The Mobile Home Park Broker's Tips & Tricks To Investing Maxwell Baker

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed broker superstar Eric Wanck regarding a couple of his recent and very successful deals.
Here Are the Show Highlights:
-        Eric recently closed on Cozy Homes Mobile Home Park and Dogwood Estates MHP. (Max, 0:22)
-        Cozy Homes was an off-market deal on a park that Eric sold to the current sellers in 2020. They reached out to him again this year when they wished to sell. (Eric, 1:11)
-        It was a nice park, with 75 pads, city water and sewer, and paved roads. It easily met appraisal and sold in about 90 days, from initial contact to the sale date. However, the owners had managed the park from afar, installing local day-to-day management. This proved to be problematic. (Eric, 1:53)
-        The local manager did a poor job of maintaining the park, some residents left, the park lost value, and the owner had to refinance, with a balloon payment due in twelve months. That’s why they decided to sell. The lesson is that passive owners still have to check in regularly and know what’s going on with their property before it loses value. (Eric, 2:35)
-        As a result of the local management’s shortcomings, monthly park revenue had dropped from about $23,000 when Eric first sold it three years ago, to about $14,000 or $15,000 by the time it sold again. (Eric, 3:45)
-        The sellers had bought the park three years ago for $2.2 million and had to sell it for a lot less than that due to its deteriorating condition. (Eric, 4:06)
-        Despite the drop in value of the park, Eric did an excellent job on the sale and the sellers still got a premium price. (Max, 4:23)
-        Eric’s second recent success was with Dogwood Estates near Martinsville, Virginia. It was a smaller park than Cozy Homes, and also had city water and sewer, and paved roads. But its location wasn’t ideal…right next to a McDonald’s restaurant. (Eric, 6:24)
-        The lesson to be learned here is that sellers sometimes need to practice patience if the property has some challenges. It might take time, but there’s a buyer for every deal. This park had good books and records, and it easily passed the buyer’s due diligence. (Eric, 7:09)
-        The new owners ended up with a park with a ten-CAP on day one, and lots that were under market rate by about $50. Infilling opportunities also existed. (Eric, 8:01)
-        There’s a lot of opportunity out there, a big market for mobile home parks even with the high interest rates. So stay patient if you’re a seller, and The MHP Broker can help you find a buyer regardless of what challenges or obstacles your park might face. So caall us. (Eric, 9:58)
-        Some of the large banks and other lenders aren’t even interested in deals under $2.5 million or even $5 million. That’s why Max’s company has established connections with credit unions that are enthusiastic about lending for smaller deals and at more favorable interest rates than the major lenders are willing to give--if they’ll accept a deal at all. (Max, 11:07)
Regardless of the challenges and obstacles your park might face, we believe there’s a buyer for every park. Just contact Max Baker or Eric Wanck at The Mobile Home Park Broker, (678) 932-0200.
Power Quotes in This Episode:
“Don’t ever think that parks are a hands-off, passive business, because they’re not.”(Eric, 2:35)
“(The closing price) wasn't close to where we sold it in the beginning. But…we still got a pretty solid price for this deal.” (Eric, 4:23)
“So if y’all have some parks out there that are mismanaged, give us a call.” (Max, 5:33)
“That's (678) 932-0200 or email us at info@themhpbroker.com. Ask for Eric if you're going to call. He is the man with the plan and his pipe

