There’s no better strategy than to follow in the path forged by someone else who was successful. Biographies are books that are “an account of someone’s life” and a fascinating glimpse into the key drivers to how they accomplished what they did. In this third installment of our four-part series on “Literary Lessons Learned” we’re going to focus on learning concepts for success from the life story of several top American business people.

Patton, Montgomery, Eisenhower – some of the greatest strategists in world history have been military leaders. In this second installment of our four-part series on “Literary Lessons Learned” we’re going to discuss some of the great military theories and how they relate to mobile home park acquisitions and management. You’ll see that there is a huge overlap between armed conflict and business, and the theories that advance troops on the ground can also propel your mobile home park investments farther.

Books have been the foremost way of transmitting knowledge since the beginning of time. In this first installment in a four part series on “Literary Lessons Learned” we’re going to review some profound thoughts from great business books and how they relate to the purchase and management of mobile home parks. This podcast condenses down thousands of pages of books into some important points on success.

The 1970s brought us Van Halen and Smokey and the Bandit. But it also ushered in a new era in the mobile home industry. In this final segment of a three-part series on mobile home trivia, we’re going to look at how the industry changed dramatically in the 1970s and changed it’s focus to affordable housing and lower-priced production via HUD’s new involvement in the industry – all through some little-known trivia. This episode ties the two earlier ones together and brings you up to date on the history of the industry through some fun facts and figures.

Elvis lived in a mobile home both in Hollywood and in Tennessee. The 1950s and 1960s were the “Golden Era” of the mobile home industry, yet too few people understand this fact. In this second of a three-part series on mobile home trivia, we’re going to delve into some little-known facts about the mobile home industry from this important period in its history. Hard to believe that even Elvis had his blue suede shoes in mobile homes during this period.

The mobile home park industry is actually quite a fascinating story that is immersed in American culture. Starting in the “Roaring 20s”, proliferating in World War II, and being an active participant in the growth of the American Dream, there are few products that are more colorful – or more misunderstood – than the mobile home. In this first of a three-part series, we’re going to dive into some really fascinating trivia about the industry from the 1920s to 1940s to get a better understanding of its early origins.

We’ve reviewed all the operational aspects of mobile home park operations – but what about the spiritual? How can mobile home park owners sleep soundly with the knowledge that they have done right by their customers and the community at large? In this final installment of our nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to review the key truths that all mobile home park owners must believe in order to be happy with what they do.

There’s no point to filling lots and homes if the customers move right back out. In this eighth installment of our nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to review the latest concepts in keeping your customers happy and wanting to stay in your property. With lot rents rising in mobile home parks from coast-to-coast it’s important to understand how to keep your customers appreciative the value of what your property has to offer.

You can’t run a mobile home park without a manager – and sometimes you can’t run it with one. So how can you make a manager perform on all 8-cylinders? In this seventh installment of our nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to review the best techniques and concepts to get your employees to give their job 100% effort.

It’s a scary world out there. There’s liability in almost everything you do. In this sixth installment of our nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to discuss how to best insulate your mobile home park from risk. We’re going to show you techniques to be proactively remove potential liability on a continual basis. If you are a “worrier” then you’ll definitely get value from this episode (and if you don’t worry about anything, you need to start).

A budget is a road map that takes you to your financial target. In this fifth installment of our nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to review the techniques and concepts required to be a master of your budget and, as a result, the master of your financial destiny.

There’s no greater source of resident attraction and retention than a great looking property. But how do you achieve property condition perfection? In this fourth installment of our nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to discuss the eleven steps to perfect property condition, as well as the techniques used to guarantee those results.

You can’t own a mobile home park without having to deal, at some point, with remodeling a mobile home. In this third installment of our nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to review the top techniques and strategies to attain the highest level of success in mobile home park renovations. You can’t successfully own a mobile home park without a full knowledge of how to do perfect home renovations.

In the midst of the biggest affordable housing crisis in American History, there’s no reason to have a single vacant home or lot in your mobile home park. In this second installment of a nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to discuss how to achieve perfect occupancy. Since each occupied lot in a mobile home park is worth anywhere from around $20,000 to $100,000+, there’s a huge incentive to focus on this topic.

