The moral to this story is simple: stay far, far away from California if you want to be a landlord. Who in the world wants to mess with nonsense like this?

Same recurring theme:

Soon, the mobile home park located on Forrest Avenue in McKenzie could cease to exist. During the monthly meeting of the McKenzie City Council, the board approved (on the first reading) Ordinance 554 to amend the mobile home park property from R-4 (residential mobile home) to R-3 (high-density residential). This allows the owners to develop the property for the construction of “townhouses.”

Redevelopment of mobile home parks is accelerating for more profitable housing options. Residents and bureaucrats better take note because they will soon find out that the only way to stem this tide is to drop the strategy of public shaming park owners who engage in reasonable rent increases and instead say to owners “how much would the rent have to be to keep this park in operation and away from the wrecking ball?” and then happily pay it.

I have no problem with the concept of residents buying parks – we’ve sold several to the residents – but let’s all agree that 32 lots is not exactly changing the direction of the earth as many of these “resident-owned” articles like to suggest.

It’s not hard to find an attorney to file almost anything if you’ll pay their hourly rate, but I sense the residents will have some challenges with their class-action dream namely because 1) Ohio has no rent control 2) Ohio has no rent control and 3) did I mention that Ohio has no rent control? Kind of hard to overcome that one issue when your lawsuit is about the owner raising rent.

But I can bet you that the owners of this park are probably meeting this weekend with some land developers to get the current value per square foot – wouldn’t you? If the residents are the catalyst for that redevelopment then they have nobody to blame but themselves.

This time it’s a city itself that is tearing down the mobile home park to make way for a better use of the land. And the residents are mad because the city is going to displace 30 tenants to make way for 300 more housing units.

"Residents of the park have described the morale as “depressing” since the approval.“There is a community based here. They showed that they are going to make places so that people can have more places to live, but what about here? There are over 70 residents here. We are all getting kicked out on the street and that is not right,” said Amanda Mitchell, a resident who has lived at the park for 20 years."

It looks like the 800-pound gorilla in the room nationwide is that park owners simply tear down and redevelop when the mobile home park is no longer the highest and best use of the land. That means residents need to embrace rent increases and follow the rules because the alternative is homelessness. It’s that simple. Even cities – in this case -- are following this mantra.

Let’s see … $750,000 for a 1,700 doublewide works out to $441 per square foot. For a mobile home. In a world in which you can buy a really nice stick-built in many markets for half that amount. The only thing that knocks my socks off in this article is how stupid anyone would be to pay that much for an old doublewide. Come out to Missouri and we can get you an identical dwelling for about $50,000 on a lakeside lot, and you can put the rest in the bank at 5% and live off the interest.

Same old story. Residents won’t behave and pay rent and the end result is redevelopment.

“Sarbaum Mobile Home Park owner Mike Baker notified residents in April of an Aug. 10 closure. Baker wrote to residents that he was "no longer able to meet the park's operating expenses" due to late payments and expensive repairs to its 60-plus-year-old sewer system.”

Some mobile home park residents take for granted that they are guaranteed an on-going place to live no matter what they do. This should serve as a lesson to these folks that they are fully accountable for their actions and you can’t push park owners around and not expect to get a park closure notice. Land is too valuable and park owners all have limits to their patience.

Here’s a great quote from the property owner:

“There often comes a time in the life of a park that a decision must be made as to whether it is feasible to continue operating a park when the physical improvements and infrastructure become older and costly to repair and replace, and/or the park owners conclude they can no longer economically operate the park based on measures taken by state and local government,” read a July 6 letter from Little Woods Mobile Villa managers to residents. Due to such factors, the letter stated, the owners were “considering whether it is viable to continue operating the park as a mobile home park, and are exploring the option of converting the park.”

Rent control equals redevelopment – it’s just that simple. It’s unbelievable that these bureaucrats can’t see that they have absolutely no power over the property owner’s right to simply tear the park down and build something else on the property that is not subject to rent control. Total idiots. They are personally responsible for hundreds of households being homeless as a part of their actions in this case.

