The time of my life …

This past year has been a real gift. I stepped back in time with all of the current knowledge and experience I now possess having run ROC USA^® for 8½ years.

I was able to return to what captured me in the late ’80s when I first began working with homeowners in “mobile home parks.” In 2016, I was able to work firsthand again with a new group of homeowners as they worked through the purchase of their community – the due diligence, planning and decision-making of purchasing their community.

What a gift! Thank you Kayadeross Acres, Inc.

I truly appreciate you having me along for the ride! And, congratulations on your purchase last month!

Let me tell you a little about these folks.

“Thirty years ago, this was the park to move into in Ballston Spa,” a 30-year resident told me one night after a Membership meeting.

Admittedly, that was hard to see from my trips to the 133-home community that sits just outside of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. To say the community has seen better days is an understatement. I understand why homeowners were initially skeptical. They had never had people arrive in their community with the sole intent of helping them improve their economic standing.

And, these folks have withstood some tough conditions. Just this summer, the homeowners went without water for several days several times as the holding tanks ran dry. The problem wasn’t usage. No, the real problem is that roughly half of the water is being lost to leaks in the distribution lines. This was serious.

But, let me tell you what this incredible Board and Membership have planned. The plan is based upon their own initiative and state-of-the-art help from their attorney, George Slingerland, PathStone (a ROC USA Network Technical Assistance affiliate in New York), ROC USA and New York Homes and Community Renewal.

Check it out:

On the very day they purchased the community, Kayadeross Acres, Inc. (pronounced kay-de-ross) had already:

1.     Published its website at www.kayaderossacres.coop;

2.     Changed the name of the community from Creek & Pines to Kayadeross Acres;

3.     Posted new temporary signs for the community, complete with their phone number and website address;

4.     Signed Agreements with two home lenders – Cooperative Federal and Mountainside Financial for lower-cost home financing in the community;

5.     Signed a Brokerage Agreement to list and sell seven vacant park-owned homes that they acquired;

6.     Initiated engineering design for a $2.9 million improvement project (starting with water distribution lines) so that they can get started by mid-2017;

7.     Contracted to have three dilapidated homes removed from the community; and,

8.     Had a tree expert marking trees for removal.

That’s all in addition to setting up the office and notifying everyone of the change of ownership and payment processes.

Thank you Andrea Miller from PathStone for having me along. And, thank you Angela Romeo from ROC-NH who played a big role in Kayadeross Acres’ purchase, too, because everyone was very busy and we needed to pull on her experience to make this work.

And, we have to thank New York Homes and Community Renewal for making the purchase and improvements possible for these homeowners. The economic benefit and security that these homeowners are now on a path for is truly
remarkable and so important.

We are all supportive of helping these homeowners bring Kayadeross Acres to its former status as the best in the market. With strong ROC leaders doing so many things so well and so quickly, I have strong confidence they will be there in short order.

I have many things on my to-do list that are more about driving our mission forward from a systems standpoint but what a gift it is that I could work again shoulder to shoulder through the development and purchase process. I really miss it.