Warren Buffett is America’s most successful stock investor. He’s never really been a big real estate player, as that’s not his area of expertise, but the same strategies he uses on stocks also works well on income properties. So what are these maxims and what do they mean?

Douglas MacArthur once said “old soldiers never die, they just fade away”. But what about old mobile homes? In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast, we’re going to look into the definition of “old homes”, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to determine their future.

Blackstone – one of America’s largest private equity groups – has announced that they are buying around 40 properties from Summit Communities, expanding their foot print in Florida and Arizona and significantly increasing their mobile home park holdings https://www.cpexecutive.com/post/blackstone-to-buy-550m-mhc-portfolio/. In so doing, they are continuing the love affair that institutional investors are having with the mobile home park industry and its brilliant business model. Why have they become big fans?

There are basically three types of RV parks in the U.S. today: “overnight”, “destination” and “extended stay”. Each has a different niche, and all niches are not created equal, so the question is which of these three is best positioned going forward? Here would be our analysis.

Virtually all investors in the self-storage arena buy their properties using debt. That’s always been the attraction to real estate: the availability of getting leverage. And leverage is the tool that allows cash-on-cash returns to be stronger than traditional investments that have no leverage. One of the metrics banks use to underwrite loans is the “coverage ratio”.

Billboards have always been based on extremely long ground lease lengths – as long as 30 years or more. While that’s great for the billboard owner, it can sometimes be a challenge to explain to the property owner why they are so lengthy. So what are the explanations?

One of the key ways to increase the value of any mobile home park is to maximize its occupancy. Filling a vacant lot propels you from zero value to $30,000 to $100,000 of equity based on lot rent. And the only way to fill a vacant lot for most properties is for the park owner to buy the home – new or used – and bring it in themselves to then sell or rent.

The RV park business model is fairly simple, yet too many investors don’t understand the mechanics and therefore miss the entire opportunity. With traditional investing faltering as a result of Covid-19, alternative investing is far more profitable – but only if you understand how it works. So here’s the plan to make money with an RV park.

You cannot buy a self-storage facility without engaging in the old-fashioned art of negotiation. Nobody knows when the first negotiation in the world transpired, but it probably dates back to cavemen trying to get that extra piece of firewood. You simply cannot be an effective buyer without understanding its principals and engaging in the gamesmanship that has become negotiation today. So what are the basics you need to know?

Industry veteran Mark Boidman recently stated that “the billboard audience is clearly back” and a “9% to 16% billboard income growth projection” should hold true for 2021. That’s a pretty bold outlook given the Covid-19 pandemic. So why is he so optimistic?

We hope that all sellers abide by “my word is my bond” but we all know that’s rarely the case. Instead, we have to write lengthy legal contracts to ensure that things go as planned. And one key component to any RV park purchase contract is the “specific performance” provision.

I have a collection of books on self-storage from a number of authors – and they’re all worthless. In this episode of the Self-Storage University podcast we’re going to review why most of these written works are not worth the paper they’re printed on and some of the facts that they’re missing. There has to be more than untruthful, content-lacking upsells into coaching for a book to be of value, yet that’s what most storage guides represent and in this podcast we’re going to discuss why.

The document that gives you the right to build and operate a billboard on a piece of property is called the “ground lease” – and what it contains can make the difference between success and trouble. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to discuss what the key items of a proper ground lease include and why they are so important. Since your entire investment hangs in the balance, it’s essential that you know how a ground lease should be structured.

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 many publications - will tackle the idea of how to choose the correct type of park to buy.

I unearthed a copy of the 2015 Journal of Manufactured Housing recently and found the lead article was a debate over what the correct name is for our industry. Yes, that’s how little was going on in mobile home parks back then. In this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to revisit the issue of what the correct name for the industry is, with some shocking conclusions.

In every election there is a winner and a loser. But with affordable housing, the outcome of every election is the same: the demand for affordable housing goes up and nobody does anything about it. As a result, the mobile home park business always does well as the sole provider of quality affordable housing in the U.S. Why does it always turn out this way?

Abraham Anderson attended our Mobile Home Park Investor’s Boot Camp in 2019 and has had a prolific start to his mobile home park investing career, having purchased 11 mobile home parks in less than 22 months. He recently gave us this video tour of him walking through one of his properties and describing the steps he took to purchase it and turn it around.

There’s nothing quite like direct mail. A successful direct mail piece has a 99% failure rate – and that’s considered a success. Do you know any other thing in life that counts 1% as a win? In this week’s Mobile Home Park Master podcast we’re going to discuss one of the greatest ways to find parks to buy: the good old-fashioned direct mail.

We always think of mobile home parks as being great income properties – but what about the land underneath? Surprisingly, mobile home parks may be the most valuable development site in any city. And it’s been proven over and over again. Why is that?

Due to their locations, many RV parks – but not all – receive their drinking water supply from a well. And there is a huge amount of false assumptions that most Americans have regarding these wells and how they work, as well as what can go wrong with them. So what’s the truth about RV park water wells?

Hurricane season is always a good reminder of the importance of keeping mindful attention on the existence of flood plain when buying a self-storage property. Even in non-coastal areas, a severe weather event can lead to high levels of rain, and this can result in danger if you are in the flood plain. Sowhat do you need to know about self-storage facilities and flooding?

Billboard leases, while long-term, typically have an end date. This necessitates the billboard owner obtaining a renewal of the existence lease or forging a new lease altogether. So what are some solid tips to renewing your billboard and continuing your structure of paying ground rent to the land owner?

Many people think that there is only one type of storage vacancy: an empty unit. But why is that unit empty? In this episode of the Self-Storage University podcast, we’re going to analyze the different types of storage vacancy and what they really mean, as well as how to fix them.

When I first got into the business, I was told about the “gypsy traveler” RV park scam. And recently I have been getting calls from people who were unaware of this age-old way to part a fool and their money. In this episode of the RV Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review what a “gypsy traveler” scam is, how to watch out for them, why they work on unsuspecting buyers, and how to make sure your deal is real and not a forgery.

Billboards are all about being seen – that’s one of their most important traits. Yet most people don’t understand the science behind the visibility of a sign, and how to approach deciding whether it has enough of it to be viable. In this Billboard Mastery podcase, we’re going to review the science of visibility and how you can be an active participant in making it better.

Mobile home parks are one of the big beneficiaries of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac lending. Coming out of nowhere not too long ago, “agency” debt now represents more than 50% of all new mobile home park loans in terms of total dollars. How will this lending powerhouse help reshape the industry in the years ahead, and how can you take advantage of this opportunity?