Mobile Home Park News Briefing

The land on which the mobile home park sits, with some ancillary properties, was purchased by Joy and Eddie Hanks in 2020 for $600,000, with plans to redevelop the park into “Digs on the River,” a 23-acre mixed use area with plans for apartments, a restaurant and commercial space.

What part of the residents’ “fate” is uncertain here? They have been formally given notice to leave and the owners of the property seem to be following all the correct steps.

What’s really interesting is the price paid for the property, which equates to only around $15,000 per space. Once again, this park could maybe have been saved with higher lot rents, as most well-run parks today are worth around $50,000 a space and that would have made the redevelopment plan less appealing.

Once again, as always, LOW LOT RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT.

Residents of the community said the park's owner got permission from the rent control board in Ludlow to raise their lot fees by 150%. They're hoping to have that decision reversed in court.

So let me get this straight. The park is subject to rent control. The rent control board approved the increase. So how is this even a story? Do the “free rent movement” folks now want a rent control supreme court to watch over the rent control board – just because they don’t like the outcome?

These residents are sending a definite message to the park owner: “time to redevelop into something else”. If they keep this up they won’t have a mobile home park to complain about.

So what private equity found it could do was coming and raise lot rent — sometimes by as much as 60% and 70%. Which, you know, may not sound like much if you're going, "Oh, it went from $320 to $405." But think about if your mortgage was increased by 40%, 60% ... that is a huge impact on people…

No, that’s not correct at all. Raising rents from $320 to $405 is an increase of 27% NOT 60%. If you raise the lot rent from $320 to $405 that’s a $85 increase. The average mortgage payment in the U.S. is $2,715 per month (per Google). If you raised that by 27% that’s a monthly increase of $733 per month. THERE’S NO WAY YOU CAN COMPARE AN INCREASE OF $85 PER MONTH TO AN INCREASE OF $733 PER MONTH – that’s nearly a 10-for1 difference! Using this logic, McDonald’s raising the Dollar Menu price of the McChicken from $1 to $1.60 – a 60% increase – represents a much greater offense and financial burden than either of the above.

When you talk about price increases, the percentage means nothing and the actual amount means everything. If milk goes up 50% and a car goes up 5%, guess which one is a bigger problem for the average U.S. household?

How math challenged is America, anyway?

"Currently there are 10 counties that have a rent stabilization ordinance that specifically addresses mobile home parks in the unincorporated areas of their counties,” Nolen said, "We're not talking about section 8, we're not talking about homeless situations but if we don't have this conversation that is exactly what we're talking about."

Oh, I get it, the park owner is responsible for the tenants’ lives in perpetuity and must be held accountable if the tenants fall into Section 8 or homeless status because of their own failure to manage their finances and live in a modern world.

Only in California.

For how many years now has the White House and FHA been talking about this topic, with basically zero success so far? The problem is that academics cannot legislate solutions to a free-market problem caused by the simple issue that Biden’s inflation has outpaced workers’ incomes. I don’t see any immediate solution other than for people to accept the need to commute farther out from urban centers. You have to remember that 60 million Americans live on 97% of the land mass and 240 million Americans are jammed into just 3%. The clear solution is for a large portion of those 240 million Americans to move out into the suburbs and exurbs where land and housing is cheaper. It’s not rocket science. Do you remember that chapter back in high school social studies in which 1800’s Americans headed out west in search of cheap land to settle on? Same concept.

Based on this writer’s arguments, every single product and service in America – which have risen a collective 20% under the Biden administration – is a part of the “economic eviction crisis”. If gas costs $4 a gallon and eggs cost $5 a dozen, that takes away money that could go against higher rents, right?

But the bigger issue – and one that nobody wants to talk about – is the simple fact that seniors may need to move to more inexpensive areas of America in retirement since they no longer need to have access to employment. These type of articles always give the narrative of the expensive urban market with lot rents approaching $1,000 per month as opposed to the rural mobile home parks in states like Arkansas, that rent for $150 per month. And that’s not fair or constructive.