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed lawyer Fern Niemann about his legal focus on representing mobile home park owners.
Just like with every Tips and Tricks Closing Cocktails podcast episode, this one’s brought to you by The MHP Broker’s’  proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Call up Max for details.
Here Are the Show Highlights:
-        Lawyer Ferd Niemann runs the website TheMHPLawyer.com, and specializes in representing the legal interests of mobile home park community owners across the country. Up to about 80 percent of the firm’s business is within this industry. (Max, 0:22)
-        Ferd began his professional career as a commercial real estate tax analyst for Jackson County in Kansas. He flipped and bought and kept homes for rental on the side. He couldn’t scale up quickly, so decided to get into apartment investing, but found it to be a competitive market out of his financial range. Instead, he started buying and selling mobile homes, which were much less expensive. He did this while attending law school at the University of Kansas. His intention was to get into tax law and real estate investment law. (Ferd, 2:07)
-        Around 2018, Ferd got out of law practice and focused exclusively on building his mobile home business. He’s bought and sold parks, and currently owns 19 communities, mostly in the Midwest. Ferd has also gotten back into his law practice, with a mobile home specialty, and hosts a podcast covering the topic. (Ferd, 3:51)
-        Ferd’s firm does a lot of business fighting zoning laws established by localities that seek to shut down mobile home parks with home age restrictions, park size restrictions, infill timelines, utility restrictions and other penalties. The majority of his clients have parks that are “legally non-conforming.” That means that they were legal when established, and they’ve been grandfathered in to protect against current regulations, but might fall short of current legal requirements when they change hands. Many cities use the zoning charge of abandonment to shut down mobile home park activity. The idea is that if a lot sits empty for a designated period of time, which might be as little as a month or two, it’s considered abandoned, and the park owners loses the right to rent it. (Ferd, 6:09)
-        Age restrictions seem especially illogical to Ferd. He’s got a 2022 mobile home that’s falling apart and a classic 1957 model that’s in beautiful condition. The point is, a home’s age isn’t necessarily a valid indicator of the condition it’s in, and age restrictions are arbitrary and unfair. (Ferd, 7:52)
-        There are several violations that can get a mobile home park shut down, including fire code  violations, public health safety, welfare, and morals. But abandonment provisions are the most commonly enforced by hostile cities. (Ferd, 8:38)
-        Ferd’s firm uses zoning letters to nail down what the park can and can’t do in a locale. He attempts to get the cities to sign off on the zoning letter to protect the client in future zoning battles. The city will sign off on the letter maybe 25 or 30 percent of the time. (Ferd, 10:37)
-        About a third of the time, the city will agree to sign the zoning letter once revisions are added and changes made. Ferd’s firm haggles for the best case possible with revisions. (Ferd, 11:10)
-        This works more effectively in smaller cities. The bigger cities have much larger law departments and are less likely to simply sign off on a zoning letter. (Ferd, 11:38)
-        The challenges vary by state and region, too. As examples, Tennessee and Iowa are

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed PA Manufactured Housing Association President Mary Gaiski about key issues for park owners and investors in her state.
This and every Tips and Tricks podcast episode is brought to you by The MHP Broker’s’  proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Ask Max for details.
Here Are the Show Highlights:
-        Mary has been a member of the PA Manufactured Home Association since 1986. The association will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. (Mary, 1:20)
-        Mary has been in the industry since 1978, As a state, Pennsylvania is quite active in manufactured home manufacturing, with 11 factories exporting homes to several nearby states, especially in the north. (Mary, 1:35)
-        PA also has 30 to 40 retailers selling homes to residents, and over 2,200 mobile home communities, including the very smallest. (Mary, 2:20)
-        That includes a number of parks below what Max thinks of as investment grade for buyers’ purposes. The MHP Broker data report finds about 1,000 parks in the state that are mid-size to larger. (Max, 3:42)
-        Waves of investors have already bought many of the larger parks in the state, and now they’re starting to buy the mom and pop-size parks too. A single investor might typically buy several parks within a geographic region to achieve dominance. (Mary, 4:34)
-        Many of these smaller parks have fallen below market rents over the years, so the new owners immediately raise rents, which gets them in conflict with the state over issues such as rent control and right of first refusal, whereby tenants have the right to buy their communities before sales to outside investors. (Mary, 5:30)
-        Max has seen similar legislation enacted in Virginia, in that tenants have 90 days or so after a proposed sale to determine if they want to buy their communities. (Max,6:06)
-        In Pennsylvania, legislators want to give residents as long as 365 days to decide first refusal, which would be crippling for park buyers and sellers. (Mary, 7:16)
-        Most regulations in the state are at the state or the local levels. (Mary, 12:41)
-        The state is basically divided into three geographic areas in terms of regulatory environment. The southeast park is the most progressive, and therefore most aggressively regulate. Central PA has some local communities that are aggressive in terms of regulations, and some others that aren’t. The western part o the state is the least regulated, and park owners there are hoping things stay that way. (Mary, 14:44)
-        Like elsewhere in the U.S., PA suffers from the aging of the mobile home moving industry. As movers retire, fewer take their place. Home installers, service and repair people are also in short supply in PA. (Mary, 16:14)
-        Less than ten percent of mobile homes are moved from one park to another in the state. (Mary, 17:17)
-        Mary Gaiski of the PA Manufactured Home Association can be reached at (717) 774-3440 or Mary@PMHA.org. (Mary, 19:35)
Want to know more about the ordinances and regulations that affect mobile home park ownership in your state or locale? Just reach out to Max Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, (678) 932-0200.
Power Quotes in This Episode:
“About 70 percent of the homes built in the Commonwealth are shipped out (of the state)(Mary, 2:20)
“The mom and pops weren't very big on keeping rents at market rate or worrying about all of that. So, these communities are being sold with rents well below market rate and because of that, it has left us right for having to address issues such as rent c

