We received a request from News Nation to appear on a segment about mobile homes. We get those frequently from a number of outlets and we're willing to talk to nearly any journalist in hopes that we can help educate them about affordable housing and the simple truth that the folks who bring old mobile homes and mobile home parks back to life are the heroes of the affordable housing industry, not villains. Of course, the current American media hates capitalists so the stories always end up skewed with the reporter harping on the usual untruth that the mobile home industry is built upon evil capitalists exploiting the poor. And any good argument you make to the contrary always gets edited out.

Virtually every state has, at some point, debated, denied or passed legislation regarding giving the tenants the "first option" to buy the property. They do this using faulty assumptions and absolutely zero understanding of how the "tenant-owned" process works. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the truth behind this issue and reveal what the government is apparently fully unaware of.

The terms we use carry weight. Over the years, the industry has oscillated between "trailer", "coach", "mobile home" and "manufactured home". Are we placing too much emphasis on nomenclature? After all, the current name of "manufactured home" has only garnered a fraction of the sales of the earlier term of "mobile home". Yet the debate ranges on.

When it comes to compelling locations to own a mobile home park in, college towns are at the top of the pack. But what makes college towns such successful settings for manufactured home communities? In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore why having a college or university in a market gives it superior firepower when it comes to housing.

Here’s a “Before & After” of a mobile home park that we turned around in Kansas. You can see for yourself what bringing an old “trailer park” back to life really looks like, as well as how park owners are the “best thing going in the U.S. at a time when the nation’s need for low-cost places to live has never been greater” – an actual quote from the New York Times. There are few investments out there that are true win/win relationships where the property owner benefits financially while the residents end up with a better quality of life.

A 1965 Ford Mustang convertible is one of the most inflation-efficient assets on earth. It cost $2,500 in 1965 and, given that $1 in 1965 is the same as $10 today, it now costs $25,000. It’s literally the gold-standard of inflation hedge. But mobile home park lot rents are the opposite, having missed inflation targets by 50% or more. In this discussion, Frank Rolfe gives his views on this fact and how that creates opportunity for investors.

Millions of investors are obsessed with the direction of interest rates. While that’s a noble pursuit, there’s a huge opportunity created by this distraction as far as mobile home parks are concerned. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to discuss why the late Sam Zell quote of “when everyone’s looking left, look right” applies to much of what’s going on right now.

Running a mobile home park comes with its share of worries. Some are general concerns like taxes and the economy, but many are specific to park ownership itself. Let’s break down the biggest fears park owners face today — and practical ways to manage them.

While most mobile home park owners prefer the “parking lot” model in which all of the homes are strictly owned by the residents, in some cases even well-managed properties may engage in rentals for various reasons. And if you’re going to rent mobile homes, it’s essential that you have a system of rental inspections. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the necessity of inspections and how to perform them properly.

When I went to Stanford 45 years ago, the price-to-earnings ratio (also known as PE) of stocks was around 9. By the time I sold my billboard business and had money to invest outside of my company, the PE ratio was 18. That really didn't look at interesting to me, as it meant that the value of stocks had doubled without any increase in net income, and I viewed this as a speculative bubble. Of course, I was correct as the Dot.com bubble burst only a few years later in 2000. But that was chump change compared to today. Many investors don't realize that the current PE ratio of stocks is around 38. To put that in perspective, the PE ratio in 1920 – right before the Great Depression began – was lower than it is today, as was the PE ratio in 2007 before the Great Recession. The bottom line is that stocks have NEVER been more overvalued and that's even after the recent collapse in pricing. And one statistic that nobody ever wants to discuss is that the stock market did not go back to its 1965 pricing level until 1995 – that's 30 years of flat!

In many mobile home communities today, you might see a newer manufactured home priced around $80,000 sitting next to a modest model from the 1970s valued closer to $15,000. Interestingly, despite these significant differences in age, appearance, and market value, residents often pay similar lot rents and maintain a unified neighborhood spirit. How is it possible for these varied homes to exist comfortably side-by-side?

It’s not uncommon to have lots of different sizes, but sometimes park owners have to make hard choices on how best to use their smallest parcels. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to discuss the different options for small lots and come to some mathematical conclusions on their most profitable uses.