Which Type Are They?
For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to divide problem tenants into two groups: 1) behavioral and 2) verbal. “Behavioral” problem tenants take actions that jeopardize the welfare and aesthetics of the community. “Verbal” problem tenants do their damage by harassment of the park management.
Both types are not conducive to a well-managed, profitable park, and must be immediately disarmed and/or removed from the property. However, in many cases, the proper steps can cure their issues and make them a normal, paying tenant again.
“Behavioral” Problems
The first type of behavioral problem is the tenant who engages in criminal activity. The most common of these is manufacturing/dealing in drugs. Signs of this type of behavior include a constant stream of cars dropping by the house – normally at night – for very short intervals, as well as people milling around in the street at night, in the vicinity of the mobile home.
The important step here is to do nothing yourself, but to only take action through the local police department. You should never get directly involved with this type of tenant, due to risks of physical harm to you and potential liability. Call the police department and tell them what you have been observing. If there really is something to what you suspect, the police will take care of it.
But if the police fail to take action, then your next step is to non-renew the tenant’s lease. Assuming that the tenant is on a month-to-month agreement, you can simply not renew, and they have to move out at the end of the next full month. Even then, it is smart to have a local attorney file this notice and to handle any subsequent legal action to evict them.
The Tenant Who Won’t Keep Their Property Up
Equally disruptive – but not as scary – is the tenant who refuses to keep their property in an acceptable condition. Debris everywhere in the yard, a house with a paint job that you can hardly tell what the original color was, or grass that is 3’ tall. It is impossible to ask the rest of the park community to keep up their property when you allow this individual to get away with murder. So what do you do?
The first step is to notify the tenant in writing that they are not in keeping with the park rules. This assumes that your park has rules; if not, you need to adopt some immediately. It is essential to keep everything in writing so that you have a legal paper trail in case you should have to go to court for any reason.
Give the tenant a detailed request of what needs to be done to be in compliance with park rules, as well as a timetable to complete the work. Of course, they will rarely meet this deadline, but it’s the critical first step to show the court that you are trying to be reasonable.
Once the deadline has passed – and the clean-up has not been completed (or probably even started) – then you have two choices: 1) non-renew the tenant’s lease or 2) take matters into your own hands. To take matters into your own hands, I’m suggesting that you clean up their yard, mow the grass, or re-paint their house at your own expense. You can then either bill the cost back to the tenant, or just write it off. How do you choose what to do? The key is the tenant. If your tenant is old and infirmed, then they simply do not have the ability or funds to make the needed repairs. If they have paid their rent like clockwork for the past several years, why cut off that income stream by evicting a good-paying tenant? If, however, the tenant is young and able to do the work themselves – but too lazy to do it – then you might want to bill it back to the tenant to send a clear message that breaking of the rules is not tolerated. You might break the charges up into several monthly installments to make it more affordable. But you cannot let people continue to ruin the park for everyone.
The Verbal Problem Tenant
These are the tenants who complain continuously about anything and everything. They don’t necessarily disturb the other tenants – their aggression is focused on the park management. I have had these type of tenants who will call at 11 PM and then again at 6 AM; they have virtually no boundaries.
These are much easier to dispatch than the behavioral problem tenants. You simply have to turn the tables on them. Here’s how.
When the tenant calls to complain, tell them “you are clearly unhappy living here, you really should move to a mobile home park where you would be happier.” This throws the tenant off immediately, as they think that their power over you is that you don’t want to lose them. When you let them know that you don’t care about their rent anymore, they are now in a position of weakness. In addition, it costs around $3,000 to move and set a mobile home. So for them to move, they will need to come up with $3,000 cash. Who’s in a position of weakness now?
Conclusion
Problem tenants can be solved. Don’t let a tenant ruin your day. Take action and turn the tables on them. It’s good for you, and it’s good for the community
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
15 Ways to Increase RV Usability
It’s that time of year when families who own recreational vehicles (RV’s) and camping equipment begin to book their camping trips for the summer. Holiday camping has to be done well in advance. Before the snow has melted in most parts of the USA, families are dreaming of lakes and fishing, hiking, fairs, camping on the beach and nights by the fire, staring at the stars in the night time sky.
The Internet has made searching for and contacting campgrounds easy, with some campgrounds even experimenting with online booking. The Internet experience for web site users wanting to book a campground is similar to booking hotel rooms. Prospective guests are excited and hoping for a pleasant stay. Any information a web site offers to help them make choices and imagine themselves snuggled in sleeping bags increases the likelihood that they’ll call.
