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WGME: Maine lawmakers consider bills to protect mobile home park residents

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AUGUSTA (WGME) – A lengthy list of bills regarding mobile home parks were up for debate at the State House Tuesday.

One of them is LD 1145.

It would add additional protections for residents of mobile home parks.

It was the topic of a work session Tuesday afternoon.

The bill gives a group of homeowners or a mobile homeowners association the right of first refusal when it comes to purchasing a park that's being sold.

Committee members signed off on several amendments, ultimately voting 6 to 4 in favor of the bill.

“This bill would go to exactly the heart of what has prevented some successful and very potentially helpful sales to happen,”...

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The bill gives a group of homeowners or a mobile homeowners association the right of first refusal when it comes to purchasing a park that's being sold.

This leaves out all the negative articles that are suddenly surfacing regarding the “tenant-owned” concept that is simply not working according to plan. It’s crazy that the state that brought you the no-nonsense L.L. Bean label has lost their common sense.

The Berkshire Eagle: Lake Onota Village residents face a choice — accept new corporate ownership or buy the park themselves

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PITTSFIELD — Before leaving for her shift on Wednesday afternoon, Courtney Gagne sat in her living room and cried.

A few weeks ago, she and the other residents of Lake Onota Village in Pittsfield received notice that a private equity firm based in Wyoming is purchasing the manufactured home park for $5.5 million in cash.

The news was unexpected and has left the residents, who own their homes but not the land, anxious that their rent will go up and conditions will deteriorate.

“It’s terrifying. I was just crying about it,” Gagne said. "It’s my house.”

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But the residents of Lake Onota Village have another option — organize and purchase the park themselves. In Massachusetts, manufactured home park residents have the right of first refusal, giving them first dibs to purchase their park if they can match the sale price.

That “first dibs” is not working out for a whole lot of other “tenant-owned” communities. But then again, Massachusetts has some of the dumbest landlord rules in the nation so why not?

Willamette Week: Lawmakers Move to Limit Rent Increases in Marinas and Manufactured Home Parks

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CHIEF SPONSOR: State Rep. Pam Marsh (D-Ashland), along with 19 Democratic co-sponsors (and zero Republicans)

WHAT IT WOULD DO: HB 3054 takes a concept Oregon lawmakers love and economists hate—rent control—and ratchets it downward in two specific sectors of the housing market: marinas and manufactured home parks. Following on the heels of 2019 and 2023 bills that enacted and subsequently lowered the nation’s first statewide rent controls, HB 3054 would limit annual rent increases at parks and marinas of more than 30 homes to 6%. It would limit rent increases in parks with 30 or fewer homes to 10%, or 7% plus inflation, whichever is... Read More

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Lawmakers say they are among the state’s most economically vulnerable residents and easily exploited.

“Wait”, you might say, “those are the same words that the earlier article used when they said “vulnerable” and “exploited”. Am I crazy?” No, that’s just how the woke media works it anymore. They think that they can brainwash and hypnotize you if they simply repeat the same words over and over (kind of like a late night TV commercial). So I guess I’ll simply offer the same rebuttal I used earlier:

Residents of mobile home parks are in a unique and sometimes tenuous situation with landlords — they usually own their mobile homes but pay rent for the land they are on. This can lead to housing insecurity when properties change hands, and often leaves residents vulnerable to exploitation. 

Is that woke enough for you: “housing insecurity” and “residents vulnerable to exploitation”? The argument is that somehow park residents are a separate group from all other humans in that they can’t move their homes. The truth is that mobile homeowners have MORE options than any other residential group, which include:

  • They can sell their home (just like a single-family home or condo owner)
  • They can get it moved for free to another mobile home park, paid 100% by the receiving park owner
  • They can simply abandon it (which is completely unnecessary due to the options above)

Those who live in single-family homes, condos and apartments do not have three options. That gives mobile home owners actually MORE options, not less.

OPB: Oregon lawmakers vote to limit rent increases for manufactured home owners

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The debate in the Oregon House on Wednesday over whether to cap rent increases on manufactured homes fell along familiar dividing lines; Republicans called for fewer regulations and a focus on housing supply, while Democrats cautioned the measure was necessary to keep vulnerable seniors housed.

