MHU Investor's Club Special Reports: Recent Episodes
Brandon Reynolds
We have sold over 1,000 homes a year for nearly the past three years, while maintaining on-target collections and huge improvements in property appearance. How do we do it? In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to review the “A/C” system we have been employing with your managers which stands for “Accountability and Contests”. This one-two punch will keep your manager performance strong and focused, and yield results you thought were impossible.
Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve is playing havoc with loan interest rates and cap rates. We’ve titled this Bank Chat episode “Fed Up With The Fed” and it’s a lengthy discussion with M.J. Vukovich from Bellweather – one of the nation’s leading loan brokerages – on the past, present and future of Fed moves and the corresponding interest rate implications. At a time in which every time Powell opens his mouth the stock market can drop 1,000 points or mortgage markets spin wildly, we thought this was a discussion you needed to hear to help bring clarity to these uncharted times.
Eddie Biller bought his first mobile home park in Texas over a decade ago, and then added on 13 more parks over time. Today he manages, with his partner, around 1,400 lots in Texas, Ohio, Wyoming, South Dakota and Iowa. In this edition of the MHU Investor’s Club “Lessons Learned” series, Eddie is going to give us his top lessons learned on operating mobile home parks.
Perry Burget has supervised the due diligence on over 500 mobile home parks over the past 15 years. In this episode of “Diligence Dystopia” Perry is going to review the five third-party reports related to buying a mobile home park: 1) Survey 2) Phase I Environmental 3) Zoning 4) Property Condition and 5) Appraisal, including the cost, timing, and importance of each one as well as what he watches out for when he receives the report.
Megan Haggerty is both a park owner and broker with IRE Investment – a large and active player in the mobile home park brokerage sector. In this edition of Pitches and Hits she is going to review three deals she has listings on in New York and Florida. As always, Frank will be adding in color commentary on the markets. If you are looking for a park to buy, one of these might work and, if not, you definitely will want to reach out to Megan to get on her email list or discuss other offerings that she may have.
The MHU Investor’s Club started in 2016 and this marks our 350th weekly Special Report. In this edition we’re going to look back on some of the big topics from the early days and discuss where those news stories stand today as the industry continues to evolve. While there are some similarities today in these mobile home park tips and topics, others are now 180 degrees different and some are just out of style.
Can you really sell a mobile home for $80,000 or so? Shannon Smith, our Regional Vice-President handling Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa and Illinois has sold several of them and in this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report she’s going to review what she’s learned about selling new mobile homes for $70,000 to $80,000. Until prices come down, most new singlewides are going to come in at these type of lofty price points and you need to know if your community can move product at that price or not. This episode should give you some basic points on what does and does not work.
It’s now official: the United States is in a recession after having a second quarter of negative GDP. It’s been a long time coming, as the last official recession was in 2007 – that’s roughly 15 years ago. Most Millennials have never been adults in a recession before (and that’s the largest segment of the U.S. population. So what does the new “recession” label mean for the mobile home park business? That’s the focus of this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report.
Todd Fletcher is the Executive Managing Director of Newmark, one of the largest mobile home park brokerages in the U.S. In this episode of Pitches & Hits he has four listings to go over in Maryland, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Anchorage. As always, Frank will be there to give color commentary on the markets.
The hottest topic in banking right now is the general direction of interest rates as well as the impact of the Fed’s recent increase of .75 of a point. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we talk to MJ Vukovich from Bellwether about where he sees interest rates heading, the impact of the Fed’s action, and the general atmosphere of banking right now compared to past recessions.
Tyler and Jason have purchased 14 mobile home parks over the past 5 years and that’s a lot of activity ina short span of time. Additionally, they have focused their efforts on the state of Arkansas which is notan area most people have worked on in the past.In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re doing our popular Lessons Learned episode with them to discuss what the main takeaways are that they have experienced so far, as well as why they have strong confidence in the birthplace of Walmart.
Diana Dailey is our Regional Vice-President of Special Projects and one of her specialties is establishing superior communications with residents. When residents feel their voices are heard – and that the management is striving to establish continual contact – it builds that “sense of community” that results in greater resident retention and happiness. In this episode, she offers constructive ideas for any community to improve their communications overnight.
