Mobile Home University Audio Files: Recent Episodes
Brandon Reynolds
The mobile home park industry has been around for about 70 years, starting in the early 1950s. And the challenges that park owners have faced have changed dramatically over those years. In this Lecture Series Event we’re going to explore what those hurdles have been, and how the industry has adapted to those challenges and continues to morph itself as time goes on.
The speaker will be Frank Rolfe, who has been studying the mobile home park industry for the past 25 years in trying to unlock the science of how to make parks successful, as well as to understand what can be learned from its history and past performance. The New York Times calls Frank the “human encyclopedia of all things mobile home park” and it’s a title that he earned through constant assemblage of mobile home park history and reading the rarest of “trailer park” publications.
Buying a mobile home park is an attainable strategy even in a depressed America. It is, perhaps, the last such opportunity left in U.S. real estate. But how big is that opportunity and how do you approach it? That’s the topic of our next Lecture Series Event.
While most Americans invest in the old standards of apartments and single-family homes, these markets are completely saturated and the only way you can do a deal today is to leave all common sense at the door and basically gamble that everything will work out ok. Warren Buffett recently declared the stock market to be nothing more than a “gambling establishment” that is not rooted in actual fundamentals.
At this Lecture Series Event we’re going to define what “attainable” is, why mobile home parks still have opportunity, how to approach that opportunity, what the risks are, and related topics. And then we’re going to have unlimited Q&A with no subject taboo – so bring as many questions as you like.
The speaker, of course, is Frank Rolfe, the guy the New York Times calls the “human encyclopedia of all things mobile home park” as well as one of the largest – with his partner Dave Reynolds – mobile home park owners in the U.S.
One of the most common questions we get is “how much time would I actually have to devote to buying and operating a mobile home park?” That’s the topic of this event. It will offer a factual look at the time required to find, evaluate, buy and operate a mobile home park – with the actual science behind these estimates.
As we’ll discuss, mobile home parks are a much more passive investment option than most other asset classes for the simple reason that you are normally just renting land and customer turnover is extremely small. That being said, there are different types of parks and they have different types of time requirements, and we’ll review all that. We are going to organize our discussion into four sections:
I. The time required to find a park to buy (and the steps).
II. The time required to analyze a deal (both basic overview and due diligence).
III. The time spent managing a mobile home park investment.
IV. Time killers that you should try to avoid.
We all have a limited amount of time on earth and it’s important that we use it wisely. This event will help you determine if mobile home parks fit with our schedule.
In this event titled Preaching To The Quire, we hear story of Anthony Quire who owns and operates 5 mobile home parks what at the same time maintaining a full-time job as a teacher of special needs children. He accomplished all those mobile home park acquisitions despite the demands of a regular career and family. And it’s a really fascinating narrative on how the average investor can successfully juggle owning “trailer parks” while not missing a beat with their regular job.
Hosting the event will be Frank Rolfe, who is called the “human encyclopedia of all things mobile home park” by the New York Times yet has never achieved one item that Anthony has already succeeded in: holding an actual day job. However, Frank does have a wide range of experience in starting from scratch in owning mobile home parks, and he will keep the discussion lively and focused. So if you’d like to hear how Anthony started, found his parks, financed them, fixed them and operates them, then you won't want to miss this one!
Alex and Steve came to Boot Camp in 2017 following a decision forged on a vacation in Japan. They pursued their joint dream of building a portfolio of mobile home parks and how own seven properties with two more under contract. How did they grow so successfully so fast? That’s the focus of this call. You’re going to hear all about how they found and financed each property, as well as raised the net income. But it doesn’t stop there. Lessons learned will abound, as well as tips and predictions on the future.
Frank Rolfe serves as the host of this conversation, and that means the focus and fast pace that you’ve come to expect. He will also make sure that the main points are covered and the lessons learned are abundant.
can’t be thinking about mobile home park investing without having a ton of questions. That’s where we were in the mid-1990s when we bought our first parks. Only – back then – there was nobody to answer concerns, or explain the science, or even hold out any hope that you could make money with “trailer parks”. All that has changed now, and the opportunity to get your questions asked has come. We’re calling this event “Ask Me Anything About Mobile Home Parks”. And that’s all it is: hours of Q&A regarding identifying, evaluating, negotiating, due diligence, financing, turning-around and operating mobile home parks, with no question taboo.
So who was answering these questions? Frank Rolfe who, with his partner Dave Reynolds, is roughly the 5th largest owner of mobile home parks in the U.S. He’s also the guy the New York Times calls “the human encyclopedia of all things mobile home park’ and also the guy that an entire episode of National Geographic was based on. Most importantly, he’s made a hobby of talking about the only industry in America too “nasty” to mention, based on the stereotypes the media creates with such shows and movies as ‘8-Mile” and “Trailer Park Boys”.
A common question we receive is “What would it take to replace my salary with a mobile home park?” We’ll be answering that question on our next Lecture Series Event titled “Swapping Your Salary With Spaces”. We’re going to go over the mathematics of how to replace $50,000, $100,000, $250,000 and $500,000 salary ranges with a comparable income from mobile home park investing, including what the playbook would look like.
At a time in which the U.S. has never been more unstable, it’s a very reasonable goal to find an alternative income source to meet your household needs that does not rely upon a corporate America. And, as you’ll see, the potential with mobile home park investing can be easily quantified using just a few assumptions.
Following the lecture there will be unlimited Q&A with no topic taboo, so be sure and bring all your questions.
Frank Rolfe will serve as host of this event – the same guy the New York Times describes as “the human encyclopedia of all things mobile home park”. But he’s also the person who, with his partner Dave Reynolds, built the 5th largest mobile home park portfolio in the U.S. from scratch, so he can give pretty good guidance on the mechanics of constructing winning deals that target different levels of income.
In World War II, V-Day was the day that Germany surrendered and victory was proclaimed. In this event, we interview Vijay and Sumeet on their victory in buying four parks in less than one year. Discussions include how they found each property, how they financed them, what the turn-around plan was, lessons learned, amount of time spent in managing them, and related topics that will be greatly of interest in evaluating whether or not to invest in mobile home parks.
The host is Frank Rolfe, who not only trained Vijay and Sumeet in the Mobile Home Park Investor’s Boot Camp, but also is the co-owner of the 5th largest portfolio of mobile home parks in the U.S. He will keep the discussion focused and lively and completely fact-filled.
We believe you will come away with a wide array of important information and perspectives, all crammed into roughly an hour.
America is filled with comeback stories. Apple began as a computer manufacturer. After initial success, the company ousted its founder, Steve Jobs, and entered into a period of continual decline. In 1997, teetering on insolvency, Steve Jobs returned and brought out the greatest line-up of products in technology history: the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod. Apple was back on top. And then there’s the story of the Kansas City Chiefs, which had a roughly half-century between being Superbowl champs. The underdog story is a part of American lore, and there’s nothing more celebrated than when something or someone rises from the ashes to regain their respect and victory.
In the 1950s and 1960s, mobile home parks were the hottest sector of real estate. The demographics of mobile home park residents was higher than stick-built dwellings. Elvis lived in a mobile home park in two movies. Frank Lloyd Wright designed a mobile home prototype, and Stanley Marcus – founder of Neiman Marcus – designed a prototype mobile home park. And then the industry fell into decline fueled by an exodus to larger, suburban tract homes as a result of mass prosperity, as well as continual negative media which built the stereotype in most Americans that mobile home parks were undesirable. Well, it took years of hard work to bring mobile home parks back to life, new home designs, a national shortage of affordable housing and the stress test of the Covid-19 pandemic for the industry to return to its rightful place.
We’re calling this comeback story the NEW Golden Age of Mobile Home Parks and it’s the topic of our next Lecture Series event.
The host is Frank Rolfe who is not only one of the largest owners in the industry, but also the guy the New York Times calls the human “encyclopedia of all things mobile home park”. No topic is taboo so bring all your questions and spend an evening with us.
If you want to start the New Year off on the right foot, you have to find contrarian investment options that flourish when the U.S. goes into decline. The best of these are mobile home parks. In this Ask My Anything event, students had the opportunity to ask whatever tthey would like regarding mobile home park investing – with no topic taboo.