Yet again the residents think they have won by harassing the owner into selling the land to a developer – then shocked and agitated when they can’t find anywhere even remotely as inexpensive to live:

“The Jimenez family is supposed to pay $440 in lot fees each month. Like the other tenants, they’ve stopped those payments. However, they can’t afford to move anywhere else. The day they have to pack up is fast approaching. County records show the residents were supposed to vacate the premises by the end of June as the property owner prepared to sell the park to a developer.”

I don’t know anything about this property or any of its troubles, but it seems to me that the residents massively overplayed their hand and now they’re homeless as a result. You are going to see much more of this until America stops being a nation of litigation and instead strives to focus on win/win strategies.

Yes, we have a winner. “The Wokest Article OF 2023”. It not only takes the regular nonsense and expands on it, but it actually has a new woke angle not seen before: the reason mobile homes look bad is that evil manufacturers classify mobile homes as cars and therefore banks won’t fund home improvements that the residents are desperate to do which is clearly ridiculous. There is no battle between 99% of mobile home residents and out-of-state investors. There IS a battle between the 1% that want the parks to remain dumps at low rents and with the infrastructure failing. If these type of woke journalists want to really help those few mobile home park residents that don’t like living in a civilized society, then they should let them move in and sleep on their sofas.

Here’s what one neighbor of the mobile home park had to say: "let me tell you something. I see another fire happening. It's going to cost somebody their life. Whose head's that gonna be on? You guys. Take a look. Think about that." Based on that argument I could say to that neighbor “let me tell you something. I see you drive your car out of the driveway and it might cost someone their life if you crash into them. Whose head’s that gonna be on?”

The park owner is trying to tear down 10 old trailers and install 10 new ones. He’s not promising that he can end the risk of fire, famine, or locusts nor bring about world peace. He’s just following the law. That’s why the city agreed with the park owner.

First of all, NOBODY evicts for minor reasons. When you get rid of a paying tenant, you lose probably $10,000+ by the time you get that lot re-filled. I don’t know the facts, but I know from experience that eviction is the last straw available when the resident refuses to pay rent or follow the rules. And it sounds like the owner is at that point with these few tenants. Note that the attorney for the residents admits that the owner has done nothing legally wrong – so then what’s the issue here? If you’re a woke journalist who lives in a tiny apartment in Manhattan and doesn’t own anything, then you have zero idea of how business works. In the real world, you have to do unpleasant things when you’re a landlord, which includes firing employees and, in this case, evicting tenants.

Well, if you thought she had any investing acumen, now you know better. Anyone who would spend $1 million on a mobile home that you don’t own the land underneath – whether it’s in Malibu or Timbuktu – is a certified idiot. My bet is that she released this video because somebody found out she lived in a “trailer park” and was about to sell the story to the National Enquirer so she decided to get a jump on that article. I watched this video and thought “wow, that’s embarrassing”. Not sure who would think otherwise.

This is a tough situation for the City of Blaine. They thought they had all mobile home parks effectively banned from being built in the city and suddenly it turns out the zoning department screwed up. A developer found the loophole and now the city is freaking out and trying to stop the developer with a moratorium. “City council approved the moratorium May 22 to allow time for city staff to clean up code inconsistencies. The underlying zoning code allows for manufactured home parks but the planned unit development (PUD) code does not. Manufactured home parks that are five acres or larger are required to be developed as PUDs.”

How will this turn out? The developer has pledged to sue the city if it denies his permit. The city is basically doomed as you can’t legally do what they’re doing. It’s like a plane with a broken landing gear and no matter how long you delay it, it’s still going to crash.

No offense but given the current values of mobile home parks in Colorado – typically around $100,000 per lot – means the $28 million the state has allocated to this program will only cover about 280 lots (there are single parks bigger than that). 

This is a really good idea offered by the State of New York to mobile home owners:

If an elderly resident has to move to a nursing home, it can cost the state $400 per day. By making the mobile home handicap accessible, it saves them a ton of money. This is a sensible win/win scenario. I’m a big fan of government making smart decisions – it’s just that they do it so rarely.

If an elderly resident has to move to a nursing home, it can cost the state $400 per day. By making the mobile home handicap accessible, it saves them a ton of money. This is a sensible win/win scenario. I’m a big fan of government making smart decisions – it’s just that they do it so rarely.

