Mobile Home Park Mastery

Interest rates have risen about five points since 2022 – the fastest and highest increases in over 40 years. That has led many buyers to grow impatient for the distressed deals that many predicted. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review where distressed deals come from, what the typical timetable is for their arrival, and when we think that period may begin.

Most mobile home parks have a mixture of old and new homes – but some have strictly pre-HUD vintage units. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the good and bad attributes to having nothing but old homes from an era long ago.

Even though the amortization on a mobile home park mortgage is typically 25 to 30 years in length, the balloon comes due around year 5 to 10. Like a relay race, the successful mobile home park owner must make sure that the baton can be seamlessly passed to the next lender. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review proactive methods to make that transition reliably smooth.

Brokers frequently claim that a market is “hot” which they equate to being of superior quality and therefore worthy of potentially overpaying. But it this a good idea? Should you favor “hot” markets? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore this concept in depth and offer some constructive pointers regarding buying parks in these parts of the nation.

Eventually the manager at the mobile home park down the street will inquire about being in charge of yours. Or one day you’ll get jealous that the community a few blocks over is nicer or fuller than yours and you’ll say “I wonder if I should approach that manager to work for me?”. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to drill down on this concept and give you case studies of how that concept typically tuns out.

All borrowers prefer “non-recourse” lending, but is “recourse” really a deal killer? It’s all a matter of perspective. In this Mobile Home Park Mastey podcast we’re going to explore the issue of recourse and analyze the real risk and how to mitigate it.

There are some skills learned during Covid that we don’t need to throw away, and one of them is the concept of “cash for keys”. Born of desperation from the national evictions moratorium, this playbook of paying tenants to leave who can’t come up with their rent is still a win/win solution in many cases. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore why this works, how to implement it, and discuss its inherent win/win outcome.

We’ve been trying to unlock the science of mobile home park ownership for three decades, but there are some unwritten rules that are not supported by math and nobody even knows where these supposed “truths” came from. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the odd certainties that are used by bankers and bureaucrats yet have no basis in actual fact.

Many people track how many mobile homes are sold in the U.S. and are only focused on the total number that are shipped each month. But the more important information for park owners is found in where those homes go. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to derive some meaningful conclusions from the 2023 manufacturing data.

When the seller carries the financing they typically don’t require a formal appraisal. Despite the absence of a formal loan committee there’s still the need for a Phase I Environmental Report and a survey. But do you need to have an appraisal done? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the uses of an appraisal, the cost vs. benefit, and some alternatives to help you gain confidence in the price you are paying.

It comes as no surprise that America has become enormously corrupt in so many ways. Simply watching the news gives you a full knowledge of how “rigged” our systems have become. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore what the corrupt systems are that mobile home park owners have to contend with and how to properly fight back or work around them.

Even if you sell a mobile home in “as is” condition and make no warranties, there is always the risk that the phone will ring with the homebuyer asking for a needed repair. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the obligations of the park owner from both a theoretical and practical perspective.

Very few Harvard MBAs apply for jobs as mobile home park managers – and that’s probably a good thing. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the problems with over-qualified managers and why they rarely work out despite having glamorous resumes.

You cannot have a deal until both parties of signed. So how can you push the seller to sign on the dotted line after spending so much time on discussion? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the different way to motivate sellers to execute the sales contract.

The National Association of Realtors settled a class action lawsuit recently (following a $1.8 billion jury award in Missouri) and now the real estate commission of 6% that is baked into a standard single-family home transaction is changing to where the buyer no longer has to pay a commission. Good news for the consumer, right? Wrong. This perversion of justice is about to have massive consequences for all the celebrating folks that think this will lower the cost of home ownership. And it will also have extremely positive results for mobile home parks.

Numbers are words are great, but there’s something about charts and graphs that takes your management to the next level. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the many ways that you can use visual elements in buying and operating mobile home parks for maximum productivity.

