July 2008

This issue of the MobileHomeParkStore.com and MHBay.com Newsletter includes: 

1. MobileHomeParkStore.com $1,000.00 Reward
2. How to Prepare your Mobile Home Park for a Recession
3. How to Accept and Love your Mobile Home Park Utilities
4. Mobile Home Park Bootcamp in September
5. Comments
6. Questions and Answers with Dave
7. Tell us what you think and send us your articles!

MOBILEHOMEPARKSTORE.COM OFFERS A $1,000 REWARD

TO ANYONE WHO CAN PROVE THEY MADE $1,000,000 THROUGH BUYING AND SELLING USED MOBILE HOMES

MobileHomeParkStore.com has offered $1,000 to anyone who can prove that they made $1,000,000 through the process of buying and selling used mobile homes in other peoples mobile home parks. “Our intention” says Dave Reynolds, founder and owner of MobileHomeParkStore.com, “is to point out to individuals that the reality is low returns and a lot of work and headaches with used mobile homes in other people's parks. The real money in the mobile home industry is in ownership of mobile home parks – not mobile homes”. Reynolds says that he cannot make the same offer for mobile home park owners, since there are hundreds of immediate winners. “I don’t really expect anyone to claim the reward, since I don’t think anyone has ever come close to making a significant amount of money buying and selling used mobile homes. I think people get interested in the idea because of its low entry level cost – at least on paper. However, the real cost of buying and remodeling even a few used mobile homes is comparable to what you would need for the down payment for a real mobile home park, which can make you many, many times more money” says Reynolds. “Buying and selling used mobile homes is like building model airplanes, as compared to owning mobile home parks, which is like owning and flying real airplanes. Why do a cheap imitation when the real money is in the real thing?” Reynolds says he may increase the reward over time, just to hammer home his point. Is he worried about someone stepping forward? “I actually would welcome it, because I myself am actually curious if such an individual actually exists – or if it is more like Bigfoot”. Offer expires December 31, 2008.

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR MOBILE HOME PARK FOR THE COMING U.S. RECESSION

Unless you’re George Bush, you probably already realize that we are heading into a national recession. And if you agree that we are heading into economic trouble, then it is worth your while to make preparations to survive – and prosper – during this cycle. It’s important to remember that it takes time to make adjustments in your business plan, so you should start making these changes immediately. Focus on Affordable Housing The universal desire during a recession is to keep costs low. Consumers are looking to find the cheapest housing they can. Instead of focusing on bringing in newer homes that look nicer in your park, instead concentrate on older, uglier ones that can be sold or rented cheaply. Remember that old, ugly houses have no monthly mortgage payments – and that means that your customer only has to pay lot rent to survive. You will have a more solid, bill-paying tenant base with older, paid-for homes. Be Tougher Than Ever on Collections When money is tight, your tenants have to pick and choose which bills to pay. You must never let them think that the rent can be delayed or missed. You must keep the big club of eviction dangling over their heads at all times. Never miss a beat on getting out your demand notices and filing evictions. And keep pressing with writs of execution – don’t delay because you are worried about losing tenants during a recession. These folks are not going anywhere. They can’t afford to move their homes but they can afford to pay your lot rent. At minimum wage, you can still afford the average mobile home lot rent of $200 per month or so. So be relentless and keep your tenants’ priorities straight. Keep Raising Rent Annually Some park owners make the mistake of delaying or eliminating the annual lot rent increase during recessions. The problem is that you still need that annual increase to cover the increased costs of running the park, plus ever greater cash flow to meet your budget and reward you for taking the risk of buying a park. There is no way that a tenant is going to be pushed over the edge by a rent increase of $10 to $20 per month. However, if you do not keep the rent escalating, you may soon find that you are losing your battle and having reduced net income annually. If you do not raise the rent a little every year, you will have to make a huge jump down the road, and that will be much more offensive to your tenants. Cut Costs Question every bill you pay. Do you really need that extra phone line? Can you mow the grass every two weeks instead of weekly? Never write a check without thinking of at least three different methods to cut that cost. Often , such as the power bill, there is not much you can do to about it. However, a lot of times, you do have some discretionary control over what you spend, especially in repair and park maintenance categories, as well as administrative and office costs. Although you do not want to live you life that way, it does not hurt to role-play the penny-pinching miser out of a Dickens novel. By focusing on cost control, you will spread that gospel throughout your organization. Approach Loan Renewals Well In Advance One of the big hurdles of a recession is the sudden disappearance of the usual banks and other lenders. In a world in which Indymac can fail, why not your lender, too? In that type of environment, you need to allow yourself extra time to line up a loan. If your current loan expires in two years, you might want to attack that problem starting now. It might take you two months to get our loan package perfected, another two months to find the right lender, and four to six months to put the deal together. So what’s the other year for? Just in case that lender falls apart right before closing, and you have to start all over again. I would much rather pay a slight pre-payment penalty on my existing loan from starting early, rather than be unable to find a replacement loan and end up in foreclosure. Never Pre-pay For Anything You have to look at all other businesses that you do business with very cautiously. In a recession, anything can happen. Businesses that have been around for decades can suddenly disappear overnight. So never pay for any project until it has been completed. I have actually had cases, during recessions, where the contractor disappeared in the middle, or even the end, of a job. One time, I had a guy build a brick and stone entry to a park – really fancy – and he disappeared when the project was 95% complete. We never saw him again. Prior to running off, he had wanted me to pre-pay him for the project, but I had refused to pay him until it was done. By refusing to pay until completion, I ended up with a virtually free, fancy entry. So where did the guy go? I have no idea. Maybe he ran off because he owed so many people money. Be More Aggressive on the Acquisitions Side Some of the best mobile home park buys in history have been made during recessions. That is the exact time when all of the planets come into alignment to make the ideal buy. So start watching and listening for real distress mobile home park deals. You may see pricing that you never dreamed you would see. And that is why it is more important than ever to keep yourself out of trouble, so that you can reap the rewards that only a recession can bring. Conclusion Recessions are terrible things. However, once you get used to them, they are like a big rain storm. You want to make sure that you have a big umbrella when they hit, and make sure you don’t step in a big puddle. But when they’re over, everything is cleaner and smells better, and if you have put yourself in the proper position, you may end up with some great parks you bought for a penny on the dollar.

HOW TO ACCEPT – AND LOVE – YOUR MOBILE HOME PARK UTILITIES

When you first buy a mobile home park, you are a little terrified of your water and sewer system. “What if it breaks down?” you worry. “Can I afford to fix it?”. “Will my tenants get mad and leave if the water goes out for a couple days?”. One of the key things to remember is that each mobile home park’s utilities has its own personality. Just like people, all utility systems have their own strengths and weaknesses. The key to living with your utility system is to recognize it’s unique “personality” and to accept it for what it is. Here are a few of the different utility systems and their typical strengths and weaknesses: Metal Water Lines Burying metal in the ground is not a great idea. Metal rusts. So metal water lines are a time-delayed disaster. But how much time do you have? In some cases, a whole lot. I have seen metal water lines that have virtually no corrosion despite the fact that they’re 50 years old. If you think about it, virtually all the water lines you can think of (unless you live in a brand new subdivision in a town that was entirely built in the 1990s) are made of metal. And everything seems to be O.K. Sure PVC is better, but metal can be just fine. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Can I sleep at night with metal lines? You bet I can. I have had little trouble with all my metal lines, and I can definitely be proud of them with all their faults. PVC Water Lines If you have PVC water lines, you are a very, very fortunate person. There are very few parks out there that have them. They are the best. Nothing else can compete with them. Before you get too excited, make sure that the whole system is PVC. A lot of times, the park owner has retrofitted PVC onto metal lines where they come out of the ground. To have a PVC system, it has to be 100% PVC – below and above the ground. Clay Tile Sewer This was the standard design from about 1900 to the 1970s. Most of what you see out there is clay tile. It’s basically sewer pipe that is ceramic – it looks like pipe made out of the same stuff as the flower pots at the fancy nursery. And it is really a pretty good system. I have had many clay tile sewer systems, and I was not worried about them when I went to sleep each night. The biggest weakness with clay tile is tree roots. The clay tile pipe does not fit together so tightly that tree roots can’t find a way to get into such a terrific water source. So when you have clay tile, you will be doing a lot of rooter roto repair calls. But that’s a manageable expense. The other weakness with clay tile is its inability to survive jetting of the lines. When you “jet” a line, you spray extremely high pressured water down the sewer lines to push any debris into the city main line. The high pressure spray can often cause a cracked pipe to cave in. When we discontinued jetting our clay tile lines, we had no further cave-ins. Cast Iron Sewer Line These are very rare systems. Of course, they are easy to work with. They don’t cave in. They can deteriorate over time, theoretically, but I’ve never actually seen that happen. We’ve only had one of these systems, and the only fault it had was a series of “bellies”, where the flow was slightly uphill in places to it would not drain properly. You would never lose sleep over a cast iron system. Thin-Walled Plastic Sewer Line This is the bad boy of the sewer pipe world. This is the crazy, undependable cousin of real utility lines. This junk will cave in all the time – sometimes in 50 foot segments. Having this type of sewer system is like inviting a mass murderer over as a house sitter. It might be O.K. or it might be a catastrophe. It’s like the crazy gun slinger in a spaghetti western who might shoot you or smile at you. Living with that type of uncertainty will drive any sane person nuts. The only thing you can do with this type of system is “tough love”—if it can’t work properly, then replace it. And make sure you budget for this eventuality when you buy the park. If I was looking at a park built with this junk, I wouldn’t touch it unless I could re-pipe the entire park into PVC, and still have a great return on investment. And that’s probably where you are going to end up, either replacing the system at one time or in sections over time. I can’t sleep well with this stuff. PVC Sewer Line This is the Cadillac of the industry. It is, if properly installed, flawless. Whoever invented this stuff was a genius. I can think of no weakness with PVC. If you have a full PVC sewer system, then you are very lucky indeed. Conclusion Like people, water and sewer systems come in all types of shapes and sizes. But that does not mean that certain types are to be avoided or discriminated against. It is possible to accept the type you have, and be happy with it. You just have to understand the character flaws, and work around them.

Comments from our 1st Bootcamp - June 20, 2008Dave and Frank, We wanted to drop you a note thanking you again for an outstanding Boot Camp. Given the high-quality of your other materials, we had very high expectations for the course, and you greatly exceeded our expectations. It was obvious that you had invested an immense amount of time preparing for the course, and the selection of topics and quality of the materials, which were filled with much new information, was outstanding. At the start of the course, you mentioned that you both operate this business by the “golden rule”, only selling products that you would buy yourself. We feel that you have easily achieved this goal. Thanks again Again, we have been so impressed and grateful for the quality of your information and your generosity. It is not surprising to us that you both have been so successful in your business endeavors. If there is anything that we can do for you (e.g., act as a references), please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks again for a great seminar, Steve and Rebecca

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Hi you guys! We wanted to thank you so much for all the effort and planning that you put into the bootcamp this weekend. You gave us so much "real" information that we can put to use immediately, as well as tons of things to file away for the future. We have been working on reading all the great books that were included with the bootcamp and find them to be packed full of information PLUS so much fun to read after meeting you both! THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING! Patrice A.

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Hi Dave, I just wanted to thank you again for the awesome time at the bootcamp! I originally read Deals on Wheels and thought that was my ticket to a new life so I spent the last six months working on my dealers license. I have almost read all of your materials and I would say they are the best out there. Thanks Again Tim L.

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Dave, I just wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you so much for the excellent MHP Bootcamp! I think that you guys did a phenomenal job, and it was far above and beyond anything that could have been expected- thank you very much! Again, thank you so much. I think the weekend completely OVERdelivered and I was so impressed – thank you! Jamie S.

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Hi Dave I like to say thank you & Frank for all you did. It was very good and I appreciate every bit of it. The extra material on top of all material we had gotten before was very nice of you. I wish you and your familly best of luck. Again thank you very much. Jeff Z.

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Dave The bootcamp was outstanding! I couldn’t think of how to improve it. I have no complaints whatsoever. The weekend gave me the confidence to go forward and I know when I find the right opportunity I will be ready to pull the trigger. Doug P.

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Dave & Frank, The event last weekend was terrific in all respects. I was able to see and hear various experiences and the consequences. It provided me with clarity about past mistakes (rental homes) and how best to plan for the future. I know you were concerned about staying on schedule with the book material. To me there was actually two seminars - one in Denver and the other when I get home to re-read the material. I have never paid $3k for a class yet felt that it was an excellent value. In addition, both of you speaking simultaneously was a very dynamic format. Jim B.

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Dave and Frank, I wanted to personally thank you for the excellent job you did on your first bootcamp. Having attended and organized similar events, I can say without a doubt that you did your homework by going above and beyond what was expected of the attendees. From the materials, which included cds, handouts, spreadsheets, forms, guest speakers, binders to writing equipment, you did a first-class job. Even the vans were new! The fact that great meals were included was also impressive. Doug M.

MobileHomeParkStore.com Comments from our Customers!

