By popular request of our friends from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and surrounding areas, we are taking the Boot Camp on the road to Dallas on April 30^th to May 2^nd.

If you have been waiting until the Boot Camp got closer to home to save on travel cost, here’s your opportunity.

We’ve also made the Boot Camp more affordable than ever. We’ve changed some things around, and got the price down to $1997 for one person. And you can put that on a 0% payment plan spread over five months.

The Boot Camp is the best learning experience we have at the site, and attendees have the highest historical track-record of successfully buying mobile home parks.

My friend introduced me to the idea of Mobile Home Parks about 13 months ago. I read every book on the subject and every internet site I could find. Nothing compares to the information I got from Dave and Franks courses. I read every book they have and listened to every audio program. I attended the bootcamp in July 09. Now just 8 months after I attended Dave and Franks bootcamp I closed on my first park. Using the information I received I bought a fantastic park with great cash flow and tremendous upside.  

The day AFTER we closed a tenant had a sewer issue. I got a few bids to get it fixed. From $4500 to $6500. I was thinking this was a crappy first day. BUT I remembered a few things I learned from the bootcamp. One was not to panic when this kind of stuff happens. So I thought about it overnight and by the morning had another plan. We rerouted a line and just bypassed that old pipe. Total cost. Less than $450

So my bootcamp price and all my books paid off on the first day. I can’t imagine doing this without Dave and Franks info. They arm you with the knowledge you need to go in confident that you will succeed.  Every dime I spent I saved my FIRST day owning the park. I’m confident that the other skills I learned will save me many headaches and thousands of dollars and literally increase the value of the park.

T Conlin

If you are serious about buying a mobile home park, then you do not want to miss this event.

Seats are limited, so don’t procrastinate to avoid disappointment. We may not be back to Dallas for a while (it’s been almost two years since we did the last event in Dallas).

You can sign up on line at www.mobilehomeparkstore.com or call (800) 950-1364. ]]> http://www.mhweekly.com/the-mobilehomepark-investors-boot-camp-is-coming-to-dallas/feed/ 0 http://www.mhweekly.com/why-the-mobile-home-business-works-and-the-manufactured-home-business-doesnt/ http://www.mhweekly.com/why-the-mobile-home-business-works-and-the-manufactured-home-business-doesnt/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:12:26 +0000 Dave Reynolds http://www.mhweekly.com/?p=130 By Frank Rolfe

When I got in the mobile home park business, many of the sellers I bought from called the mobile homes “coaches” and “trailers”. Roger Miller even wrote a hit song with the lyrics “trailers for sale or rent”. But manufacturers and dealers thought the business needed an upgrade, so they changed the name to “mobile home”. Of course, the name was misleading, because mobile homes are far from mobile. Some can’t survive any movement at all, and moving one can cost $3,000 or more. And I guess they stuck the word “home” on there to make it sound reassuing or folksy (as opposed to saying “mobile unit”), or to give you greater direction on what you were supposed to do with the thing. But I embraced the new moniker, and so did everybody else.

The mobile home is a fine symbol of affordable housing. It represents the collective efforts of manufacturers and the government to build the cheapest detached housing unit in the world. Although it is not always appealing to the eye, and has been a notorious incubator for some of the wildest living conditions in mankind, it is cheap. Sometimes, real cheap. I have seen used mobile homes sell for $1,000 – that’s 94 cents per square foot. That’s about 100 times cheaper than a comparable stick-built house.

Mobile homes were inhabited by people who didn’t earn much – but they were at least inhabited. Nobody expected much besides four walls and a roof, and they were seldom disappointed. If you didn’t have much money, you always felt safe that there would be a mobile home in a park to fit any budget.

But then in the 1990s they decided to re-invent the industry again, this time under the moniker “manufactured home”. Out with the concept of “mobile” and in with the concept of building a thing in a factory. First off, I’m not so sure that you want to beat the customer over the head with the idea that their housing unit was built in a factory. That’s not exactly a crowd-pleaser or reason to boast at a cocktail party “my house was built just like my car”. Most things built in a factory are impersonal, cheaply made and often prone to breaking. Wait a minute – maybe that is a pretty accurate impression.