America is experiencing a megatrend called the “Great Migration” in which the population is pushing out from cities to more suburban and exurban settings. This has made rural mobile home parks more desirable to buyers, but how far out can you push and still succeed? In this episode of our Diligence Dystopia series we discuss this topic with Perry Burget, who has done our diligence on hundreds of mobile home parks over the past two decades, and is well versed on this particular subject. As you’ll see there is a science to determining if a rural park qualifies for investment and it comes down to 1) employment construction 2) utilities 3) distance to shopping and other “city” services and 4) housing prices.
Some deals may be declared dead at the scene at certain moments in your due diligence. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re talking with Perry Burget on the “Diligence Dystopia” program regarding deals that may fall into 911 emergency status. We’re focusing on five factors that can immediately kill a deal – and methods to try to bring them back to life. Those five deal issues are 1) zoning issues 2) floodplain 3) severe density 4) one owner exceeding 5% of homes and 5) poor locations. Before you dial 911 on a potential deal, listen to Perry’s thoughts on these topics.
Jeremiah from Las Vegas is a legend in deal assignments, having sold nearly 100 over a ten-year run before he started to buy mobile home parks on his own account (he now owns around 2,000 lots). We’ve been asking him for a while to do a Lessons Learned episode with us for MHU Investor’s Club, so we were delighted when he finally agreed. In this Lessons Learned segment he talks about such items as what makes sellers move forward, what he says on the phone, what he likes about direct mail, and many related topics.
When you buy a mobile home park, it often comes with park-owned homes and all types of tools and equipment. Even though these items may not be part of your loan collateral pool – and seem insignificant to the real property – nevertheless this inventory needs to be accounted for and carefully maintained. That’s the discussion in this “Dailey Rituals” episode with Diana Dailey, in which she talks about methods to maintain control of your home and equipment inventory.
Interest rates just went up a quarter of a point, and the Fed is threatening to raise them several more times in the near future. How do you mitigate that risk? In this episode of Bank Chat, John Medernach of First Secure Community Bank reviews some strategies to hedge interest rate increases on loans, as well as holding a lively discussion with Frank on the future of interest rate levels and some historic observations of these increases from the past.
Newmark is a well-known mobile home park brokerage group with a constant flow of new listings. In this episode of “Pitches and Hits”, Braden Weaver from Newmark discusses four new listings in the New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. All of these markets are major metros with extremely high home prices and great economic construction.
Steve Baik has done a terrific job of amassing a 12-park portfolio in the very competitive markets of Washington and Oregon – and all in only four years. In this episode of “Lessons Learned” we’re going to talk to Steve about what he’s learned so far as a park buyer and operator, including how he finds and finances his deals, and how much time he spends managing them.
Sam Zell has a mantra that you should always buy a deal with high reward and low risk, never buy a deal with low reward and high risk, and give some exceptional though to one with high reward and high risk. That’s the focus on this episode of “A Deal We Bought/A Deal We Dropped” – coming to terms with high reward/high risk deals and make good decisions on them. We’re going to talk about a deal in Kansas that we bought and a deal in Iowa that we dopped. They were similar markets with similar dynamics, but one was just too much risk for us to handle.
Property tax can be a big deal in the financial performance of a mobile home park – yet few buyers, sellers and brokers understand fully how the system works. In this episode of Diligence Dystopia we’re going to focus on the topic of property tax on mobile home parks and discuss how essential it is to make the correct forecast on this line item in your budget.
Diana Dailey is our go-to person for turning around park operational problems, and in this “Dailey Rituals” she shares her observations on the science of selling homes in the field. With affordable housing at an all-time – and new home prices also at lofty levels – it’s important for every mobile home park owner to adopt a strong protocol to getting homes out the door as quickly as possible.
Not all deals that brokers have to offer are “large”. They come in all shapes, sizes and dollar amounts. In this episode of “Pitches and Hits” we’re going to review three smaller offerings in Illinois and Missouri from Jon Fisher’s “Mr. Landman” brokerage firm. If these deals don’t work for you, at a minimum you should start regularly contacting him for potential properties, as well as all the brokers in the industry since they all carry around deals (both publicly listed and “pocket”) that are both large and small.
The industry is going through some cycles that haven’t been seen in 20+ years. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, Frank will review what he observed while speaking at the annual TEXCO (Texas Community Owner’s) event in Houston last week, and how many of these concepts have come full circle – and might have dangerous consequences for those who are unfamiliar with their historical precedence.