Democrats won.

Rep. Pam Marsh, a Democrat from Ashland and an architect of the bill, House Bill 3054, said when she first ran for office her legislative district had the most manufactured homes in the state. Then the 2020 Almeda fire tore through the Rogue Valley, wiping out 1,500 manufactured homes in the span of a day.

The measure, she said, was...

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Republicans showed up to the House floor prepared to fight. “It seems like this body is passing bills that make housing more expensive and then we see expensive housing,” said Republican Ed Diehl, of Scio. “Then we say, ‘Oh we need to respond to that.’” And so we do rate caps. It’s like we are in this housing doom loop.” Diehl said he wants to see vulnerable seniors remain in their manufactured homes, but the solution, he said, is to build more houses, not add more constraints. It was a refrain echoed by many Republicans. “If our goal is to help those at the very lowest income levels, especially in manufactured home parks, there are better ways to do it. We can offer tax credits or targeted subsidies to park owners who voluntarily keep rents lower for those residents,” Diehl said. “That’s a solution that helps those in need without disrupting the broader housing market.”

Well at least the Republicans of Oregon understand the realities of life and offered some good suggestions such as “tax credits and targeted subsidies” to park owners to keep rents lower. Remember that Oregon already has rent control. Now the far-left nuts that run the politics there are trying to make the percent that landlords can raise rents even lower (of course, their goal is 0%). Let’s hope the Republicans can save the day.

Realtor.com: EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Paulson Finally Finds a Buyer for Luxury Malibu Trailer Home—but Only After Slashing Price by $550K

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American Horror Story" star Sarah Paulson has finally secured a buyer for her Malibu trailer home—almost one year after she first listed the property for $2 million.

However, Paulson, 50, was forced to accept an offer of more than half a million dollars less than her original asking price, eventually selling her double wide for $1.45 million on April 16, according to property records.

Still, the actress managed to make a tidy profit on the dwelling, which she bought for $860,000 back in March 2021 and then quickly set about renovating.

The fruits of her interior design labors were showcased in an Architectural Digest video in 2023, when...

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American Horror Story" star Sarah Paulson has finally secured a buyer for her Malibu trailer home—almost one year after she first listed the property for $2 million. However, Paulson, 50, was forced to accept an offer of more than half a million dollars less than her original asking price, eventually selling her double wide for $1.45 million on April 16, according to property records. Still, the actress managed to make a tidy profit on the dwelling, which she bought for $860,000 back in March 2021 and then quickly set about renovating.

Someone who reads this in Missouri would think “what idiot would pay $1.45 million for a $50,000 old doublewide?” and, of course, they’d be right.

Click Orlando: ‘It’s a crisis:’ Central Florida mobile home residents priced out as lot rents skyrocket

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LEESBURG, FLa. – It was supposed to be an affordable place to live, but now many people are getting priced out of their mobile homes.

Residents told News 6 corporations are buying up mobile home parks and then jacking up the lot rent. In many of these parks, homeowners lease the land beneath their homes.

News 6 has spotlighted the affordable housing issue in Osceola and Volusia counties, and now residents in Lake County have reached out with their concerns.

Jodi Heger, a resident of Spanish Village—a 55-and-up mobile home community in Leesburg—has seen her lot rent nearly double in just two years. She started off paying around $480 a...

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Stark is trying to get more relief for residents in mobile home parks this legislative session. She is pushing for the passage of House Bill 701- Local Housing Assistance Plans. If passed, mobile home homeowners can apply for lot rent assistance from their local government.

Finally, a good idea for once. Of course, it’s not new. HUD passed a rule allowing for Section 8 funds to be used for lot rent years ago, but they did never actually paid any out. Maybe with new political pressure – and a new head of HUD – this can finally be put into place and become operational. After all, HUD has been subsidizing 2.3 million people to live in apartments since 1965.

WGME: Maine lawmakers consider bills to aid residents in buying mobile home parks

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AUGUSTA, Maine (WGME) -- Work sessions are being held on Tuesday for several bills related to people joining together to purchase Maine mobile home parks.

