David Reynolds
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Why Pretty Mobile Home Parks Have Ugly Returns
Some mobile home park buyers have this erroneous idea that the goal is to buy the best looking mobile home park they can find. They even rate the parks they look at based on physical appearance. The star system is a good example. Most people think a five-star park is always superior to a one star park. However, the only real star system they should consider is which park is a superstar on cash flow. Because at the end of the day, all that really matters when you own a mobile home park is making money. Parks that make money…
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Why Now Is The Time To Buy a Mobile Home Park
There are a lot of reasons to buy a mobile home park. One is the fact that there are virtually no new ones that can ever be built, effectively capping supply. Another is that you can raise and raise the rent, and nobody can afford the $3,000 or so to move out, so they have to put up with it. Or, maybe it’s the fact that mobile home parks are sold on higher cap rates than any other form of real estate. Well, I’m going to add one more reason: There are too many on the market right now, and…
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Why Invest In Mobile Home Parks
From the New York Times to Bloomberg, mobile home park investing is starting to be recognized as an attractive real estate sector. Many investors are learning that mobile home parks are the best kept secret in commercial real estate. So what has made mobile home parks suddenly on the radar screen of the real estate community? The sector has always done extremely well, but investors are finally getting over the stigma and learning to appreciate the power of affordable housing. It’s not hard to find literally hundreds of parks to buy very quickly, if you look in the right places.…
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The Top Five Ways To Find A Mobile Home Park To Buy
Many investors are learning that Mobile Home Parks are the best kept secret in commercial real estate. But they often do not know how to get started trying to find the ideal mobile home park to fit their goals. The following are the top five ways to find a mobile home park to buy.On-lineThe internet has ushered in a revolution in finding properties. And mobile home parks are no different.The #1 source of mobile home parks on-line is www.MobileHomeParkStore.com. This website has between 1,000 and 2,000 mobile home parks for sale at all times.In the #2 position is www.LoopNet.com. While…
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The Physical Evaluation Of A Mobile Home Park
Equally as important as a verification of the financial information on a mobile home park is the physical evaluation of that property. The first mobile home park that I purchased I did my inspection in about 30 minutes from inside of my car. I thought it looked good from behind the wheel and did not even consider an actual walk through. It was a shock after I purchased the park and did my first of many walk throughs.I had missed many things that a 30 minute stroll closer to the homes and down the back of the lots would have…
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Mobile Home Park – Different Types of Utility Systems
When you first buy a mobile home park, you are a little terrified of your water and sewer system. What if it breaks down? Can I afford to fix it? Will my tenants get mad and leave if the water goes out for a couple days?One of the key things to remember is that each mobile home park’s utilities has its own personality. Just like people, all utility systems have their own strengths and weaknesses. The key to living with your utility system is to recognize its unique “personality” and to accept it for what it is. Here are a…
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Mobile Home Investing Dealing With Missing Skirting
Nothing is uglier than a mobile home without skirting. Even a brand new, top-of-the-line mobile home with a shingles roof and vinyl siding looks like junk in the absence of nice vinyl skirting to hide all the tie-downs and concrete blocks and pipes.Mobile Homes Have No Skirting?So what do you do when the mobile home park you’ve bought has virtually no skirting on the homes? The first question to ask is what kind of finances do your tenants have? Most low to mid-range mobile home parks have tenants that live pretty much hand to mouth. So what do you do?You…
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Mobile Home Community Sign Is An Investment – Not A Cost
Most Manufactured Home Communities I have bought come with a standard sign design – a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood with a faded poorly written name on it and no phone number. This must be a popular design because I see it everywhere. There is also the design of metal or wood letters on a brick or masonry wall with some of the letters missing. My favorite was one where some kid had yanked off the letters and then spray painted some replacements so that the sign said proudly “F___ Y__ Estates”. What was equally funny what that the…
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Is The Name of A Mobile Home Park Important?
What’s in a Name? A lot if it’s a Manufactured Home Community or Mobile Park. Nothing is more disconcerting than approaching a nice manufactured home community and seeing that the name on the sign is “Roll-a-Coach” or “Mobile Heaven”. If it is not bad enough that the industry is constantly battling the stigma of being lesser quality housing, let’s just beat our customers over the head with their shame by giving their community a name that screams “substandard humans found here”. Why can’t we name communities with the same care as our brothers the apartment owners? What’s the deal?All manufactured…
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Increase the Value of Your Mobile Home Community
Here is an article on 10 great ways to increase the value of your mobile home community.Raise Rents: A $10 per month rent increase at a valuation using a 10% capitalization rate, can increase the mobile home per lot value by $1,200.Submeter Water,Sewer & Trash: By installing water meters and billing the residents back for water and sewer and trash you are in effect increasing your bottom line. I often think this is one of the most equitable ways of to pass on expenses to the mobile home community residents as they only pay for what they use. In my…