John Medernach is Executive Vice-President of First Secure Community Bank, as well as a long-time MHU Investor’s Club member. But most importantly, he has decades of banking experience and strong affiliation with mobile home park lending. He’s been through a number of recessions and market cycles, as well as having personally worked on hundreds of mobile home park loan applications over his career. That’s why we thought John would be the perfect person for this episode of “Bank Chat” focused on predictions for banking in 2022.
John’s going to talk about what the trends he’s seeing on loan applications, the current challenges in the financial markets, the future of interest rates, and a number of other important topics.
To ring in the New Year, we wanted to get Dave’s reflections on lessons learned in 2021, which also suggests the trends for 2022 as well. In this episode of “Discussions with Dave” we’re going to discuss what Dave observed to be the macro changes in the mobile home park industry and the factors that caused this adaptations.
We also would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year! We believe that 2022 will be a very positive year for mobile home park owners.
RV’s are becoming a popular feature in some mobile home parks as RV sales have never been higher and the public sentiment towards them more favorable. In this episode of Diligence Dystopia titled “Making Sense of the RV Component”, we’re going to focus on evaluating RVs in mobile home parks both in mobile home lots but also dedicated RV sections. As you’ll hear there’s quite a bit of strategy that goes into doing proper due diligence on RVs.
Two smaller parks with sales prices under $700,000. Similar in size and infrastructure. Both markets are attractive. But one park survived due diligence and the other failed. But which is which? In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report episode of “A Deal We Bought/A Deal We Dropped” we’re going to discuss each of these two properties and find out how the numbers and analysis worked and how the ultimate decision was made.
Mike Renz has been doing Phase I Environmental reports for nearly 40 years and, along the way, he’s seen some unbelievable stuff. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, he’s going to review his wildest Phase I stories and we’ve titled it “Believe It Or Not” because it’s some crazy scenarios. But it will definitely open your eyes to the necessity for every park owner to get a Phase I report before closing on a property.
Tim lives in Texas and has done a terrific job of finding highly profitable deals with extremely low downside risk. In this edition of ‘Lessons Learned” we’re going to probe what he’s learned about mobile home park investing since he left the Boot Camp, and what it takes to get his attention with a deal today. If you are pessimistic by nature, you will enjoy this discussion.
We hope to get Tim to do a Lecture Series event with us in 2022 to further this conversation, so watch for that announcement sometime this coming year.
You are probably aware that Joanne Stevens is a major industry broker, but you may be unaware that her ties to the mobile home park industry go much farther back than when she got her broker’s license and began selling mobile home parks. Joanne’s parents were early pioneers in building mobile home parks – the classic “mom and pop” story of someone who took a concept and made it into a highly profitable reality. In this “Lessons Learned” episode we’re going to explore what Joanne has learned from a virtual lifetime of mobile home park experience.
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac has some new restrictions on borrowing in the form of some “site lease protections” that all new borrowers have to agree to in order to get the loan. What is the significance of this new rule and what are the ramifications for your mobile home park? That’s the focus of this episode of Bank Chat. MJ Vukovich at Bellwether is one of the most prolific loan brokers in the industry – having personally originated nearly $1 billion in new loans per year for the past two years – and is the perfect expert to offer advice on this important topic.
Two deals and two different endings. In this edition of “A Deal We Bought/A Deal We Dropped” we’re going to discuss how park owned homes can impact the numbers as well as the attractiveness of the deal and illustrate it with two different properties and how the homes were the catalyst for buying one and walking from the other.
Diana Dailey is a master of doing mobile home park turn-arounds, and in this edition of “Dailey Rituals” she’s going to review “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Mobile Home Park Managers” – a topic she has learned from years of experience in fixing park manager performance. Diana’s going to go over what the key aspects are to a good manager, a bad manager, and a really terrible manager, with examples of each. Just like the 1966 western of the same name, this is a topic that is both entertaining but also has some important lessons learned.
Perry Burget has been involved in due diligence on more mobile home parks that probably anyone else in the U.S. In this episode of “Diligence Dystopia” Perry reviews the topic of park-owned homes and how to do exemplary due diligence on them. He also gives his opinion of the impact of high new home prices and what the side-effects may include.
Kurt Kelley has been a pioneer in mobile home park insurance, turning this targeted niche into representation of over 3,000 mobile home park owners. And along the way he’s seen every type of problem and disaster that can befall a mobile home park. In this new MHU Investor’s Club Special Report titled “Risky Business” he reviews the top risks that a park owner faces and how to properly mitigate them. Even though risk is a part of life, through property selection and insurance you can minimize your exposure, and that’s the purpose of this new series.
