You’d never find it in a mainstream media outlet today, but there is still fair and balanced journalism to be found in places like Hazleton, Iowa, which recently published this story on the turn-around of a mobile home park. Here’s a quote from the story:

When you are looking for a self-storage facility manager, you often surmise that the best course of action is simply to steal the manager from the competitor down the street. It seems like a smart plan – you already can see what you get based on that property’s performance, right? The truth is that hiring the manager from down the street is not always the best plan.

One of my favorite billboard case studies was the sign I purchased and brought back to life on Highway 75 near Plano, Texas. It’s a perfect example of what smart billboard deals look like and there are similar opportunities like this still available across America if you seek them out.

While most mobile home park owners take comfort in letting someone else do the honors, there’s nothing wrong with being the market leader in lot rents. However, there is a process to taking that role and it comes with responsibilities and strategic thought. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the role of being market leader and how to do a good job of it.

One of the most exciting tools in the RV park industry is the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan option. Under this program, the RV park buyer can get an SBA loan with as little as a 10% down payment, a low-interest rate, and a fully amortizing 25-year term.

Recessions are unpredictable, right? Not if you simply follow the science of past downturns. That’s the focus of this Lecture Series Event. It’s titled “The Recession Playbook,” and it’s a candid discussion of the math and science behind recessions and how past performance data can be overlayed onto the current situation for an educated guess on what will unfold. And the focus, of course, will be on what these predictions mean for the mobile home park industry.

Most apartment tenants dream of lower rent payments and detest increases. The same is true of those who live in mobile homes. One big difference; apartment dwellers can more easily move while mobile home buyers own their home. That makes comparison difficult, so what determines “fair” park rent?

Some billboards are on wooden poles and some are on steel. But some have no poles at all. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to discuss mounting billboards to buildings or other structures as an alternative to using wooden or steel poles for support.

Typically the RV park seller asks more than the property is worth. That’s the American tradition of negotiation. But what do you do when the price is just fine – or even lower than it should be? That’s the focus of this RV Park Mastery podcast in which we’ll review the negotiation playbook when there’s nothing to negotiate.

Many self-storage brokers are going to want you to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before they will give you the information on some properties. But is that a good idea? In this Self-Storage University podcast we’re going to discuss what NDAs are and offer some tips to consider when you have to sign them.

With apartments having reached a cyclical high and mobile home parks still running with plenty of value-building opportunity, many apartment owners are looking at buying mobile home parks. If you fit that profile, then the key initial question is “what are the big differences between the two?” In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the differences between these two housing investment options.

Stanley Marcus – the founder of Neiman Marcus – once said “take your markdowns on people and merchandise as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, many mobile home park owners refuse to follow this advice and end up holding on to unsuccessful managers for months or years longer than they should. So why do they do this and how do you correct this behavior? That’s the focus of this episode of the Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast.

One of the strange media fixations on the mobile home park industry is that “mobile” homes are anything but mobile. Between the high cost to move a home ($5,000+) and the dangers involved (the home can fall to pieces in transport) it makes about as much sense to move a mobile home as it does a stick-built one. Yet the media frequently fakes moral outrage that these dwelling units can’t just be hitched to the back of your minivan and hauled down the highway like a U-haul trailer. Let’s analyze why this argument is so absurd.

The late Tony Hsieh (founder of Zappos and near-billionaire) had an affection for mobile home parks. One that was so strong he chose to leave his Las Vegas penthouse and become a resident of his trailer park creation called Airstream Village. Tony’s assistant gave us a tour of that property while he was still alive, and what was fascinating was how much effort Tony was putting into trying to perfect the “sense of community” and common areas. His vision was that he wanted all the residents to spend all their time together in a communal area and only go back to their trailers to sleep. The mobile home park was populated with a mixture of tiny homes and Airstreams and even included a communal pet llama.

The U.S. demand for affordable housing is huge, but you can’t rent or sell a mobile home unless it’s been renovated. Home readiness is, in fact, the number one problem for most park owners that have vacant units. But it’s perpetually harder to find those who will work on mobile homes as they seek better paying alternatives. In this Mobile Home Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review some fresh ideas that we’re implementing to find home renovation workers in a tough U.S. workplace.

Not all RV park brokers are good at their job. But sometimes a “bad” broker is actually great for an RV park buyer. In this RV Park Mastery podcast we’re going to review the many reasons why bad brokers may be worth the best thing in your effort to find a good deal to buy.

In an environment where many of the best self-storage deals are in American suburbs and exurbs it’s critical that you choose locations in the “path of progress” so that your occupancy and rents are always growing with the expanding population in these neighborhoods. But how can you predict the future of a self-storage location? In this Self-Storage University podcast we’re going to review the many tools available to gauge the future growth of a location.

Sam Walton had some definite fundamental principles on making money, and some of those apply to the billboard business. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to discuss how some of Walton’s thoughts on building Walmart are true for building your billboard portfolio, too.