Thoughtful Design Pays Off
Online booking applications should work flawlessly. Poorly functioning site search or booking systems lead to web site abandonment. Photos should accurately portray the size of living space and what comes with it. In the case of a campground, that includes pull-through spots, fire pit and picnic table. Guests want to know what the camp store and swimming pool look like and whether or not they’re well maintained and staffed.
Many camp grounds are family run and privately owned. A budget for their web site may not exist. Some campground web sites are little more than print brochures adapted to the web with little understanding that a web site requires a new approach because it’s used differently. Try to invest in someone with experience in web design and travel oriented web sites.
The network of KOA (Kampgrounds of America) campgrounds use the same yellow and black color scheme and share resources such as maps, directories and booking applications. The similarity between KOA camping sites is helpful for KOA members who only book with these campgrounds because they get a discount.
Sadly, some of the worst web sites in the travel industry come from campgrounds. This includes state parks that have camping facilities. However, there are exceptions. Some campground businesses invest heavily in photos of their grounds and some offer videos of events they hold or on-site attractions.
Usability can’t be underestimated for campground web sites because their demographics are quite wide in scope. For example, there are retirees who travel from campground to campground. Some of them have cognitive (memory) issues with varying degrees of severity. Complicated navigation is aggravating when the navigation moves around from page to page or suddenly disappears altogether. Their hands may not be as steady, making some drop down navigation menus difficult for them to use. Eye sight problems for them include requiring reading glasses. If your web page font sizes can’t be increased in their browser, they will be frustrated. If they can increase the font size and your layout changes as a result, they may not be able to use the site.
Will these retired folks be using the Internet? You bet! Many of them stay in touch with their families and grand kids via email and cell phones and use the latest GPS gadgets, Google maps and the latest gizmos in their big rigs such as automatic levelers.
Families who book campgrounds will have interests that may surprise you. Their kids have iPods and video games. Some family members will want to bring their laptop. Most will have cell phones. If you’ve ever looked inside a family motor home of a tech bunch, it’s a mass of dangling cell phone chargers and cables. Campgrounds that offer wireless access, TV cable hookup and electric may want to promote this information on their homepage as a value proposition right away rather than tucking it inside an “Amenities” page.
Campgrounds that put their tent people away from noisier motor home guests may wish to note this on their web site.
To make your campground web site user friendly, try adding the following:
1. Make sure your site shows the area site map, with all the buildings, roads, camp sites, showers, etc. Offer a choice in how to access it online by letting visitors download it as a PDF or printing an image or sketch.
2. For campers who can not see, can’t download PDF’s or have images turned off because they’re on dialup, an audio description of the grounds would be helpful.
3. Be consistent with your colors, page layout and navigation.
4. Put your phone number at the top and bottom of every page and make it large enough to find quickly.
5. Watch your contrasts. Many camping sites have colored backgrounds with colored text, which make them hard to read. Text that’s all in boldface is difficult to read online.
6. Keep your copyright year up to date. Otherwise it may appear as though you’re no longer in business.
7. Communicate anything and everything that’s customer service oriented. Sometimes what you offer is the difference between someone booking your campground or the one nearby.
8. Make it easy for out of towners to make arrangements by posting links and/or phone numbers to car rental offices, vets, pet boarding facilities, beach tourist information such as beach passes, discount retail shops, camping supply stores, service stations that can handle RV’s (must have lifts for them), organic food and health centers.
9. Put testimonials on your camping site from previous guests.
10. Describe a typical day at your campground. This gives site visitors an idea of the environment, which helps them make educated choices.
11. Place all “call to action” prompts in highly visible spots like above the page fold and make them stand out. For example, a button for “Book Here” or “Reserve Now” and underlined embedded links within text that reads, “Stop by our calendar of events.” Avoid animation and blinking text.
12. Promote extra touches like your dog walk area, handicapped accessible camp store, locally made gifts, bait and tackle shop and dumping station on the premises.
13. Offer a way to stay in touch such as an email list or newsletter for regulars. Include coupons for return visitors to use, such as one free child admission or free pile of wood.
14. Place any sales or limited specials on the homepage. While your rates will likely not change much, there may be incentives to offer such as lower gas prices in the area, biodiesel, merchandise specials from the camp store, and fireworks for sale.
15. Display photos of staff and owners, a welcome message from the owners and office hours for reservations. Make sure emergency contact numbers are easy to find for guests who may run into trouble on their way there and need to alert you of any delays in their arrival time.