Jon Fisher calls his firm “Mr. Landman”, and they have frequent new mobile home park listings to share.In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, Jon will review a new listing he has in Illinois. Meanwhile,Frank goes over some color commentary on the market. If you are looking for a mobile home park to buy, then this new listing may be the one. Or you may want to reach out to Jon to simply get on his list to be contacted on the next deal that he takes to market.
Todd Burget has a special role in our company similar to a rodeo cowboy: we send him in on all kinds of troubled situations and he rides the problem until it is rectified. These issues include turn - around struggles, employee issues and city and state government catastrophes. His success in this arena has given him his own distinct set of lessons learned and in this episode he shares some of his most critical thoughts on solving the types of problems that most park owners face.
Dave Reynolds is probably the most prolific mobile home park buyer and seller in industry history. Of all the deals he’s sold, there are some that stand out both as deals he wishes he had not sold as well as deals that he is extremely happy that he divested. We look at every offer seriously, and try to make good decisions on which deals to go forward with selling, but there are some interesting lessons learned in this discussion that apply to both buying and selling mobile home parks and which attributes to be focused on.
So you’re doing the diligence on a mobile home park – how do you know that the revenues are what the seller claims? That’s the focus of this week’s popular “Diligence Dystopia” episode for MHU Investor’s Club. Perry Burget – the guy that does more park diligence than probably anyone on earth (and is Dave’s brother) – walks us through how he gets to the bottom of the actual rent received regardless of what the seller initially says. Since revenue is the life’s blood of any mobile home park deal, it’s essential that you have a handle on this precious resource before signing the closing statement.
MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to review the stats on two properties that both relied on evaluating the future as part of calculating the total return. One we bought and one we dropped. We’re going to review what led to those decisions and what the lessons learned are.
One of the most important tools in attracting and retaining customers – as well as elevating your property value in the eyes of appraisers and future buyers – is simply “curb appeal”. In this episode of “Dailey Rituals” our top turn-around manager, Diana Dailey, gives her tips on how to make any mobile home park look its best. Since we’re in the prime selling season for homes right now, this is a very timely subject.
Joe Kelly is the Executive Director of the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association. He is a legend in the industry, having served in this capacity for nearly a half-century. He started in 1981 and is retiring this year. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to review his lessons learned from a lifetime in the mobile home park sector, with observations on how the industry has evolved as well as predictions for the future. You rarely get this much knowledge in one place and one time, and we think this is a landmark interview.
Diana Dailey is our Regional Vice-President in charge of Special Projects – in other words, she is a “turn-around” expert who takes properties that are underperforming based on their potential and fixes them. And in the process she has created certain action steps to turn things around. In this, the first of our new MHU Investor’s Club Special Report series titled “Dailey Rituals”, she will review the initial five steps she takes when a property is not hitting its occupancy budget. It’s solid information that every community owner should follow.
Casey Thom is a well-known broker with Sunstone – one of the top mobile home park brokerages in the U.S. But he’s also a park owner and, as a result, has a significant depth of information on the park industry both in macro and micro terms. In this episode of Lessons Learned we’re going to discuss a variety of topics and lessons he’s learned about the mobile home park business.
Perry Burget is one of America’s #1 experts on performing due diligence – he’s the guy that has been in charge of the diligence on the approximately 400+ parks we’ve owned over the years. And, from that practical experience, he has become a master of many diligence issues that others find confusing or fly under the radar altogether. In this episode of Diligence Dystopia, we’re going to review private sewer utilities including septic, packaging plant and lagoon. Perry’s going to explain in detail how these things work, how they break, and what to watch out for – as well as how to test them.
Two similar mobile home parks. Two due diligence efforts. Two different conclusions. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, we’re going to discuss in detail why we bought a park in Michigan and dropped a park in Illinois. As you’ll see, often the fate of a deal hangs on the details, and it’s important to keep your white lab coat on (and absent all emotion) as it’s vital to focus on strictly on the facts regardless of how painful (or painless) those facts may be.
