O TYM ODCINKU
Everyone talks about “finding the deal” in mobile home park investing, but the deal is only a fraction of what determines whether you make money or get crushed. We share the behind-the-scenes realities that show up after you buy: how underwriting gaps turn into expensive surprises, why operations matter more than hype, and what can happen when you take over a park without a strong manager to keep the wheels on.
We dig into the kind of hidden issues that never show up in a broker’s one-pager, like a city removing utility meters and forcing an owner to submeter an entire community. That is real CapEx, real time, and real compliance, including registrations and clear resident addendums for bill-backs. We also compare mobile home parks to RV parks through an operator lens: revenue stickiness, transiency, and why scrutiny around utilities and billing can feel very different depending on the asset type.
Then we get practical about learning underwriting the right way. Instead of chasing a “10 cap,” we walk through the questions that actually protect you: Are the financials accurate? Are property taxes accounted for? Is there a realistic management fee? What CapEx is required just to keep the place running? If you want to buy right and avoid the costs that eat your lunch, this conversation is your checklist starter.
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POKAŻ NOTATKI 🔗
TRANSKRYPCJA 🔗
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So many people think about getting in the park game.
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And here's the thing is getting a good deal is probably like a tenth of the equation.
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Alright?
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And here's why.
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Unless you just hire a badass property management company, you know, that's different.
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But you know, if you're gonna do all this yourself, and if you're buying your first park, you probably are, right?
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Finding a good deal is like that's like the just a start.
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Because here I'm gonna walk you through it.
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You find the good deal, alright?
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And if you just bought it as is, you'd probably fall on your ass if there wasn't a badass on-site manager there to like hold your hand.
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And that's not normally how it goes.
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So, okay, you find the good deal, then you need to know how to underwrite the good deal, all right.
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Then you need to know how to operate and manage it.
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Here's some like hidden things about mobile home parks specifically.
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Like the city took all their meters from one of our parks, so we had to submeter like all of our units, which was a hefty expense.
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And then you can't just use submeters, you have to be registered with the public utility commission or whatever the hell, right?
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You have to be registered to be able to submeter.
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And to be able to submeter, you've got to have like, and I'm not a lawyer or nothing like that.
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I'm just telling you the stuff that you learn.
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You've got to have addendums that are like clear and transparent and say, hey, you know, we're gonna be reading your meter, we're gonna build you back.
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It's different for RV lots.
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Um, you know, they're it's a lot more forgiving because it's just generally electric for RV.
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And man, RV, like there's a give and take.
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Like with mobile home parks, I think like revenues more sticky, in my opinion, um, because it's not as transient.
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And RV parks is maybe not as sticky because you could they just leave in the middle of the night, right?
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It's easier, it's harder to move a mobile home.
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However, I think RV parks uh don't have as much scrutiny when it comes to a lot of uh a lot of things like billing back, you know, electricity.
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Like, as far as I know, like you don't have to be registered to you know build back electricity in an RV park.
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So just crap like that.
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But there's stuff like with property management, you got to do correctly with financing, but you can't just hold a bunch of notes and and not be licensed or use somebody license and use the proper paperwork.
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It's like you know, there's an association also in Texas at least, um, TMHA or whatever, and they have like designated paperwork you could use drafted by attorneys, it'll save your ass.
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You know, but there's these associations with like apartments, mobile homes, whatever.
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But like you learn all this stuff when you get in the game.
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I see so many people not in the game outside the game, still looking for a deal or think they're looking for a deal or just playing busy.
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They don't really know what they're looking at because they don't know how to underwrite, they don't know what they're looking at.
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Once you know how to underwrite what you're looking at, all the things aren't gonna be perfect.
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There's a lot of things you learn as you go, right?
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But yeah, this the things you do need to do is you need to buy right.
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You need to buy right because if you don't buy right, all that other stuff I told you, it's gonna eat your lunch.
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Imagine buying wrong and then having to go through all that stuff that eats all your income, right?
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People don't talk about that stuff like it happens when you buy a part, you have crap that you figure out or you got to change or whatever, right?
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So wanted to hop on here today, give you some insight on behind the curtain, just little intricacies that could really eat your lunch.
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Like, you know, in Texas, you know, if if you're doing a certain amount of transactions or at least selling, you know, if your name's on the paper on the mobile home and you're selling them, you know, a certain amount, you need to have a certain license, like TDHC, like retailer license or whatever, you know.
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Um, then the paperwork, like with mobile homes at least, like there's paperwork that goes in.
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There's ownership, transfers of ownership, you need the permit, moving permit, you need all the stuff, right?
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To do all this.
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So there's a lot that goes into it.
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So, number one, find the good deal.
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All right.
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I'm gonna say it again, because if you buy wrong and you gotta figure out all this other stuff, you don't have help, it costs money and it's gonna eat up all your profit.
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All right, find a good deal, learn how to underwrite.
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If you don't know how to underwrite, get with somebody that does, right?
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Have them teach you.
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I personally wouldn't start making offers until I knew what I was looking at, until I knew how to underwrite.
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Spend a few weeks looking at different parts, underwriting different parts, and then start talking to sellers.
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Like, not just a certain thing, like I want a 10 cap.
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That's not necessarily how you underwrite, right?
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I mean, you do what you want, but and you can't just take NOI divided by 10% and be like, all right, I'm buying it at this.
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Well, are they what do their financials look like?
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Are they are the property taxes on there?
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Is there a management fee on there?
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Is there this?
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Is there that?
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Like, are the financials even right?
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Right?
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Uh, sure, 10 caps.
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Cool, certain amount of units, financials are right.
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You think that as is, it'll do that, and CapEx isn't gonna take it.
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You know, it doesn't need CapEx to stay there, right?
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Stuff like that.
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Anyway, my name's Travis Wells.
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This is the Property Profits Podcast.
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Thank you so much for hopping on.
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Till next time.