One bill is an act to support mobile home residents in purchasing mobile home parks by providing one time funding for the Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Program.

The general fund total would be around $3.5 million.

The second bill aims to establish this fund and have it be administered by the Maine State Housing Authority.

To support the fund, the bill creates a fee to be paid by certain buyers of manufactured housing communities and mobile home parks equal to $50,000 for...

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I would refer anyone even thinking about a tenant-owned community to read this article from last week:

https://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/2025/04/10/fremont-county-receives-foreclosures-notices-of-four-mobile-home-parks-in-canon-city/

While tenants can be easily manipulated into buying a property – as long as a non-profit loans them the downpayment and personally guarantees the note – the more important question is exactly what they do a few years later when the loan comes due and the non-profits have lost interest. Apparently, as described in the article above, that’s the reality that nobody wants to talk about.

Cañon City Daily Record: Fremont County receives foreclosures notices of four mobile home parks in Cañon City

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The Fremont County Public Trustee’s office has received two separate foreclosures encompassing four mobile home parks in Cañon City.

Rivermaze Cooperative includes the parks at 1634 Poplar and 295 S. R...

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The Fremont County Public Trustee’s office has received two separate foreclosures encompassing four mobile home parks in Cañon City. Rivermaze Cooperative includes the parks at 1634 Poplar and 295 S. Raynolds. The outstanding principal balance for this foreclosure is $1,234,398. Rocky Mountain Homeowners Cooperative includes the parks at 1527 Chestnut and 1611 Cedar. The outstanding balance for this foreclosure is $1,930,924.

According to foreclosure records on the public trustee’s website, the current holder for both foreclosure cases is CC Canyon & Cedar LLC, and the lender for both is Resident Ownership Capital, LLC d/b/a ROC USA Capital. Nicholas Salerno, chief program officer for ROC USA Capital, in a phone interview with the Daily Record on Thursday, said each homeowner owns their home, and each co-op owns the land. He said there are 35 homes in the Rivermaze Cooperative and 55 in the Rocky Mountain Cooperative. “The homeowners themselves are not going to be held liable to the default in their loan – it’s the co-op,” Salerno said.

For years I have been writing about the fact that these “tenant-owned” mobile home park deals are built on incredibly shaky financing. And now my prediction is starting to come true. Read the above quote and tell me if it does not appear that the ROC deals on four different Colorado parks have gone into loan default. That’s how I read it.

It would be one thing if the tenants in these deals actually bought their own parks, but they don’t. Instead, they rely on non-profits to put up the down payment and guaranty the debt. And, unlike real corporate buyers that typically obtain 10-year conduit or agency debt, these things are cobbled together from flaky loan products that are never going to hold up upon renewal.

And now – in front of the whole world – the inevitable has started to happen.

I wonder if all those state bureaucrats preaching about how great tenant-owned deals are have seen this article?  Can we finally put to bed the whole “tenant first option” scam? Time will tell.

Range Media: It’s rough to be a WA renter. A bill that could help is close to passing.

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Twenty years ago, Tina Hammond’s future looked bright. She’d just graduated from Gonzaga University with a masters degree. She owned a home in Spokane, and her finances seemed in order. 

“My life was really good,” Hammond said.

Then the 2008 recession hit. She couldn’t find work in her field and took a minimum wage job. In  just a couple of years, she burned through her savings and her 401k, desperately trying to pay her mortgage.

In 2010, Hammond lost her home. 

Over the following decade, she worked to stabilize her finances — by moving back in with her family. In 2019, her father died, leaving her an inheritance large enough to buy a...

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Ah yes, once again the Washington state government wants to pass rent control. And you know they just have to push it because higher rents mean nobody can buy food or medicine, right? Here’s what one of the backers of rent control had to say

“I ended up stopping my meds for three months, trying to figure out what I could do to make up that $66,” Hammond said. “After three months, I finally figured it out: I turned my heat off at night.”

