Rents skyrocketed after out-of-state investors bought Maine mobile home parks

WISCASSET, Maine — Twin mobile home parks sit on opposite sides of Route 27. They were once owned by two local brothers who kept the rent stable and performed timely repairs.

The McMorrow brothers paid at least $616,000 to buy the Whippoorwill and Maplewood Hill mobile home parks in 2006 and 2016, respectively. They aged into their 70s during the COVID-19 pandemic as the housing market peaked. That led them to sell the parks for at least $1.9 million in separate 2021 and 2022 transactions, real estate documents show.

A man from Idaho bought Whippoorwill, and a small team of Colorado investors with Maine ties bought Maplewood Hill. Both owners hired Bangor-based Maine Real Estate Management to manage their properties. Park residents often own their homes and pay property taxes but rent the land they live on, and many say their lives have changed since the new owners took over.

From early 2021 to this year, 73-year-old Tom Kurtz’s monthly rent in Whippoorwill has nearly doubled — from $285 to $540. Maine home values have risen by 22 percent over that time, according to Zillow data . The new owner hiked Kurtz’s rent 32 percent when he took over and has raised it regularly. Similar hikes have come at Maplewood Hill.

Despite the higher rents, residents say repairs have been delayed or ignored and many feel policed by fees and fines for minor issues. Many of the residents of these mobile home parks have been meeting as an informal tenants group in the last few months, writing letters to the owners asking for stable rent and more attention to repairs.

The issues at the neighboring parks highlight the growing consolidation of mobile home parks, which can be some of the only bastions of affordable housing, especially along Maine’s coast. It is part of a national trend attributed to low cost of entry for investors who can easily raise rents that have long sat below market with a captive class of lower-income residents.

Many in the Wiscasset parks live on fixed incomes and were pinching pennies before rents rose. For a married couple living in Whippoorwill, Terry and Mary Tardiff, the rent increases have affected day-to-day living. Money is tighter since Terry left Bath Iron Works last year after working for more than 37 years as a mechanic.

Mary has a stage four kidney disease and receives disability payments. They’re careful with what they buy now, she said.

“This park would be a beautiful place,” Terry said. “Not now. We’re losing money just staying here. We have nothing else to do.”

Whippoorwill’s owner says rent increases are necessary to keep up with the market and fund “long-deferred” maintenance. Mike Harman, a lawyer for the management company, said in a statement that nearly $300,000 in repairs have been poured into the park in less than three years, though he said they “might go unnoticed” by tenants.

The owners of Maplewood Park did not respond to specific questions about their residents’ concerns, saying they are working privately to understand and address them.

Data from the Maine Manufactured Housing Board show that of the 686 active mobile home parks licensed here, 134 are registered to out-of-state mailing addresses. Many of these are corporate owners. That alone is not a bad thing for residents, according to Charles Becker, an economist at Duke University in North Carolina who studies the mobile home market.

These companies often manage parks more effectively than the mom-and-pop owners of the past, Becker said. But he has also seen a smaller category of “nickel-and-dime” investors charging excessive and random-seeming fees.

“They just gouge,” Becker said. “It’s an ugly model.”

Like most of Maine’s coast, Wiscasset’s housing market is hot, and Harman said lot rents at Whippoorwill must reflect that. The lot rent the McMorrows were charging was below market rate, Harman said, providing a list of other local parks that charge between $425 to $535 per month. However, Kurtz’s rent in Whippoorwill was higher than all of the other figures provided.

Last year, the water infrastructure at Whippoorwill failed . Tenants either had contaminated water or were without it entirely for months. Though Harman contends that the park responded “aggressively and extensively” to the water issues, Kurtz said it took pressure from the media and state action to get the management company to fix the issue and install a new pump.

Whippoorwill’s roads, which are especially prone to washing out during this mud season, would likely be worse if not for 19-year-old Robert Saxton, who lives with his grandmother in the park and has been doing repairs on his own dime.

He was dumping rocks into ditches along the road into Whippoorwill after an early-March rainstorm. Whippoorwill’s owners are working on a project to replace every culvert and much of the park’s roadbed by the end of April and recently updated regulators on the condition of park roads, Harman said.

“I’m trying to keep up with the park. Nobody else really will,” Saxton said. “I know it’s not my responsibility.”

Tenants in both parks said that requests for maintenance have gone unanswered by Maine Real Estate Management. Maplewood Park resident Meg ní Domhnaill, Kurtz and the Tardiffs said they have been hung up on by the agency.

Ní Domhnaill produced unanswered emails she sent to management about her new lease and the need for more tree trimming after a stray, dead branch punctured her roof last March.

Last year, a storm knocked down a utility pole in Maplewood Hill. Residents attempted to get the management company’s attention for five days, but they couldn’t get anyone to fix it, ní Domhnaill said. The pole hung by its safety wire until the fire department was called. Wiscasset Fire Chief Rob Bickford confirmed that a firefighter called management to fix the pole.

Harman acknowledged that the company has hung up on a tenant once because the resident used “abusive language” with staff, but he said Maine Real Estate Management’s logs do not show unanswered requests. Both Whippoorwill and Maplewood Hill passed their most recent state inspections.

In theory, people who live in mobile homes can move them if they’re unhappy with their park, but it is not easy. They can cost anywhere from $1,500 up to $10,000 to move from one place to another depending on the home’s size and condition, said Benjamin Rankin, who owns a Belfast-area mobile home moving business.

There aren’t many options for mobile home park residents to fight a rent increase, since landlords are within their rights if they give due notice, said Jillian Reihl, a lawyer at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, who said she has recently seen an uptick in the fees imposed on tenants in both mobile home parks and apartments. Evictions are also on the rise , she noted.

Maplewood Hill and Whippoorwill residents hope to appeal to lawmakers for some sort of statewide rent stabilization measure. The higher rents they’re swallowing add pressure to vulnerable tenants who are already responsible for their own yard maintenance, snow removal, trash, taxes and utilities. All of that adds up to $1,000 per month before rent, ní Domhnaill said.

“The cost of living in a mobile home park is not as low as people think,” she said. “We feel that these pretty big management companies actually know what they’re doing. They know there’s a housing crisis and they’re capitalizing on it.”