Politics has an impact on all parts of our lives – so what’s the impact on mobile home park financing? To explore this topic we’re going to be talking with MJ Vukovich of Bellwether, one of the nation’s top loan brokers. Where are interest rates headed? What’s the appetite for new loans from banks, CMBS and Agency lenders right now? What are the standard terms on loans right now? How will the election impact these items? There will all be covered, as well as other related items. If you’ll be borrowing in the days and years ahead, this should be of interest to you.
The political climate in America has never been in greater upheaval. How does that impact the mobile home park industry? In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, we’re going to discuss such topics as eviction moratoriums, rent control, HUD installation standards – and other important items – with D.J Pendleton from the Texas MHA and Joe Kelly from the Iowa MHA. With so much at stake in the current political upheaval in the U.S., this Special Report is focused on distilling the issues down to those that are strictly important to park owners.
The political climate in America has never been in greater upheaval. How does that impact the mobile home park industry? In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, we’re going to discuss such topics as eviction moratoriums, rent control, HUD installation standards – and other important items – with DJ Pendleton from the Texas MHA and Joe Kelly from the Iowa MHA. With so much at stake in the current political upheaval in the U.S., this Special Report is focused on distilling the issues down to those that are strictly important to park owners.
Time is a precious commodity, and every minute you spend on one task is a minute that you could have used on another – possibly something more profitable. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to discuss the topic of finding, hiring and managing virtual assistants to get jobs that can be delegated completed successfully and with no time or effort on your part. Leading the discussion will be Brandon Reynolds, who was an early adopter of the Virtual Assistant concept and has been successfully using this tool for nearly a decade. If you want to spend time on profit centers and not on mundane tasks, then a Virtual Assistant may be an important addition to your team.
The election is far from over – with legal challenges from all sides and votes still to be counted – but the issues pertaining to mobile home parks are clear and we wanted to review them with you. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to discuss the megatrends created by the election results to date, as well as where we things headed from here. It’s certainly not the report you’ll get on CNN or Fox – but it’s the one that really counts to mobile home park buyers and owners.
Perry Burget has been involved in the due diligence of the bulk of the parks we have purchased over the years, and in this episode of Diligence Dystopia he’s going to focus on the granular detail of well water. As you’ll see, there’s a great deal you need to learn about wells before buying one, and it’s a trait that will either make your park a success or failure on the front end, based on the amount of diligence you put into that decision. This is the first of a multi-part report on private utilities with Perry.
Shannon Smith is one of our Regional Vice-Presidents and has a lot of experience in working with city hall on sensitive matters related to mobile home parks. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, she’s going to discuss the methods she uses to win in those discussions and negotiations with city hall, as well as how to avoid having problems. Since virtually every mobile home park walks a fine line with city, county and state government regarding potential issues we think it’s important that you have a basic play book regarding those relationships.
There’s a new entrant into the park-owned business: GoFresh Homes. Their model is a little different than some of the others in that they will buy your existing park-owned homes in as-is condition and then remodel them and rent them out. It’s a variation on the 21st Mortgage theme on existing park-owned used homes, only one in which you have no further responsibilities after the sale other than to charge lot rent. While we have never done a deal with GoFresh, we thought it was important to keep you abreast of all new industry offerings, and getting rid of homes is always a high priority for park owners. Frank leads the discussion with CEO Jim Davis and Michael Wilson on how the concept works in both macro and granular detail.
Two turn-around projects. Both need occupancy and much more. But one had the correct raw material to go forward and one didn’t. Which was which? In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to look at the granular details and explain our decision, as well as the important take-aways when evaluating a major turn-around deal. Sometimes the raw materials for success are in the right order, and other times they just seem to be lacking – and what’s important is to know one from the other.
Mike Escobedo is a broker at Marcus & Millichap that specializes mostly in RV parks – but he has a bunch of listings and we thought people would be interested to see what’s going on in the RV industry today (as many people buy both). He’s going to review listings in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California – most of which come with seller financing. It’s not our normal Pitches & Hits (which are strictly mobile home parks) but we thought it would be of interest.
Dave Reynolds has built the budget for more mobile home parks than probably anyone else in U.S. history – around 500 properties over his nearly 30-year career. And in this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report – part of our “Discussions with Dave” series – he’s going to talk all about building a proper budget from the ground up for any mobile home park you are buying or already own. He’s going to give granular detail about his latest thoughts on rough percentages per line item based on gross revenue, as well as some observations on what you need to make sure to address in your assumptions. If you are going to build a successful park budget, you need to review what Dave describes here.
