The exterior color of homes in a mobile home park may seem minor, but it shapes how the entire property is perceived. Over the past three decades, I’ve seen owners spend heavily on infrastructure while ignoring one of the simplest visual tools they have: paint. Used well, it improves curb appeal, helps older homes feel more current, and makes the community feel more like a neighborhood.

Sure, capitalism is under attack in America today, but not having enough to pay for your retirement is a lot more serious than being politically correct. The amount you have to save in America for retirement is completely unrealistic. Experts claim that amount to be $1.6 million yet only 5% of households have even half that amount saved. But that doesn't mean you can't fix this situation immediately if you take action. Mobile home parks can fully fund your retirement if you use proper strategy and science in analyzing your options.

Land is easy to build on until local rules, politics, and neighbors say “no.” That simple reality is why manufactured housing communities keep behaving differently than almost every other real estate niche, and why values have held up even through rough cycles.

A 5% CD is twenty times more than what you could get in 2021. But it's still not enough. Not nearly enough if you're trying to amass wealth – or even tread water with real inflation. Here's why a 5% CD isn't getting you anywhere:

Years ago, we took a Dallas park that was “almost there” and quietly pushed it over a milestone that changed the buyer pool overnight. It was not a flashy project. It was a careful, local-politics-heavy grind. The lesson still holds in 2026: adding even a handful of sites can move the value needle, but only if you treat approvals as the main job, not an afterthought.

In the CMBS “conduit” loan industry, non-performing apartment loans are up to 75% of the raw volume of defaults. While office foreclosures are massive at around $50 million to $100 million per loan, apartment loans average around $15 million so that, despite the sheer volume of apartment distress, office still makes up the bulk of CMBS debt losses. But what’s unusual is the contributing reason that these apartment loans are going into default. It’s not only collections problems, but what loan servicers are finding is that there are a huge number of apartment tenants having committed fraud in their applications. And it’s something getting very little media attention right now.

In 1996 I informed all my friends and family that I was buying a mobile home park called "Glenhaven" on South I-35 E in Dallas. They all thought I was crazy. Reactions ranged from "you'll lose your down payment" to "you'll get killed". But all that changed years later when Glenhaven sold for around $1 million more than I bought it for. That's a common story if you talk to mobile home park owners – but why? It all boils down to some basic issues.

My first mobile home park deal was $400,000 with $10,000 down and the seller carrying the $390,000 mortgage. My second deal was $62,000 with $5,000 down and the seller carrying the paper. My fifth deal was a true zero down transaction with the seller carrying the full $850,000 purchase price. Over the past 30 years we have done around 12 "no money down" mobile home park deals. And here's what you need to know about buying "trailer parks" for next to nothing.

A good turnaround plan can fix management, collections, and curb appeal. But it cannot magically move the property to a stronger market, replace an entire utility system cheaply, or redesign lots that were laid out wrong decades ago. The goal is to buy a park that already has the core structure working in your favor.

At a time in which office, hotel and retail properties are mostly upside down with values lower than their debts, it often amazes people that mobile home parks have been free from such problems. What they don’t realize is that mobile home parks have a unique business model that limits downside and is uniquely aligned with all U.S. megatrends. And don’t just take our word for it. Billionaire Peter Thiel and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell have also spotted this.

A strong mobile home park investment starts with understanding what separates average properties from those with lasting value. In real estate, fundamentals matter more than fleeting trends. For mobile home parks, a few core characteristics shape long-term performance and investor returns.

Years ago, I bought a mobile home park in Dallas that came with something I never wanted to own: a tired old commercial building sitting near the entrance. At the time, it was leased short-term to a small laundry operator, the lease was about to expire, and the structure clearly needed work. During due diligence, it was obvious this building would demand attention, capital, and a learning curve that had nothing to do with running a strong mobile home park. That realization shaped a lesson I still teach today.