Although virtually all of the Republicans in the Washington state house are opposed to rent control, hopefully at least a few of the Democrats are reading this, so here’s some things they need to know:

  1. If someone cannot afford to pay the exorbitant price of housing in Washington, they should move to a cheaper state. It makes no sense for a senior on a fixed income to live in one of the most expensive locations in the U.S. The free market should set where you live, not price controls.
  2. Rent is only the fourth highest cost for renters in Washington, being exceeded by healthcare, transportation and childcare. All three of those have zero pricing controls. So there will be no net benefit to the consumer.
  3. Rent control has been proven to destroy the availability of housing stock as nobody builds in a rent-controlled state.
  4. Property owners will not put money into capital repairs if there is rent control as they can’t get the money back.
  5. In over 100 years, only six states have been dumb enough to enact rent control – and they have suffered greatly as a consequence.

I knew that rent control would be a hot topic again in Washington this year since it failed last year. Let’s hope that the Republicans – the only ones with common sense in Washington apparently – can fend it off again.

Cascade PBS: The cost of aging: How rent caps could affect Washington seniors

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Royce Timothy is trying to figure out what to sell next.

To pay her rent last month, she sold a gold chain, a commemorative coin set and a ring with sentimental value. This month, she might dip into her collection of Beanie Babies or ornaments, which she’s accumulated over decades in boxes that line the walls of her apartment.

Since moving into an affordable senior housing complex in Lynnwood six-and-a-half years ago, Timothy’s rent has steadily increased – with hikes up to 14.5% some years. The building was sold within a year of when she moved in, and the new owners quickly began increasing rents as well as utility and parking costs....

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Timothy, 68, relies on monthly Social Security payments to cover rent, insurance and groceries. Unexpected expenses leave her scrambling to make ends meet. She’s used the last of her savings, and her diabetes makes it difficult to get a part-time job like some of her neighbors, who bag groceries at Safeway or work as a cashier at McDonald’s. As she faces a new lease with increased costs starting in May, Timothy said she doesn’t know what she’s going to do. In a few months, she may be living out of her car .“I keep praying for a miracle to happen,” she said.

I know it’s repetitive as it’s yet another article trying to persuade you that rent control will save the world in Washington state but FOR THE LOVE OF HEAVENS, IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO LIVE IN WASHINGTON STATE PLEASE MOVE TO A CHEAPER LOCATION. WASHINGTON IS THE FIFTH MOST EXPENSIVE STATE IN THE U.S. IF YOU MOVE TO MISSOURI YOUR RENT WILL BE ROUGHLY HALF OF WHAT YOU’RE PAYING – AS WILL BE THE COST OF EVERYTHING ELSE – AND YOU CAN EVEN GO TO BRANSON ON A FIELD TRIP. All of these articles sound like somebody complaining that they can’t afford the prime rib at Lawry’s so they are going to have to get rid of their air conditioning. How about just eating at Wendy’s instead of Lawry’s?

In the 1800s, Americans moved west in search of cheaper housing. Maybe now it’s time to move back east?

Chicago Tribune: Eshan Dosani: Mobile homes are some of the best affordable housing, but Wall Street threatens their existence

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I was working in eastern Kentucky last fall when I received a call from a woman facing her second eviction. Months earlier, her apartment had been sold to a new investor, and rising rents forced her out. Now, nearing 80, she couldn’t find another place she could afford. 

When we finally found her, she was sleeping on a couch in someone else’s cramped trailer, unsure how long they’d let her stay. Seeing us, she broke down sobbing — apologizing for losing the apartment we’d helped her get.

Like many in her situation, she blamed herself. But she wasn’t the only person I met who had lost their home after a corporate purchase and sudden rent...

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It seems odd that the only people who are willing to inject the capital needed to bring old trailer parks back to life are criticized as “ruining” the industry. But, of course, the only reason this article came out was because the Chicago Tribune was hoping to push Illinois rent control across the finish line. It failed. Better luck next time.

KHOU 11: Evicted north Houston families demand stronger legal protections for mobile home owners

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HOUSTON — After more than 50 families were forced to leave a north Houston mobile home, several former residents are now struggling financially and seeking legal protections for others in their situation. 

Residents at the County Road Mobile Home Park first received eviction notices this past September after the property was sold to a new owner, Summit Acquisitions. They were told to leave by the end of the year, but after public pressure, the landlord extended the deadline to April 8.

Marta De La Garza lived in the park with her family for five years. She said the forced move has been painful and costly.

