Hello Steemit! Stephanie McAnuff here, director of The McAnuff Group of IDI Properties coming at you from gorgeous Charlotte, North Carolina with my first ever Steemit post and I'm so happy to be a member of this fantastic next gen social media platform bringing the best content to you on mobile home park investing and ownership. That's right, mobile home parks are owned by individuals and companies, for those that don't know, and they are great commercial real estate investments.
Now, we know that most of you here on Steemit are cryptocurrency investors and a couple members of our team are as well! But while you are analyzing and scoring on the latest blockchain tech and investing in the best alt coins, as you take your profits over time you'll need to diversify and fork some of it over into other types of investments for the longer term, such as real estate. Many of you may know about flipping houses and we can tell you that flipping a house is a huge headache, and a big gamble. We are here to educate you about what we think is the best type to own, which is a combination of commercial and residential real estate: mobile home parks.
Now, I know that for those who are not familiar with mobile home parks and mobile home park investing you might have certain stereotype thoughts about mobile home parks, and as experts in this industry we know that some of those stereotypes are well earned. But, what you may not know is that those stereotypes are quickly changing and are definitely NOT the norm! Unfortunately, shows like Trailer Park Boys capitalizes on the worst aspects of this type of community which we think is a shame. To call people who live in mobile home parks "trailer trash" is, in our opinion, highly offensive to the wonderful people who raise their families in these communities. Let's go into how mobile home parks started and got to where they are today...
You see, mobile home parks as a type of community were started by individuals, not by companies, not by investors, decades ago, as far back as the 1920's. They were started by landowners who saw a need for people to be able to rent ground space for their affordable, mobile, and often then homemade, homes. The first mobile homes were most similar to today's tiny homes, and even built in the beds of pickup trucks. They saw such a boom in interest in the 1940's and 1950's as a lifestyle that mobile homes as a manufactured type of product by businesses were quite nice, and were even featured in Hollywood movies with A-list actors and actresses of the day like Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
Back in the 50's heyday of mobile home park living, this was the type of stunning classic beauty seen surrounded by tiny manicured lawns and white picket fences:
Mobile home parks were started based on a need for housing that was more affordable and able to move. It was a revolution at the time and going into the 1950's mobile home parks were quite nice! Some had Olympic sized swimming pools and golf courses. Most people treated a mobile home like a true starter home on the road to bigger and better things and lived quite nicely on their way up. And, some stayed for life.
So how did mobile home parks get run down over the years? Simple: remember those individual land owners who leased out little portions for people to park their mobile homes on? Well, they weren't quite prepared in a business sense for the big boom. The more mobile homes came, the more infrastructure they needed, like sewage, water, electricity, and roads. Now, you're getting into business, big business, land and property development level business and these "mom and pop" owners tried to keep us as best they could, but many could not. The demand in many instances outpaced the resources and knowledge to keep up. The unfortunate result of many has been overwhelmed, absentee land owners. But, that's all changing now and mobile home parks are not going away and they can't go away because they are a very important form of affordable housing for millions of Americans. In fact, the Southeast US is the King of manufactured housing.
There are at least 50,000 mobile home parks in the nation today, if not more. We don't actually know how many there are because it wasn't until recent decades that mobile home parks were even seen as a actual class of their own by zoning and local municipalities despite their obvious presence. In fact, even some major commercial real estate brokerage houses are just now getting their feet wet with them. We're talking about a real estate asset class that has been around nearly 100 years and is just now getting actual big business recognition. That's astounding. It's also an astounding opportunity to become an investor or owner. REITS have already started for solely owning the best mobile home parks.
Today, the way the average person views a mobile home park is the old paradigm formed by what happened when original mom and pop land owners couldn't keep up with the demand required for maintaining multifamily commercial real estate, but that's all changing now. Today, savvy investors who understand property ownership and management are swooping in and relieving the old mom and pop owners of their burdens and vastly improving mobile home parks. What you may hear about in the news about new mobile home park ownership is called growing pains. These growing pains are what happens when old ways of working, despite being bad for people and quality of life, are being changed for the better. When rents must be raised a little to clean up the community, because rents haven't been raised in decades. When new septic tanks are being put in and more efficient utilities. And, even playgrounds installed to create a better life for the children who grow up in mobile home parks. These old parks need new owners. The residents need better owners to help them attain a better community for their families and quality of life. And, on top of it all, it's a great real estate asset to own. You can even get seller financing, which means the seller is the bank and you pay them from the profits of the incoming rents while you enjoy ownership.
When it comes to mobile home parks, that's where we, The McAnuff Group, come in. We are the experts of the Southeast US mobile home park market and we've been publishing about mobile home park ownership and investing for years with Mobile Quarterly and our McAnuff MHP Weekly. What could we possibly publish about regarding mobile home parks, one might ask? You'd be surprised how much information we have to share! Here is a sampling of some of the topics we go into:
- How to sub-meter water to your tenants
- The ins and outs of wastewater lagoons
- Permitting tiny homes at mobile home parks
- How to calculate important real estate math step-by-step so anyone can understand
- Current legislation affecting mobile home parks
- Mobile home park curb appeal on a budget
- Interviews with the top portfolio owners in the United States, and much more!
The mobile home park industry is BOOMING right now and is in a revolution. What started out as a mom-and-pop with some vacant land enterprise decades ago is now going through a total transformation. Just look at some of the new manufactured homes coming on the market:
And, communities are vastly improving as well, with 100% of the credit going to new, fresh, excited and caring owners, like this one:
If you are interested in mobile home park/manufactured housing community investing including listings, strategy, original content, research, and news, then please follow me here on Steemit. My company, The McAnuff Group, has three main service areas: mobile home park seller representation (licensed broker), mobile home park property management, and mobile home park acquisition deal advisory. We also love to educate, which is what we will be focusing on the most here at Steemit.
Mobile home parks, also known as manufactured housing communities, are in a very unique position in the housing market in that there is massive demand from both investors and residents and limited supply. Unlike other multi-family, MHPs are not being built on every corner. And, due to a recent upsurge in seminar education on investing in MHPs the market is getting flooded. This means it is ever more critical to know if a deal is a good deal or not, and that takes expertise to sniff out the nuances. We are experts.
My information is for owners, investors, and ANYONE interested in mobile home parks as an investment asset to bring in steady, appreciating, and long-term real estate income. We look forward to bringing mobile home park education and expertise to the Steemit community, as well as investment opportunities to check out. You will find only relevant content on this topic here and no junk.
I hope you'll check out our website at www.mcanuffgroup.com and get LinkedIn with me as well where I share daily industry news.
Cheers to 2018 and to great content!