The bottom line is that most seniors, as part of their downsizing in housing and costs, need to move to cheaper states and more rural areas. If they don’t want to do that, then that’s their choice. But the option is always there and if they refuse to embrace it then they shouldn’t complain.

Residents say new management for the land their homes are on arrived in March and have since been making changes to property rules. People with cars have been told they have to pay to have them parked in the community now, and some of them have lost their dogs because they’re not allowed on the property anymore.

One look at the homes in the photo and any idiot can tell why certain residents are being asked to leave. The new owner is obviously trying to bring this downtrodden park back to life and, with progress, some people get displaced.

Park owners can’t win with writers like this. If the new owner left the dilapidated homes alone, they would be tagged as slumlords in these type of articles, and if they get them torn down, they’re identified as being cruel.

You can’t please everyone, so you have to please yourself, your good residents, your bank, your city inspectors and the surrounding community. It’s that simple.

“We were looking for a place that was almost a presence within this community. And we have members that live within this community, and through them and being around, we noticed ‘hey, there’s a building that’s not being used,” said Pastor Preston Pratt.

We are also big believers in converting every inch of common area in every mobile home park into an amenity for residents. Abandoned clubhouses are low-hanging fruit and, with the addition of working heat and air-conditioning, sturdy carpet, fresh paint, and a vision for what the residents need, we have converted such structures into party areas, game rooms – even libraries.

Getting help from non-profits to augment the amenities is as simple as asking. We converted an old laundry building into a library and the local library donated all of the shelves and books – simply because we called and asked if they could help. We even had a Lions Club donate a giant playground.

Want to enhance your amenities for residents? Call and ask other non-profits.

Wow, the free legal aid attorney got the residents a few weeks more time. Big deal. The fact is simply that the park is being redeveloped apparently into apartments. It’s the same old adage week after week: LOW LOT RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT. How high would the lot rents have needed to be to make a mobile home park in this location more valuable than an apartment complex? Not sure. But that’s the key issue people need to explore.

What a laughable pile of nonsense. You cannot legislate affordable housing. It has to come from the free market. When bureaucrats pass more regulations, it just hurts more housing from being built, as opposed to helping the situation. You have to have zero common sense to think these six new laws are a step in the right direction.

Another article about a mobile home park being redeveloped into a different use. This only happens when the park does not yield as much income as alternative uses. Want to stop this from accelerating? Stop criticizing higher lot rents. That’s the only thing that can stop the redevelopment mania.

Median home sale prices in New Hampshire recently hit $500,000 and rental vacancy rates remain below 1 percent statewide. With this landscape, they fear they have nowhere else to go. Meanwhile, McGahey said he has no choice but to walk away. “He’s holding me hostage here because I cannot sell my house and I have to get out of here,” McGahey said. “I never thought I’d be in this kind of predicament where I’m just going to turn the house back over to the bank. I just can’t do it. The stress alone is enough to drive anybody crazy.”

Well, obviously this woke writer didn’t take debate in high school – his opening statement negates his theory, rather than support it. If this mobile home owner is in a market with $500,000 homes and less than 1% housing vcancy then how exactly can he fail to sell his mobile home for $80,000? Clearly, he probably never ran an ad, answered the phone, or endeavored to sell it at all. The worst salesman in the world could have sold that home in a week, but you have to put in at least 1% effort.

And, using this same preamble, it’s very clear that mobile home park lot rents are going to go up exponentially over time as they are a tiny fraction of local apartment and stick-built housing prices.

I thought that people in New Hampshire were smarter than this – they don’t deserve this writer.

STUPIDITY LEVEL: HIGH

Additionally, East Hampton Town conducted an electrical report between the mid-July outage and the Aug. 7 meeting that was then presented to R.H.P. Properties.“There were several code violations present which are contributing to the heating and overloading condition that currently exists,” the report stated, concluding that certain systems are “not properly wired, not properly grounded, and overloaded.” In the end, it recommended replacing the electrical distribution network and restricting “use of certain appliances” in individual homes, which place a greater load on the network.“Upon being notified of the power outages at the Oakview Manufactured Home Park, the town contacted the property owner and retained an electrical underwriter to investigate the situation with the fire marshal,” the town said in a statement. “With power now restored the town is engaging with park management to permanently resolve the issues recently faced by the residents.”