Owning a mobile home park is one of the few real estate models where major capital outlays are the exception, not the norm. Investors often find that the infrastructure is straightforward to maintain, and the risk of sudden, expensive repairs is significantly lower than in other property types such as apartments, retail centers, or office buildings. Understanding why can help new investors and future students in this field evaluate the true operating advantages of this niche.

A good mobile home park lives or dies by its location. While demand for affordable housing continues to grow, the strength of that demand depends on the market around it. Evaluating a location is not guesswork; it relies on a set of practical checks that reveal whether the area can support stable occupancy and predictable long-term performance.

The U.S. government remains closed due to the expiration of the ACA subsidies that made everyone think their healthcare insurance was affordable. But it wasn't.

In one of my early mobile home park deals, I learned a valuable lesson. In the middle of winter, my park lost its natural gas supply—leaving 80 families without heat or hot water. It was a harsh introduction to the risks of what's known as "master-metered gas."

Running a mobile home park successfully requires more than just owning the land and collecting rent—it demands a dependable, aligned team behind the scenes. This article intends to break down how to create and lead a team that keeps your park thriving.

Most mobile home parks fall somewhere between “functional” and “forgettable.” A straight road with rows of homes may get the job done, but it rarely feels like a neighborhood. Creating that sense of place takes more than luck — it requires intention, investment, and a manager who genuinely cares.

This week it was revealed that the U.S. had overstated the jobs number by 911,000 workers. That’s the largest jobs revision in history and clearly means the economy Trump was given was already in free fall as far as job creation goes. It would appear that this was a deliberate attempt to give Biden positive talking points, but the scandal has a huge impact on one of the most important items for park owners: interest rates.

I have been harassed by the woke media for nearly 20 years for my quote that a "mobile home parks is like a Waffle House where the customers are chained to their booths". This stemmed from my explanation of why mobile home parks are a safer investment than a restaurant to a new reporter from Bloomberg. Obviously, mobile home park residents are not physically chained to their homes. But they don't move because of something much larger than a metal constraint: raw economics. There's simply nothing else they can possibly ever find in the world of housing as affordable as where their mobile home park. So even with rising lot rents, mobile home park residents stay put as mobile home parks cost around 75% less than apartment or single-family home options. And now my analogy relates to a much larger group. The entire population of the United States seems to be "chained to their booths" due to economic factors, as revealed in a new article in the New York Times.

In mobile home park investing, the most costly mistakes often come from skipped steps. Good due diligence isn’t just a checklist—it’s your best protection from bad outcomes. Here’s a breakdown of what to focus on when evaluating a property.

Some products fade with time—think rotary phones or floppy disks. But mobile homes built in the 1970s or even earlier continue to serve their purpose with surprising longevity. Unlike trends that come and go, older mobile homes have stuck around for several practical reasons—and investors should take note.

In the world of mobile home park investing, skipping due diligence is like walking into traffic with your eyes closed. It sounds unthinkable, but we've spoken with far too many people who did just that—buying properties without basic checks, only to find themselves in situations they never imagined. Some managed to break even. A few even walked away with profit. But others faced losses that could've been easily avoided. Here are four real-world examples that still stand out from all the calls I've received.

Mobile home park residents endure an extraordinary level of prejudice, often without any meaningful defense in today's otherwise vigilant social climate. Despite increasing sensitivity toward discrimination in America, this particular group remains largely unprotected, raising important questions about why mobile home residents are left exposed to continual stereotyping.

It was posted on Barstool Sports on X "Who the Fxxk is the Old Man Named James Goldstein Who Is At Every Big Time NBA Game Surrounded by Smokes (apparently a slang term for blonde models)"? Well, I know who he is. He's a fellow mobile home park owner. Here's what AI has to say: James Goldstein is a mobile home park owner in California who has been involved in numerous lawsuits with municipalities over rent control and land-use regulations. So how can a "trailer park" owner be the NBA's #1 fan, and live in the Hollywood Hills home used as the set in the Big Lebowsky? Here's the story, as published on-line: