Nowhere to go: Mobile home residents face rising rents

David Erickson

Jay Raines got a notice in his mailbox one day last year that the entire Missoula mobile home court he lives in had been sold to a mysterious new owner, a Limited Liability Corporation based in California. 

The LLC’s registered agent is Jim Mosier, a managing partner at Grove Ventures Real Estate. The company’s website says “Grove Ventures is a private real estate investment firm focused on multi-family and manufactured housing communities in high-growth regions of the Western United States.”

At the bottom of the company’s homepage, “cash flow generation” is listed, along with “appreciation,” “tax benefits” and “capital preservation.”

Raines subsequently got a notice his lot rent was being raised by $100 a month, which is an extra $1,200 a year. The only extra improvement the new property managers have added is more garbage service.

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Raines relies on disability benefits from the Social Security Administration, meaning he’s on a fixed income, and the lot rent increase was more than the cost-of-living-adjustment increase to his disability payments.

“That’s a big increase,” he remembers thinking.

ZeroDown compiled current and historical data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the

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