Mobile Investors: You NEED to Build Trust With Park Managers

At the core of individual mobile home investing lies mobile home investing inside pre-existing mobile home communities. Almost every investor who pursues a career in individual mobile home investing will very likely purchase and resell a mobile home inside of a local manufactured home park.

In this article, we will explore a few of the advantages and real-world benefits you unlock by helping local mobile home parks, park managers and park owners. This “helping parks” is at the heart of mobile home investing — our purpose is to help make a park manager’s life easier and occasionally increase the revenue of each park. By adding value to a park manager’s life, you will grow your business naturally.

Why Are Park Managers Motivated to Help Investors?

Not all park managers will instantly welcome you into their communities with open arms; however, the vast majority of community managers will be open to the possibility of working with you and giving you a chance to invest in an individual mobile home inside their community.

In short, a park manager or park owner will work with you because they trust that you will pay lot rent monthly, cause no trouble and become an asset in their community. Do not betray this trust by lying or misleading any park manager or owner.

Put Yourself in a Park Manager’s Shoes

Now, close your eyes and imagine you are the owner or park manager of a local mobile home community. Every day you deal with the complaints and hassles from some of your thankless residents. In addition, your job is to facilitate the repairs and selling of any park owned mobile homes. You are then introduced to a local, honest, and active mobile home investor wishing to follow all park rules, buy your damaged mobile homes, help fill up the park and even add a few mobile homes to your community. Does this sound too good to be true? Would you take the free help?

Now let’s talk about a few of the ways mobile home park managers may help you.

3 Ways Park Managers Help Investors Out

They alert you to potential danger.

When you begin working with local park managers, you will develop a relationship fairly quickly. Some park managers will keep the relationship business, while other park managers will be much more personable and friendly. Once a park manager understands what you are doing and why you are there, some go out of their way to educate you about their park and about the local parks in the area.

Danger from other park managers: Some local park managers are selfish, rude, racist, greedy or worse. With the help of friendly park managers, you can often times be warned and ready for other local park managers who may be trying to take advantage of you as an investor.
Danger from potential sellers: Park managers can and typically will alert you to dangers concerning any particular home in their community. If they know of a home for sale with mold, the park manager will likely disclose the mold so that you are aware of these issues. Additionally, if a seller is behind on lot rent, the park manager will often tell you so this you may compensate for this late-balance when you make your purchase offers to each seller.
Danger from potential buyers or tenant-buyers: Almost every park will perform some amount of due diligence or background check screening for every new adult resident in the park. Depending on how thorough this park screens, this may eliminate any background checks you have to perform while working inside this community. If your potential tenant-buyer does not pass a park’s background check, they may be a high-risk type buyer that will later cause you problems.

They notify you of good opportunities.

In addition to all the potentially bad and costly oversights a park manager can inform you about, a helpful park manager can also alert you to great and moneymaking opportunities.

Potential FSBOs: If a mobile home park owner or manager likes you and trusts you, then they will most likely want to encourage further business with you. When properly positioned, a mobile home park owner or manager will alert you to coming vacant home opportunities they may have in the community.
Other investor-friendly parks: Mobile home park owners and managers know their areas well. When properly asked, a park manager will likely disclose any and all useful information for you to help add value to other local parks. The more communities you have relationships with, the more potential opportunities you have to add value to park managers and mobile home sellers.

They help you manage your properties.

Mobile home park managers are not called “managers” for no reason. Park managers are your eyes and ears on the ground and at the community almost every day. If there is an issue with your home or a payment not being received, a good park manager will often alert you immediately so the temporary problem may be fixed.

Finding a buyer for your home: A park manager is the gatekeeper for many communities. A park manager will often times receive walk-ins from potential buyers or renters. If a manager is proactive, then he or she may help promote or sell your property within the park, free of charge.

Park managers are very affordable managers and may even help grow your mobile home investing portfolio. With everything mentioned above, it may sound like all mobile home park managers have your back and will be excited to work with you moving forward. This is not the case every time.

Many times park managers are reasonable, helpful, down to earth and live in the communities they manage. Many times these park managers simply want what is best for the community and will help you as long as your goals are in line with theirs. However, there are other park managers with less altruistic hearts who only look at you as a dollar sign or potential competition. In these parks, we often walk away and decide not to work with these negative park managers. Always aim to set yourself up for success and the path of least resistance while working with local communities.

Investors: What has your experience with park managers been?

Let me know with a comment!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.