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Mobile Home Park Investing

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William Noel
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Francisco, CA
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How to make money with Mobile Home Parks (with pictures!)

William Noel
  • Rental Property Investor
  • San Francisco, CA
Posted Dec 7 2018, 23:29

My wife and I own and operate mobile home parks. We have two large parks under contract. One that we currently manage is up for sale. I thought I'd share a story of the park that we have up for sale in Dayton, Ohio.

The park manager is Barb. Her grandmother was the first manager when the park was built in the 60s. We took over a few years ago, the park was in receivership (post foreclosure), and was a mess. It looked like nothing nice had been done for the park since Barb's grandmother stopped working there.

We rehabbed 12 vacant homes. Paved the potholes. Replaced all the electrical lines, poles, and boxes (we own the electrical system in the park). We removed about half of the residents because of drugs and rule violations. We've gone through probably 50 different families to arrive at what is now an 80% occupied quiet clean park.

We bought this park for $299k. We spent $150k rehabbing. The park has 55 spaces. We'll sell it for just over $1M.

This is one way to make money in the park business. Buy a park that is under 75 lots and make sure you buy it at a LOW price. Attend a Frank Rolfe seminar. Use Appfolio property management software. Find a park mentor and follow their advice. Hire a great manager that also knows how to fix things or has a relative that does. Bring in cheap used homes, fix them up, and sell them on a rent credit contract. Hire somebody on Upwork to help you 5 hours per week with the small stuff. Don't have the park manager handle bill collections, instead setup the residents to pay online or directly at the bank.

It's a lot of work, but you can make good money this way and start to develop a track record. We've done it five times now and will buy 4 more parks next year. This is a good business, but it's not for the faint of heart. Your residents will be very poor and your heart strings will be pulled. Know when to be tough and when to be compassionate. Some people deserve a second chance and some will waste your time and leave you out to dry.

Go out and buy a small park. 

William Hayes Noel

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