This writer thinks they have it all figured out when it comes to why mobile homes in Vermont got flooded the other day – in the same storm that flooded their own capitol. “A large share sit on floodplains. Many parks have aging water and electrical systems that are more at risk of failing when hit by severe weather, and older homes built to outdated housing codes lack the physical integrity to withstand damage.”

Wow, that was really stupid on so many fronts. Yes, many mobile home parks have floodplain on some part of the property, but so does every other type of real estate (including the Capitol of Vermont apparently). Water and electrical systems do not fail in storms any more than any subdivision. And mobile homes have been built to the standards imposed and inspected by HUD (the Federal Government) since 1976.

The real reason that the mobile homes of Vermont flooded recently was simply that the entire state of Vermont flooded and those mobile homes just happened to be located in Vermont.

I admit that these homes look really cool but they violate the ordinances of almost every city in the U.S. Why? Because they don’t have HUD seals. And that’s why they look really cool. When you make them HUD compliant, they look like a shoe box. One day, maybe the law will be changed. But don’t hold your breath. Until then, they won’t work in parks.

And we have another winner: “The Worst Strategy Decision of 2023”. After acknowledging the complete absence of available rental properties, these few renters are harassing the park owner with nonsense suits on everything from mold to energy efficiency. What do you imagine that’s going to accomplish? Let me guess – the park owner gets out of the rental business and sells these units off, rendering these folks homeless. Smart move.

And another winner: “The Best Quotes of 2023”. Here’s what a resident and park owner said after the city voted to put into effect even more rent control in this California town:

Calling the council's direction misguided, resident Salo Landano claimed rent control efforts always fail. "It never works and it always leads to lower housing stock and poorer living conditions."

Park owner Nick Ubaldi says he's considering drastic measures. "We are currently managing properties with aging infrastructure while dealing with escalating expenses, however, it seems that the decision to impose additional restrictions on rent increases, keeping them below C.P.I. will have unintended consequences. As I'm sure you're aware of, we have hired a consultant to assess the feasibility of closing our mobile home park. We believe this to be our only viable course of action. We are concerned that if not addressed, these changes will suffocate our business and render our property virtually worthless."

Bravo!

“The Royal Oaks Mobile Manor manufactured home park burned down in the 2020 Almeda Fire. But a series of new modular homes being installed there were recently found to be uninhabitable after construction defects were discovered.”

After you read that quote, it’s hard to be impressed with the two apartment complexes the City of Phoenix is building – you can’t stop wondering how much money they squandered trying to fill the mobile home park with modular homes that turned out to be uninhabitable. Think they’ll ever discuss how much money was lost and which city official was held accountable for this mess? Yeah, right.

And we have another winner: “The WORST TIMING of 2023”. The park is being sold for $16 million to be redeveloped. That means the homes have to move out. In light of all of this, six residents of the park – with ancient homes that look to be pre-HUD – are wanting to sell them for up to $189,000 each. Here’s the problem I guess the residents don’t understand. The homes were only worth that much because they offered cheap living in a beach town in Florida. The location is what people were buying, and not the homes. Now these homes will only bring maybe $10,000 since they have to leave the property. They should have sold them before the park closure was announced.

And here’s the winner of “Most Misguided Attempt at Social Engineering of 2023”. Despite there being no rent control in Ohio a resident named Wykle has “organized a series of protests in front of his Lancaster mobile home park since June after he said park owners continue to increase lot rent”.

I hope he has a lot of sunscreen.

The most important revelation of this article is that Harvard University is now researching the “trailer” industry. Sadly, this article is not up to Ivy-League standards. I’m sorry, but if CrossMod (the new mobile home/modular concept) is only 27% cheaper than stick built, it’s never going to sell. Most people have a stigma against mobile homes that is far bigger than just 27%. If CrossMod was maybe 50% less, it might have a chance, but I’m still not even convinced then. 

Here’s where I get confused on articles like this. She says she has a full-time job with the same company for the past 17 years. Her only obligation is a $280 per month lot rent. Yet she says “I live paycheck to paycheck”. So even if it took you 17 years to work up to minimum wage, you’d earn at least $20,000 per year. $280 per month represents 17% of your income. I’m sorry but I just don’t buy it.