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed Marc Henn about tax decisions that can positively influence mobile home park and RV community owners.  
This and every Tips and Tricks podcast episode is brought to you by The MHP Broker’s’ proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Ask Max for details.   
Here Are the Show Highlights: 
Max met Marc Henn of Harvest Advisors of Cincinnati in a Strategic Coach program last June. They discussed tax strategies that would be ideal for investors who sell their parks and want to save as much of their money as possible from taxation, or use their land for additional revenue growth. Marc introduced the topic of the five super asset classes and Max thought Marc would make an excellent podcast guest. (Max, 0:22)  Marc has been in the investment field for over 30 years. In that time, he helped his clients get into the super asset class or classes that were most appropriate for each. For those with wealth to invest in the range of about a half million to $2 million, many choose investments in the paper asset class, consisting mostly of stocks and bonds. (Marc, 1:50)   Marc found a particularly under served client group to be those in the asset range of about $4 million to $15 million. In addition to paper assets, the five asset super classes include real estate, personally owned businesses, oil and gas, and investments in other commodities. (Marc, 3:12)    Max invited Marc to be a podcast guest because of his experience with oil and gas investment tactics and strategies and tax benefits that might be of value to his audience. (Max, 4:36)  One effective way of investing in oil and gas is to get involved in a direct drilling program, which can provide a significant tax write-off in year one. Keep in mind, like a lot of investments it’s not risk-free. (Marc, 712)  Take as an example a client making a million dollars a year. His last $100,000 will be federally taxed at a 37 percent rate, so they’ll lose $37,000 in taxation on that income. But invest that money in an oil and gas drilling program and they’ll pay about $3,700 in taxes on that $100,000, for about a 90 percent tax write-off. That’s just a starting point. (Marc, 8:04)  You’re also given a depletion allowance on income earned, because the IRS knows that the well revenue will deplete over time. So instead of being taxed on 100 percent of income earned, you might only be taxed on 85 percent. However, some wells have a much longer life. Mark has a well in his family that’s produced for 110 years, though that’s not typical. (Marc, 9:07)  As an advisor, Marc and his company don’t promise any sort of investment return on oil and gas, but finds that it’s not unrealistic to get a complete return on investment in a well-chosen drilling program in a year and a half to two years. (Marc, 10:36)  One big determining factor is the price of a barrel of oil, which can fluctuate greatly. If it gets down to $30 or lower, the investment could be at risk as a revenue producer, but the tax benefit is still there. (Marc, 11:46) You need to watch out for companies that might have just recently gone into the drilling business in reaction to rising oil prices, but lack experience, insurance and adequate capital for such essentials as drilling platforms and rigs. Instead, invest in experienced producers with good track records and connections to the large drilling companies such as Anadarko and Occidental. Marc and his people can help vet their clients’ partners in oil and gas investments. (Marc,  13:40)  For many clients, Harvest Advisors offers diverse investments in multiple super asset classes. So your money might flow from paper asset class investments to oil and gas t

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed Mark Brisebois, the founder and managing partner of EZ Evict USA.    

This and every Tips and Tricks podcast episode is brought to you by The MHP Broker’s’  proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Ask Max for details.   

Here Are the Show Highlights: 

Mark Brisebois recently started EZ Evict USA, a company serving mobile home park owners as well as the owners of single- and multi-family homes with non-paying tenants. (Max, 1:05) 


Mark has worked in the real estate industry for almost 40 years. His responsibilities have taken him into such related fields as title and mortgage servicing, loan origination, training and wholesaling. From there, he started working with mobile home park owners, improving their valuation before sale. From this he learned about the high cost of evicting tenants, which can be as much as $8,000 in some cases, and the negative impact a high eviction and non-payment rate had on parks. He was not particularly impressed with the actions of local professionals he saw in the eviction line of work. (Mark, 1:44) 
Mark was seeing evictions taking 60 to 90 days, and wondered why it couldn’t be done sooner. He realized that the tenant who wasn’t paying rent was a non-performing asset, so the eviction needed to happen as soon as legally possible. (Mark, 4:04) 
He also noticed that there was not a national eviction service. All existing services were local, and of varying quality. Another shortcoming was that the client was rarely able to see the process in real time to know how it was going. In frustration, he decided to start his own service, which he launched in March of this year. (Mark, 4:55) 
His company, EZ Evict USA, works with attorneys across the country and is currently active in 25 states. (Mark, 6:14) 
Max said that Mark’s earlier comment about some evictions costing $8,000 were situations where the resident was renting and not paying for the pad, but had their own mobile homes. It was when the entire home had to be moved out of the park in a legal manner that generated that high eviction cost. (Max, 6:32) 


