Tweet

How to Really Make Money with Mobile Home Parks

Guest post by: Dave Reynolds

Article Overview: Anyone can buy a mobile home park. And many do. But if your goal is to truly make money with it, then there are some simple rules that you must consider before taking the plunge into this niche. If you follow these guidelines, your chance for success is much greater, and your chance for failure is drastically reduced.

How to Really Make Money with Mobile Home Parks

Anyone can buy a mobile home park. And many do. But if your goal is to truly make money with it, then there are some simple rules that you must consider before taking the plunge into this niche. If you follow these guidelines, your chance for success is much greater, and your chance for failure is drastically reduced.

Stick with affordable housing

There are two different types of mobile home parks out there. Fancy ones and simple ones. And the fancy ones, contrary to popular belief, do not make any money. The bullseye in mobile home parks is going after lower income tenants. They don't have to be downscale and dangerous. But they have to be folks who make from minimum wage to $10 per hour. To this customer based, a mobile home park offers an incredible value, where they can have the security of their own home, and a yard for the kids and dog. And it is the only form of detached housing they can ever afford.

The more upper-end parks are always in a precarious position. Their lot rent plus home cost often exceeds $1,000 per month and at that price, they have many options. They may buy a mobile home, but will likely grow disenchanted with it a few months later, and find a stick build home they like better at the same monthly rate. So they run off, and your continuity of lot rent is ruined. Even worse, the lender then yanks the foreclosed home out of your park, and you have a vacant lot with little prospect of re-filling it in the current economy.

Understand the true economics of mobile home parks

Mobile home parks have their own standard costs and ratios. They are not like any other form of real estate. Just because you've owned an apartment complex does not mean you have any grasp of this particular niche. And don't expect the seller's numbers to shine any light on the subject.Nine out often times they have "cooked" the books better than Julia Childs.

If you want to buy a mobile home park, you've got to know the real line items for both revenue and expense, and the range of what those should be.

Do spectacular due diligence

Every time somebody calls our website to complain of a terrible park investment they have made, it always revolves around their lack of due diligence. Maybe they trusted what the seller said about the property tax, only to find they were off by 300%. Or they just guessed on the water and sewer cost and it turns out they were wrong by 200%. Or maybe the whole operating permit is no good. There's no excuse for these type of problems. If you do great due diligence, you only buy great deals.

Buy parks that have the right fundamentals for success

Not all parks are created equal. Some have great futures and some have no future. You have to learn how to spot what makes for a winner and what makes for a loser. And it's more complicated than just being located in some "Top 10 Metro Areas" list off the internet.

Some of the items that will point towards a winning deal include location, size, utility system construction, size of lots, road infrastructure, competing apartment rents, etc. If you do not buy based on the right set of criteria, you will have trouble making a deal work.

Execute on your plan

Many people buy parks with a good strategy on paper, but can't translate it into reality due to lack of knowledge on how to properly operate a park. Running a mobile home park is unlike any other form of real estate. Part of it is the personality of the customer, and part of it is the unusual set of responsibilities that a park owner has.

If you want your purchase to work, you need the training to know how to operate the property effectively, and how to implement your battle plan.

Conclusion

Many, many people have made themselves millionaires through owning mobile home parks. In the book "The Millionaire Next Door", mobile home parks made the list of top tools to amass significant money. However, those folks knew what they were doing; they took the time to learn about the business, to perform proper due diligence, and to operate professionally.

Before you invest your money in mobile home parks, you need to invest your time in learning the subject. That's the secret to making money in the mobile home park business.

Related Articles
  Why Good Looking Mobile Home Parks Have Ugly Returns
  How to Finance a Mobile Home Park: You Can Still Get Zero Down Financing
  How Mobile Home Parks Make More Money Than Single-Family Home Investing
  Mobile Home Tenants - Fixing Mobile Home Park Vacancy Problems
  Fixing Mobile Home Park Vacancy Problems
  Mobile Home Parks: The Perfect Storm is Building for the Best Deals in Decades
  How to Make Money in the Mobile Home Park Business
  Why Buy a Mobile Home Park as Compared to Apartments and Other Types of Commercial and Investment Real Estate?
  How to Retire on Just One Mobile Home Park
  How to Rent a Mobile Home Park in a Tough Economy
  Finding and Evaluating Mobile Home Park Investments
  Mobile Home Park Investments - How To Make 10% To 20% On Your Money
  The Effect of Litigation on the Mobile Home Park Business
  Mobile Home Parks - How to take Advantage of the Greatest Buying Opportunity in Decades
  Mobile Home Parks: How To Dispose of Ancillary Assets
  How to Properly Evaluate Mobile Home Park Investments
  Mobile Home Parks - How to Properly Enforce the Rules
  Mobile Small Biz Opportunities
  Buy Mobile Home Parks - What Will You Tell Your Grandchildren if You Miss This Opportunity?
  Future Marketing kicks out the ancient marketing

