Demographics of mobile home parks are shifting. Residents of Radio City Mobile Home Park in Des Moines, Iowa, consist primarily of young families.<\/p><\/div>\n

Lowest in glamour, highest in value: This is the manufactured housing industry<\/span><\/h5>\n

Words by Melissa Studach<\/span><\/em>
\nPhotos by Melissa Studach and Emily VanSchmus
\nGraphics by Emily VanSchmus<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get lost trying to navigate a mobile home park. One wrong turn and you\u2019re in the same place you started. Yet from an aerial glance, the 330 lots of Sugar Creek Estates Mobile Home Park form a meticulous grid nestled in the hills of Fenton, Missouri, a small southwest suburb of St. Louis. <\/span><\/p>\n

What you won\u2019t see from an aerial view, though, is the plastic Little Tikes car sitting in a resident\u2019s front yard. Or the marigolds blossoming in another\u2019s lot. Or the heavy-set man working on his Chevy truck. He\u2019ll wipe a grease-stained hand across his red, cut-off T-shirt before pointing you in the right direction. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t what you\u2019d expect if you\u2019ve seen <\/span>Cops<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Eight Mile<\/span><\/i>,\u201d said park owner Frank Rolfe. \u201cBut that kind of classic trailer park\u2014rebel flag in the window, Harley Davidson in the driveway, toothless hillbilly guy\u2014that\u2019s not the bulk of the industry. This is the bulk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rolfe admits his original expectations were no different. But after falling into the park ownership role in his mid-30s, he readjusted his view. He, along with several other industry experts, is making it his mission to change the industry\u2019s reputation. <\/span><\/p>\n

An Industry on the Move<\/h6>\n

Mobile homes are woven into the fabric of American history. As automobiles rose to popularity in the 1920s, travelers wanted an alternative to motels. Travel trailers, or campers, unfolded from a vehicle hitch like an accordion. By the time World War II ended, the transportable housing developed into more sufficient, year-round units, earning the title mobile homes. Demand spiked as GIs returned home looking for an affordable alternative to Levittowns, the cookie-cutter suburban communities created for veterans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s manufactured homes have evolved from their hybrid ancestors. Congress passed the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Act in 1974, which once again renamed the residence, to establish a <\/span>manufacturing standard<\/span><\/a>. By definition, manufactured homes are built wall-by-wall in an indoor, climate-controlled setting, sold through retailers and constructed on-site by installation professionals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA factory-built home is actually better quality than a lot of your stick-built homes today because they\u2019re built in controlled environmental conditions instead of in the weather subject to the elements,\u201d said Darryl Searer, president of the RV\/Manufactured Home \u00a0Hall of Fame.<\/span><\/p>\n

The RV\/MH Hall of Fame<\/span><\/a> is located in Elkhart, Indiana, and is recognized as the birthplace of manufactured housing and continues to headquarter several manufacturers today. It welcomes more than 20,000 visitors a year to experience the industry\u2019s history through a museum, library, theater and a 2013-built manufactured home open for tours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first question our volunteers ask guests is what RV and MH stand for,\u201d Searer said. \u201cAnd you know what 99 out of 100 say? Motor home, not manufactured housing. The RV side has dominated over the manufactured housing side, so we educate those people correctly [on how far the mobile home industry has [come].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Operating Wheel Estate<\/h6>\n

Rolfe never intended to be one of the largest mobile home park owners in the U.S. After ending a successful, yet short-lived career in billboard advertising, Rolfe was 35 years old without any career paths in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started calling people who I had built billboards on their property with things I could do,\u201d Rolfe said. \u201cI called up a guy who had a mobile home park, and he said, \u2018If you really want to know about my business, I\u2019ll make you a deal you can\u2019t refuse.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rolfe purchased his first park from the man, which ended up being an operational disaster. Yet even behind the necessary physical repairs and management updates, he was able to find potential.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I got into [the industry] and researched it, I realized you can\u2019t even build these things anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd since I was an economics major at Stanford, it was supply and demand. If there\u2019s no supply, then things go up in value.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

His predictions proved right. After promoting his first park in a local newspaper, he received nearly 80 calls a week. \u201cI had never seen that much demand in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cWith billboards, I\u2019d have to make 100 sales calls to sell one board. With the park, I had people hounding me and coming to the office saying they\u2019d take anything I had.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Price has a lot to do with the demand. The <\/span>average manufactured home costs around $60,000<\/span><\/a>, compared to a stick-built home\u2019s average price of $206,560. The industry holds 6.7 percent of the nation\u2019s real estate market, housing about 22 million residents. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, more than 20 years since purchasing his first community, Rolfe co-owns the fifth-largest mobile home park portfolio in the U.S., with 230 of his properties in the Midwest. He cites location as one of his biggest keys to success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything we buy has a problem. We figure out what the problem is, then we solve it. Once it\u2019s solved, you never go back to that mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

