
- How do you sell a mobile home park for parts? Sell off the power poles to a logging company? Again, this is a stupid comment that is not based on fact and the writer gives no examples at all.
Did you notice this week that there’s a plethora of similar articles about “evil private equity groups”. I’ve seen this before. A few years ago a single associate professor in Colorado bragged that they had been able to cause 40 different media groups to publish their personal grudge that mobile home park owners are evil. Lurking in the background is some new person or group that is trying to do the same.