A user friendly, descriptive, customer experience oriented, persuasive web site will increase camping reservations. They’re a tool that many potential guests rely on, but they may not answer every possible question someone may have.
Once I booked a trip for my family looking for a peaceful weekend getaway and I chose a new campground based on their web site and its ease of use. However, we later learned that this particular campground has speakers set up all around the camping area and the owners made very loud announcements every few hours, starting at 8am in the morning. One day everyone in the campground was scolded for not putting their trash out properly.
There are some things even a web site can’t help us with.
The Internet has made searching for and contacting campgrounds easy, with some campgrounds even experimenting with online booking. The Internet experience for web site users wanting to book a campground is similar to booking hotel rooms. Prospective guests are excited and hoping for a pleasant stay. Any information a web site offers to help them make choices and imagine themselves snuggled in sleeping bags increases the likelihood that they’ll call.
Thoughtful Design Pays Off
Online booking applications should work flawlessly. Poorly functioning site search or booking systems lead to web site abandonment. Photos should accurately portray the size of living space and what comes with it. In the case of a campground, that includes pull-through spots, fire pit and picnic table. Guests want to know what the camp store and swimming pool look like and whether or not they’re well maintained and staffed.
Many camp grounds are family run and privately owned. A budget for their web site may not exist. Some campground web sites are little more than print brochures adapted to the web with little understanding that a web site requires a new approach because it’s used differently. Try to invest in someone with experience in web design and travel oriented web sites.
The network of KOA (Kampgrounds of America) campgrounds use the same yellow and black color scheme and share resources such as maps, directories and booking applications. The similarity between KOA camping sites is helpful for KOA members who only book with these campgrounds because they get a discount.
Sadly, some of the worst web sites in the travel industry come from campgrounds. This includes state parks that have camping facilities. However, there are exceptions. Some campground businesses invest heavily in photos of their grounds and some offer videos of events they hold or on-site attractions.
Usability can’t be underestimated for campground web sites because their demographics are quite wide in scope. For example, there are retirees who travel from campground to campground. Some of them have cognitive (memory) issues with varying degrees of severity. Complicated navigation is aggravating when the navigation moves around from page to page or suddenly disappears altogether. Their hands may not be as steady, making some drop down navigation menus difficult for them to use. Eye sight problems for them include requiring reading glasses. If your web page font sizes can’t be increased in their browser, they will be frustrated. If they can increase the font size and your layout changes as a result, they may not be able to use the site.
Will these retired folks be using the Internet? You bet! Many of them stay in touch with their families and grand kids via email and cell phones and use the latest GPS gadgets, Google maps and the latest gizmos in their big rigs such as automatic levelers.
Families who book campgrounds will have interests that may surprise you. Their kids have iPods and video games. Some family members will want to bring their laptop. Most will have cell phones. If you’ve ever looked inside a family motor home of a tech bunch, it’s a mass of dangling cell phone chargers and cables. Campgrounds that offer wireless access, TV cable hookup and electric may want to promote this information on their homepage as a value proposition right away rather than tucking it inside an “Amenities” page.
Campgrounds that put their tent people away from noisier motor home guests may wish to note this on their web site.
To make your campground web site user friendly, try adding the following:
1. Make sure your site shows the area site map, with all the buildings, roads, camp sites, showers, etc. Offer a choice in how to access it online by letting visitors download it as a PDF or printing an image or sketch.
2. For campers who can not see, can’t download PDF’s or have images turned off because they’re on dialup, an audio description of the grounds would be helpful.
3. Be consistent with your colors, page layout and navigation.
4. Put your phone number at the top and bottom of every page and make it large enough to find quickly.
5. Watch your contrasts. Many camping sites have colored backgrounds with colored text, which make them hard to read. Text that’s all in boldface is difficult to read online.
6. Keep your copyright year up to date. Otherwise it may appear as though you’re no longer in business.
7. Communicate anything and everything that’s customer service oriented. Sometimes what you offer is the difference between someone booking your campground or the one nearby.
8. Make it easy for out of towners to make arrangements by posting links and/or phone numbers to car rental offices, vets, pet boarding facilities, beach tourist information such as beach passes, discount retail shops, camping supply stores, service stations that can handle RV’s (must have lifts for them), organic food and health centers.
9. Put testimonials on your camping site from previous guests.
10. Describe a typical day at your campground. This gives site visitors an idea of the environment, which helps them make educated choices.