When you’re buying a mobile home park it’s essential to start off on the right foot. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the vital first step strategies and explore what makes them so important. Since you never get second chance to make a first impression it’s important that you understand what you need to do when buying the property.

Spring is an important season for mobile home park owners for many reasons. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review how smart park owners position themselves to harness the warming temperatures and more hours of daylight to create a better resident living environment as well as to improve your park’s net income.

When park owners talk about billing back utilities to residents it’s mostly about water and sewer. But rarely do most operators consider billing back trash. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the pros and cons of billing back the trash service and how to better make a decision on that option.

Some of the theories behind the correct way to buy and operate mobile home parks comes from careful testing and study. But still others are passed down from earlier generations of park owners who simply believe them to be so, even in the absence of any scientific reasoning or data. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore some of these superstitions that often prove to be accurate despite their lack of statistical reinforcement.

Sam Zell always used the axiom that you should always buy deals with low risk/high reward, never buy deals with high risk/low reward and the ones that require thinking are those with high risk/high reward. So how do you approach those type of deals? That’s the focus of this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast.

For the park manager that wants to cheat you, stealing cash is old school. There are a number of bigger scams that involve an enhanced level of sophistication in today’s world. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the latest embezzlement strategies that some managers deploy as well as how best to avoid them.

Mobile home park vacancy can either be an asset or a liability – and this bi-polar nature is typically separated by a very fine line. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to examine how something that could equate to greater net income in the future may also be viewed as a terrible liability in the near-term.

If you think the current $35 trillion U.S. deficit is a problem, just wait until 2050 when it hits $100 trillion. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we discuss past, present and future of the deficit and exactly what the ramifications might be for mobile home parks when the government finally ceases to make payments on its crushing debt load.

In most mobile home parks you can find homes from nearly every decade from the 1970s to current. But can old and new homes happily coexist side-by-side? It’s a fair question – particularly when you’re bringing in newer homes to fill vacant lots in a predominantly older park. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast we’re going to focus on this issue and what we’ve learned over the past 30 years.

AI has everyone thinking about a future in which payroll can be replaced with computers and robots. Certainly, technology has made some useful improvements in how mobile home parks are managed, but is the age of the manager-free property approaching? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review just how far you can automate a “trailer park”.

What if I told you there was a simple way to save thousands of dollars in the New Year – and it’s 100% free and has no downside? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the lost art of negotiating and renegotiating vendors.

We all know that the five senses fo the human body are toucc, sight, hearing, taste and smell. But there is a sixth sense: sense of urgency. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review how to harness this sixth sense to be better mobile home park buyers and operators.

The odds are that 2024 will be remembered as the first recession in seventeen years and the impact will be far-ranging for American households. But what will the impact be on the mobile home park sector? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to break down the granular impact of the pending recession and unlock the key reasons why mobile home park owners are actually rooting for the same event that most investors dread.

Just a few years ago the hot topic at mobile home park conventions was the coming boom in new park development. After all, the Biden administration was constantly blasting propaganda that they were going to be the saviors of affordable housing and mobile home manufacturers were more than willing to use that party line to boost their stocks. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the dream of new development vanished. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the science of why mobile home parks will never, ever, be built again.

Mobile homes and stick-built homes differ in one key attribute: land ownership. But is that good or bad for the customer? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to drill down on the benefits and disadvantages for mobile home residents regarding renting the land instead of owning it.

Warren Buffett’s long-time business partner in Berkshire Hathaway passed away recently at the age of 99. His contributions to America were more than just about making money. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to discuss the life of Charlie Munger and his significant impact on the mobile home park industry, as well as the lives of those who listened to his philosophies. He will be greatly missed.

The average tenancy of mobile home residents is around 14 years. But sometimes it’s only a few months. Some of this cannot be controlled but there are other factors that are within a park owner’s power to correct. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore what factors lead to short tenancy, its impact on your bottom line, and some practical tips to reduce this problem.

