MARK SHAY

President

Mark Shay is a business developer who after a long history of success helping higher education institutions recruit, retain and better serve students has shifted into real estate sales. His 25 year career serving higher education has been filled with innovation and successful ventures, developing products like GradSchools.com and StudyAbroad.com.  Today that same spirit is behind PoconoVacationHomeSales.com where Mark has created the Pocono Short-Term Rental Scorecards to help his clients better understand the rules and regulations around Short-Term Rentals along with articles and resources to help start-up and run successful vacation home rental businesses.

Mark found his way into vacation home real estate after listing his vacation home on VRBO and seeing that business take off.  He decided to focus his real estate business as a buyers agent for vacation rentals, taking his personal experience and mixing that with a deep study of the regulations that are popping up across the Poconos.  More than 35 of Mark's clients are now running their own short term rentals in the Poconos and the common feeling that they were being treated as second class property owners led to his co-founding the Poconos Association of Vacation Rental Owners where he serves as the organization's President.

MARTY NICOLL

Treasurer

Financial Whiz with an MBA in Finance from Rutgers & BA in Math from City University of New York.

Owned & Managed Investment Properties since 1990.  Currently Owns 3 Large Single-Family Homes (sleeps from 12 to 16 guests) in the Poconos for Short Term Rentals.  Implemented a Strategy and Built a Team to support all aspects of Property Management.  Drove the Revenue, Profits and 5-Star Ratings!

Also a Mortgage Loan Officer for 15 years, including 7 Years with Wells Fargo Mortgage.  

Providing valuable experience and advice for Financing, Real Estate, Short-Term Rental Expectations and Property Management.  

LINDSEY RODRIGUEZ

Secretary

Lindsey Rodriguez is a short-term rental owner and operator in the Poconos. In addition to operating her own short-term rental (most recently in Big Bass Lake), Lindsey is quickly scaling her boutique short-term rental management portfolio, as well as her STR marketing consultancy. She is also an active member in STR Secrets, a premier short-term rental coaching organization, alongside many other Poconos investors and operators.

Lindsey also has a deep background as a marketing executive, having partnered with businesses from Wyndham Hotels to American Express to Ironman Triathlon to design and execute multi-million dollar marketing campaigns.

As a South Jersey native, she grew up vacationing in the Poconos, and loves spending time outdoors -- whether trail running, hiking, biking or swimming. Lindsey is a proud wife to her business partner Andrew, and proud mom to her 16-month-old son Riley. She currently resides just outside of New York City (Harrison, NJ).

BRIAN BOSSUYT

Board Member

Marketing the Pocono Mountains over the past 25 years has been a wonderful ride, and I've enjoyed every minute of it! Developing successful marketing campaigns aimed at two of the country’s largest and top DMAs, New York and Philadelphia, has made me stay on top of my game by constantly learning and evolving to stay current and relevant. Launching our own television network five years ago and seeing it grow to be in over five million households, on streaming platforms and more, has been a great experience and has really allowed our team to look at campaigning more effectively. We have moved all marketing, creative, and production in house at the PMVB. In order to ensure our budgets and marketing resources produce the best ROI, we’ve learned to adapt quickly, understand and utilize accurate analytical data when planning strategies, develop strong partnerships, craft fun and engaging creative, to not be afraid to make a mistake, and to learn from those mistakes. These are all key factors to having successful campaigns. I love family, being a husband, dad and playing in the outdoors as much as possible. I like to keep things simple and to the point as you get more done that way. I’m pretty laid back and try to look at everything with as much optimism as possible!

#PoconoProud

Executive Vice President/CMO at PMVB

CINDY KNECHT

Board Member

Cindy Knecht is the Broker/Owner of Carr Realty of the Poconos, a family-run real estate business with more than 60 years serving buyers and sellers in the beautiful Pocono Mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania. She serves as one of the Directors of the Pocono Mountains Association of Realtors where she also serves as the Chair to the Short Term Rental Committee. She sits on the Government Affairs committee. She’s an active member of the Pocono Chamber of Commerce, and she sits on the Public Policy Committee. 

As a young child, Cindy vacationed in the Poconos with her parents. Her father, Frank P. Carr III recognized the potential of the area and the family moved up full-time. He opened his first real estate office in Pocono Pines, working in both real estate sales and property management. The office soon expanded its reach to Tannersville to service the needs of visitors to Camelback Ski Resort. 

Cindy chose to stay in the area and raise her family. She began working for her father in the 1990s. She recalls learning the ins and outs of the Pocono Real Estate Market long before she made her first sale. She also learned the importance of the personal touch, the face to face, the complete customer satisfaction experience. Her repeat clients are more family than business associates. She continues the family tradition working in both sales and property management. Carr Realty of the Poconos prides itself on being a family-run local real estate office and all her agents continue that tradition.

JOANN CARTER

Board Member

Well long story short - I love a challenge and in 2021 got a CRAZY idea to purchase a vacation home and the 13th house we looked at checked alot of our boxes. The home was located in The Hideout, Lake Ariel (Wayne County) which is an amenity filled recreational community. So tools in hand, we started the renovations- the end result was totally worth it. The sense of pride and accomplishment is worth all the late nights of pulling down ceilings, walls and pulling up flooring (just to name a few projects of which there was so many more). We also employed numerous local contractors whose work was impeccable and a pleasure to work with. I absolutely LOVE showing off the home and chatting about this ‘new chapter” in our life. Our adolescent girls beam when they mention going to the ‘vacation” house.

And btw — I always put my family first, but saved the best for last! I am married with an adult son, two adolescent teenage girls, and two dogs.