Derry Oak Village: Our 150th ROC
Residents went from being afraid of losing their homes to feeling secure about their future.
A Wonderful Community
We spoke with Carole Mannino and Rachel Hamilton, the President of the Board and the Recording Secretary of the Board, respectively, of the Derry Oak Village Cooperative — the 150th resident-owned community (ROC) that we helped establish. Together they painted a picture of the process of learning that their manufactured-home park was for sale, learning how to establish a cooperative that empowered the park residents to buy Derry Oaks, and how we helped them go from frightened to optimistic.
Like every member of the Board, Carole is a volunteer. A resident for eight years, she’s the first President of the Board and hopeful for the future of the 27-unit community.
Rachel has lived in the park for over six years and initially went into panic mode when she heard that the park she called home was up for sale.
As Rachel put it, “We all have beautiful yards, beautiful homes. We didn't want anything to change because we all get along in the neighborhood. We have a wonderful community. Everybody reaches out and helps, and we wanted to maintain that.”
And of course there was fear of the unknown when she first received the 60-day notice that Derry Oak Village was being sold by the current owner. As she described it, “Well, when I first heard that they were selling the park, the first thing is fear. Where am I going from here? You go into that panic mode. Like, what can we do? Is there anything we can do to avoid losing what we have?”
Carole had similar concerns, “...we were all basically shocked that the park was being sold, and that we had no inkling of it. So I think we were all a little bit panicked about the fact that somebody could buy the park and decide they want to build condos. What we were most panicked about was actually losing our homes.”
Starting From Scratch
New Hampshire law requires that the sale of manufactured-home parks be made public. We are on the list of organizations to be notified when a park is for sale. When we received notice about Derry Oak, we followed our proven approach and put a team together to offer help to the residents.
Richard Weisberg, our Principal Broker and Market Development specialist, led our team. We went door-to-door, informing residents of their rights and their options. Richard let them know they had allies — a team and an organization that was there to support them in their efforts to buy the park, if they wanted to, and beyond. It was time to turn a problem into an opportunity.
Embracing an Opportunity
Carole described the initial process, “Well, we found out in October of 2022 that the park was being sold when Richard Weisberg came around and informed us that the park was being sold and that we had the opportunity to put in an offer to buy the park ourselves, and that the seller would have to consider our offer first. And then it's been a long process, but Richard was an amazing help to us, and the community really pulled together. And everybody has been on board with buying the park and, you know, ideas for what to do and how to handle the purchase.”
The story continues as told by Rachel, “Working with Community Loan Fund has been a wonderful experience. They literally held our hand through the whole process. They gave us training. They were there every single meeting. They set us up with our agendas so that we wouldn't walk in there blind. And they said that they would continue even after we buy the park, they would continue to work with us. They just made it so easy and less scary because it's 55 or over here and we're all 55 or over. Nobody has ever done this before. So this was a new experience for all of us. But Richard and his whole team, they've been absolutely amazing.”
Optimistic Owners
There were challenges along the way. Three of the units in the park were rental units. This had to be resolved with their owner. There were issues with the main road. The park’s water meter had to be moved. Through it all, Richard and the team helped the Derry Oak residents make it happen.
As Rachel mentioned, we’re still working with the Derry Oak Village Cooperative to guide them on how to address new projects including the replacement of three septic tanks, tree maintenance, and keeping residents informed.
Rachel summarized her thoughts this way, “The way I've been impacted becoming a co-owner of the park is: It's been a sense of security. At least now I know I don't have to have a truck pull up and pull out my house and move it somewhere else. We can make our own decisions, and we do that collectively. We have a wonderful team here that gets together and we discuss anything that we want to bring to the body, and everybody has their say-so, which is nice, instead of it being dictated to us.”
Carole described the difference between where the Derry Oak community started and where it is today like this, “And now our life is a lot better because we know what's going on in the park. We have control over what's going to happen in the future. And we've come together as a community to make life better for everyone.”
Derry Oak Village Details
Get a quick picture of the 150th ROC we are honored to help establish.
27
Affordable homes preserved in the cooperative
2022
The year residents received the 6-day notice of sale
400
Approximate hours spent establishing the cooperative
20+
Members of our team helped Derry Oak Village through the process
The Derry Oak Village Story
Derry Oak Board President Carole Mannino and Recording Secretary Rachel Hamilton share the process of purchasing their park.
Derry Oak Village: Our 150th ROC
Residents went from being afraid of losing their homes to feeling secure about their future.
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