In Todays show, Charles and I will interview new Mobile Home Park investor, Dan Gibson, to discuss his involvement in this business as well as his trials and tribulations. We’ll cover details on his very first acquisition as well as a current 150+ space park he has under contract. Dan’s story is as real as they come and will prove that as long as you possess a strong will power and a desire to be successful, that anyone can find HUGE success (and returns) in this business.
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Today we will cover the 7 most important questions that you need to be asking when qualifying a potential mobile home park investment. These are the same questions that we use in our very own business and so we know they work. These questions will help you quickly determine whether the park you’re looking at is a deal or a dud. Time is money in this business and we want to ensure that you’re spending your time wisely. Enjoy!
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In todays show I thought I would do a little house keeping by going through a few recent questions that have been emailed to us regarding mobile home park investing so that all can benefit from the answers provided. This will be the first of many shows where we directly address your most pressing questions regarding mobile home park investing. Enjoy the show!
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In todays show, Charles and I are going to be doing a little something different based on direct feedback from numerous listeners who suggested that it would be helpful if we, Charles and I, did a show that specifically went through deals that we are working on and/or have under contract so you can view it from our eyes.
As you know, we typically do case studies on parks that we’ve recently acquired but I can see the many benefits that one might receive by having us go through a park that we’ve recently tied up but haven’t yet closed on yet. And so we’re going to walk you through all the particulars of a deal that we recently tied up in Charleston, WV so that you can better understand our deal selection process.
And as a side note, Charles and I are also looking for potential partners on this deal. so if this sounds like something you might be interested in, we’d love to discuss the possibility of partnering with you. Send us an email to partner@mobilehomeparkacademy.com for more information.
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In today’s episode, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process for conducting your initial pre-visit due diligence. In the last episode we covered how to perform your pre-visit due diligence and so todays show is somewhat of an extension as it will immediately follow. Proper due diligence can often make or break a deal and so it’s your #1 priority to become a due diligence expert. Enjoy the show!
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In today’s episode, Charles will be going solo and he’ll be taking you through the step by step process for conducting your initial pre-visit due diligence. These steps are absolutely critical and will save you a ton of time if you do them before your actual visit to the property. In addition, he’ll also give you some insight into another form of prospecting that can be highly effective!
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So, as most of you can already know, Charles and I absolutely love Mobile Home Parks and think that they are “hands-down” the best investment vehicle known to man as far as real estate investments are concerned. I’ve personally owned hundreds of single-family rental homes, hundreds of apartment units, as well as other commercial income property and none of them have ever come close to the performance that we’ve achieved from the parks we own and operate.
So in todays show, Charles and I are going to give you our top 7 reasons why we love parks so that you can get a clear perspective of all the benefits that exist in this asset class when compared to other real estate investment types
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I discuss how to add rocket fuel to your advertising efforts and absolutely dominate craigslist. Our strategy will show you how to hire and train a Virtual Assistant to post continuous ads for your available homes and lots, thus creating an endless supply of prospective residents. This is a must for any mobile home park operator who has either available homes or lots within their community.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will be speaking about our recent experience in a park we own in Raeford, NC. We recently acquired this park and quickly realized that both the on-site management and maintenance staff needed to be replaced ASAP! We discuss how we quickly identified the challenges associated with their poor performance and how we handled the transition with a completely new management team. This is a common scenario you will experience when purchasing turnaround or distressed mobile home parks and so we thought you might learn from our personal experience.
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In this episode, Charles and I will be speaking with MAI Appraiser and Industry expert, Erik Hanson, from Midwest Appraisal Group. During our time with Erik we’ll be covering anything and everything regarding mobile home park appraisals. But it doesn’t stop there, we’ll also be diving into industry trends, more specifically, cap rates and rental trends, what kind sales activity Erik has been seeing in the marketplace, as well as his perspective as to what direction he sees this industry heading over the coming years.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will be discussing the specifics on using 21st Mortgages CASH program to fund both new and used homes within your mobile home park. More importantly, we’ll share with you how to use this powerful resource to sell off your park owned units and put large sums of cash in your pocket…FAST!
We’ll also share a case study on a deal we’re working on in Alabama where we will be utilizing this program to sell off (44) 2002 3 bedroom 2 bathroom inventory homes, thus allowing us to pocket more than $500,000 from these sales.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will be interviewing private water and sewer expert, Phillip Merrill. We discuss anything and everything related to the private water and private waste treatment systems that can be found within mobile home parks. These private systems can include: Wells, Septic, Package Plants, and Lagoon Systems.
Phillip is the owner and head of operations of Merrill Water Systems and was born into the well drilling and the water business. And so basically, from the time he was crawling around in diapers, he was essentially an apprentice. He learned this skill set from his father and worked his adolescent years for Merrill Drilling and later branched off into water system management after his father’s retirement. Merrill Water Systems is dedicated in providing services to drinking water and waste water systems to assist them with compliance, operations, billing and maintenance of their utilities in order to help its residents have the safest drinking water and wastewater treatment possible.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will be interviewing private water and sewer expert, Phillip Merrill. We discuss anything and everything related to the private water and private waste treatment systems that can be found within mobile home parks. These private systems can include: Wells, Septic, Package Plants, and Lagoon Systems.