With the new “classy” name came new pricing for the homes – about two to three times what mobile homes cost. But they still sold O.K. due to impossibly low standards by lenders such as Greentree. Suddenly, mobile homes that cost $10,000 now cost $40,000 as manufactured homes. And therein lies the problem.

Manufactured housing has lost its roots as affordable housing. Now it wants to pretend that it is something more than it is – and make the consumer join in the fun. I think the American public has voted with its pocketbook. Sales of manufactured homes have fallen about 75% since 2000. The sad truth is that nobody wants an expensive manufactured home. They want cheap mobile homes.

There is talk that the industry wants to change the name again. Perhaps “executive mansions on the go” is on the table. I would urge the industry, instead, to go back to the “mobile home business”. Everyone knew what it meant – affordable housing – and they could afford it. Homes sold briskly and parks were full. That demand has not gone anywhere, but nobody can afford, or wants to buy, affordable housing for $40,000. Instead of straining to find out how to build and sell the most expensive manufactured home, let’s refocus the industry on how to build the least expensive. I know it’s not as profitable, but you can make it up in volume.

“Coaches”, “trailers” and “mobile homes” are where the demand is. “Manufactured homes”? Nobody’s interested. And forget any new names – you’ve already embarrassed yourselves enough.

All manufactured home communities need a respectable name. If your property does not currently have one, please consider an immediate renaming. You are embarrassing the rest of us.

Here’s how to successfully name a manufactured home community:

What is your community’s greatest asset?

See if you can find a name that includes this benefit. That way, every time you say the name to a customer or dealer you will be subliminally selling the property. For example, if your property has beautiful oak trees, include “Oak Tree” in the name. If it is in the prestigious Norman school district, include “Norman” in the name. Surely, every property has at least one big selling point. Out in a rural area? How about “Country Vista”? Can’t think of even one selling point on your community? Call me, I’m sure we can come up with something.

Can you spell the word “Estates”?

Good. Then slam this word on the end of the name or phrase above. For example “Oak Tree Estates”, or “Norman Estates”. Or reverse it and think “The Estates of Norman”. Sound classy? That’s the whole point. If you look at the name of all new subdivisions in your market, you will see that they all contain the word “estates”. Maybe it has way too much overexposure, but it just gives customers the feeling that they are living in a place that has some degree of desirability and respectability.

Why should you bother?

If you haven’t noticed, even the worst apartment complexes in the world have classy names. Why? Because the name helps sell the tenant on moving in. Would you rather live in “Pine Tree Estates” or “Big Wheel”? Well, so would your customer. Why do you think it is acceptable to stick an embarrassing moniker on their fragile self confidence? Would you like to be a kid going to school, telling your friends you live at “Grandpa’s Shack”?

There are many financial reasons that are compelling. First of all, the prouder tenants are of where they live, the more likely they are to keep their homes and yards looking good. This “pride of ownership” will impress current and future tenants and help keep your tenant retention high. In addition, a good name will help impress bankers looking to refinance your property, as well as future buyers. It’s hard to put an exact figure on how valuable a name is, but it’s a safe bet that it could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the right applications. It certainly can’t help but to make any property more valuable.

It’s Free.

It costs no more to have a nice, attractive name than to have a horrible, repellant one. Sure, you will have to redo the sign out front – but isn’t that sign ready for a facelift anyway? And telling the retailers you’ve changed your name is only going to elicit cheers – particularly if they have been embarrassed saying it to customers. You would be amazed at what a new name can do for you. If your property has long been associated with drugs and crime, a new name can give it a new lease on life. Nothing can change your image faster than pretending it’s not the same property that has the bad reputation.

When you look at all of the improvements you can do to your manufactured home community – paving roads, building parks, planting flowers, re-plastering the pool – nothing has more bang for the buck than changing the name. If there is only one change you could make to increase value with the lowest cost, changing the name should be on the top of your list.

So how do you do it?

Once you have decided upon the ideal name, there are several simple steps to make it a reality.