“My daughters are in the...

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And another park bites the dust.

Second Wave Media: Housing in the time of DOGE: Where do we go from here?

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KALAMAZOO, MI — These are uncertain times when it comes to funding for housing, to put it mildly.

County housing projects rely on funding from the "Homes for All" housing millage, from philanthropic sources, from state dollars, from the federal government, and from a variety of other sources, Kalamazoo County Housing Director Mary Balkema points out.  

They work in federal PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) arrangements. They get community-donated furniture for the new manufactured homes at Sugarloaf. 

But one source behind the efforts to improve housing stock and get people into shelters suddenly seems to be at risk — the federal...

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"And then we also have the $9 million housing millage. And $9 million seems like a lot of money, but just 530 South Rose alone is $19 million," she says of the new 64-unit senior housing development. 

It sounds like these housing folks need their own DOGE. How can you spend $296,875 per unit on little assisted living apartments? If you really want to fix the “affordable housing” crisis, you need to figure out how to build things a whole lot cheaper – well under $100,000 per unit. You could hit that number only with factory-built or 3-D printed homes and never with traditional stick-built methods. If you really want a solution you have to get creative and nobody is being creative enough yet. The only people out there that are delivering on sub-$100,000 housing are mobile home park owners.

Portland Press Herald: Mobile homeowners back bill to help them fight sales to investors

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When John Geary learned that Fox Run Mobile Home Park in Lewiston was for sale, he feared an out-of-state investor would swoop in, raise the lot rents and leave the primarily senior residents of the small community “high and dry.”

Geary, 78, a retired lawyer, has lived in the park for seven years, and last fall helped mobilize his fellow residents to form the Fox Run Community Cooperative in an attempt to buy the park.

The group offered $2.64 million, but after a competitive counteroffer with difficult terms for the co-op to meet under a tight deadline, the sellers ultimately accepted the lower offer of $2.6 million from BoaVida, a...

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So now we know what the above article and its bias against “out of state” mobile home park owners was really all about – they want to brainwash you that only the people of Maine (namely the park residents) should be allowed to buy parks in Maine. I have bad news for whoever is behind this political movement in Maine: the residents only successfully close on something like .000001% of the deals they are offered. It takes about a year to put together and close on a tenant-owned park. A normal seller is never going to wait that long.

WSAW-TV: Schofield mobile home park no more after county clears trailers over human health hazard concern

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SCHOFIELD, Wis. (WSAW)— More than three years after residents vacated their trailers at Northern Mobile Home Park on Grand Avenue in Schofield, crews are working to finalize clearing the property.

Crews made significant headway the last week March, demolishing the trailers at 281 Grand Avenue. As of April 3, all the mobile homes have been demolished and removed from the area.

At its peak occupancy, about 60 trailers were on the property. In 2020, concerns about the property and the condition of the structures led to legal action. In November 2021, the remaining residents were evicted. Since that time, the property has become an eyesore in...

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And another park bites the dust.

Bangor Daily News: Most of Maine’s big mobile home parks are owned by out-of-state investors

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When Liza Fleming-Ives helped the first group of Maine residents buy their own mobile home park in 2009, there was little interest from out-of-state corporate investors in outbidding them.

That’s not true today. More than a fifth of Maine’s mobile home parks traditionally operated by local “mom-and-pop” types are now owned by these investors, according to a Bangor Daily News analysis of state data published last year.

Of Maine’s 32 largest parks, which have more than a third of the state’s mobile homes, 20 are now owned by corporate investors including Sun Communities, Phillips International and Boa Vida, according to a report released by...

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What’s with this fixation on “out of state” owners? It may come as a shock to the writer but every business in America has a 49-out-of-50 shot of being owned by someone who does not reside in that state. If you’re talking about Walmart, and you don’t live in Arkansas, then it’s an “out of state” owner. If it’s McDonalds, and you don’t happen to live in Illinois, it’s an “out of state” owner. And the list goes on and on. It means absolutely nothing.

Naples Daily News: What's happening in Olde Marco? Developers demolish mobile home park, ready for growth

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From a clam factory to a manufactured home community, less than two acres of prime waterfront in Marco Island is proposed for development into a small resort and marina.

