Last Sunday evening proved to be a big one for the manufactured housing industry veteran, Paul Bradley President of  ROC USA.

Bradley appeared on NBC Nightly News in a segment on manufactured home communities.

The feature focused on those 55 and over, who are downsizing in retirement and choosing manufactured home communities as an option.

Bill & Donna Bernard, the couple featured in the report, sold their long time home for $629,000, allowing them to retire and purchase an $85,000 manufactured home, which they moved into a community in Pismo Beach, California.

“That’s one of the reasons we were able to retire at an early age,” said Bill Bernard.

NBC Nightly News pointed to the case of the Bernard’s as a growing and popular trend, which is helping to break the “trailer park” [sic] stigma.

With the popularity, Bradley offered critical advice to those that are considering a move similar to the Bernard’s.

“You want to find a community that is not a risk of redevelopment and you want to find a community where rents are affordable,” said Bradley.

The NBC feature was another in a line of appearances by Bradley and ROC USA in national media, including a March 2017 Time magazine article entitled “The Home of the Future.” In that feature, reporter Karl Vick visited three non-ROC USA affiliated resident-owned communities in Zephyrhills, about 30 miles northeast of Tampa, Florida.

Another feature was done by National Public Radio (NPR) in Minneapolis.

“The recent media coverage is not only great for ROC USA and its affiliates across the country, but for the entire manufactured housing sector,” said Bradley.

“These stories have focused on positive developments in and perceptions of manufactured housing,” he said. “Whether that’s in resident-owned communities or not, we all benefit from coverage that combats the stigma too often associated with these homes and worse, the hard-working people who live in them.”

As Daily Business News readers are aware, ROC USA recently helped residents of Town & Country Estates in Kingston, Massachusetts, and the Kayadeross Acres Manufactured Home Cooperative in Ballston Spa, New York, to purchase their communities.

“We don’t have to look for a landlord, we are the landlord, so that being a co-op and a nonprofit we’re not out to make any money so the only rent that we’re going to be charging ourselves is that which is enough to sustain the place,” said Town & Country Mobile Home Estates Tenants Association President Joe Mauriello.

“Without ROC or CDI, we would not be owning this park [sic] today.”

That story is linked here. For the Kayadeross Acres Manufactured Home Cooperative story, click here. ##

(Image credits are as shown above, and when provided by third parties, are shared under fair use guidelines.)

Submitted by RC Williams to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.