Most mobile home parks I have bought come with a standard sign design - a 4'x8' 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 on 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 owner cared so little about the sign that he did nothing about it -- I drove by several years later it was still that way.

People often ask me how many stars my park has. I always tell them that I've got a five-star cash flow. That totally confuses them, and allows me to change the subject.

With the national economy in free fall, and millions of jobs being cut across all industry segments, many people are trying to formulate a plan to replace their income if they get laid off. And to many people, that income can approach $100,000 or more. So how do you replace $100,000 of income. For many people, the answer may be in a good old fashioned trailer park.

When you buy a Mobile Home Park that needs to be turned around (and most parks need some type of turnaround), the first thing you need to do is disengage the prior ownership/management. Face it, if the park is not running like it should be, you will most likely want to start over with a new management team. Even though the prior owner is usually to blame for the poor operations of the park, it is difficult to keep the prior managers that have been trained poorly or incorrectly. So, in most cases, fire everyone and start over. There are always exceptions to the rule, but they are few and far between. I have found that it is easier to train a new manager than to retrain the existing one.