Global Investment Properties LLC and Unionville Sportsman Club Inc. and Kyle Smith are listed as the buyers in Collier County property records. The entities purchased Marco Island Trailer Park and its docks, also known as the Doxsee properties, for $16 million and a contiguous property for $2 million in April 2023. That same year, Global Investment Properties bought a house on Sun Drop Court for $1.6 million.

Smith is a founder and principal at Tailwind Group, based in...

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And another park bites the dust.

Mitchell Republic: City eyes Mitchell mobile home park for $1M to develop housing, apartments and more

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MITCHELL — The city of Mitchell is considering purchasing a series of city blocks north of Hitchcock Park that is home to a mobile home estate.

This comes as part of a Mitchell City Council decision to set aside $1 million toward purchasing land for economic development, made at the March 17 regular council meeting. The council will consider ratifying the purchase agreement at the April 7 city council meeting for the properties, which have a total assessed value of $885,726.

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And another park bites the dust.

Houston Landing: Families struggle to relocate after land under northwest Houston mobile home community sold

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Prancing across the living room last week, Emely De La Garza took one look at her father disassembling a television and her mother frantically packing boxes and declared with the sweeping authority only a 5-year-old can possess:  “This is a mess!”

A mess indeed. Her parents, Erick and Marta De La Garza, stayed up the entire night packing in preparation for a moving company to transport their home from Country Road Park, a trailer park in northwest Houston, to a new mobile home community in Spring.

The De La Garzas — Erick, Marta, Emely and her older sister, Yocelin — are one of 53 low-income families living in the community forced to...

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And another park bites the dust.

Houston Chronicle: 'At the mercy of the owner': Texas law leaves few options for mobile home tenants facing evictions

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Down $15,000 of her life's savings, Frankie Schwarzburg watched her husband load a moving trailer with a bittersweet memento — her daughter's quinceañera dress purchased for a day her family spent ages saving up for, even as they learned they were about to lose everything.

Schwarzburg and around 50 other residents, some of whom have lived at Country Road mobile home park for more than 30 years, must now leave the community after the owner of the land it sits on announced a plan to sell the property last fall. The plastic-wrapped quinceañera dress, the Magnolia trees in Schwarzburg's yard, her children and her entire home must go. 

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And another park bites the dust.

Governing: States Look to Rein in Rising Costs for Mobile-Home Owners

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Marge Wisniewski moved into Northville Crossing, a large manufactured housing park outside Detroit, a little over a decade ago. A former health-care administrator, now retired, Wisniewski says she was tired of renting and wanted to try something new. She loved the home, a double-wide mobile trailer, and the community, which has a big swimming pool, a gym and a banquet room for residents. And it was affordable: She could build equity in the trailer, and the lot rent was just $425 a month.

A few years after she bought her trailer, Wisniewski says, the park’s corporate owners started steadily increasing the rent even as conditions and...

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The bills, backed mostly by Democrats, ultimately didn’t pass, even with a Democratic trifecta in state government. Republicans regained control of the state House this year. “We were all so disappointed,” Wisniewski says. “I don’t think we’re going to get very far with the Legislature at all.”

Just because a woke state senator proposes rent control does not mean that it will pass. Most bureaucrats are fully aware that rent control is literally the death sentence for housing, as it strangulates needed investment – resulting in no new starts and no capital improvements. That’s why, in over 100 years, only six states and the District of Columbia have embraced it. And they’re all doing terrible as a result.

Denver Business Journal: Manufactured home community sells for $161 million

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The property with hundreds of home lots and amenities in the northern metro area last sold 14 years ago for less than a third as much money.

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The property with hundreds of home lots and amenities in the northern metro area last sold 14 years ago for less than a third as much money.

Making $100 million with a single mobile home park in 14 years is a challenge but fully attainable apparently.

News Center Maine: Across Maine, residents are attempting to purchase their mobile home parks. A new bill would sweeten the deal for sellers.

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BRUNSWICK, Maine — When Celeste Yakawonis was younger, she thought she would spend the rest of her life in her riverfront home on six acres of land in Turner.