ïChange all of your marketing materials to reflect the new name. This includes your advertising, brochures at dealers, stationary – everything. Anything that has the old name on it should be thrown away, so that someone does not make a mistake and use it.

ïMeet with the city your property is located in and make them aware of the change. You will want to tell every department, from planning and zoning to code enforcement. Even the Chamber of Commerce.

ïInform 911 of the change. You do not want a problem with a tenant calling 911 and the responders getting confused as to the location of the call.

ïChange the signage for the property. Many times, new signage is needed anyway. Those parks that have a 4′x8′ sheet of plywood for a sign should consider spending a few extra bucks for a better quality, longer-lasting option. Routed PVC is terrific, but even vinyl on aluminum (as found at most Fast Sign shops) is superior to paint on plywood.

ïSend a letter to the tenants informing of the change. They will normally be delighted at the sudden attention they are getting, and thrilled that the old, nasty name is gone.

Conclusion

There is no better investment in both time and money than renaming your manufactured home community. The process is simple, the cost low, and the results substantial.

So unless you have a great name, and a great reputation behind it, you should immediately give thought to a new one. “Out with the old, in with the new” may need to be your motto for your property. If the name you currently have is not helping, but rather hurting, your business, then don’t hold back from fixing that problem. It’s probably going to be the best money you ever spent.

Most mobile home park owners today have vacancy problem, thanks to chattel mortgage crisis that began in 2000. It is not uncommon for a park that was full in 2000 to now be at 60% occupancy due to repossession of homes. If you have been waiting for the mobile home dealers to fill you back up, you are probably depressed and making no progress. So here are some ideas to get you back in action at increasing occupancy;

First of all, you need to locate the folks in your area that have grown to absorb some of the demand that is left unaddressed by dealers. There is still a lot of demand to rent or buy used mobile homes, even if the dealer structure has become a non-player. Most of the time these new “Dealers” are individuals who buy and sell or buy and rent old mobile homes specifically in parks. You need to find these people and get them to bring homes into your park. Two ways you can find them are to 1) talk to local mobile home movers and ask if they have had any mobile home moves with these individuals (they normally remember them because they have more than one) 2) go to competing mobile home parks and see if you can spot any for sale signs that have the same phone numbers. This is a giveaway that they are not selling there own personal homes, but rather it is a business. Offer these entrepreneurs free rent until they get their home sold or rented in your park, or whatever incentive it takes to make your park their new home base.

Another source of homes is to “steal” them from competing park that is doing a lousy job of keeping their tenants happy. Remember that ‘mobile’ means they can be moved. Of course it is not cheap to move a mobile home, so you will have to pay some or all of move cost to get them to move to your property. But it is well worth it. Even at the cost of $3000 for the move, you will get your money back in a year if the rent was $250 per month. Be sure not to ask people to break their lease, only to move to your park if their lease is up and they have the option of moving. Once you get one to move, and they are happy, it is not hard to convince their friends. It is amazing how many park owners give no thought to the resident’s retention and just assume they are their slave forever.

A final idea is to convert your vacant lots into something that is wanted, and that can be tapped with a small capital outlay. For example, consider opening a section of your park as an RV park. A small dedicated RV park within a mobile home park can really work if the location is right. And it is possible to test and, if failure, abandon the project with little or no downside. Or you might consider opening a park and store facility for RVs, boats and cars. Try and see what is in demand, and see if you can deliver on it.

In these tough times, it is essential to be creative to fix your occupancy!

When I am looking to market my mobile home park whether it be to potential residents to bring their homes in or to sell homes in the park, I believe that the first contact with the potential customer is key. This first contact may be via a telephone call to your office, a drive-by by the potential resident, or in many cases could be a referral from a current resident or some other local business (chamber of commerce, dealer, broker, etc).

Let’s face it, if you or your manager is rude when they call in, they probably will call the next park. If they drive in and the roads are in bad shape, the sign is falling down, or there are dangerous dogs running around, they probably will turn around and look for the next park. And the same holds true with referrals from your current customers. If you current customers don’t like living there they will bad mouth you all over town and never refer their friends and relatives to move in. Continuing on to other local businesses that would otherwise refer your community to potential residents, you don’t stand a chance if you have a bad reputation.

