Park Improvement Strategies – Ten Tips

Seminar Presented to:

WMA Convention & Expo

Oct. 17, 2017

By:

John H. Pentecost, Bill Dahlin,

Mindy Parish & Thomas Pacelli

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Who are John & Bill?

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John Pentecost has been with Hart King since 1988 and is a

group leader in the firm’s manufactured housing practice. He has

handled hundreds of trials in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside

counties, including numerous commercial, RV park and

mobilehome park tenant evictions. John has over thirty years of

experience in defending community owners in class actions

ranging from lease disputes to state and federal discrimination

lawsuits and failure to maintain lawsuits. He assists manufactured

housing clients complete subdivision conversions and park

closures, as well as ground lease negotiations and litigation.

Bill Dahlin has been practicing manufactured housing law and

helping manufactured housing community owners for over 25

years. He has been trial counsel in multiple cases involving the

protection of manufactured housing communities and their

property rights, including disputes over rent control, mobilehome

park closures, subdivisions, park sales and purchases, failure to

maintain and all related land use issues. Bill understands the

needs and goals of community owners. Rent control, utility issues

and residency concerns are the primary basis of Bill’s practice.

Who are Mindy & Thomas?

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Mindy Parish is a regional manager with Hometown America, a

privately held company that owns and operates manufactured housing

communities across the United States. Mindy has been with

Hometown America since 2003. She currently manages the day-to-day

operations for 17 manufactured home communities in California and

Arizona. She has been in the manufactured housing industry since

1996 and has extensive experience in expense management and

reduction, revenue optimization, operations, acquisitions, budget

preparation, variance reporting, process improvement and automation,

performance measurement and improvement, employee recognition,

administration, sales, leasing, lease administration, rent control,

complex lease analysis and marketing resources.

Thomas Pacelli is the Vice President of Operations with J & H Asset

Property Mgt., Inc. since 2008. Thomas has extensive experience in

resident relations and specializes in Fair Housing and how it relates to

the mobile home park industry. He has been a speaker at the Western

Manufactured Housing Communities Association (WMA) seminars and

annual conventions. He is a Property Manager, and California Real

Estate Broker. Thomas serves on the Board of the Manufactured

Housing Education Trust (MHET).

1) Human Resources are the key

• It’s all about the people!

• Recruiting – internal and external

• Training – defined process

• Coaching – ongoing

• Retention

• Termination

Keys to Successful Park Operations

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2) Written rental agreements

• Long term or month-to-month?

• Pros & cons of each

Documentation

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3) Arbitration Agreements

• Federal Arbitration Act

• State Arbitration Laws

• Pros & cons of each

Documentation

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4) Rule Enforcement

• Park rules are like CC & R’s created for residential

developments

• California requires park / community rules

• General vs. Detailed?

• Pros & cons of each

• How are they enforced?

Documentation

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Who is Your Customer?

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5) Get to know your market. Determine the needs

and wants of existing residents as well as

future residents.

Who is Your Competitor?

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6) Know your competition and what sets you apart

from them, or more importantly what may set

them apart from you and how you can “bridge”

that gap and be the more attractive option.

On Going Park Assessment

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7) Create a detailed assessment of your community’s

appearance and infrastructure and then identify

what improvements and potential upgrades are

needed to maintain, modernize and, if needed,

upgrade your community.

Risk Assessment & Analysis

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8) Minimizing Risks – Proactive utility system

maintenance, getting ahead of potential system

failures and maintaining maintenance logs.

Community Evolutions

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9) Replacing and improving current housing stock.

• Renovate vs remove?

• Closure?

• Conversion to resident owned community?

• Park owned homes?

10) Rent collections

• Process

• Metrics

• Cash management

• Electronic payments (ACH debit payments) and check scanning

• Ancillary Revenue

• Reserved parking and storage

• Enforcement

Revenue Management

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Questions?

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John H. Pentecost & Bill Dahlin

HART KING / 714-432-8700 Email: jpentecost@hartkinglaw.com

bdahlin@hartkinglaw.com

Mindy Parish Hometown America, LLC / 949-522-5878 Email: mparish@hometownamerica.net

Thomas Pacelli J & H Asset Property Mgt., Inc. / 714-974-0397

Email: thomas@jandhmgt.com

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Thank You!