But that was before Yakawonis’s husband died, leaving her to live in the large farmhouse alone. 

“Can you see how big that was, for me, one person rattling around?” she said, pointing to a framed photo of the home powdered with snow. “I just couldn’t take care of it.”

Without her husband, Yakawonis said she felt overwhelmed and isolated. But she was advised not to make big decisions too soon after the loss. She kept the home for a year before deciding to sell it. When she...

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State lawmakers are discussing a bill that would encourage the creation of resident-owned communities by providing tax incentives to businesses that sell to cooperatives. The bill would provide a tax deduction of up to $750,000 on capital gains for owners who sell to cooperatives.

In all fairness, this idea was originally floated by Congressman Keith Ellison about a decade ago. Back then, he suggested advantageous tax treatment if you didn’t tear the park down. This time around it’s focused on selling to residents. But it’s a good idea regardless of who proposes it. If you made a compelling economic benefit to selling parks to residents as opposed to corporate buyers then I’m betting every park that qualifies would be sold to residents.

The Sand Mountain Reporter: Residents speak in opposition of mobile home park

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The Marshall County Commission listened to Mike Carnes; a citizen concerned over the possibility of a mobile home park on Needmore Road.

“I’m here to speak in opposition to this mobile home development we’ve got going on Needmore Road but I’m not here alone. I’m here with a group from my community, I’m here with some 400 names on a petition. These people are made up from anything from elderly people, young families with small children that lives in our area, who are all very concerned about our community. Your taxpayers and your voters are here to voice our concerns on this matter,” Carnes said to the commission.

“It is our understanding...

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“I’m here to speak in opposition to this mobile home development we’ve got going on Needmore Road but I’m not here alone. I’m here with a group from my community, I’m here with some 400 names on a petition. These people are made up from anything from elderly people, young families with small children that lives in our area, who are all very concerned about our community. Your taxpayers and your voters are here to voice our concerns on this matter,” Carnes said to the commission.

Anyone who has ever appeared at a city council or zoning hearing on a proposed mobile home park development or expansion can completely commiserate with how this went. You literally go up to the podium, give your presentation, take your seat and 500 people then speak in opposition. You get greater turnout to a zoning meeting on a proposed mobile home park then you would at a high-school football game. That’s what keeps the “moat” around mobile home parks and protects them from overbuilding (the nemesis of retail, office, industrial, apartment and self-storage niches). Because of the aggressive hatred that the average American has for mobile home parks, this is exactly why so few new ones are ever built.

NJ Advance Media: Rents are spiking in trailer parks. Some relief may by on the way in N.J.

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Private equity firms are buying up land in mobile home parks across the nation, and some New Jersey lawmakers have a plan to stop residents from experiencing double-digit rent hikes.

A bill, S2953, working its way through the New Jersey Legislature would put a 3% cap on rent increases in the state’s “manufactured home” or mobile home communities.

Any annual rent hikes higher than 3% would have to receive approval from the state’s Department of Community Affairs, under the plan. Landlords requesting approval for the rent increase would have to show that current rents aren’t enough to cover the cost of maintenance and tax increases.

The...

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Roughly one-fifth of mobile home parks across the nation have been purchased by large-scale investors in recent years, according to a 2022 study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a nonprofit foundation based in Massachusetts.

I’m not sure if the author of this story bothered to do any fact-checking, but there are around 44,000 mobile home parks in the U.S. and if 20% were purchased by large corporate investors in the last few years that would equate to around 10,000 parks. The actual number is probably more like 500 parks tops (ELS – the nation’s largest MH REIT – only owns around 400 in 30 years). And that’s around 1% NOT 10%. But the facts don’t much matter in this case because corporate ownership has nothing to do with higher lot rents.

The real reason rents are increasing across the nation is not because of large corporate owners, but simply because mobile home park lot rents are insanely, ridiculously low compared to $400,000 houses and $2,000 per month apartments. It’s called the free-market system, and it’s the backbone of America capitalism. Price controls are a part of socialism and “can lead to shortages, black markets, and reduced quality, ultimately hindering economic efficiency”. And that’s why the legislature in New Jersey hopefully won’t fall for this nonsense.