We recently hired Neal Johnson, formerly of the #3 largest park owner RHP, to serve as our Field Utility Manager. And Neal has been bringing a science to finding and fixing leaks in our properties that we have never seen before. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, Neal is going to give the granular detail of how to identify and find leaks in your water system at all forms of difficulty. In addition, he’s going to discuss such items as when to replace your water lines, how to obtain your own leak detection equipment, and many other topics. This is one of our best Special Reports, so don’t miss this weekly feature!
The mobile home park industry has always been based on a “no pay/no stay” philosophy. Never before in American history has the government shut down the ability for private property owners to evict residents for non-payment. When the CARES Act ended in July, it was assumed that this roadblock had ended. However, the CDC’s recent directive regarding evictions has created only more problems and confusion when it comes to the basic concept of collecting rent. In this Special Report we’re going to review the granular detail of the new law as well as the many discussions we have had with law firms regarding its enactment and what community owners can do about it.
For decades we had refused to produce any newsletters for our residents. We blamed it on the risk of a potential rogue manager writing incendiary copy, or the impossibility of an effective delivery mechanism. But all that has now changed, as we worked out some simple solutions to our fears. In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to discuss how we started producing a monthly newsletter for all of our 200+ properties (hint: it’s just one for all) and how we do each issue in granular detail. With the focus of all owners growing the “sense of community” in their properties, we believe that this is an important tool to do so.
Webster’s Dictionary defines a “uniform” as ”a special kind of clothing that is worn by all the members of a group or organization (such as a team)” and “not varying or changing : staying the same at all times, in all places, or for all parts or members”. Both are correct when it comes to buying and operating mobile home parks. There’s no question that what you wear and what you say does have a material effect on your success in buying and running parks successfully. So what does that uniform look like? In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to discuss in depth what we’ve learned about how to dress and identify yourself when on property or meeting with a seller.
There’s a “Book of Etiquette” for everyday life – but what about mobile home park buying? In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to discuss the right and wrong way to interact with brokers and sellers. Although there’s no written record of the rules, there are some certain guidelines that will allow you to have a more successful career in finding and buying investment-grade mobile home parks. Since so much of our industry is based on “the little things that make the big things possible” (J.W. Marriott) we feel that these rules of etiquette are important to embrace.
Two mobile home parks of similar size. One made the cut and the other didn’t. Learn why in this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report on “A Deal We bought And A Deal We Dropped”. We’re going to review each park in terms of the I-D-E-A-L system of evaluation, and point out the good, the bad and the ugly and what the drivers were that made us either move forward or cut it loose. You’ll see that different traits have different levels of importance and that sometimes things can pop up in due diligence that you would never expect and will change the course of the acquisition enormously.
Out of over 500 employees, one stands out as absolutely remarkable in their ability to manage others and set records on increasing occupancy: Patty. Patty is a District Manager responsible for the states of New Mexico and western Colorado, and her success there is legendary. So how does she do it day in and day out?
In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, we’re going to discuss with Patty the granular details of how she so effectively manages the on-site managers and how she’s broken all company records regarding filling vacant lots and homes. Whether you own one park or one-hundred, this special report should be of interest to you.
Casey Thom and Hudson Bird are with Sunstone, one of the top mobile home park brokerage companies in the U.S. In addition, Casey is one of the co-founders of the annual Texco mobile home park event for community owners. In this edition of “Pitches & Hits” they have grouped together several deals with the theme of “good first-time parks” in the Wichita Falls, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Alice metros of Texas. We’re going to talk about the details of each deal as well as the market stats and other important facts. If you’re looking for a park to buy, one of these might work for you.
Covid-19 has had a profound impact on many parts of the U.S. economy – but how has it changed the financing of mobile home parks? In this Special Report, we’re going to talk with MHU Club member John Medernach of First Secure Community Bank in Aurora, Illinois. John’s going to talk about the current timing of a loan from start to finish, interest rates, loan terms and appraisal results. He’s also going to go over the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), which still has $100 billion in unappropriated funds as part of the Stimulus program from Covid-19. If you will be financing a mobile home park in the near future, there is some important information in this presentation to consider.