The EZ Evict UA process starts by providing the client with an app through which all of the client’s documents and information on the eviction can be submitted, and the company can provide an agreement that outlines all that EZ Evict will do. It also provides the client with information on how they should proceed (or not proceed) to stay within the law in their state and to not jeopardize the case. (Mark, 7:19) 
The agreement allows the company to be the legal intermediary between the client and the lawyer used for the eviction. That means the client doesn’t have to deal with the lawyer, but can monitor every step taken via the app including the activities of the process server and all court dates. (Mark, 8:04) 
Max pointed out that there are several forms of eviction related to mobile home parks, including lot rent evictions, park-owned home evictions, lease option evictions and foreclosures. (Max, 9:24) 
Mark said that most of the types boil down to non-payment, and can all be handled more or less the same way. (Except lease option non-renewal, which is not a non-payment issue). He emphasized the importance of park owners reading their leases and following the process carefully to stay in compliance with their state laws. (Mark, 10:03) 
 Before working in a state, Mark learns whether it’s what he calls a “tenant-friendly” or a “landlord-friendly” state. He’s not actively pursuing business in tenant-friendly states where it can sometimes take as long as six months to evict a non-paying resident and require

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed Kevin Caiacci, a closing attorney who represents multi-family and mobile home park investors and sponsors.     

This and every Tips and Tricks podcast episode is brought to you by The MHP Broker’s’  proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Use this four-step system to get the highest price possible for your mobile home park or RV community when you sell it through The MHP Broker. Guaranteed. Ask Max for details.   

Here Are the Show Highlights: 

Kevin Caiaccio is a closing attorney who works with Robinson Franzman in Atlanta and represents investors and sponsors in the multi-family, and specifically mobile home park sector of commercial real estate. (Max, 1:21) 


Kevin graduated from the law school at the University of Georgia in 1995 and has specialized in commercial real estate transactions for most of 28 years. (Kevin, 1:48) 
His primary focus has been on multifamily housing transactions, and a subset of that--mobile home park transactions all over the country. His focus is on trying to make sure deals happen, rather than stifling deals. (Kevin, 2:30) 
Kevin cautions investors and sponsors to remember that, in the vast majority of deals, they’re using other people’s money as part of the capital stack, so they have to stay in compliance with the various loan covenants and obligations. (Kevin, 4:46)  
For instance, if it’s a Fannie Mae loan, there might be limits to the number of park-owned homes you can have in the deal. Other lenders might mandate tenant protections. You must be aware of all such regulations and restrictions regarding the lender portion of the capital stack. (Kevin, 5:31)   
When you take investment money from other parties, whether it’s a corporate syndicate or family and friends, you have a fiduciary duty to act diligently and invest that money prudently. (Kevin, 6:08) 


Sponsors should also remember that no one wins every deal. Some go bust, and when they do you end up with unhappy investors. There’s always a threat that they’ll sue you as the failed sponsor, so it’s imperative that you’ve acted prudently every step of the way. (Kevin, 6:40) 
Kevin writes operating agreements for investment partners that clearly spell out the rights and disclose the risks to all parties. (Kevin, 7:25) 
There’s no guarantee that you won’t be sued for a deal that goes south, but a well-written operating agreement can help reduce the risk. (Kevin, 7:59) 
Kevin sees more uncertainty in the market today than has been there in many years. The value of real estate has steadily climbed since coming out of the Great Recession in 2010. Even the pandemic didn’t create much of a shock to the system. (Kevin, 9:48) 
But today, a couple factors have created a heightened sense of uncertainty. Steadily rising interest rates and questions as to when they’ll come down and how this will impact rent growth have shaken the market despite very low unemployment figures. (Kevin, 10:33) 


Another negative point is the insurance situation, especially in Florida. Increased hurricane activity of late has disrupted insurance markets. Despite all of this, and the confusion in the capital markets, business is still going strong and transactions are still getting done. Kevin’s clients are bullish on the markets, at least in the mid-term. (Kevin, 11:29) 
As a broker, Max has seen lost titles to park-owned homes as a common challenge for sellers. (Max, 12:32) 
Some park owners don’t keep great records, and sometimes the titles to older homes or those bought through affiliates can get misplaced and need to be retitled. Sponsors need to be aware of this problem upfront and address title access as soon into the transaction as possible. (Kevin, 13:15) 
Do this before going to close because