Phillip is the owner and head of operations of Merrill Water Systems and was born into the well drilling and the water business. And so basically, from the time he was crawling around in diapers, he was essentially an apprentice. He learned this skill set from his father and worked his adolescent years for Merrill Drilling and later branched off into water system management after his father’s retirement. Merrill Water Systems is dedicated in providing services to drinking water and waste water systems to assist them with compliance, operations, billing and maintenance of their utilities in order to help its residents have the safest drinking water and wastewater treatment possible.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will be discussing the specifics on how to successfully determine market demand while performing your pre-purchase due diligence. After all, the last thing you want to do is purchase a park in a market that has little to no demand for your product.
We will share our step-by-step process of using both craigslist and bandit signs to prove the overall demand for the park you’re purchasing. We will also share some tips and strategies on how to turbo boost your marketing efforts once you close on your acquisition to ensure maximum exposure.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will discuss mistake number 10 from our popular eBook, “The 21 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make When purchasing their First Mobile Home Park…and how to avoid them.” We have all heard the phrase, “Use the seller’s numbers” time and time again. This works great when you notice a seller is paying twice as much as they should for management or when your seller is paying for a utility you plan to pass through. However, this can quickly go awry when talking about repairs and maintenance, especially when the numbers are understated.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles demystifies the incredible important process of defining your investment criteria. He’ll share his opinions on the various park types, why you should think twice about buying a small park, and how you can best determine what your own personal investment criteria should be when it comes to buying the “ideal park”.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will be discussing how to successfully turnaround and reposition a distressed mobile home park. Buying a turnaround park isn’t for everyone, but if executed properly, your efforts should reward you handsomely in both substantial returns on your investment as well as huge amounts of built in equity and cash flow. But on the flipside, buying the wrong distressed park might potentially lead you into a downward tailspin, which will inevitably lead you to a financial loss. Our goal is to educate you so that you only buy the distressed parks that make sense.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will discuss mistake number 9 from our popular eBook, “The 21 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make When purchasing their First Mobile Home Park…and how to avoid them.” When performing due diligence, it is important that you determine if the park lies within a floodplain. In fact, this should be one of the first steps you do.
In today’s show Charles and I will discuss the following: How does a flood zone affect the deal? Can you even do this deal if it’s in a flood zone? Can it be financed? What will your insurance agent say? Are there scenarios where a flood plain may be OK?
We’ll cover all of this and more in todays show. Enjoy!
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will be discussing how to successfully manage your mobile home park. Over the last few weeks, we’ve personally been flooded with emails from people who asked questions relating to this topic. Instead of responding to each individually, we decided that it would provide much more value if we take each of your questions about the management and make a show on it.
This is broken down into four basic sections. These will be:
We’ll cover everything from A to Z as it relates to running a successful mobile home park.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will discuss mistake number 8 from our popular eBook, “The 21 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make When purchasing their First Mobile Home Park…and how to avoid them.” One thing we see often is that many investors will choose to look for parks locally for the sole purpose of being near the park. There is nothing wrong with being close to your park, but you definitely don’t need to be. If you find that you live in a market where CAP rates are insanely low or in a market that is going through tough times, you would be much wiser to invest outside of your immediate area.
The business model and management style we teach is effective whether you live across the street from your park or across the country. Don’t put yourself in the position of buying a bad investment just for the sake of being close to it. Proximity does not correlate to success in this business.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy Podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will share with you the 5 quickest ways to add value and increase the cash flow in a mobile home park. These 5 methods are first things we consider when evaluating a mobile home park for purchase and are by far the most effective ways to increase your bottom line cash flow and skyrocket your appreciation.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will discuss mistake number 7 from our popular eBook, “The 21 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make When purchasing their First Mobile Home Park…and how to avoid them.” In this episode we will discuss what specific criteria we use to evaluate a local marketplace and how you can use our process to avoid buying a park in a depressed or declining market. Get this step wrong an you’re setting yourself up for a potential financial disaster.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will discuss the down and dirty details of two recent on-site visits to parks we are currently in contract to purchase. Each one of these parks presented us with very unique circumstances and challenges and we’re going to share with you the lessons we learned from each park visit and how you can apply these same skills and tactics to your own mobile home park business.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will discuss mistake number 6 from our popular eBook, “The 21 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make When purchasing their First Mobile Home Park…and how to avoid them.” This episode will cover why you need to adjust your property taxes when running your proforma. This is an area that gets overlooked by investors from time to time. It is also a miscalculation that can completely wipe out your return in the right circumstances.
Most counties assess the property taxes by using comparable sales. This is very difficult in the park industry, because most counties haven’t seen a park sell in years. The assessed value on many parks is well below where they should be.
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Welcome to the Mobile Home Park Academy podcast. In this episode, Charles and I will discuss mistake number 5 from our popular eBook, “The 21 Biggest Mistakes Investors Make When purchasing their First Mobile Home Park…and how to avoid them.” This episode will cover why you should always perform thorough due diligence if you are planning to purchase a park on private utilities. You also need to have a plan for how you will handle the eventual failure of the system. Navigating the world of private utilities is not for the faint of heart but it can be done.
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