So I think the best form of marketing is to build your credibility in your town, keep your current residents happy, and make sure that those potential customers have a good first impression whether it be a phone call or a drive-by.

Before you ever spend one penny on a newspaper ad, a flyer a the local dealer, or some type of direct mailing to apartment complexes, you should make sure that you have everything in place to attract good residents once they respond. Here is my top 5 list of things you need to do first:

1.Focus on the entrance to the park: A nice sign that says “Welcome to ___________ Mobile Home Community”. Also plant some bushes or trees near the entrance and keep the grass mowed and trimmed nicely.

2.Roads: Your roads don’t have to paved and have curb and gutters, but they do have to be passable. If there are large potholes, patch them immediately. If they need graded, grade them. Before a potential resident ever gets out of the car they will see your entrance and drive on the roads. Make that a good experience.

3.Park Office: with the park office you want to make sure that it looks inviting. I have been to many an office that is not properly marked with “Welcome” or some other inviting remark. Instead it says something like, “if your rent is not paid by the 5th it is late” or “take your excuses somewhere else”. Is that any way to greet a potential resident?

4.Park Office again: I have also been to many parks that as you are walking up to the office you are greeted by a fence with a dog inside and you have to decide whether to enter or not. Other times you knock on the door and then there are 3 dogs scratching at the door waiting to pounce on you. I don’t have a problem with my manager’s home being duplicated as the park office, but I do think they need to take precautions against scaring people off with their own dogs.

5.General Appearance of the Community: once the potential resident enters the park and is satisfied with the entrance and roads, they will encounter the rest of the park. If the park is a complete disaster with trash, junk, high grass and weeds, and so on, do you think this will be a good selling point for potential customers? At least it is not a good selling point for the customers you are hoping to attract.

Ok, now that we have the entrance, roads, office, and general look of the community ready for new residents, what do we do next? Let’s suppose that we are talking about getting new customers to move their home into our park and that we have 25 vacant lots. Now apply one of the best marketing ideas I have ever heard which goes something like this. Is it better to do ONE thing 25 times to fill those lots? Or is it better to do TWENTY-FIVE things one time to fill those lots? I think the latter is the better approach. Maybe in the past you could just bring a flyer down to the local mobile home dealer and watch as he fills up the park. This is not going to happen anymore. You need to to get the flyer down to the dealer, run an ad in the paper, get referrals from your customers, join the chamber, and generally get the word out about your mobile home park.

Here is a list of some of my ideas that should get you started.

1.Flyer to all Mobile Home Dealers in a 25 mile radius – On the flyer, offer some form of move in special (free 3 months, lower rent, etc).

2.Join the Chamber of Commerce – then in all of your flyers and ads you can put that you are a member of the Chamber – builds credibility.

3.Entrance Sign – it works for you 24/7 and make sure to put your phone number on it!

4.Sponsor a Referral Program to your residents – if they refer someone give them a nice reward (not a $5 discount on the rent).

5.Talk to local Real Estate Brokers – if they have a customer that can’t qualify on a house, maybe they will send them your way (give them a referral fee as well).

6.Advertisement in the paper or papers – make your ad different from the rest of the ads in the paper – not the simple… mobile home lots for rent, call ???. Instead, try something like… Incredibly Large and Spacious Mobile Home Sites… We will pay you $1,000.00 to help with moving costs! The first five callers will also get the first 3 months Rent FREE! – you get the point, make it stand out and make it enticing.

7.Start a Community Newsletter and send out the best stories from your newsletter to the local paper to have published. Most local newspapers have a community or local section and are always looking for good stories to publish. Also, if you get the email address from all potential prospects, you can send them this newsletter every month so when they think about moving they won’t have forgot about you.

8.Signs on Vacant Lots – put nice signs on your vacant lots with a phone number for people to call.

9.Banner signs at entrance – big move in special or discounted rate or we pay you $1,000 to move your home to our park type of banners around the perimeter on high traffic areas of the park.

