Many park owners are also their resident’s news source – at least for a couple minutes a day. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review how to provide timely tips and content to your community on a recurring basis.
Episode 412: Helpful Information For Your Residents Transcript
Mobile home park owners wear many hats, and one of those is as a news provider. This is Frank Rolfe, the Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast. We're going to talk about the fact that in a good, well-operated mobile home park, it is not uncommon for the owner to provide important news to the residents on a continual basis, if only for a few moments a day. Now, what I'm talking about is posting information in a bulletin board, a locking bulletin board format, so residents can get a lot of useful tips, a lot of important information that they desire to have. Now, what would you put inside such a locking bulletin board? You've all seen these plexiglass cover, unlock with a key, raise it up or open side to side, and inside you can put really any content that you like as the owner via the manager and then lock it shut. But what would you put in there if you had one of those? What kind of information can you give the residents that is helpful to them? Well, of course, the first thing is just to affirm that you love your resident. For example, Valentine's Day, you can put happy valentines, you can put holiday messages, things that let people know that you care and it makes them feel good about being your customer.
The first thing you can always fill those locking bulletin boards with is just things that make customers happy and that make you feel good to pat your customers on the back, identify holiday seasons, that kind of thing. Of course, that's all good stuff. But another item you can put in there are homes for sale because let's face it, right now, the US need for affordable housing has never been higher. And many people who go into a mobile home park are there for the purpose of trying to find a place they can afford to live, a nice place that's detached with its own yard. And if you go into that mobile home park and the office is closed, how do you know if there's something available? Well, this gives you the opportunity to do so because many of those people who are looking for the home will no doubt find your bulletin board and they'll take a look to see if you have what they want at the price that they want. That doesn't even count all the people who visit friends and family who already live in the mobile home park or people who live in the mobile home park who have friends and family that are asking them, hey, do they have any openings?
Do they have anywhere that I could live in the mobile home park? Now, all you have to do to provide that information is show some photos of the exterior and the interior and give some basics, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, year of construction if you like, what lot it is on in the property, the pricing, if you have the pricing. This could do a lot of benefit for your customers and for you who clearly wants to sell some homes. It also doesn't hurt to put in congratulations for residents in the park who achieve certain milestones such as graduating from high school, new births, marriages. Now, on that topic, make sure you get permission to put the information in there. Don't let the manager just put things in there that they hear through the rumor mill. That's not smart, obviously, because you could put things in there that were erroneous. But things that have been confirmed by the person that are true and that they say, yeah, yeah, put that in there, it doesn't hurt. People can pat people on the back, make conversation, meet friends. There's endless benefits from the residents getting to know each other and to know of each other's achievements.
It also is a good place to put helpful tips. For example, if it's really, really cold out, maybe like let faucets drip, that would be a good one. If it hasn't rained in a long time, let people know they might want to water their plants or not make any fire. There's all kinds of useful things that it doesn't hurt in any possible way to give tips to people to help improve their lives and help improve the overall operations of the property. If you really think about it, and if you get your manager focused on this, their creativity can run wild. Now, where would you put these locking bulletin boards? Well, the first place to put one, obviously, is there by your office, if you have an office. Many mobile home parks do not have one designated spot known as an office. Perhaps your office is the living room of one of the residents' homes. Some mobile home parks, many mobile home parks, have no dedicated structure that we can call office. And in those cases, you probably would not locate it there. But if you have a brick and mortar office, then clearly the bulletin board there on the wall at the office is a natural location.
That's where people go to pay rent if they have questions and also a place to get information. Now, another successful place to put a bulletin board is there by your mailboxes. Because we know that the residents on a regular basis probably check their mail every day. As a result, when they go to get their mail, they can look at the bulletin board. And if there's something there of interest, they can stand there and read whatever they like. But again, some mobile home parks do not have those banks of mailboxes. Instead, they have an individual pole on each lot with one of those little bread loaf shaped mailboxes from the past. You may not have mailboxes to place a bulletin board at. And if you don't have a bulletin board spot at your mailboxes, another option would be at your playground. Many mobile home parks who do not have a defined mail gathering spot and also do not have a defined office do in fact have some green space amenity. With picnic tables and outdoor grills, maybe a pavilion top, maybe a children's playground, this is a place that many, if not most of the residents, go on a residual basis.
And once again, perfect place to put that locking bulletin board because everyone will be able to see it and they'll know that it's there. And on a regular basis, they'll look and read the information that interests them. That's another natural spot. You would basically just put in a couple four-by-four posts, sleeve them in white PVC, and put the bulletin board attached to those. A very logical choice. But in some parks, you have none of the above. You don't have a designated office. You don't have designated mailboxes. You don't even have a green space for a playground. Because in some of the older model mobile home parks in the past, very high density, there was really no green space left over. And in those cases, what you may also want to focus on, even if you have the other three options, is some form of newsletter. Newsletters are terrific ways to disperse information to your residents. It can be done in paper form, where you distribute them through the mailboxes, but it can also be an emailed form. It's very, very positive, in our opinion, way to build a sense of community, pride of ownership to provide residents with a newsletter.
Now, if you say, well, wait a minute here. I mean, I can maybe do the locking box, but gosh darn it, you're talking a lot of time and expense. No, that's not true at all. There are many online services that can build very inexpensive but very professional newsletters. Most of what goes into newsletters is feel-good things, recipes, those kind of items. They'll also have the regular chatter of seasonal events, but then with section that you can put in your own designated specific items. Look into the idea of a newsletter, because a newsletter is a great way to jumpstart community spirit. And finally, when it comes to posting things, don't forget that there are some things that must be posted in mobile home park offices. Things on employment, things on HUD. Make sure you know your federal, state, and local laws regarding those kinds of postings, because some of the material that you post is not just for the residents only, but also for employees. And vendors in the property, and also residents. And make sure you have a very, very good handle on that, so you don't run afoul of any state or federal laws.
The bottom line is that mobile home park owners typically view their role as being the landlord. They view their role as trying to provide the best form of affordable housing in America. But it also doesn't hurt to put on that one extra hat, that of a news source. This is Frank Rolfe of the Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.