Buying Ugly Mobile Home Parks

Ugly mobile home parks can be the best deals you’ll ever find and the fastest way to lose money if you don’t know what you’re walking into. We talk candidly about why distressed assets like tall grass, big vacancy, unpaid bills, and back taxes often signal real opportunity, and why the only way it works is if you can actually fix the problems instead of inheriting them.

We break down how we underwrite mobile home park investments based on the income the property brings in today, not the rent the seller wishes they were collecting. From a park with massive vacancy to the reality of infill, we dig into the questions that protect your downside: Do the water, sewer, and electric hookups actually support new homes, or will you be rebuilding infrastructure pad by pad? What does it cost to replace cast iron sewer lines or locate buried water taps? And when the seller is in distress, how often is the real issue simply that they ran out of capital and couldn’t keep up?

On the operations side, we get specific about what we change on day one: moving rent payments to a digital tenant portal, tightening collections, enforcing leases, and running evictions with clear processes even when you manage remotely. We also share our tenant screening approach for lower-income areas, how we set expectations upfront to protect good residents, and how small standards add up to a cleaner, safer community.

Finally, we talk deal sourcing for off-market mobile home parks: driving parks, talking to managers and residents, skip tracing owners, and using expired listings as a powerful distress signal. If you got value from this, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What’s the biggest red flag you look for when a “deal” seems too cheap?

Transcript

Why Ugly Parks Can Win

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I do not mind buying an ugly mobile home park. And here's why. Like anytime in real estate, whenever there's that distressed asset, it could be any kind of distress. Tall grass, bills aren't being paid, back taxes, um ownership issues, you name it, right? That's where a lot of really good opportunity lies. Even if you're not in parks, even if you're in single family, whatever you're in. However, you need to be able to fix those problems. You can't buy it for a good deal and let the problems keep going, because then you're gonna be um, they're just passing the buck off to you. You're gonna be in the same situation. Alright, so I don't mind buying parks that have these issues, you know, like infill issues, tons of vacant lots, uh, man bad management, no management, you know, um infrastructure issues, you name it, the more stuff like that, the better the deal you can get. All right, because there's pressure on that owner to get rid of that deal. For whatever reason, they weren't able to keep up with it. And if you are able to, it's great to look at. If you're not, you know, you can wholesale it or get a partner that help you. It's usually a capital issue. Alright. Most of the time when I see these parks that have these issues, the park owner ran out of capital, right? They just don't have the partner, the equity relationships or whatever, you know. So, like, I've bought a park that had, I don't know, over 90 vacant spots. Pretty cool. But they were trying to charge for all the spots, like they were, you know, occupied. And there's different ways to look at that, but really I'm only buying stuff based off the income it brings in. That's it. Because if not, like, I know a lot of people could look at this different, but I have to protect my downside, meaning, how can this go wrong? What can go wrong with this project? How do I lose money? Alt Metor taught me that. You know, and you know, like on this one, for example, tons of vacant spots. You know, how do I fill up all of the infrastructure there, right? Meaning, like, can I just tap into

The Real Risk Is Capital

SPEAKER_00 2:29

the water lines, the sewer lines, the electrical, or am I gonna have to add infrastructure? That one with the 90 spots, I had to add infrastructure for every time we put a home in. Takes deep pockets, right? So in that instance, I know that I need a strong capital partner, all right? Is what which is what I did. And when I presented the deal, I'm like, hey, I'm gonna need a lot of money, right, as we go. Like to buy it, obviously, is it cheap? Relative, but you know, to add these things isn't gonna be cheap. We're gonna do it in phases, and I believe I can do it because I've done it multiple times. This is just on a very large scale, right? So that being said, those sellers were in really big distress. They had a property management company, but they didn't do a good job collecting rent. Like they had people drop cashier's checks like through a mail slip, and they lived like four hours away, and then most of the time people weren't paying. It was a big cluster. Right? So, like I cleaned up that operation day one. I use that folio, it's a digital payment service, like big, everybody knows it, credible. If you have a like, I think over 50 units, you're eligible. Right? I don't think it's cheap, but it's