10.Telephone Book – make sure that you have an ad in the phone book as this is where many of your potential customers will find you. In the ad, you might want to include something about your move-in specials or direct them to your website to find out the move-in special of the month.

Finally, when you are out there doing your marketing, it is important to test what is working and what is not working. If you run ads in the paper and get no calls… then stop running that ad and try a different one. If none of your park residents are referring people to move in, find out way and up the ante.

You can’t be a mobile home park owner and not realize that the good old days are over in filling up vacant mobile home park lots. Those of us who owned parks in the late 1990s became spoiled with how easy it was to fill up a mobile home park. Back then, all you had to do was to meet with a few dealers, drop off some flyers, and you would start bringing in a home a week.

Enough of the history lesson, you’re saying. How do you rent mobile home park lots in this market? Well, it’s a lot harder. But if you follow these steps, you’ll find it can be done.

Don’t Ignore the Dealers

Just because they are not selling like they used to, you cannot turn your back on your local dealers. They still sell homes occasionally. Make sure that you have a stack of flyers at every dealership, and call them once a month to make sure they have not forgot about you.

Offer Dealers This Deal

Every dealer has some “junk” homes at the back of their lot. Normally trade-ins that weren’t of much value. Pitch the dealer on taking those junkers and bring them into your park. Throw some skirting on them and re-paint them, and sell them on location. You won’t charge them any lot rent until the home is sold. I’ve had dealers bring in as many as ten homes under this program, and it works pretty well. There is a lot of pent-up demand for mobile homes that are already set up in parks, as long as the seller carries the paper, or the price is so low that the buyer can come up with the cash.

“Lonnie Deals” are Great – As Long As They Are Not Yours

I don’t think that buying and selling used mobile homes is that great a business – but there are those who do. So let them bring in the homes into your park and you keep your money in the bank. You can find these folks by asking around, places like dealers and people who move mobile homes. You can also find them by driving through other parks and looking for similar signs and phone numbers on homes for sale. When you find one, offer them no lot rent until the home is sold.

Steal Thy Neighbor

If there is a park owner doing a lousy job in your market, consider offering his tenants the ability to move, free of charge, to your park. You can send a direct mail piece to his tenants, who hopefully are not very happy where they are. Make sure not to steal tenants who are still under lease with your competitor. That would break a law called “tortuous interference of business”. And be very sure that your tenants like you more than him, because he may return the favor by sending a letter offering the same deal to your tenants. Only pick a park that is in real trouble, and cannot mount any effective attack on your tenants. Sure, the move will cost you about $2,000 or more, but it’s a whole lot cheaper than the next option.

Bring in Homes and Sell or Rent Them

This is my least favorite option, since it costs a lot of money and creates lots of management problems. If I didn’t have to do it, I wouldn’t. The only gain is from filling a lot and getting the lot rent going. But as far as making money in selling or renting the homes – forget it. Used mobile homes are money-pits with no upside. If you have no other way to fill lots, at least make sure that the value of the lot your rent (lot rent minus expenses x 12 x 10) equals or exceeds the cost of the home. For example, if your lot rent is $200 per month, with expenses of $60 per month, then the resulting $140 x twelve months x 10 equals a value at a 10% return level on the benefit of getting that lot occupied. If you spend less than this amount of value-add, you at least won’t lose money if you bring in a home and give it away for $1 (which is sometimes where you end up).

Conclusion

Yes, you can still fill up your vacant lots. But it’s a lot harder than just dropping off a stack of flyers at your local dealer. If you follow these suggestions aggressively, you should be able to create a positive fill rate and increase your cash flow and value substantially.

I can remember when a good, well-located community could fill seven or eight lots per month with nothing more than some flyers at a manufactured home dealership. To even say such things today dates you as someone from the dinosaur age. And unless you’ve been in a cave, you know that you are lucky to fill one lot per year in that manner today.

So how do you fill vacant lots in your community? Well, a lot differently than you did in the past – and it takes a whole lot more effort. But you’ll find that once you put your program together, it will turn your life and spirits around to see new homes coming in to those old, dusty lots.

