Sharon Moran and her neighbors got a certified letter that raised alarms – a letter that could change the future of their community.
The family that owns Deer Meadow, a 60-unit manufactured housing community in Contoocook, had put the land up for sale and received an offer from an out-of-state investor.
Moran and her neighbors, by law, had 60 days to match the offer and buy the park themselves, something that has been done dozens of times in New Hampshire already.
So, they got to work educating themselves on the provisions of state law that allowed them to create their own resident-owned cooperative in the state that has paved the way for these efforts.
Two days before the August deadline, they made a $6 million matching offer, hoping to gain ownership of the land they lived on.
To their dismay, the owners, the Price family, rejected their bid. The family decided to sell to an out-of-state investment firm, confirming residents’ worst fears.
“Why wouldn’t you take our offer if you’re getting the same amount of money?” Moran said. “Why are we being pushed aside?”
It wasn’t personal, it was business, an attorney for the Price family wrote.
“They would have preferred nothing more than to see the park sold to the tenants who they have become close with over the years,” the letter read. “In the end, this was a business decision, and they had to compare two offers that were materially different.”
State law gives residents the right to challenge the sale. Most of the people living at Deer Meadow strongly believe they weren’t given a fair chance, and they are now taking legal action against the Price family.
“Let us take care of our own,” Moran said.
‘Never intended to sell to us’
Resident-owned communities operate on a non-profit basis, with an elected board of directors.
New Hampshire leads the nation with 152 resident-owned cooperatives.
Under state law, housing park owners are required to “negotiate in good faith with the tenants” if an offer is submitted within the specified timeframe of 60 days.
If residents believe the park owner didn’t negotiate in good faith, state law allows them to bring a penalty case, and if they win, the owner must pay the residents 10% of the park’s purchase price.
Julie Grandmaison, a Deer Meadow resident and member of the park’s resident cooperative board, said she believes David Price, who owns the park with his family, made a decision that wasn’t in their best interest.
“It’s unfortunate that the penalty is only 10% because it wasn’t enough of a hit to his income to rethink selling it to us,” she said.
“We are his income and if, in return, when he wants out, he’s not willing to give it to us or sell it to us, then that should be higher, so that there is an incentive. 10% was not a deterrent for him.”
The Price family, who also own Meadows of Hopkinton, another manufactured housing park in Contoocook, decided to put both properties up for sale in the summer.
Sado Parks, a Michigan-based investment firm, submitted a $12.8 million bid to purchase both parks, according to the purchase and sale agreement.
The Deer Meadow cooperative offered $6 million for its 60 manufactured home lots, while the Meadows of Hopkinton cooperative put forward $6.8 million for its 70 lots and a six-unit apartment building.
Although their offers were equal in value to Sado Parks’ offer, there was a difference in their terms: The residents’ cooperatives would have needed a loan to make the purchase, while Sado Parks’s purchase wouldn’t depend on financing.
John Collopy, a resident and president of the Deer Meadow Cooperative, which was set up by residents hoping to buy the park, said he wasn’t surprised their offer got turned down at all.
“I think they never intended to sell to us,” Collopy said. “I think that if they had communicated with us better at the initial stages and were receptive to us submitting a bid, then I would have thought that they would have been more serious about us.”
Rising rents
Since 2016, at least 18 New Hampshire manufactured-home parks, containing 3,713 homes, have been purchased by out-of-state equity investors.
Sado Parks is one such investor. In 2021, the investment firm purchased Mountain View, a 59-lot park in Northwood, for $3.5 million.
Before the sale, Mountain View residents were paying $730 per month in lot rent. Today, new residents are charged $1,235, nearly a 60% increase.
Joel Mazur, CEO of Sado Parks, said the higher rent applies only to new residents and reflects both market rates and the company’s investments in park improvements, including road paving and tree removal.
He said that for current residents at the mobile park in Northwood, rent hikes were capped at $30 a month during the first two years of ownership.
“We don’t operate that way,” Mazur said. “We recognize that folks who have purchased a home at some point, decades ago, can’t afford that level. We try to be cognizant of their financial situation at the same time, balancing parks, rising operating costs and the infrastructure needs for the community.”