In this first of a nine-part series on “Mobile Home Park Perfectionism” we’re going to review how collections would work in a perfect world. We’re going to discuss the theories and policies that provide perfect receipt of all rent by the due date – or at least before you have to file eviction. Since we all strive to be the best at what we do, “perfectionism” is not a bad goal, and thanks to past experience and experimentation, it’s also not impossible to attain.

The methods for managing residents are well established, but how do you deal with the four-legged variety that are also living on your property? The good news is that there’s a methodology for that, as well. Whether it’s dogs, cats or even livestock, the mobile home park industry has a virtual user’s manual for dealing with animals based on law, past experience, and customer needs.

Some people think that managing a mobile home park is harder than herding cats. Is it really like trying to nail jello to a wall, or is there a scientific method that always yields the desired results? In this fourth and final episode of our series on “Breaking the Barriers” we’re going to examine what really goes into mobile home park management and the action steps necessary to make a success of it.

Some people think that finding a mobile home park to buy is nearly impossible. But is it really? In this third of our four-part series on “Breaking the Barrier’s we’re going to examine the exact steps to finding a mobile home park to buy and determine just how difficult they are. With over 44,000 mobile home parks in the U.S., this is a big issue.

Are mobile home parks just about “ripping off the poor”, or is there more to the story than that? In this second of a four-part series on “Breaking the Barriers” we’re going to take an honest look at the mobile home park business model and examine what the real impact is to the resident and community. It may just be that there’s more to the mobile home park industry than most people think.

Are our customers really “trailer trash” or is that just an unfair stereotype? In this first of a four-part series on “Breaking the Barriers”, we’re going to analyze the stigma against mobile home park residents and try to separate the real from the false and uncover what created these stigmas in the first place. Since the mobile home park industry is predicated on our customers, it’s important to break through these myths to understand more fully the customers we serve.

Real estate is all about “location, location, location”. So a bad mobile home park location is a disaster for any buyer. In this fifth and final episode in our series on “Lessons Learned from Failed Parks” we’re going to discuss the worst markets for mobile home park success and how to identify and avoid them. We have many stories of bad markets – both observations on others as well as our own – and we think that any buyer who avoids the “location” issue is just asking for trouble.

Real estate leverage is an essential part of mobile home park investing. Without it you cannot hit the typical 20% cash-on-cash yield. However, what happens when the buyer uses the leverage improperly? In this fourth of our five-part series on “Lessons Learned from Failed Parks” we’re going to examine how some mobile home park buyers set themselves up for failure by agreeing to lending terms that are impossible to conquer. If you want to keep your credit and your investment dollars, you’ll want to learn what these failures are and guard against them.

Even the best mobile home park will not succeed with bad management in place. In our third of a five-part series on “Lessons Learned from Failed Parks” we’re going to be discussing how a bad manager can destroy your business and give some real-life examples to hammer home the points. We’re also going to review some ways to prevent these catastrophes. If you want to make money with a mobile home park, then choosing or retaining the wrong manager virtually assures you of failure.

When you’re unable to attain the necessary occupancy to succeed, the result is failure. In this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast Series we’re on the second part of our five-part series on Lessons Learned from Failed Parks, and we’re focusing on occupancy disasters and what can be garnered from these setbacks. As any business is contingent upon hitting revenue targets, mobile home parks are no different, but there are also complications, such as lender requirements, that can turn even small occupancy fails into bigger problems. As history offers a glimpse into the future, it’s important to understand the risk of occupancy fails to stay clear of them going forward.

Webster’s Dictionary defines “failure” as the “lack of success”. So it’s the exact opposite of winning. But many mobile home parks fail for that very reason: the owner’s do the exact opposite of what common industry doctrine would suggest. In this five-part series on parks that have failed, we are going to dissect what went wrong and look for commonalities in poor park selection, management and financing stewardship. And in this first segment, we’re going to review how choosing the wrong type of park can consistently lead to doom – and there’s no reason to put yourself in that position if you just use some common sense and good due diligence efforts.