We’ve saved the most important for the last. In our final episode of our five-part series on “The Top Five Tools of Mobile Home Park Owners” we’re going to discuss the power of the human mind to make you a successful investor and operator in this asset class. If you think that Sudoku is the only way to keep your brain active and sharp, then try mobile home parks – it can be much more challenging and a whole lot more rewarding.

Which software should you use to manage your mobile home park. Or do you need software at all? We’re going to discuss this topic in the fourth installment of our five-part series on “The Top Five Tools of Mobile Home Park Owners”. We’ll identify the different software options and review their costs, benefits and weaknesses. It’s probably time to trade in your abacus for the new power of good software.

The book “4-Hour Work Week” introduced America to the concept of “virtual assistants” – people who will do tasks for you from afar using the internet and at a cost far lower than full-time employees. In this third installment of our five-part series on “The Top Five Tools of Mobile Home Park Owners” we’re going to discuss the websites and resources that allow you to take full advantage of farming out many of your tasks for extremely low prices, and with protection from the complicated and litigious labor laws that plague employers today.

How do you make sure that your manager is doing a good job when you’re not around? With today’s high-tech world, there are some great options. In this second part of our five-part series on the “Top Five Tools of Mobile Home Park Owners”, we’re going to discuss the key tools to keeping your park and manager under constant surveillance to make sure that the business is running properly in the field. You’ll be amazed at how well you can stay on top of a property from hundreds and thousands of miles away – and at very low cost.

You can’t really get the tough jobs done without the right tools. In this first part of a five-part series, we’re going to investigate what the top five tools of mobile home park owners are. What they do and where they get them. And we’re starting out the series with the GQ edition – all about what you wear, what you drive, your company name and website. In a nutshell, your image. We all form that important first impression everywhere we go, and smart park owners know exactly how they want to appear to the outside world; from park residents to bankers.

What’s the easiest mobile home park turn-around strategy? Not turning one around at all. In this final installment in our five-part series on “Easy Turn-Arounds” we’re going to examine we’re going to talk about the simple model of “flipping” mobile home parks – essentially buying them at a low price and re-selling them immediately thereafter or tying them up under contract and selling an assignment of the contract. Learn the theory and reality of profiting from mobile home parks without even picking up a piece of litter.

Can you buy a dollar for 50 cents? In some mobile home parks the answer is “yes”. Poor pricing practices by mom & pop owners are legendary. In this fourth episode in our five-part series on Easy Turn-Arounds, we’re going to give real-life examples of parks that were priced way too low, as well as how to find them and negotiate them. We’re also going to review another component to these deals, and that’s often insanely great seller financing terms. So if you want to hear how to avoid heavy lifting altogether, then tune into this week’s installment.

Water is a precious commodity in America today – it’s literally liquid gold. And water and sewer expense is the #1 largest line item in most mobile home park profit & loss statements. The great part is that it’s a turn-around plan that is 100% within your control and has no reliance on residents or market forces. But how do you do it? In this installment of our five-part series on “Easy Turn-Arounds” we’re going to analyze the methodology from A to Z on saving huge amounts on water & sewer costs and fostering conservation along the way.

Firing people is never fun – but it can certainly be profitable! In this second of a five-“part series on Easy Mobile Home Park Turnarounds”, we’re going to examine the role of cost-cutting in turning around mobile home parks, with a specific focus on personnel and utility issues. You’re also going to hear the story of a park we own in Illinois that went from losing around $40,000 per year to a positive $270,000 in one year, mostly as a result of cost cutting. Benjamin Franklin once said “a penny saved is a penny earned” and must have been talking about trailer parks.

We’ve talked about tough turn-arounds, so now it’s time to turn our attention to a different type of mobile home park experience: the simple ones. Just as there are factors that make a mobile home park tough to convert into an economic engine that produces predictable, sustainable cash flows, there are basically five different turn-around methods that require minimum effort to create significant profit. In this first of a five-part series, we’re going to discuss a simple method to enhance the cash-flow and value of a mobile home park. Why it works and how to do it effectively. With just this one podcast, you’ll see why we got hooked on mobile home park investing, and it will forever change your thoughts on “trailer parks” as an economic engine.

In this final installment of our series on Tough Turnarounds we’re going to examine the story of a mobile home park that required not only a complete renovation of all common areas, but also the renovation and sale of over 200 park-owned homes. It’s tough enough bringing a mobile home park back to life, let alone all of the homes inside of it. But we learned some important lessons from this unusually difficult project and successfully finished within 36 months. Hear how we did it in this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast.

In this fourth installment of our five-part series on Tough Turnarounds, we’re going to examine a property in Illinois that looked like Berlin after the war – just a giant pile of rubble with a mobile home park underneath. But beneath that rough Hollywood set of destruction was a fairly nice asset that had, at one time, been a luxury community. Learn how we bought this mobile home park back to life despite drug dealers, trash, dead trees, burned homes, and a general lack of pride that was determined to drag it down.

In this third installment in our five-part series on “Tough Turnarounds”, we’re going to discuss Hidden Hollow – a mobile home park that didn’t even have a rent roll or a financial statement. This turnaround came with the added twist of Frank being chased down the street by a 300 pound man in a diaper. Learn the techniques that can allow you to take a piece of land with some old, rusted flat-roof trailers and no law and order (or dress code apparently) and make it into a tame, income-producing asset.

