The greatest misconception about financing Mobile Home Parks is that the lender who finances the park will also finance the homes. The fact is that nothing could further from the truth since the value of the homes are of no value to the lending institutions. The reason is that the homes depreciate in value, people tend to trash them when they leave, and even if the tongues are cut off, they can always be welded back on and the home Read more »
Just about anybody who watches late night TV, or receives email, or reads, knows that there are hundreds of people promoting concepts to make money in single family homes. “Buy foreclosures”, “profit from short sales”, “wholesale houses” – there are at least 1,000 different concepts. Unfortunately, the only people who actually make money in many of these ideas are the promoters. There are so many people chasing after single-family homes to invest in that the market is beyond saturated, and any profitability has been extinguished. Read more »
Tags: mobile home park and US Recession, mobile home park business, mobile home park business operations, mobile home park evaluation, mobile home park industry, mobile home park investing, Mobile Home Park Loans, mobile home park opportunity, mobile home park tenants, mobile home vs. rv park
Uncategorized | Frank Rolfe | 
February 11, 2010 5:48 pm | 
Comments (3)
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 30th to May 2nd.
If you have been waiting until the Boot Camp got closer to home to save on travel cost, here’s your opportunity. Read more »
Tags: mobile home investment, mobile home park and US Recession, mobile home park business, mobile home park investing, Mobile Home Park Loans, mobile home park opportunity, mobile home parks marketing, mobile home parks rules, seller finance trap mobile home park
mobile home advertising, mobile home park, mobile home park business operations, mobile home park investing, mobile home park news, mobile home park ratings, mobile home park selling | Dave Reynolds | 5:44 pm | Comments (0)
The Department of Environmental Protection has fined a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania mobile home park owner $123,570 for allowing sewage from his treatment plant to discharge into a nearby stream.
Frank Perano, the owner of Dauphin County Mobile Home Park, has allowed repeated cases of discharge from his over-loaded treatment plant. Read more »
We all know how hard it is to find a lender in today’s economy for mobile homes and mobile home parks. This month’s contest will entail a search for all local, regional, and national lenders that will loan on mobile homes and/or mobile home parks. We will put together a list of all the submissions that we get and send a copy of this list to all those who send in at least one suggestion. Please send the lender’s company name, contact name, phone, and email to dave@mhps.com and I will put together the list.
Also, as part of the contest, we will draw one name at the end of February for a free copy of our Mobile Home Park Home Study Course.
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. Read more »
By Frank Rolfe
Some mobile home park buyers have this erroneous idea that the goal is to buy a great looking asset. 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 are great, no matter how ugly they are, and parks that lose money are dogs, despite how cute their entry may be. And, as a general rule, the prettier the park, the uglier the cash flow. Read more »
1.There has always been and will always be a need for affordable housing. The typical mobile home park is just thatÖ affordable housing.
2.It is typically accepted that the average operating expenses for a mobile home park are usually around 35-40% of the gross income as compared to apartments which have in the 50-60% expense ratio. One of the biggest advantages of mobile home park ownership is not only this decreased operating expense margin but the reasoning behind it. Read more »
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 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. Read more »
You only need one mobile home park. That’s all you need to create a sizable asset and a consistent source of income. That’s assuming you buy it and operate it correctly.
There has not been a better time to buy that one park in the last decade. Due to problems in the commercial real estate lending market, prices for parks have plummeted over the last six months. Desperate sellers are dumping their parks at prices far less than construction cost. Just look at the prices on the site. Notice how many sellers have written on their price “must sell”, “desperate”, and “all reasonable offers accepted”. Read more »