At manufactured-home parks, tenants pay rent on their land, but they own their homes.
Moran’s house in the park is a true labor of love, from the small vegetable garden on her deck, where she grows tomatoes and basil, to the seasonal decor she refreshes throughout the home.
Her home, where she has lived for 21 years, is also filled with reminders of her late husband’s care and craftsmanship, including the wooden trim in her soft gray bedroom and the custom dining-room cabinet for plates and glassware.
Before he passed away three years ago, Moran’s husband worked tirelessly to pay off the house, hoping to give her a lasting sense of security.
Now, at 75, Moran, who shares the home with her 70-year-old sister, Wendy Tennis, said that security feels increasingly fragile.
“I am scared to death at my age,” Moran said. “We have no idea where we would end up. Where are we going to go?”
Her sister worries, too.
“All I want is a roof over my head and to be warm all winter,” Tennis said.
Deer Meadow residents have a mix of backgrounds — some are on fixed incomes, others are young families and many are still paying off their mortgages. They said they’re worried that any rent increase could push them out, especially considering the rising cost of other expenses, like propane and groceries.
For Moran, who lives on a fixed income from Social Security, the worry that Sado Parks will increase the rent at Deer Meadow feels real.
She pays $645 a month to rent the land beneath her home, but she also has to pay for electricity, water and property taxes. Moran said that if the rent rises to around $1,500, she would have no choice but to move.
“We were doing okay now, but at this point, it’s pretty scary as to whether the new people will price us out,” said Moran.
Greg Scribner, 75, has lived at Deer Meadow for nearly 18 years and hopes to retire there. He describes his experience at the park as “absolutely beautiful,” enjoying the quiet nights and the kindness of neighbors always willing to lend a hand.
With the resident’s offer rejected, he feels uncertain about his future at the park, given his fixed income.
“We know rent’s going to increase. How much? We don’t know,” Scribner said. “But we have a pretty good idea after seeing what Sado has done with other properties. It’s probably gonna force me to end up selling.”
‘In limbo’
Despite residents’ frustrations over Price rejecting their offer, they said they had no complaints about how he manages the park. He consistently handles plowing and salting the roads in winter and responds quickly whenever problems arise.
Resident Darlene Gildersleeve said she is disappointed that the residents didn’t get the chance to buy the park, but she isn’t worried about rent skyrocketing.
As a board member, Gildersleeve voted against suing the owner, and she noted that a letter Mazur sent the residents eased her concerns.
“In my existing communities, annual rent increases typically do not exceed 5%, except in cases where capital improvements or significant increases in operating costs require an adjustment. My strong intention is to follow this same approach here,” Mazur wrote.
Now, Gildersleeve is not part of the board anymore.
If the residents’ cooperative had purchased the park, the projected rent, including maintenance costs, would have risen to $1,010, an increase of about two-thirds.
“That would have forced a significant amount of people from the park,” said Gildersleeve. “When I’m talking to people, there’s a significant amount who do not want to move forward, and they accept that Sado corporation will be the new owner.”
State Sen. Tara Reardon, who previously worked with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, helping residents purchase their parks, said that while rent increases in a resident-owned cooperative may initially be higher, they tend to stabilize over time. But investor-owned parks often raise rents a little each year, making residents accustomed to regular increases.
“That’s the beauty of the model of the resident-owned community, it’s going to keep those communities affordable in perpetuity, where, with an investor owner, they expect a return on their investment and they raise the rents every year,” said Reardon. “I think resident-owned communities are maybe the smartest housing choice that people can make at the end.”
Although the residents know their offer was rejected, they still don’t know if Sado Parks has closed the deal.
Moran hoped to remodel her bathroom to make it more accessible and to finally renovate the kitchen, something her husband never got to do before he passed.
In light of the uncertainty of the sale and the potential rent hike it might bring, she has had to pause those plans. She said she’s taking each day as it comes because she doesn’t know if she and her sister will have to leave their home and the supportive community around them.
“Everything is in limbo,” Moran said. “It’s quite scary for old people.”