Underwriting Only What Pays Today

SPEAKER_00 3:56

great. So, anyways, day one, I'm like, hey, you have one option to pay, and it's through your tenant portal. Now, in your tenant portal, you have options to pay like at a gas station or with cash somehow. I don't know how they do it. Some slips, or you just you know pay through the portal with bank, credit card, whatever. That's it. You have one option. People bought and screamed, some people left. I'm like, cool, see ya. We don't take cash, we don't take checks, we don't take money orders, I don't do any of that. It's all digital, right? Solve that issue day one, which has a ton of value, right? Because now we're not chasing collections. Then we did a ton of evictions, right? So like they were just tired, right? Tired landlords. Like they tried to evict people, but they live far away, and it's just a whole mess. Which, you know, that that is an issue because you know, can be an issue because we we manage these things virtually too, but a lot of people don't know you can use a handyman to like put the notice on the door. You can do a lot of evictions through Zoom. You can hire a handyman to go sit in the eviction for you, which we do all the time. People think it's crazy, but we just send them with all the paperwork. Beats the hell out of using an expensive ass attorney. I'm not a lawyer, this isn't legal advice. I'm just telling you what I do, what I've done, my experience, and you do what you're gonna do. Um, I just love documenting, you know, this kind of stuff because I think it can help a younger me, right? That wants to get in this, that wants to do well at this, that maybe wants to skip some of the lessons and just learn them here, right? And I don't know everything, but I can tell you what I do know, what I've learned, and my experience. So, you know, they had that that uh collection issue. Next step is they had a utility, they had all the issues, right? And you know, we bought this just over a million bucks, but it's 140 unit part. So I mean, you know, it should be it's that's a lot of upside potential. Very low economic area. Hard to lose, right? When you buy stuff at like a land value. Which I'm I'm cool with. Um but you need a strong value add operator, you need an equity part strong equity partner, all that. Luckily, like I have a pro I do the management, property management company, I do the value add, I do all of it except the capital part. So that's where my my uh that's why it was good for them. You know, they're like, damn, this could be really good. But anyway, these people had utility issues, right? Like uh the sewer lines are cast iron, and if you've ever ran into that, it's expensive to to change those out. You know, we're doing it pad by pad, which is okay. I've got people that can do it now. Uh you know, water taps aren't on surface, so they all gotta be located and found. You know, just crazy ass stuff. Um what else did they have? They had utility issues, they had collection issues, they had vacancy issues. So also another thing is like people that they were putting in the park had these old ass trailers and they're just putting whoever in there. And the reason they had collection issues also is they I don't believe they were screening. And the way we'll screen these tenants is they must make three times rent per month. I don't really care what their credit is. I know a lot of people do, I don't care. Lower economic families, like they might have ran through some hard times. That's why I'm here. All right, make three times rent per month and never been evicted. If you ever been evicted, you ain't renting for me. You're not buying anything from me, you're not doing that.