If you have been reading this magazine at all for the last seven or eight years, you are pretty familiar with the industry “chattel crisis”. Basically, it was the sub-prime mess of today, only fully focused on manufactured homes. People bought homes they could not afford, and they went back to the lenders in record numbers. As a result, lenders don’t do “easy” lending any more on manufactured homes, and the sales have suffered enormously as a result. Dealers that were selling 10 or 20 houses a month in 1998 are now lucky to sell 2 or3. And very few of those homes end up in land lease communities – they almost always end up on private land. So to fill your vacant lots, you have to forget about those dealerships filling you up, and take control of your destiny yourself.

These are my ideas for filling up your vacant lots in the real-world of today:

ïBecome the #1 community for new home dealers. Am I contradicting myself? No, those dealerships do sell an occasional unit that goes into a land lease community, so you can’t ignore them altogether. To get any fill rate from these guys, you have to make sure that you have a 100% closing rate on any inquiry for a lot. Make sure that you have flyers at every dealer, as well as an attractive “move-in special” program to entice customers. And call each sales manager or salesman periodically to let them know you really want their business.

ïSee if those same dealers would want to move some inventory into your community and sell it on location. When I went to buy my stick-built house, I choose a location I wanted, and then inspected the available inventory for sale on MLS. Why shouldn’t manufactured home buyers do the same thing? Instead of having some used or new inventory gathering dust on the sales lot, see if the dealership would have any interest siting a couple units in your community and advertise them as a “location sale”. That’s how every other form of housing is sold. We convinced a dealer in Oklahoma to try it, and he sold six units in this first year! You will probably have to give the dealer free lot rent until the unit is sold – that’s a small price to pay.

ïLocate those individuals who like to buy and sell or rent manufactured homes, and see if they will bring in inventory to your community. Sometimes referred to as “Lonnie deals”, named after Lonnie Scruggs who wrote the book “Deals on Wheels”, these are transactions where someone purchases a manufactured home and then re-sells it or rents it for a profit. Many of these homes begin life in the older inventory section of a dealer, or on private land, and are then initially moved into a community. Make sure that your community is where they go. You can find these “Lonnie” individuals by driving through other communities looking for “For Sale” or “For Rent” signs that share the same phone number, or by asking the local dealers and home movers. We have one individual who has brought in about 40 homes to date under this system. Again, you will have to give the “Lonnie” individual free rent until it sells. Big deal.

ïBring in homes yourself, and then rent or sell them. It’s not that difficult. You buy them from a dealer, or from a broker, or even new from a manufacturer. You then either sell them or rent them once they are set up in your community. Two things to watch out for in this scenario 1) you must get a dealer’s license in most states and 2) it takes a lot of capital. Just bringing the home in, setting it up, and skirting it can cost about $3,000.

ïConvince residents from competing communities to move over to yours. I’ve left this idea for last, since it causes hard-feelings between community owners (and rightfully so!), and can cause a dangerous catch-22 situation where community owners are constantly trying to steal each other’s customers. There are two times in which I have used this system, and both were special situations that were not quite as bad as just going after the other guy’s tenants. The first is when a competing property is being closed down for new development. In those events, the minute you hear about it, go to the community that is being shut down and tell the manager or owner that you want all of his customers and are willing to pay for the whole move, or part of the move, just to get their business. I once scored 35 homes out of a community closing for the development of Home Depot using this very approach. Normally, the owner of the community that is closing is more than happy to have an option to send his folks. The other time that it is proper to consider trying to obtain customers en masse is when there is a community that is truly doing a terrible job, and the residents want out badly. The reasons can be numerous – frequent water or sewer outages, poor management, a location that has become unsafe, the list is endless. You normally find out about such an opportunity when several tenants come to your property suddenly, wanting to move over. In those cases, I tell folks to tell all their friends that we would be happy to take them, or even send a flyer letting people know that if they want to move their home, we would love to have them. You can sometimes pick up 10 or 20 new residents by doing this.