People living in school busses is charming on the Partridge Family, but not so much in real life, In this second in our five-part series on Tough Turnarounds, we’re going to review a park that had a half-century of decline and the battle to bring it back to life. You’ll learn what makes a mobile home park worthy of such an effort, and the exact steps that were taken to make this park a nice place to live again.

One of the most lucrative ways to get into the mobile home park industry is to buy a property that is “broken” and “fix” it. This concept has long been called a “turnaround” because what you’re effectively doing is taking something that is not performing properly and bringing it back to life. So how does that concept work in real life? In this first part of a five-part series on “Tough Turnarounds” we’re going to take give different parks we’ve bought and fixed over the years, and lay out the game plan from start to finish and what happened along the way. If you’ve ever driven by a rundown trailer park and thought “I bet I could fix that place” then this podcast series is right up your alley.

In this final segment of our five-part series on the Legal Side of Park Ownership, we’re going to discuss some important tips on creating seller financed notes. Since one of the most attractive components to buying mobile home parks is the frequent availability of owner financing, this is a very important topic that we receive frequent questions on. Seller financing is what got us in the business to begin with, and it’s still a very important tool. But to do it successfully, there are some basic insider secrets that you need to know. We’re going to review these items and wrap up our five-part series with a discussion of what you need to know about seller notes and how to construct them

The starting point for buying a mobile home park is the contract. But what are some of the essential items in this all-important document? In this week’s Mobile Home Park Mastery Podcast, we’re going to discuss some of the key components to writing a successful contract, and some strategic suggestions to make the contract more effective. Since the contract is your primary tool in acquiring mobile home parks, it’s worth your time to fully understand the techniques to give yourself an edge.

In this third installment of our five-part series on the “Legal Side of Park Ownership”, we’re going to examine the entire evictions process – from A to Z. And we’ll include some insider secrets we’ve learned along the way to save you money and make the process go smoother. We’re also going to give you our ideas on the moral aspects of evicting and why you should not be judgmental but simply accept the fact that sometimes bad things happen to good people and the act of evicting a resident is a lose/lose. With over 70% of U.S. households lacking even $1,000 in savings, this is a big issue even beyond the affordable housing sphere.

In this second of a five-part series on the legal side of park ownership, we’re going to discuss the SAFE Act and Dodd-Frank, two pieces of legislation that single-handedly deprived thousands of people the America Dream of homeownership. Learn the history of these laws, how they have altered the manner in which park owners can provide housing to customers, their potential repeal, and why it’s probably too late to really make much of an impact without a significant governmental push. If you own a mobile home park, it’s mandatory that you understand these regulations and learn how to navigate them.

You’ve heard of the popular 1960’s television legal drama “Ironsides”? Well, in this case it’s “Ironsides” meets “metal sides” – the legal side to mobile home park ownership. It’s the first of a five-part series in which we discuss what every park owner needs to know about the law. We’re not lawyers, and we’re not dispensing legal advice. We’re just reviewing the things we’ve learned from 20+ years of park ownership and how that relates to issues that pop up from time to time. If you worry about staying out of harm’s way (and who doesn’t) then you’ll appreciate this discussion.

If you want the smallest rate of delinquency, which states would you buy in? What about what areas have the most litigious residents? In this final installment of our five-part series on “Lessons Learned From Our Residents”, we’re going to review the unique attributes of our customers on a macro scale, both regionally and by state. It’s an interesting narrative on how large and diverse America is, and how mobile home parks throughout the U.S. have different challenges and opportunities based on where they are located.

How well do you really know your customers? In this episode of our five-part series on “Lessons Learned From Our Residents”, we’re going to explore the deepest thoughts and goals of our resident base, and discuss how to provide the basic quality of life options that make residents stay for a life time. You will find that the desire for a nice place to live is universal, and the most important thing that any park owner can do is to create a wonderful community that has high levels of customer retention.

The conduit to lot rent is an occupied home. So what makes the consumer choose one mobile home over another? What can you do to make your mobile homes more desirable? In this episode of our five-part series titled “Lessons Learned From Our Customers”, we’re going to examine what the key components are in the buying and renting decision of mobile home consumers. We’ll discuss not only what these hot-buttons are, but even the ranking of priority. If you have vacant homes – or will have in the future – this should give you some great ideas on what’s essential and what’s not.

What makes one mobile home park more occupied than another? What qualities do you need to instill in your own park to make it more desirable? In this episode of our five-part series titled “Lessons Learned from our Residents” we’re going to examine exactly what the hot-buttons are for the consumer in selecting the right mobile home park to live in. Even though the level of competition in mobile home parks is relatively low, it’s essential that you make any property as desirable as possible, and stay away from those that lack the basic raw material to be “in demand”

Why do people live in mobile homes parks? In this first part of our 5-part series on Lessons Learned from our Residents, we're going to discuss the reasons that 8% of Americans choose to live in mobile homes, and what the key drivers are for them in making that selection. We have roughly 90,000 residents living in our properties -- and we've been renting lots and selling homes for over two decades - so this is a topic that we are intensely interested in. Hear what we've learned about why customers choose mobile home parks to live in, based on our past experiences