-Frank Rolfe<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To have affordable housing you must also have expensive housing, he notes. Take Sugar Creek Park in Fenton, for example. With median housing costs at $125,000 and apartments renting at $1,000 a month, there\u2019s a lack of affordable housing in the St. Louis suburb.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to live here,\u201d Rolfe said. \u201cThere\u2019s a great school district, nice area\u2014just no affordable housing. We\u2019re one of the few ways you can, so it\u2019s crazy not to be filling vacant lots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sugar Creek Park is nestled in the hills of Fenton, Missouri.<\/p><\/div>\n\n

<\/p>\n

Rolfe is no longer a scrappy college kid, surprised by demand. He\u2019s worked the system. He knows his industry. He owns a bouged-out Range Rover.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

He\u2019s used his two decades\u2019 worth of industry knowledge to create <\/span>Mobile Home University<\/span><\/a>, a three-day boot camp educating interested investors about the manufactured housing industry. The densely informative course, as described by online reviews, has garnered Rolfe quite the fan club.<\/span><\/p>\n

He admits running Mobile Home University is a fun hobby. \u201cYou can never go to a school PTA meeting and find another adult who\u2019s been in the mobile home park industry [so our program acts as a forum].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Changing Perspectives<\/h6>\n

When Jessica Buike and her husband Christopher were looking to move in 2013, they too stumbled into the manufactured housing industry. The young couple had been living in a 60-year-old, single-family home in Bellevue, Nebraska, that continuously needed to be renovated. He wanted to be closer to his work in Omaha. She wanted to downsize so they could travel more.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely about living simpler. The less home to take care of, the more you can enjoy things.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

-Jessica Buike<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They toured apartments, condos and townhomes in the Omaha area. Buike admits they were skeptical of manufactured home stigmas, but decided to look around Meadowbrook Estates anyway. After one visit, they were sold. They purchased a brand new manufactured home and had it moved into the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople thought we were crazy,\u201d Buike said. \u201cThey thought we\u2019d be sitting around with beer cans in the yard and trash. They didn\u2019t think it could be a nice community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask a park owner about their typical resident a decade ago, and they\u2019d have likely described a retiree. For many parks, this \u201cgeezer\u201d persona and the beer-drinking, gun-slinging Duck Dynasty fan are strongly held stereotypes. But that picture is changing. Buike says her Omaha community is diverse, with residents ranging from college-age to young families to, yes, the classic retiree. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people these days are seeing it as a smart option because you get a lot of bang for your buck,\u201d Buike said of her three-bedroom, two-bath home. \u201cAnd we\u2019re in an expensive part of town that we normally wouldn\u2019t be able to live in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Still Work to Be Done<\/h6>\n

But that classic trailer park perception\u2014the one with the Stars and Bars in the window and the Harley out front\u2014persists for a reason. While improvements continue to be made, not all parks are perfect. Take the Radio City Mobile Park in Des Moines. If there was ever a \u201cbefore\u201d image to Rolfe\u2019s \u201cafter\u201d transformation, this would be it.<\/p>\n

Major potholes, tight property lots and tree branches near electrical lines likely explain the amount of empty lots in the park.<\/span><\/p>\n

Radio City Mobile Home Park in Des Moines, Iowa, will soon be undergoing property renovations to meet the new manufactured housing standards.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEverything is in violation because the park is really old,\u201d said Leticia Espinoza, who has been the park\u2019s office manager for two years. \u201cWe\u2019re working with the city to bring it up to date.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Residents are willing to wait. But with <\/span>transporting mobile homes<\/span><\/a> costing up to $15,000, many don\u2019t have a choice. After all, a small increase in rent seems less intimidating than that price tag. And with renovations in the works, an increase in rent is almost a guarantee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we get criticized on raising rents, but people don\u2019t realize that if you don\u2019t raise rents, you can\u2019t offer a good product,\u201d Rolfe said. \u201cIf the water doesn\u2019t run very well, or there are potholes the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, most people are willing to pay a little more not to have those things. Our goal is to give people a good value.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If the \u201cafter\u201d photos look anything like Fenton\u2019s Sugar Creek Estates, residents may be able to justify the price. But even in the park\u2019s pleasant landscape, Rolfe\u2019s Range Rover still stands out like a, well, Range Rover in a mobile home park.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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