MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Podcast, Women of WAMH Interview

The Mobile Home Park Broker's Tips & Tricks To Investing

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed three representatives from Women Advancing in Manufactured Housing, or WAMH.

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Here Are the Show Highlights:

- This interview is with Justine Natalie, Maria Horton and Max’s wife, Kathryn Baker. All three women are involved with a young non-profit organization, Women Advancing in Manufactured Housing (WAMH). (Max, 00:22)

- The idea of WAMH originated with a group of women who were all members of Southeast Community Owners (SECO) and started a chat line to network and converse about their experiences, needs and opportunities. They put a panel discussion together for a SECO meeting and decided to expand their concept into becoming this new organization. (Justine, 1:41)

- The purpose of the group is to help women in the industry network, to recognize their achievements and offer education and support, but the over-arching goal is really to help everyone in the industry regardless of gender. The group started by offering webinars and Zoom meetings featuring successful women in the industry who could inspire other women. (Maria, 2:57)

- The group initially started connecting with members and running contests through LinkedIn. (Maria, 4:06)

- Justine owns an industry consulting group called Dynamic MH Solutions. She works with manufactured home community owners in multiple facets of their operations. She and partner Mike Schaeffler started the business in 2021. (Justine, 5:27)

- Maria has worked for Newport Pacific, a property management company, for the last 18 years and worked for another company in the same line of business for three years before that. She also has her brokers license and sells manufactured homes, and is on several industry groups locally and statewide in California. (Maria, 6:24)

- Kathryn handles the day-to-day operations and manages team members at Mobile Home Park Broker, the company she co-owns with her husband, Max. (kathryn, 9:01)

- One of the pursuits the group is working on now is WAHM Workwear for Success, an initiative which is centered around the clothing for women and men in the industry.This includes proper attire both for those who are working in the office or with others, such as salespeople, and for park workers who might have to climb under mobile homes or otherwise work outdoors. (Justine, 11:10)

- Another initiative by WAHM is an educational excellence program held in partnership with the Manufactured Housing Educational Institute. The winner of this scholarship gets to take for free any one of 39 courses offered by MHEI on all aspects of succeeding in the manufactured homes industry. (Justine, 14:09)

- Those interested in joining the group or getting further involved can go to WAHM’s new website at womenadvancingmanufacturedhousing.com. You can also join the LinkedIn WAHM group. The group also has corporate support at three sponsorship levels: The $250 sponsors are called Single Wide Supporters. (Justine, 15:01)

- In ascending order, the group also has Double Wide ($500) and Triple Wide ($1,000 and more) supporters. (Justine, 16:41)

- Those interested in joining or learning more about WAHM can also call Maria directly at [phone]. (Maria, 18:06)

- Or call Justine at [phone]. (Justine, 18:14)

- In addition to co-chairs Maria and Justine, other members of the WAHM executive committee are Deputy-Chair Sherrie Clevenger, Secretary Kim Schultz-Rainford and Treasurer Maryun Barberan. (Justine, 20:06)

- In general, WAHM wants to uplift the reputation of mobile home parks as being a high quality lifestyle totally divorced from the old image of trailer parks. (Maria, 21:22)

- The women in the group have followed many avenues of employment in the industry from park operators to sales and leasing agents, and others. (Justine, 23:36)

- Key sponsors so far include Pentagon Properties, Manage America, Dynamic MH Solutions and Nelson Communities (Triple Wide Supporters), Rent Manager, Zippy and Legacy Housing (Double Wide Supporter) and Mobile Insurance and Affordable Casa Group (Single Wide supporters). (Justine, 30:53)

Besides the phone numbers given, you can also reach out to Max and Kathryn if you’d like him to learn more about WAHM. Just drop them a line at [e-mail] or call The Mobile Home Park Broker at [phone].

Power Quotes in This Episode:

(At SECO) “…we were all virtually chatting and…it became very clear very quickly that there was a need for a female-based group where people could find other females within the industry, and network with them.” (Justine, 1:41)

”So we started thinking of having webinars or Zoom meetings where we could have speakers who could inspire others.” (Maria, 2:57)

“SECO is an amazing, amazing group that is very supportive of the women’s movement here in the industry.” (Maria, 8:05)

“I’ve always said that women are better managers than men.” (Max, 10:20)

“I just think 2023 is going to be where we really start the momentum going forward and get more exposure and get more women involved.” (Justine, 11:10)

“...we need to make sure people understand what our industry is about. That it is not the old trailer parks of yesteryear, it is now about beautiful communities that people live in and share a wonderful lifestyle. (Maria, 21:22)