Until industry sales improve, these proactive steps are essential for filling your vacancies, and getting your community on a strong financial footing. Don’t wait by the phone for a dealer to call – put this plan into motion today!

The Problem

Most mobile home parks were built in the 1970s or earlier, at a time when mobile home park residents dreamed of having their own private jukebox and pink flamingos in the yard. They were the very essence of tacky. And the park names matched the customer. Some were clever take-offs on the mobile home concept, like “Roll-A-Home”. Many were rustic sounding like “Wagon Wheel”. But rarely were they created with any marketing strategy involved. Some are so bad that you have to wonder if the owner was trying to make fun of his tenants or the whole concept of trailer living. Some parks don’t even have a name, just a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood with a phone number or “Mobile Park” crudely painted on it. Just like the grave of the unknown soldier, they are nameless plots of dirt where tenants live and die and don’t even know how to identify themselves.

The Early Creators

Many of moms and pops that still own parks in America don’t know diddle about naming a property. They might be good with a carbine in WWII, or great with laying their own sewer line (until it flows backwards the first time around), or building parking pads with asphalt out of the back of their pick-up truck. But when it came to marketing, they were at the bottom of the class. Just look at the marketing materials from these folks even today. A professional quality flyer is a Xeroxed sheet written by hand with a marks-a-lot (both capitals and lower case letters interchanged). These folks ruled over cheap pieces of farmland with new infrastructure and some trailers, and were not serious real estate investors. They never dreamed their parks would be worth anything some day. The bottom line is that while they may have attractive mobile home parks, they have no idea how to name a property properly. Is it appropriate to have a lousy name on an expensive park?

The Cure

Naming a mobile home park is very easy. Virtually any name you choose will be better than the current one – you are probably 1,000% more marketing savvy than the person you bought the park from. You certainly have more at stake than they did. But there is a strategy to derive the ultimate name if you put a little work into it. Here’s the process:

ïWhat is the number one sales point for someone moving to or living in the park?

ïReduce this sales point to one or two essential words.

ïAdd the name “Estates” at the start or end of these words.

For example, if your park has huge pine trees on it that everybody loves, then the appropriate name would be “Pine Tree Estates”. Or if it’s the frontage on Lake Forest, then it should be “The Estates of Lake Forest”, or “Lake Forest Estates”. It’s that simple.

Why a classy name? Because people in mobile home parks don’t want to be reminded of the fact with a lousy name that they have to use among the rest of the world who does not live in a trailer park. What kid at school wants to tell his friends, “I live in Roll-A-Home”? Nobody. Everybody wants to feel important and equal. Give them that opportunity!

Enacting the New Name

Once you have settled on a name, it’s equally easy to put it into practice. First, notify the city of what you are doing, and make sure it is legal to change before you begin. I have never seen a city that had a problem with changing the name. Then, it’s time for a new sign for the park. This time around, get a decent quality one from a professional company, at a cost of about $2,000. Then send a letter to all the tenants about the name change. And you’ll have to change the marketing materials at all of the dealers. The final change is your yellow page ad – so keep watching for that renewal notice.

That’s all there it to it. That’s not too hard now, is it?

The Benefits

A new, classy name will have multiple benefits to your property:

ïThe name alone delivers your sales message to potential customers (remember to put the key sales point in the name).

ïThe residents will have more pride of ownership when they can take pride in the name of where they live.

ïA new name erases the park’s past ills

ïA new name is a turn-on to lenders who look at financing it (remember that the name will be throughout your loan application documents).

ïA classy name will help you get a higher sales price when you go to sell the park someday.

Conclusion

The benefits of changing the name of your mobile home park are priceless. The cost is nominal. There is no excuse not to do it. So start immediately. You will be very happy you did. And so will your tenants!

“We get 10,000 hits per day at the site, and one of the number one questions is what the current U.S. recession will do to the industry,” says Dave Reynolds, owner of Mobilehomeparkstore.com. “So we decided to hold a special event to address this issue from all angles and all aspects of the mobile home park business”. Speakers will range from park owners to mobile home manufacturers, asset protection experts, mobile home park brokers, mobile home park lenders, and many others – 15 speakers in total.