Article Tags: mobile home park, mobile home parks, money, niche
Referred by: http://www.mrlaundromat.com/



Related Forum Posts
Re: The Mobile Marketing - Mobile Marketing involves communicating with the consumer via cellular (or mobile) device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participation-based campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website. Some of the tools of the trade and a few of the concepts that will be featured in this Mobile Marketing 101 series are: Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Bluetooth, Wireless and Infrared Mobile Internet and Social Media Mobile Applications Mobile connectivity not only enables people to connect to the Internet via a cellular telephone, PDA or other gadget, but also consolidates the different communication channels in a simple, yet effective, medium. Cheaper than traditional means for both the consumer and the marketer - and easy enough for almost any age group to understand and engage with - Mobile Marketing really is a streamlined version of traditional eMarketing.
Re: Mobile Marketing - Top 10 trends in the mobile application in 2012 What is most interesting to us mobile marketers is what lands at # 2 and # 3 spots on his list. "Mobile Search", "location-based services," and also, the place n. # 8 is our favorite of my "mobile advertising." last round after this morning's location based on 1020 funding Placecast poster supports the thesis that when it comes to phones, people expect to be able to discover things around them. That makes sense - after all, what good is a mobile device if you can not access the information you need right now? Gartner reports that location services will be "one of the most disturbing in the coming years." Gartner predicts that the LBS user base of 96 million global growth in 2009 to more than 526 million by 2012. "His value to the user high is the result of its ability to meet a variety of needs, ranging from productivity and fullfillment target social networking and entertainment." Mobile Search, which Gartner says is a fundamental purpose "to drive sales and marketing opportunities in the mobile phone," now just need the user experience. Once "the industry improves the user experience of mobile search to get people back again," Gartner predicts it will be the third most popular application in 2012. Getting to # 8, mobile advertising is no joke. Total spending on mobile advertising in 2008 was $ 530.2 million, which Gartner expects to grow to $ 7.5 billion in 2012. "Mobile advertising is an important way to monetize the mobile Internet content, applications and offering free services to end users. The mobile channel will be used as part of the largest advertising campaigns in various media, including television, radio, print and outdoor, "says Gartner. Here's the full top 10 types of future mobile applications, according to Gartner: 1. Money transfer 2. Location Based Services 3. Mobile Search 4. Mobile Browsing 5. Mobile health monitoring 6. Mobile Payment 7. Near field communication services 8. Mobile Advertising 9. Mobile Instant Messaging
Home-based Business - signed my first 200 customers while I worked from home. You can make it work. Many small businesses do, i.e. interior designers, AC/Heating Companies, moving companies, Plumbing companies, painters, landscapers, web designers, Mobile car mechanics, Computer Techs, online retail businesses, Pool cleaners, Home Repair, Telemarketers, electricians, Artists, etc
Re: Quote of the Day - "The only people witho - Thanks for sharing this Evan, there are some very powerful quotes in there, I particularly like this one:- You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully. regards, Mal.
Re: Which would you start: a Blog or Online Community? - It is a difficult decision to make. Lets start it this way - What are you more interested in? Money? or Friends? or Both? If its purely Money, then Blog might be an appropriate answer. But consider this - It will be people (visitors) that will bring traffic to your blog and then Money will follow. This will be possible after a time and during this time it will be your friends who will be the starters. If you are looking for friends only, then its true that not many will be interested in knowing how you have beaten them in the game or the other way round. So it will be preferable to have a Forum where they can share ideas with you and others. But you can share your insider knowledge with them and invite comments from your Blog. You can also put up information on what others (including your friends) don't know about Tennis. The blog you create can provide News, Inside Information and also Techniques that can be used by the new entrants in the world of Tennis.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to develop the best lateral thinking skills

Are You Too Good for Your Job?

Self Employed Business Ideas

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.