Ouch. These residents are making a terrible mistake. My first park also had a master-metered electric system and when it failed the reason was that residents had snuck all kinds of window air-conditioners and other items into their units and overloaded the amps the park’s system could handle. I guess they don’t realize that the only way to permanently fix these occasional outages is going to fall on the tenants for all types of illegal electrical work they have done on their personal homes. They’ll find out soon enough.

STUPIDITY LEVEL: HIGH

“Neither Barrel Consulting Group or the property owner responded to a request for comment regarding whether expansion plans had changed and why an extension was not requested.”

They probably withdrew the plans because they knew the city was hostile to the idea and there was no point in continuing on. I have personally appeared at many zoning meetings to expand parks and nearly had people throwing tomatoes at me. I don’t blame them for pulling out, if I’m correct. Cities hate mobile home parks, plain and simple.

STUPIDITY LEVEL: LOW

SPARTANBURG — After an anonymous buyer purchased four mobile home parks in Spartanburg County, residents are wondering what their futures hold and whether the new owner plans to fix their units.

Or if they’ll eventually be made to leave.

“Just by how they are, I feel like they might do something like that,” said Tyquan Smith, who lives in one of the parks. “You never know.”

The buyer purchased the parks for an undisclosed price, according to a news release by brokerage firm Marcus and Millichap, which listed the properties.

The parks included in the purchase are:

• Gateview mobile home park on Gateview Circle in Woodruff.
• Oasis mobile home park on Oasis Park Lane in Roebuck.
• Chelsea mobile home park on Chelsea Street in Moore.
• Spring Valley mobile home park on Jamies Creek Drive in Woodruff.

Together, the properties contain 98 mobile home lots and two single-family homes.

The sale of the properties doesn’t appear in online property records.

Sarah Grace Pugh, a public relations specialist for the brokerage firm, said in an email that she couldn’t disclose the buyer or the price but noted that “the new owner plans to continue operations as manufactured housing communities.”

The Post and Courier visited two of the parks, Oasis and Chelsea, and found that residents there received letters at the end of July from Woodruff-Moore-Roebuck LLC informing them that the company was the new owner and operator.

The LLC was organized by Tim Woodbridge, according to records from the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office. Woodbridge could not be reached for comment.

Peach County commissioners approved a moratorium on mobile home park and RV park permit requests on Aug. 13. It was a 4-1 vote. Post 5 Commissioner Wade Yoder told 13WMAZ the pause will help them draw up comprehensive regulations for mobile and RV parks. He said they hope this will better protect property owners and ensure quality living conditions.

Oh my gosh, quit lying to people! You shut down the permit process for mobile home parks because you don’t want them to move in. I will bet $5 that the sudden re-write of the “comprehensive regulations” will ensure that every parcel of land in the county cannot possible have a mobile home or RV placed on it. I saw a town once re-write the regulations to require 100’ setbacks from the front and back of the mobile home lot.

"The first year to 18 months, we expect to do 12 houses a year," Firnhaber said. "And then we want to double that after about two years."The factory — a partnership with Habitat for Humanity — is meant to boost access to homeownership.“If we were to sell these on the free market in Boulder, they'd be million-dollar homes. And they'll be sold for, depending on the household, between $280,000 and $380,000,” Firnhaber said.“We're actually pricing them at a level which they can afford,” he said. It’s a big investment — the factory alone cost $11 million. Still, it’s cheaper to build homes this way, which is why policy analysts like the Urban Institute's Daniel Pang see these facilities as a tool to address the affordable-housing crisis. “You can sort of wholesale buy a lot of the material that you need to build these homes and property, and you have a sort of standardized, almost like a car creation line, where a lot of the parts are very similar in all the different builds. ... [It] definitely makes the cost a lot lower,” Pang said.

They should nominate this concept for the Academy Awards of Stupid. Sorry Habitat for Humanity, but mobile home manufacturing already exists in the for-profit world and the average U.S. factory makes 7 homes a day. You’re going to spend $11 million to build a factory that makes 12 houses per year?  On top of that, your mobile homes are going to cost $280,000 to $380,000 each when the regular factories produce them for around $80,000. Can you get any dumber?