7-28-08 Thanks so much. I got a great response from your site. Just couldn't help the seller. Stewart

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 7-24-08 Diane, I love your site and you guys are the best!! thanks for your help!! barry henson/EMC

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 7-24-08

Terri I just want to inform you that I have sold my park in Taylor, Pa. It is the one with 69+Room for expansion, with my name and the company Marble Arch Financial listed with the telephone number listed below. Your service is terrific . I received many calls and found my ultimate buyer through this website. Many thanks. Joe DePaulo Credit One Financial Solutions 131 Continental Drive Suite 307 Newark, DE 19713 Phone: 302-894-6201 Cell: 302-668-6412 Fax: 302-894-6980 jdepaulo@creditonefs.com

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 7-11-08 Thanks, I have had 6-7 offers off of your ad. Philip C (Same day as ad posted)

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 7-8-08

Diane, I've had GREAT response to the ad on your site. On average, I've had about 3 calls or emails per week since December, and I'm still getting calls. The 1st two months I placed the ad, I received about 6 calls/emails per week. The ad has been well worth the few dollars for the year! Regards,  

Mindy Zimmerman, Licensed PA Realtor, eCertified, MBA Prudential Homesale Services Group 5 Old Mill Road, Ephrata, PA 17522 Cell: (717) 587-9889 Office: (717) 738-9986 Ext. 191 Fax: (717) 738-2402

Email: mzimmerman@pruhomesaleservices.com Website: www.MindyZimmerman.com

Q&A with DaveQuestion: Hi Dave, What is the best way to handle “who pays the utilities”. I would assume most pads are separately metered for utilities. I don’t manage a property but I would think having the landlord in charge of utilities would be good, b/c if the tenant is late on payment, you can have their utilities shut off until rent is collected. I’m not sure though. I’m thinking about getting into the business in a few years. I enjoy your e-mails. Have a great day. Sincerely, Brian Answer: Brian, I would always rather have the city in charge of the utilities. You don't want to have to collect these if possible. Most states prohibit your turning them off anyway unless you are a licensed as a utility company. If the city or utility provider won't take over the utilities then I would submeter them and charge back as it is a more equitable to charge people (they pay for what they use). However, I would still try to get out of the utility business if possible. Thanks for the comments. Dave -------------------- Question: Hi Dave, I HAVE NEVER OWNED A MOBILE HOME PARK BUT: 1. My idea is to buy an older park, and replace older Mobile Homes with nice newer Manufactured Homes - does this require DIFFERENT ZONING or REQUIRE ANOTHER PERMIT or CHANGE THE USE OR??  Any assistance in this direction would be appreciated. 2. IF I want to buy a Park, that comes with a mix of R.V. AND M.H. can I change them into ALL MOBILE HOMES.  Again, do I have to change the Zoning, or Conditional Permit Use or ?? 3. Can I take some spare acreage/land that comes with the Park I buy, I want to add RV/Boat Storage.  Again, do I have to add, change or request a Permit Use or just do it (or depending on the county)? 4. Is it better, in your opinion, which I request of course, to buy a park with ALL PARK-OWNED OR ALL RENTED HOMES. OR if the Park owns all the homes, then one can replace them at will? Sincerely, JUNE Answer: June, There is never enough time to cover everything but I will try to respond to your questions. 1. You will not typically need to change zoning or permits etc. Each time a new mobile home is moved in you(or whoever brings it in) will need to have a moving permit. The biggest problem with replacing homes in an older park that you will run into is that the size of the new homes is typically bigger than that of the old homes and you may run into problems with setback problems and lot sizes. Myself, I would rather own an older park where the homes are older but kept up. You will almost always have a strong demand for these homes and less repos. 2. Changing from RV to MH will typically require a change in zoning. It depends on how the park was zoned in the first place. In addition, lots for RV's will typically be too small for MH's. 3. To add RV/Boat storage, build new lots, etc, you will most likely need a permit or correct zoning to do this. And yes it depends on the county. You should be able to visit the county or city and find out what is required in any case. 4. To me, it does not matter as much whether the park I buy has all park owned or tenant owned homes. Once, I buy the park, I will convert it to tenant owned as fast as possible though. It depends on the price and other features of the park when considering whether to buy or not. Most people that are renting can be converted to buyers if you make them a good enough deal (price and terms). I hope this helps. Thanks, Dave

Tell us what you think! We'd love to hear what you think of this issue! We need your articles and press releases - send your articles to dave@mhps.com to be included in upcoming newsletters.  Where else can you put your press releases and articles in front of thousands of people for FREE! Please send your comments, questions, articles, and ideas for upcoming issues to us at: dave@mhps.com Your feedback matters to us! Visit us at www.mhps.com   or www.mhbay.com Until Next Time! Dave Reynolds MobileHomeParkStore.com 18923 Highway 65 Cedaredge, CO 81413 PH: 800-950-1364 FX: 970-856-4883