Mobile home park investors - what would you do differently?

[Account Closed]

Those of you who have invested in mobile home parks...what was something you wish you had done differently during the deal process? What was the biggest lesson you learned? What ways were you underprepared or over prepared for owning a mobile home park? 

[Frank Rolfe]

The biggest lessons learned were the necessity of good due diligence and the importance of renting land and not homes. My first park was an infrastructure mess (master-metered gas and electric) and also had a huge number of rental homes that needed repair almost weekly. The other big revelation was the concept of seller financing, which my first deal also had in a big way. I was originally more attracted to mobile home parks because of the seller carry than any other item. I bought that first park for $400,000 with $10,000 down and the seller carrying $390,000 for 30 years, all non-recourse. I had never seen the concept of 2.5%  down before (until I later figured out you could also do 0% down if you hunted hard enough (and then did that five times). I was unprepared for almost everything, as there were no books, courses, forums -- or anything -- back then and you learned as you went (and that was a really bad idea). I also had a huge culture shock in two directions 1) the revelation that mobile home parks were nothing like I had learned about on TV (which showed them in a negative light) and 2) the knowledge that the demand for affordable housing was huge, as I would get sometimes ten calls a day with customers looking for a cheaper place to live.