There is a seismic shift in America right now that will have wide-ranging ramifications for all industries including the mobile home park sector, and that’s the elimination of the “knowledge worker”. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to drill down on what “knowledge workers” are, why they are doomed, and how this change will have a megatrend impact on all industries and investments including mobile home parks.

Sam Zell has only been gone for a short while yet it appears that many buyers and sellers have already lost track of the art of imputing risk – the necessary element of factoring risk into buying and selling decisions. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the Zell formula on approaching the subject of risk and what some of the issues are when you don’t adhere to those principals.

Since 1776, America has gone into an economic cycle of boom and bust, with recession a natural part of that process. And over the decades many smart investors have learned to actually embrace those economic disasters as a positive part of the process to creating wealth – and that includes mobile home parks. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the good attributes of the pending U.S. recession and see what we can learn from those who dealt with this cycle in the past.

Particularly on smaller parks or parks near your home, it’s always tempting to “self-manage”. But is that a good idea? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to explore the truth about self-managing a mobile home park and identify the good and bad aspects – as well as the alternatives.

One good thing about the mobile home park business is that there is always plenty of demand. But to complete home sales, you have to take control of that demand and convert it into deals done. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we will review the top five ways to boost your home sales – right now and at virtually no cost.

Who would have ever believed that single mobile home parks would one day be worth more than giant office towers in downtown and massive regional malls? How did this ever happen? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we're going to drill down on the amazing change in the real estate power structure and how the lowly "trailer park" has surpassed the glossy and glamorous icons of commercial real estate.

Mobile homes begat decks and decks begat rooms. These frequent additions can create complications – but is there any issue for park owners? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the issue of those “bonus rooms” that often pop up in most mobile home parks.

You see endless commercials on cable promoting gold as the ultimate hedge to the looming recession. But is it? And how does it compare to mobile home parks? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to evaluate the factual data concerning gold and mobile home park performance in past recessions and learn why mobile home parks are far superior to gold in every category.

I recently appeared on the Freakonomics podcast on the topic of mobile home parks. But there was one critical item that was edited out of that discussion when it finally hit the air. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the one topic they apparently found too taboo and why it’s so important to the narrative today on the relationship between park owners and residents.

Warren Buffett is America’s greatest stock investor, but his philosophy changed over time from “cigar butt” to value investing – and that transition is when his profits soared. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to overlay Buffett’s theories on trailer park investing and spot the similarities and differences.

Mobile home manufacturing has cycled between about 60,000 and 400,000 units a year and one group that could care less are mobile home park owners. Why is there such a disconnect between how many mobile homes are built each year in the nation’s factories and how much money mobile home park owners make? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore why manufacturing and park ownership have no meaningful relationship.

When doing due diligence on a mobile home park there are some things that you can’t leave to chance and others that you can tactically let slide. So when do you need permission and when do you ask forgiveness? That’s the topic of this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast. As you’ll find out, there’s a definite strategy to it all.

Raising lot rents to market levels is a continual challenge as most mobile home parks currently sit at a fraction of where rents should be. Park owners spend hours ruminating over the how much to raise rents, not because they are constrained by market forces, but simply wanting to make sure that they are fair in how to do their calculations. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review what the mechanics are of a successful rent increase.

Mobile home parks are mostly a cashless business today, with virtually all residents paying by checks, money-orders or automated clearinghouse (ACH). However, before you put away your change drawer, there are still some instances in which accepting cash is vital. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to discuss why having a firm policy of “no cash accepted” can cost you significant money without a more flexible framework.

There are few vendors as tough to handle as paving contractors. They have some basic methods to take advantage of park owners that you won’t learn until after it’s too late. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we will explore the typical scams pavers have developed over the years and how to protect yourself from these unscrupulous methods.

Some cities have started restricting the age of homes that you can bring in to fill vacant lots. But can they legally do that? And what do you do if they decide to give it a try? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore how to correctly address this issue.