Mobile Home Park Mastery

Douglas MacArthur once said “old soldiers never die, they just fade away”. But what about old mobile homes? In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to look into the definition of “old homes”, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to determine their future. We’re also going to review some budgeting tips when buying parks with old homes, and why some old homes...

 One of the key ways to increase the value of any mobile home park is to maximize its occupancy. Filling a vacant lot propels you from zero value to $30,000 to $100,000 of equity based on lot rent. And the only way to fill a vacant lot for most properties is for the park owner to buy the home – new or used – and bring it in themselves to then sell or rent. Because homes are capital intensive, the...

I unearthed a copy of the 2015 Journal of Manufactured Housing recently and found the lead article was a debate over what the correct name is for our industry. Yes, that’s how little was going on in mobile home parks back then. In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to revisit the issue of what the correct name for the industry is, with some shocking conclusions. They...

There’s nothing quite like direct mail. A successful direct mail piece has a 99% failure rate – and that’s considered a success. Do you know any other thing in life that counts 1% as a win? In this week’s Mobile Home Park Master podcast we’re going to discuss one of the greatest ways to find parks to buy: the good old-fashioned direct mail. And we’re going to review what makes them more and less e...

Mobile home parks are one of the big beneficiaries of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac lending. Coming out of nowhere not too long ago, “agency” debt now represents more than 50% of all new mobile home park loans in terms of total dollars. How will this lending powerhouse help reshape the industry in the years ahead, and how can you take advantage of this opportunity?

Wikipedia defines “excellence” as “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good”. All park owners aspire to excellence, but how do you really achieve it? In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to explore how you can trade-in average performance for something much more profitable. You may be setting your own limitations, and if you put more thought and effort in...

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many things about the U.S. – but does that include the best places to buy mobile home parks? In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to examine how changes to America post-virus are impacting different parts of the nation in relation to affordable housing and other challenges. The U.S. is in a state of turmoil on many fronts, but is mob...

When a mobile home park has bad financial records or poor occupancy, it’s a pretty good guess that there are other problems lurking. In this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to examine some of the typical “skeletons in the closet” regarding poorly managed properties – including items above ground, underground, and regarding the residents. As you’ll see, there is often a chain re...

We all know the trends in fashion, from the 1920’s spats to the 1960’s Nehru jacket to the 1970’s bell-bottoms. But do you know the trends in mobile home park design and what they can mean as an owner? In this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to discuss some of the most basic mobile home park design trends and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As you’ll see, mobile home p...

In the 1982 John Naisbitt coined the term “Megatrends” to describe the major upheavals in American society that would influence the future for decades. But that was nearly 40 years ago. Since that time, many have already come and gone. So I’m going to make a new list of the megatrends that are ramping up in America and how they may impact the mobile home park as an investment vehicle. Grab your mo...

There are around 44,000 mobile home parks in the U.S., and not all of them are following the same business model. While the vast majority of park buyers and lenders are focused on the “renting land” model, there are some who engage in the “detached apartment” concept. But does that concept work? In this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to examine this business model and give it...

The slang term “skin in the game” is defined by Wikipedia as “one having an incurred risk (monetary or otherwise) by being involved in achieving a goal”. It was made popular by Warren Buffett, who prefers that high level officers in a company have direct money in the venture to ensure their alignment of priorities with investors. So who really has “skin in the game” regarding mobile home park inve...

“Cash out” refinancing is extremely attractive to all investors, as it allows you to “recycle” your capital over and over to build a portfolio of properties. Or it also allows you to remove all risk from any certain deal and gives you cash to build a financial safety net. Whatever the goals may be, obtaining “cash out” is somewhat of an art form, and there are certain strategies required to achiev...

You may call your mother weekly, but that’s not the appropriate way to check in with the residents of your mobile home park. Instead, there are systems that have been developed to keep in touch but in a structured way that it best for the owner and residents alike. So what are the correct and incorrect way to stay in touch? In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to rev...

To get a mobile home from Point A to Point B you have to haul it – and you need a hitch to make that possible. But what about after it arrives? In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery pocast, we’re going to dig deep into the facts about these “hitches” and the best policies regarding them going forward. Until mobile homes come with engines and drivetrain, then hitches will be a fact of lif...

When buying a mobile home park, the most important moment is the transition of the property from the old owner to you, which typically happens at the title company upon signing of a pile of documents. So what can you do to make this transition more smooth and successful. In this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the key items to do before and after closing to make for a...

We all associate age with wisdom, and rightfully so. Nobody knows more about any subject than those that have experienced it – particularly through many cycles. And I am forever indebted to those older mobile home park community owners who gave me words of wisdom in my early career, and still do so for new investors on a regular basis. So what is some of this old-timer wisdom? In this episode of t...

Back when I was an economics student at Stanford in the 1980s, the most important theory that would help on any essay was the law of supply and demand. It’s a simple concept: if you have greater supply than demand then prices go down, and greater demand than supply makes prices go up. Never in American history has this economic treatise had more meaning or more unhappy endings. In this week’s Mobi...

President Teddy Roosevelt was a supporter of “Big Stick” diplomacy, which he defined as having five traits. In this week’s episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review Roosevelt’s premise and apply its wisdom to your mobile home park. Although Roosevelt died in 1919 –a decade before the first “trailer” rolled off the manufacturing line – his thoughts are as true today as t...

Risk vs. Reward is a huge topic with successful mobile home park owners. In this episode we are going to review what the concept of Risk vs. Reward is, and then go over in granular detail many of the top risks to be concerned about, and what your percent of success or failure might be with that trait. While Vegas offers you riches, it rarely delivers, and mobile home parks are more of a game of sk...

Despite providing a terrific housing product to thousands of Americans, we continue to hear from the media that mobile home parks are a “predatory” business model. But is this true? In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to try to put this issue to bed once and for all, breaking down what “predatory” means and then applying those definitions to the actual methodology...

The television show COPS would suggest that all mobile home parks are community crime centers. The movie 8-Mile, starring Eminem, makes it look like trailer parks are the “go-to” spot for drugs, violence and petty crime of all varieties. But is that stereotype true? The U.S. government answered that question in 2010 with the release of “Trailers and Trouble? An Examination of Crime in Mobile Home...

Both Dave and I got into the mobile home park business with smaller properties, and many of our early purchases were tiny communities. Even in recent times we have no issue with buying a great deal with a smaller lot count. However, there are many things about small parks that we have learned over the decades and wanted to share those with you to help you craft the right buying decision. As you’ll...

There’s an old saying that “when the tide goes out you see who was swimming naked”. In this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to analyze what real estate sectors were swimming naked in light of the Covid-19 pandemic – and future such events – and which sectors had their swimsuits safely on the whole time. The world may never be the same after the national quarantine and it’s impo...

What were the hot topics a decade ago? Has anything changed over the past ten years? We’re going to review the headlines and articles of mobile home park industry magazines from 2010 to see if there have been any substantial changes to the “trailer park” business model, and use this analysis to make projections for the decade ahead. They say that history repeats itself, but in the case of mobile h...