11. Place all “call to action” prompts in highly visible spots like above the page fold and make them stand out. For example, a button for “Book Here” or “Reserve Now” and underlined embedded links within text that reads, “Stop by our calendar of events.” Avoid animation and blinking text.
12. Promote extra touches like your dog walk area, handicapped accessible camp store, locally made gifts, bait and tackle shop and dumping station on the premises.
13. Offer a way to stay in touch such as an email list or newsletter for regulars. Include coupons for return visitors to use, such as one free child admission or free pile of wood.
14. Place any sales or limited specials on the homepage. While your rates will likely not change much, there may be incentives to offer such as lower gas prices in the area, biodiesel, merchandise specials from the camp store, and fireworks for sale.
15. Display photos of staff and owners, a welcome message from the owners and office hours for reservations. Make sure emergency contact numbers are easy to find for guests who may run into trouble on their way there and need to alert you of any delays in their arrival time.
A user friendly, descriptive, customer experience oriented, persuasive web site will increase camping reservations. They’re a tool that many potential guests rely on, but they may not answer every possible question someone may have.
Once I booked a trip for my family looking for a peaceful weekend getaway and I chose a new campground based on their web site and its ease of use. However, we later learned that this particular campground has speakers set up all around the camping area and the owners made very loud announcements every few hours, starting at 8am in the morning. One day everyone in the campground was scolded for not putting their trash out properly.
There are some things even a web site can’t help us with.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Equity Lifestyle Fires Starting Gun for the Next Round of Acquisitions
The biggest news story in the manufactured home community business came on May 31, 2011 – so mark that date in your calendar for some type of anniversary celebration. That’s the date that Equity Lifestyle Properties announced that it was buying 76 communities from Hometown America for a staggering $1.4 billion price tag.
So why’s this such a big news story? For a bunch of reasons.
Sam Zell is no idiot.
Sam Zell did not make the Forbes 400 list by making bad purchases. In fact, his reputation at making smart buys is legendary. And he is very good at market timing. He got his start buying apartments in down cycles and riding them to the top. For him to make such a bold move signals that he believes that the market for manufactured home communities has hit bottom and is about to rise. Based on his reputation, most investors would not want to bet against him.
The size of the gamble.
Equity Lifestyle is a large, publicly traded company. Sure, they can take small gambles on all types of things. But $1.4 billion is not a small gamble. I bet a dollar on the slots at the airport coming back from the MHI convention (and I won $1.50), but I wouldn’t have bet $1,000 in a million years. So for someone of Zell’s ability to bet that type of money, you have to assume that he feels really, really good about his bet.
Supporting evidence is coming from all types of sources.
I received an email this morning that describes upward pressures on apartment rents. Why? Because people are losing their homes in droves, and the job market is lousy. But I thought that one item in the letter was particularly interesting: “19 years of continually more aggressive government intervention toward home ownership is about to reverse itself”. I think that’s maybe the most important point of all. The government is showing signs that they are going to abandon taking a proactive stance to help Americans obtain and retain mortgages on homes. That alone will sink home ownership and force families into more affordable alternatives.
And manufactured home communities stand to gain as much in this regard as apartment owners.
Our economy is 100% lousy, and Americans need more affordable housing.
The average two bedroom apartment rent in the U.S. is now over $1,000 per month. Yet around 20% of the U.S. population has a household budget under $20,000 per year. The growing sweet spot in U.S. housing is for options in the $500 to $700 per month range. And that’s exactly what manufactured home communities deliver. You can’t get any type of detached housing for anywhere near the low cost of manufactured housing – and that is never going to change.
Think that our job market and wages are going to improve? Then you must not read the papers – or the forecasts by most economists. I like their tacos, but a job at Jack-In-The-Box is not a high paying career, yet how many folks with decent jobs are having to fall back to that type of work?
Conduit debt for manufactured home communities is returning rapidly.
A vital component to a return to lofty real estate values is the availability of institutional debt. And that is making an appearance through good old fashioned conduit financing. Indeed, I attended a dinner in which a conduit lender announced that they would be doing around $100 million in conduit debt in 2011. This is a big part of the picture, and has been quietly coming on stage over the last six months.
Zell would not have made his bet without knowing that the financing market was also returning.
The biggest factor of all – INFLATION.
