The MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Mary Gaiski, President of the PA Manufactured Housing Association

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed PA Manufactured Housing Association President Mary Gaiski about key issues for park owners and investors in her state.

This and every Tips and Tricks podcast episode is brought to you by The MHP Broker’s’  proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Ask Max for details.

Here Are the Show Highlights:

-        Mary has been a member of the PA Manufactured Home Association since 1986. The association will celebrate its 75^th anniversary next year. (Mary, 1:20)

-        Mary has been in the industry since 1978, As a state, Pennsylvania is quite active in manufactured home manufacturing, with 11 factories exporting homes to several nearby states, especially in the north. (Mary, 1:35)

-        PA also has 30 to 40 retailers selling homes to residents, and over 2,200 mobile home communities, including the very smallest. (Mary, 2:20)

-        That includes a number of parks below what Max thinks of as investment grade for buyers’ purposes. The MHP Broker data report finds about 1,000 parks in the state that are mid-size to larger. (Max, 3:42)

-        Waves of investors have already bought many of the larger parks in the state, and now they’re starting to buy the mom and pop-size parks too. A single investor might typically buy several parks within a geographic region to achieve dominance. (Mary, 4:34)

-        Many of these smaller parks have fallen below market rents over the years, so the new owners immediately raise rents, which gets them in conflict with the state over issues such as rent control and right of first refusal, whereby tenants have the right to buy their communities before sales to outside investors. (Mary, 5:30)

-        Max has seen similar legislation enacted in Virginia, in that tenants have 90 days or so after a proposed sale to determine if they want to buy their communities. (Max,6:06)

-        In Pennsylvania, legislators want to give residents as long as 365 days to decide first refusal, which would be crippling for park buyers and sellers. (Mary, 7:16)

-        Most regulations in the state are at the state or the local levels. (Mary, 12:41)

-        The state is basically divided into three geographic areas in terms of regulatory environment. The southeast park is the most progressive, and therefore most aggressively regulate. Central PA has some local communities that are aggressive in terms of regulations, and some others that aren’t. The western part o the state is the least regulated, and park owners there are hoping things stay that way. (Mary, 14:44)

-        Like elsewhere in the U.S., PA suffers from the aging of the mobile home moving industry. As movers retire, fewer take their place. Home installers, service and repair people are also in short supply in PA. (Mary, 16:14)

-        Less than ten percent of mobile homes are moved from one park to another in the state. (Mary, 17:17)

-        Mary Gaiski of the PA Manufactured Home Association can be reached at [phone] or [email protected]. (Mary, 19:35)

Want to know more about the ordinances and regulations that affect mobile home park ownership in your state or locale? Just reach out to Max Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, [phone].

Power Quotes in This Episode:

“About 70 percent of the homes built in the Commonwealth are shipped out (of the state)(Mary, 2:20)

“The mom and pops weren't very big on keeping rents at market rate or worrying about all of that. So, these communities are being sold with rents well below market rate and because of that, it has left us right for having to address issues such as rent control, or  right of first refusal and we've been seeing a lot of that in our legislative halls this year.” (Mary, 5:30)

“There's no other business out there in the Commonwealth, or probably even in then nation, that you're going to give their customers a whole year to determine if they can sell their community, you know, sell the business. Because, you know, that's the sad part. They don't look at these as businesses. And sadly, they are. I mean, they have an income and expense statement(Mary, 8:23)