2024 Visionary Award Recipient – Scott Roberts

Source: MHInsider

The fifth annual MHInsider Industry Awards tell a decades-long story of hard work, ingenuity, perseverance, and a passion for innovative thought and business leadership. The manufactured housing professionals at Datacomp and MHVillage, through MHInsider magazine, are honored to be able to recognize the colleagues awarded for their high achievements.

Our MHInsider editorial board assisted in selecting among more than 90 candidates for the industry awards. Deliberations continued among our internal team and external advisors until consensus was reached for recipients in five categories.

Congratulations to all of the winners. Thank you for the work you do!

Scott Roberts is a second-generation owner of communities and RV resorts, running the organization founded in 1968 by his parents Bob and Barbra Roberts. Under his direction, the company has grown from four properties to nearly 30 communities and resorts with more than 10,000 homesites in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, and Texas.

Roberts has invested approximately $80 million into 3,000 sites within the last eight years. About 700 of those are developed for RVs and park models, with the balance being affordable manufactured homes. Roberts Resorts continues to diversify its portfolio of properties, some like Village Farm and Village Camp, with high-end amenities. The latest Village Camp, in Flagstaff, Ariz., is a ground-up community with more than 400 sites in an area known for its skiing, hiking, biking, dining, and shopping.

The Visionary Award honors those who have brought to market the coolest concept or product, the idea that makes the job easier, the offering better, the customer experience more meaningful.

What do you believe are Visionary Award winner Scott Robert’s greatest achievements?
“Scott has always had a long-term vision for attainable home ownership. It really is in his DNA, having grown up in MHC communities and having had a father who not only owned 20-plus communities in the ’90s, but who also was one of the first operators to be vertically integrated by owning a manufacturing factory and transporting his own homes. He has shown his vision by deciding early to have ‘homeowners only’ communities rather than moving toward rentals to fill homesites. He invested in 2010 when the stability of the housing market continued to be a matter of question. He purchased three rental properties in central Texas — 1,200 sites and 50 percent occupied — that are now Oak Ranch, a community with 1,050 spaces just a mile and half from the Tesla gigafactory in Austin.”
— Roberts Communities Executive Vice President of Sales Ernesto Iglesias

What are the award winner’s personal skills or character traits that you feel have contributed most to these successes?
“Scott Roberts is a true visionary. Industry professionals seek his expertise as to how to design and develop a quality looking manufactured home community, along with questions regarding the operational aspects of our existing communities. He takes time to explain how each of our job functions helps contribute to families that may not be able to afford their own home. He has provided mentorship to many people, not only sharing his successes, but he is sure to point out mistakes, some costly. He has created afterschool programs for kids and there are always special events at each one of his communities. These are all things that don’t boost the bottom line, but that is one way that Scott gives back to the community.”
– Roberts Communities Senior Vice President and Head of Acquisitions Bob Pence