If you own or invest in mobile home parks, there’s a regulatory wave building that you need to understand — not in the abstract, but specifically, with names, bill numbers, and dates.

The comfortable assumption that manufactured housing communities exist in a lightly regulated, landlord-friendly environment is becoming outdated. Fast.

This isn’t a panic piece. Most of the regulatory changes described below can be managed or even turned to your advantage if you see them coming. The operators who get hurt are the ones who find out six months too late — and by then they’re already in violation, already in litigation, or already watching a deal fall apart at closing.

The Political Landscape Shift

Here’s what’s driving this: manufactured housing communities have become a political issue.

The combination of a national housing affordability crisis, media coverage of large private equity firms acquiring parks and sharply raising rents, and increasingly organized resident advocacy groups has created a challenging political environment for operators. State legislators at every point on the spectrum are responding with bills designed to protect residents.

The result is a patchwork of new laws that is expanding geographically. What started in California, Oregon, and New Hampshire is moving to Colorado, Virginia, Connecticut, and — watch carefully — states like North Carolina and Tennessee.

The Key Regulatory Trends to Watch in 2025

1. Right of First Refusal on Park Sales

More than 15 states now have some form of requirement that park owners notify residents of an intent to sell and give them a period (typically 45–180 days) to make an offer before selling to a third party. Resident cooperatives — groups of residents who collectively purchase the park they live in — are being held up as a model by policy advocates, and right-of-first-refusal laws are designed to facilitate that.

For operators, ROFR laws don’t necessarily kill deals. But they add time, complexity, and uncertainty to the exit process. Deals that require a 90-day clean close suddenly need 6 months of runway. Buyers get nervous when they know a resident offer can emerge at any time before closing.

2. Extended Notice Requirements for Rent Increases

Several states have moved from 30-day to 60, 90, or even 180-day notice requirements before a rent increase takes effect in a manufactured home community. The practical effect for operators is significant: it delays your ability to execute on a value-add thesis after acquisition, makes annual increases harder to time, and can be weaponized by organized residents to delay legitimate business decisions.

3. Relocation Assistance Mandates

If you acquire a park with plans to redevelop it — convert it to another use, or significantly reduce its size — an increasing number of states require you to provide substantial relocation assistance to displaced residents. In some states this means paying for the full cost of moving homes, finding replacement lots, or buying out residents who can’t relocate their homes.

This is an important point for underwriting. Any acquisition where the exit thesis involves changing the use of the land needs to have relocation assistance costs modeled in — in every state, regardless of current law, because the law can change before you execute your strategy.

4. Just-Cause Eviction Requirements

A growing number of jurisdictions are requiring that landlords demonstrate “just cause” before evicting a manufactured home community resident — meaning a legitimate legal reason, not simply a business decision to redevelop or not renew a lease. These provisions significantly complicate park repositioning strategies.

What This Means for Operators in NC, TN, and the Southeast

North Carolina and Tennessee are currently among the more landlord-friendly states for manufactured housing. That’s one reason they’re attractive investment markets. But it’s not guaranteed to stay that way.

North Carolina has had manufactured home community-related bills introduced in multiple recent legislative sessions. The NC Manufactured and Modular Home Builders Association monitors these closely, but coverage of smaller operator-specific issues is uneven. Tennessee has seen increased resident organizing activity, particularly in the Nashville and Knoxville metro areas.

The smart approach: treat regulatory risk like infrastructure risk. Assume it will get worse over your hold period, price it into your thesis, and build operational buffers accordingly.

How to Actually Protect Your Portfolio

Track Legislation Before It Passes, Not After

Most states publish their legislative agendas publicly. Your state’s Manufactured Housing Association likely has a legislative tracking service. Subscribe to it. Also follow the MHI’s legislative alerts. Read them when they arrive, not two months later.

Build an Attorney Relationship Before You Need One

Have a relationship with a local attorney in each state where you operate who understands the manufactured housing community regulatory environment. A $500 annual retainer call is cheap insurance compared to learning about a new law at closing.

Document Everything

Every notice, every rent increase letter, every lease renewal, every eviction filing — document it with dates, certified mail tracking numbers, and resident acknowledgment when possible. When a regulator or plaintiff’s attorney comes looking, your documentation is your first and best defense.

Communicate Proactively with Residents

Parks that get targeted by advocacy groups almost always have one thing in common: a breakdown in communication between management and residents. Hold community meetings. Post contact information prominently. Respond to maintenance requests quickly. Residents who feel respected don’t organize against you.

Model Regulatory Risk into Every Acquisition

Add a “regulatory scenario” to your underwriting — what does this deal look like if the state passes right-of-first-refusal, extended notice, or just-cause eviction requirements in the next 3 years? Build it alongside your infrastructure review as part of a complete due diligence process. (Our Mobile Home Park Due Diligence Playbook includes a regulatory risk section for exactly this purpose.) If those scenarios still pencil, you have downside protection.

The Upside of Understanding This Better Than Your Competition

Here’s the counterintuitive part: regulatory complexity is a moat for sophisticated operators.

Less sophisticated buyers see a complicated regulatory landscape and walk away from deals. That means less competition for assets. If you understand the laws deeply — and you buy parks that are already operated in compliance with them — you can acquire and operate in markets your competitors avoid.

The operators who win in the next decade of manufactured housing investment will be the ones who’ve done the regulatory homework. The ones who are surprised by new laws they should have seen coming will be the ones who sell at distress.

Know the rules. Own the game.

Andrew Keel is the founder of Keel Team, a manufactured housing community investment firm. Keel Team focuses on off-market acquisitions of 70+ lot parks in NC, TN, GA, SC, SD, and WI.