Your host is Frank Rolfe. He’s not only the 5th largest mobile home park owner in the U.S. – along with his partner Dave Reynolds – but he’s also the person the New York Times calls the human “encyclopedia of all things mobile home park”.
We’re not putting a time limit on this event as it’s all about the questions and we intend to answer all of them. If you have been thinking about mobile home parks but want to know the truth before you give it further study, then this is your golden opportunity.
Over the past 25 years, we have strived to bring science every piece of the mobile home park business model. We have created and tested a huge number of models and applications to maximize net income and mitigate risk. We have unlocked the mysteries of which mobile home parks have the raw material to be “investment grade” and which should be avoided. And, in doing so, we invented the standard playbook for the industry, one that most of the mobile home park investors in the U.S. have adopted. So what are the basic mechanics of mobile home park investing?
There are many types of mobile home parks in the U.S. but only one of these is probably right for you. So how do you select the type of park that will fit your goals? That’s the topic of this event. Frank Rolfe – who along with his partner Dave Reynolds, is one of the largest mobile home park owner in the U.S. and has appeared as an industry expert in such publications as the New York Times, National Geographic, Bloomberg and Time Magazine -- will tackle the idea of how to choose the correct type of park to buy.
As you’ll see, there are many different types of parks out there – each with their own traits, strengths and weaknesses. The important item is how to make the right decision on which works for you, and that’s the focus of this event. We will also held an open Q&A following the lecture.
Abraham had an idea: buy a mobile home park as an investment. Then another. And another. In less than two years he had grown to the 100th largest owner of mobile home parks in the U.S. with 11 mobile home parks and over 630 lots. How did he accomplish this? That’s the focus of our next Lecture Series Event titled “Zero to 100”. His has an interesting story with a lot of lessons learned, and you’ll see some important commonality in his strategy for both finding parks as well as negotiating them and turning them around.
We are pleased to present an "Ask Me Anything" event this week, hosted by Frank Rolfe, probably the best known authority on mobile home parks in the U.S. – a right he earned through 25 years of buying and operating mobile home communities. This is a continuous Q&A session with no subject taboo.
When you decide to sell a mobile home park there’s only one option, right? You list it with a broker and try to find someone who wants to buy the community at your target price. But there’s another alternative that’s working for many sellers and that’s selling the park to the residents.
In this event we discuss the basics and granular detail of this option with Paul Bradley and Angela Romeo of ROC USA – the largest facilitator of these transactions in the U.S. You’ll learn how the process works, the time involved, the benefits to selling to your residents, how to mitigate problems with the transaction, and some sample deals completed.
This event is hosted by Frank Rolfe, who not only is the 5th largest owner of mobile home parks in the U.S. with his partner Dave Reynolds, but also has successfully closed three transactions with ROC USA over the years in Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
If you have a park to sell in the future, this discussion may be worth a fortune to you.
Closing on a mobile home park is an exciting moment – the culmination of your skills in identifying and negotiating the deal, coupled with successful due diligence and obtaining financing. However, about five minutes after closing, the real work begins. So what are the correct steps following closing? In this week’s MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we’re going to review what to do following closing to have a smooth and successful transition (as well as some things you need to do beforehand).
To our knowledge there has never been a more prolific and successful person doing deal assignments in mobile home park history than Jeremiah from Las Vegas. We alone have done around 80 deals with him, and that barely scratches the surface of his production of quality deals that were sold on assignment. Today Jeremiah is a park owner, having put those assignment funds to good use, but he does not mind discussing all of his lessons learned from being the effective King of Assignments for over a decade, as well as from being a regular park owner. This is – by far – one of the best MHU Investor’s Club Special Report we have ever produced.
“Dystopia” is the opposite of “utopia” – it’s a frightening, uncomfortable place. And that’s what due diligence needs to be: an effort in which you stay alert and take caution and watch out for potential problems that could derail your investment. In this first episode of our new MHU Investor’s Club Special Report series titled “Diligence Dystopia” we’re going to be discussing “The Top Ten Diligence Items That Can Spell Trouble”. Our guest is Dave’s brother Perry Burget who has successfully performed diligence on literally 500+ properties over the past 25 years for our company. As you’ll hear, there are some standard items that can trigger an uneasy feeling about any mobile home park. And being able to spot these problems quickly on the front end may allow you to not waste your time or to renegotiate well ahead of your diligence deadline. We think you’ll find this new addition to our MHU Investor’s Club Special Report lineup an important tool to making better choices.