While the CASH program from 21st Mortgage is well-known to most park owners, few have ever heard of the REVIVE program from CAVCO. Yet it may be the better choice for some park owners based on how many homes they are trying to buy and what they intend to do with them after arrival. So what is the REVIVE program and how does it work? Tom Rusing from CAVCO is going to be on hand to explain how this home financing plan works and the unique freedoms it provides the right owners. If you are looking at bringing in new homes to fill your vacant lots, then you definitely want to know all the offerings out there and REVIVE may be the program you’ve been looking for.
We have never owned a mobile home park that was filled with more controversy than our purchase and operation of Austin’s North Lamar in 2015. Front the onset, we were blasted by the media for “ruining” the place by requiring people to follow rules and pay rent on time. We were called “evil” for making residents pay their own water and sewer since they were abusing it to the point that a $100 per month utility bill was a low one per lot – despite the fact that Austin is supposed to be all about “sustainability” and “conservation”. We were continually criticized for raising rent while we injected hundreds of thousands of dollars into new roads, entry, fences and playground. But it all proved worthwhile in the end, as this week we sold it to the residents through the non-profit ROC – the residents are now their own boss and only have themselves to criticize going forward. Hear the complete story, including the purchase and sale price and a discussion of where the profit came from.
John bought his first mobile home park over 40 years ago, and Judy started managing parks over 20 years ago. In this edition of Lessons Learned, we’re going to hear what they have garnered from 60+ collective years in the affordable housing business, and their experiences going through hailstorms and flooding and many emergencies like Covid-19. There’s an old theory that the only person capable of deciding the better of two options is the one who has experienced both, so we thought it would be interesting to talk to an owner who has been in the industry since the 1970s and has seen nearly every calamity and issue to tell us what they like and what they stay away from. You’ll even hear their worst day and best day ever, and what those represent. It’s a great use of 15 minutes of your time.
Kevan Enger is a mobile home park-specific broker at Capstone with a decade of experience. In this edition of the MHU Investor’s Club Special Report he’s going to discuss the impact of Covid-19 from the perspective of a broker trying to get deals closed. He’s also going to review – on a macro level – the 16 new listings of parks for sale that Capstone has in inventory. He will also talk about his thoughts on how to get on a broker’s radar screen for greater attention, as well as how frequently to follow up with brokers for new listings. If you’re wanting to buy a park, this discussion should be of interest.
Jon Fisher has been brokering mobile home parks for three years now, through his company “Mr. Landman”. In this edition of Pitches and Hits, Jon is going to review two listings in Illinois and one in Indiana. He has some additional listings coming out shortly. Since we’ve never had him on the show before – and he is not well known in the industry at this point – you may want to add him to your broker contacts to review all of his listings as they come up (including pocket listings).
Mike Renz is a licensed environmental engineer, and he’s also our go-to person for Phase I studies. From his 33+ years of performing Phase I reports on over 1,000 mobile home parks he has amassed a huge body of knowledge regarding the normal environmental issues that park construction and operation can present. In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, Mike is going to review the Top Ten questions that he receives regarding park environmental risks and then answer them for you. This topic should be of interest to every park buyer.
The 800-pound gorilla in the room for all park buyers and owners right now is the impact of Covid-19 on April rents, as well as many other segments of the industry. In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to review early collections stats as well as what we’re seeing and hearing from other owners nationwide and our opinions on what the future of mobile home parks look like in the Covid-19 era – as well as how to harness some of the forces the crisis has created to improve certain facets of your business.
Stretching is more than a good idea before a run. It’s also a common practice in buying a mobile home park in which the seller wants more money than the property is currently worth. In this MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to compare the “stretching” potential on two different deals. Both are in great markets. Both have stabilized occupancy. Both have under-market rents. But the similarities end when you apply our standard formulas and look at the potential profit at the end of the movie. As you’ll see, there’s a time to stretch and a time to call it quits.
Shannon Smith is our Regional Vice-President for five states: 1) North Dakota 2) South Dakota 3) Minnesota 4) Wisconsin and 5) the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She’s been in the industry for nearly a decade, having served with YES communities before our company. And she’s one of the best in the business.
In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to discuss with Shannon the essential parts of community management focusing on collections, rules compliance, property condition, sales and marketing and budgeting. We’re also going to explore some of the considerations with properties that are subject to severe winter temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero for weeks at a time.