Of course, we all suspect what’s really going on here. Somewhere out there is probably a well-connected friend of a Board Member who owns the land they’re building this factory on, and another one that sells lumber for mobile home manufacturing. That’s the normal non-profit story if you dig deep enough. Situations this stupid always seem to tie back to self-dealing. I mean, there’s no way that adults can act this dumb unless there’s money in it, right?

STUPIDITY LEVEL: INSANELY HIGH

Give me a break. I’m betting the amusement park did not need “overflow parking”. They needed the park town down because it scared their customers and hurt their property value. 

STUPIDITY LEVEL: MEDIUM

After having their offer to buy Carlton Mobile Home Park accepted about a week ago, Habitat for Humanity and the Piedmont Housing Alliance had dinner with the residents to celebrate and discuss the next steps."We are working on how to begin the engagement process as we proceed with redevelopment. We committed to keeping the mobile home park as it is for three years, giving the residents time to prepare, engage with us, and address any of their needs. So, we’re going through that timeline with them to discuss the next steps," said Alicia García, Piedmont Housing Alliance's Director of Real Estate Development.

OK, let me translate this for the residents of Calton Mobile Home Park: “Habitat is probably going to tear your park down and build apartments on the land so you have three years to find a park wth a vacant lot and get the heck out of there. Here’s a clue. Stand in your yard and spin once around and tell me what you see. Brand new apartments, right? That’s your future in three years. They just need the 36 months to get their plans approved quietly with the city fathers. Non-profits are some of the most evil people on earth, not the nicest. They think they are smarter than you and want to force their will upon you.”

STUPIDITY LEVEL: MEDIUM

In Texas you could fill a mobile home park back to 100% capacity in six months, but in Oregon – with endless regulatory red tape – it takes four years? I love the way that blue states like Oregon are always talking about the need for affordable housing, yet they throw up every regulatory roadblock possible to housing of all categories. What a bunch of idiots.

STUPIDITY LEVEL: HIGH

In 2024, Havenpark plans to invest $27.6 million in its communities to improve infrastructure, add state-of-the-art community amenities, landscaping, enhanced curbside appeal, and new signage. Havenpark also plans to add more than 200 high-quality, affordable homes across its community portfolio.

I hope that the woke journalists that write about how “big out-of-state owners are ruining the mobile home parks they buy” are reading this article. It’s owners like Havenpark that are bringing old mobile home parks back to life and saving this form of affordable housing from the wrecking ball to the benefit of the millions of Americans that need it.

In the years since Legacy Communities took over the park, some current residents have reported a collective 24% increase. 

This article is lacking in granular detail, but just this one sentence makes it stupid. Since Biden took office inflation has increased the cost all goods and services by over 20%. If the rent has gone up only 24% it’s completely in-line with every other expense that Americans face today. Unhappy about it? Blame the Biden administration, not the park owners.

In 30 years, I have never heard of anyone claiming that RV air-conditioning is so poor that residents die from it. The reason that people are dying in Arizona RVs is probably because either their air-conditioning is broken or they’re keeping the temperatures set too high. This is like blaming automobile manufacturers for DUI deaths. It’s called personal accountability.

Alternatively, new park owners could decide to redevelop the nine-acre property to a type of housing with a higher resale value in an effort to recoup their investment, forcing residents to relocate or abandon their homes. A 1,600 square-foot single family home a block away from the park is currently listed for $949,000.

That pretty much tells the whole story. If you were paying $200,000 a lot for this park, and homes sell for $949,000 for similar square footage down the street, this park is certainly going to be redeveloped as soon as the permit can be obtained for demolition. There is no way the tenants can match this offer – it is not supported by existing cash-flow but only development land value – and it’s a waste of time to pretend that they can.

The Edwardsville, Illinois market is a great one – one of the best in the state – and I’m glad the new owner was able to get this deal worked out. It was smart of the city to recognize the opportunity to get this community restored to its former glory.