Sam Zell wrote an entire book about risk and reward a couple years ago titled “Am I Being Too Subtle?”. And there’s no question that these fundamental laws must be in a healthy balance in order for a deal to proceed. But what are the issues with risk and reward in this sector, and how can you model that into the perfect mobile home park? That’s the topic of this lecture. We examine what the typical risk vs. reward scenarios under various basic buyer tranches from low capital and high risk to high capital and low risk. We also pinpoint items of risk that should never be agreed to, as well as concepts on mitigating all risks in a realistic manor.
The biggest topic in America right now is the impact of Covid-19 on our economy. As a result we are hosted a thorough discussion of the pandemic and how it is impacting (or not impacting) the mobile home park business. We go to go over both the macro and micro levels of the industry to illuminate the good and bad aspects economically, as well as predictions for the future. If you own or are looking at buying a mobile home park in the near future, this discussion should be an invaluable tool in assessing the real risks going forward, and how to maneuver your business to mitigate the risk and harness the opportunity.
The host will be Frank Rolfe, who is the “encyclopedia of all things mobile home park” according to the New York Times and, as part of the 5th largest portfolio of parks in the U.S., able to give data on how Covid-19 is factually impacting the American “trailer park” sector.
Our recent event is on a topic that should interest almost everyone at the moment: the impact of disasters (natural and economic) on mobile home park investing. Sure, Covid-19 is the current disaster in America, but it’s not the only one we’ve endured over the last three decades (The Texas S&L Crisis, the Dot.com bust, earthquakes, fires, tornadoes, Katrina, Harvey, and the Great Recession). So if catastrophes are a part of American life, what is the impact on the mobile home park industry and how will these events impact your investment?
Your host is Frank Rolfe who, with his partner Dave Reynolds, is the 5th largest owner of mobile home parks in the U.S. But more importantly, he has lived through every crisis in modern American history, and seen 16% interest rates, every office building in Dallas posted for foreclosure, floodwaters, fires, the mobile home “chattel crisis” of 1999 – and everything else you can name. And he has seen first-hand the impact on mobile home parks from these issues.
What is the time and travel commitment required to buy and own a mobile home park? Is it possible to own a mobile home park without disturbing your successful day job? These are the questions we are going to answer on this recording!
We have long been an advocate of being a “deal maker” instead of a “deal killer” as one makes money and the other misses out on endless opportunities. Although every deal cannot be constructed in a successful manner, many mobile home parks require some creative thought in order to work out. In this teleconference, we’re going to explore the theme of “Creative Deal Making” and discuss the different methods used to bridge the gap between deals that can’t be done and deals that can. If you’re looking at buying a mobile home park, this is a conversation that should be of extreme value.
We’re going to go over the math of successful mobile home park deals, as opposed to what doesn’t work. Titled “E=MHC2: The Science of Buying Mobile Home Parks”, we’re going to break down all of the pieces of what a successful investment is comprised of in granular detail. Following the discussion we’re going to have unlimited Q&A so that all questions are answered.
An Interview With Mobile Home Park Owner Chris R. From California, a Mobile Home Park Boot Camp Attendee
Buying smaller mobile home parks is often highly lucrative. Some of the best deals – from a cap rate perspective – some from parks under $500,000 in total price. But how do you financing these smaller properties, since most lenders are looking for deals more in the $1 million + range? In this first Lecture Series Event of 2018, Frank Rolfe is going to give an exhaustive review of the different options to finance deals at this price level. He’s going to go over both “inside the box” and “outside the box” approaches, and give real-life examples of each one, based on real deals that he and Dave have made over the years. As the 5th largest mobile home park owner in the U.S – in tandem with his partner Dave Reynolds – there will be over two decades of facts and experience discussed in this event.
A discussion of the issues and opportunities that should be considered based on whether you’re investing $0, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 or $1 million in capital. As you’ll see, the path changes based on the amount you invest. It’s a great chance to learn more about mobile home park investing strategies.