Day One Fixes For Collections

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Doesn't mean anything. Like, you could have changed that, whatever, but I'm just not doing it because history tends to repeat itself. People do change, people do get in better situations. I don't want to find out. So I don't allow evictions. And I didn't used to have this step, but now I'm like, hey, let me talk to the people. You know, and and I'll call and just see how they are real quick. Seems to, I just, you know, you get that vibe about people. Not that I can make decisions based off of purely that or anything like that. I just I like to talk to them, make sure we're on the same page. I also like to set the boundaries in the crowd. Like, hey, I know they sent you, they're gonna send you a lease, it's gonna say all this stuff, but up front, like you've got a five-day grace period. We charge, you know, a late fee. Whenever you you miss that, then you charge get charged every single day. And we do post notices, we do evict, we do run a clean place, right? We want good people, good communities. Uh, everybody helps everybody do your part, pay your bills, keep your place clean, right? We all have a great community to live in. I think all these things like just really add up, and I think they're overlooked. But when you're looking for a distressed property, that being said, oh, and these people are behind on property taxes. All of them, right? They're behind on property taxes, which was okay because they ended up having to pay them when we closed on the park, right? They got their money and closed on the park and whatever. So when you're looking for like parks, you know, I like looking for that stuff. All right, like, and you can ask them, are they behind on taxes? Like, um, or you can see, like, you could just see, is there tons of vacancies? You know, is it just trashed? You know, you could talk to the park manager, how do you like this place? Talk to people there, how do you like this place? What's good and bad? Find out all this stuff, ask the sellers, you know, because like most of the good deals you get, they're gonna be off-market, so you're not gonna have like this um OM or offering, you know, flyer saying all the stuff about it. If you do, you're gonna be competing with everybody, you're probably not getting a deal. To say that you can get a deal off-market, but it's really tough for just obvious reasons. So you're gonna be looking off market. So go drive some parks, right? And pull up a list on like Google Maps and go drive these parks and

Virtual Evictions And Lean Operations

SPEAKER_00 10:20

be like, damn, like this one's got some vacancy. I wonder what's going on. Talk to the park manager, y'all having trouble filling this up, you know? Why? Yeah, oh, the they don't put any money in anything and all that. What does that mean? You know, think about that. What does that mean? It's like, cool. Do you think they'd never sell this thing? Which is not the best thing to ask a park manager because they don't want to lose their job, but you can ask. A lot of times they'd be like, probably not. But some of them, like, yeah, whatever, you know, but skip trace the owners, you know. Hey, uh, sorry park, freaking love it. Like, tell them the things you like about it. I like that you had half the thing filled up. I see a lot of potential looking for my next project. You know, what what's up? Are you looking to sell? And if they are, it's like, I noticed there were some vacant spots, you know, like why uh why is there so much vacancy if you had some trouble? Just let them talk, you know, and then um are you still putting money into this thing? You're kind of just collecting, you know, as is, then let them talk. You know, most likely they're just collecting as is, and it's like, oh yeah, these things are expensive. Are you a lot of capital? Or how's that look? They'll be like, yeah, and we're actually behind on this because of this. Just let them, you know, ask the questions and let them spill the beans. So I um I like looking for expired mobile home parks a lot, you know, and and mobile home park store is a good spot spot for that. But the trick is when you like Google it, and you have to Google like expired mobile home parks, your county, and then mobile home park store after that. You can find it through there, but it's kind of hard. And it might pull up expired mobile home parks from years ago, too, but that's that's okay because at some point they raised their hand and they wanted to sell their park. So that that's uh distress right there. If it's if it's expired, that's one of the distress points. They tried to sell and they couldn't. Why couldn't they sell? Yeah, nine times out of ten, they wanted too much money. Right? But after something expires and people test the market, things change. Alright, so I hope this helped Joe. And if it did, please refer a friend. It's the Property Profits Podcast. You follow me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. I've got my YouTube, uh, we're constantly posting on now. So give that some love too. Um, it's you know, you're getting a lot of this content, it's all free. Uh if it helps you, great. I love it. Leave a comment, let me know it helps you. Leave questions below. If you really need to get a hold of me, uh Facebook on on uh you

Utilities And Infrastructure Landmines

SPEAKER_00 12:53

can DM me on Facebook, I answer those. I also have a park mentorship starting in the next uh I think in five weeks, and it's a you know, it's uh to get your first park. If you want your you know to buy your first park, you're ready to do it already, and you've been kind of just consuming and and don't really know what actions to take, or maybe you have been taking actions, but they're not leading to anything fruitful. Um you can apply to do this thing. You know, it's it's not cheap, relative. I always say relative, but I think it's super cheap. You know, for for me to teach you to have your first park and make a ton of money and build build wealth for your you and your family. You know, I think it's a super cheap price, but the price tag, you know, hits some people, but it is what it is. Anyways, thank you again and until the next one. See you then.