The Covid-19 crisis is unparalleled in American history – we’ve never shut the nation down before to try to stop the spread of a virus. As a result, a huge number of businesses have been wiped out or weakened, and most Americans are having to stay home from work and endure self-quarantine. But the big question is “what will this do to the MH industry in the near term as well as long-term?” That’s what we’re going to focus on in this edition of the MHU Investor’s Club Special Report. We’re going to review the overall impact based on geography and tenant employment, and the impact on collections, home renovations, occupancy, rent control and similar laws, buying parks, financing parks, and the future implications for the industry. Together, we can get through this unique disruption.
Eric Wanck has been a mobile home park broker for nearly a decade, and is with The MHP Brokers agency. In this edition of Pitches and Hits, he’s going to review three listings he has in Alabama in Georgia. All three listings are priced based on lot rent only, and are in markets that meet most of the Boot Camp guidelines of around 100,000 metro population, $100,000 single-family home cost, $1,000 3-bedroom apartment rent and a diversified economy based on a large amount of education, healthcare and government employment. As always, Frank will be there to provide color commentary on the markets.
CAVCO homes really wants your business. And they are doing everything possible to make that happen, including hiring a dedicated salesperson just for MHU and our portfolio. That’s right, going forward if you are a member of the MHU community and want to order a home from CAVCO you simply call your personal agent, Tom Rusing, at (574) 596-8719. He can get you the home you need and have it delivered anywhere in the U.S. And this unique opportunity is the theme of this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report in which Tom is going to talk about what CAVCO has to offer and how he can deliver a home to you within 4 to 6 weeks (about half the time of most other manufacturers). He’s also going to review CAVCO’s “Revive” financing program (similar to CASH but has only a 5-home minimum vs. 21st Mortgage’s 10-home), the huge variety of brands and product lines CAVCO has to offer, and even a rundown of how easy it is to buy a home from CAVCO.
MJ Vukovich of Bellwether is one of the top loan brokers in the U.S. – and Bellwether is an originator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac “agency” debt. In this edition of Bank Chat we’re going to discuss the topic “The Truth vs. The Myths on Conduit and Agency Debt” with MJ, and try to unlock the fact vs. fiction in this extremely attractive form of debt. With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now representing over 50% of all new mobile home park debt (based on dollar volume) it’s extremely important that all mobile home park buyers and owners understand this option and how it really works.
Gary Lester is a MHU Investor’s Club member in Moscow, Idaho who bought a park with significant vacancy and saw an opportunity to bring in alternative housing types such as RVs, park models and “tiny homes”. But the ordinances did not allow these housing types on a long-term basis. So he took on the many hurdles of zoning and city hall and, in the end, won. In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to discuss his story and how he was able to convince a city that his property could solve the affordable housing crisis using housing types in addition to mobile homes. If you have even one vacant lot that might appeal to alternative housing demand, then this discussion should be of interest.
A small park in a metro of 4,500 and a large park in a metro of 7,100,000. One was a winner and one a loser. But which one? In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to review “A Deal We Bought and a Deal We Dropped” and look at the granular details that made us close on one property and throw the other back. If you think that appearances can be deceiving then you are 100% correct on these two properties. We think that reviewing past deals is a great way to look for the key drivers to making the decision to go forward or not, and these two deals both have surprise endings.
“Stagflation”, “Texas S&L Crash”, “Dot.Com Bust”, “Great Recession” – we have no shortage of national recessions/depressions in the U.S. So how do you prepare for these potential shock waves? In this installment of our Bank Chat series, we’re going to talk with John Medernach, a long-time MHU Investor’s Club member and Executive Vice-President of First Secure Community Bank in Aurora, Illinois. The discussion will include what causes a loan to go into default, how to mitigate this, how to approach your banker, how to come to an amiable agreement with the lender, and what to do if no amiable plan can be forged. With a potential U.S. recession believed to be in store in 2021 (according to many economists) it’s never too early to be “prepping” for the next great downturn.
Brandon Pearson has been a broker in the Marcus & Millichap Denver office for several years and has a growing reputation as an aggressive source of new listings. In this edition of “Pitches and Hits” he’s going to discuss multiple listings in Georgia and Colorado. With brokers the source representing over 50% of every deal we’ve ever bought we think that establishing continual contact with brokers like Brandon are an essential part of finding the right property.
So you are looking at buying a park with some vacant lots in it. What are some of the most important things to think about in filling those lots? In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report, we’re going to discuss ten important steps to filling lots – both in preparation as well as home selection and financing. Since you’re going to have vacant lots in virtually every community you buy, these are ten items that you definitely need to know.