What are some of the features of the mobile home park industry that make it attractive to investors during the recession – at a time when most real estate investments are falling apart? The first, and most compelling, reason is the simple fact that it is based on “affordable” housing; essentially housing for people with lower incomes. This group, who frequently earn only minimum wage, are feeling little impact from the large-scale layoffs affecting most American workers. “While many well-paid workers ranging from assembly line workers to office managers are losing their jobs, the folks who work at fast-food restaurants and grocery stores and thousands of other low-paid occupations, are not seeing any cutbacks at all”, said Reynolds. This is becoming the most dependable and employable of all wage levels. Indeed, even the government initiatives that are being discussed to jump-start the economy, such as re-building America’s infrastructure, will be positive for this segment of the economy. Also, as workers lose their well-paying jobs and seek to downscale their housing also plays well into the mobile home park business. The timeliness of this type of investing has never been better – it is a counter-cyclical strategy.

Equally important are standard industry cap rates of 10% to 20%, and cash on cash returns of 20% to 50%. These high returns are fairly common in this unusual investment niche. In addition, many sellers are willing to self-finance the transaction, so you do not have to obtain a bank loan, and can often borrow with non-recourse. Mobile home park yields are probably the highest of any real estate investment class. And the recession is actually making these yields higher as desperate sellers reduce prices even further.

Another extremely attractive feature of mobile home park investing during the recession is the inability of the customer to leave one park for a better deal at another. “At a cost of around $3,000 to move, set and skirt a mobile home, there is no way a customer can afford to move their mobile home from one park to another”, says Reynolds. “Studies have shown that 90% of mobile homes are never moved again once they are set up in the first mobile home park”. As a result, your revenue as a park owner is very stable since customers may come but they never go. And no matter how bad the recession gets, that is unlikely to change.

Some of the most important features of the event will be the discussion and strategies park owners can use to fill lots. Manufacturers will be there to review their lowest cost products that can be purchased by park owners to bring in and sell themselves. There will also be speeches on how to retro-fit mobile homes to make them work more effectively as rental units, and over ten different, fresh strategies to fill lots without waiting for dealerships to call. Mobile home park lenders will discuss current trends in financing and strategies to get loans in a tough economy.

This event will only happen once, and will not be repeated. If you go to just one investment conference this year, this should be the one.

For more information on this event visit the Mobile Home Park Summit Page.

You need to understand that your park sign is extremely important to making money. Your sign is a pretty busy employee:

ïIt offers a tenant and a prospective tenant the initial positive impression of you property.

ïIt gives the phone number of the park to anyone interested in renting a lot.

ïIt impresses city inspectors and officials

ïIt impresses bankers and appraisers

ïIt works for you 24/7, takes no vacation, and lives on nothing but sunshine.

I would propose that one of your substantial investments in fixing up your mobile home park be to buying and installing a professional quality sign.

I would empathetically recommend against signs of wooden construction. Exposed to outdoor conditions, wood just doesn’t work well. It fades cracks and eventually rots. Even sandblasted signs don’t seem to be built for longevity.

I prefer signs of metal or plastic construction with vinyl or molded letters – nothing painted. Paint fades and flakes off over time.

I always put the name of the park and the address on the sign, and then attach the phone number with two hooks to hang under the sign. I do this so that if you change the phone number you can just change out this panel and not the entire sign. Also, when you sell a park, if needed, you can just detach the phone number and the new owner can attachÈ his phone number.

I recommend that you pick a standard design that you can use at all you mobile home parks. It will really impress you banker, and you only have to come up with your dream design one time and then use it over and over again.

I choose a sign design that works well with white vinyl fencing, which I also always use at the entrance. It would be a great touch if you came up with a standard entry design that helped accentuate you attractive sign.

Sure, a professional quality sign is expensive – but look at all the benefits. When you go to sell the park, that nice sign and the great first impression it gives the buyer, may make you 100 times what the sign cost. And that doesn’t count all the income that the park derived from impressed drive-thru tenants.

Remember, a sign is not a cost – it’s an investment!

Frank Rolfe