If you read a lot of economic reports (don’t forget that I was an economics major in college), you’ll see that just about everyone is on board with the projection of growing U.S. inflation. And what’s the most successful hedge against inflation historically? You’re right, it’s real estate. If inflation comes back with a vengeance, like most people are projecting, just owning real estate will appear a genius stroke. And when everyone figures out about the inflation problem – and the articles in the news are everywhere – the value of all real estate will rise as a hedge against the declining dollar.
There is no doubt in my mind that Zell reads these same publications.
So what can you do to take advantage of this situation?
If you already own a manufactured home community, then just smile because you won. If you don’t have one, then buy one before everyone else figures it out (but don’t make a stupid buy in your haste to do so).
I’m not much of a gambler, but I feel strongly enough about Zell’s bet that I’ve been matching it. I bought 3,000 lots over the past year. And so have a lot of other investors. Everyone’s been buying quietly. But now that Zell has fired the starting gun, we can all come out of hiding and reveal what we’ve really been up to for the past year or two, and start jogging along behind him. And I’m sure that on May 31st of each year I’ll make a toast to the great manufactured home community gold rush.
Q
So why’s this such a big news story? For a bunch of reasons.
Sam Zell is no idiot.
Sam Zell did not make the Forbes 400 list by making bad purchases. In fact, his reputation at making smart buys is legendary. And he is very good at market timing. He got his start buying apartments in down cycles and riding them to the top. For him to make such a bold move signals that he believes that the market for manufactured home communities has hit bottom and is about to rise. Based on his reputation, most investors would not want to bet against him.
The size of the gamble.
Equity Lifestyle is a large, publicly traded company. Sure, they can take small gambles on all types of things. But $1.4 billion is not a small gamble. I bet a dollar on the slots at the airport coming back from the MHI convention (and I won $1.50), but I wouldn’t have bet $1,000 in a million years. So for someone of Zell’s ability to bet that type of money, you have to assume that he feels really, really good about his bet.
Supporting evidence is coming from all types of sources.
I received an email this morning that describes upward pressures on apartment rents. Why? Because people are losing their homes in droves, and the job market is lousy. But I thought that one item in the letter was particularly interesting: “19 years of continually more aggressive government intervention toward home ownership is about to reverse itself”. I think that’s maybe the most important point of all. The government is showing signs that they are going to abandon taking a proactive stance to help Americans obtain and retain mortgages on homes. That alone will sink home ownership and force families into more affordable alternatives.
And manufactured home communities stand to gain as much in this regard as apartment owners.
Our economy is 100% lousy, and Americans need more affordable housing.
The average two bedroom apartment rent in the U.S. is now over $1,000 per month. Yet around 20% of the U.S. population has a household budget under $20,000 per year. The growing sweet spot in U.S. housing is for options in the $500 to $700 per month range. And that’s exactly what manufactured home communities deliver. You can’t get any type of detached housing for anywhere near the low cost of manufactured housing – and that is never going to change.
Think that our job market and wages are going to improve? Then you must not read the papers – or the forecasts by most economists. I like their tacos, but a job at Jack-In-The-Box is not a high paying career, yet how many folks with decent jobs are having to fall back to that type of work?
Conduit debt for manufactured home communities is returning rapidly.
A vital component to a return to lofty real estate values is the availability of institutional debt. And that is making an appearance through good old fashioned conduit financing. Indeed, I attended a dinner in which a conduit lender announced that they would be doing around $100 million in conduit debt in 2011. This is a big part of the picture, and has been quietly coming on stage over the last six months.
Zell would not have made his bet without knowing that the financing market was also returning.
The biggest factor of all – INFLATION.
If you read a lot of economic reports (don’t forget that I was an economics major in college), you’ll see that just about everyone is on board with the projection of growing U.S. inflation. And what’s the most successful hedge against inflation historically? You’re right, it’s real estate. If inflation comes back with a vengeance, like most people are projecting, just owning real estate will appear a genius stroke. And when everyone figures out about the inflation problem – and the articles in the news are everywhere – the value of all real estate will rise as a hedge against the declining dollar.
There is no doubt in my mind that Zell reads these same publications.
So what can you do to take advantage of this situation?
If you already own a manufactured home community, then just smile because you won. If you don’t have one, then buy one before everyone else figures it out (but don’t make a stupid buy in your haste to do so).
I’m not much of a gambler, but I feel strongly enough about Zell’s bet that I’ve been matching it. I bought 3,000 lots over the past year. And so have a lot of other investors. Everyone’s been buying quietly. But now that Zell has fired the starting gun, we can all come out of hiding and reveal what we’ve really been up to for the past year or two, and start jogging along behind him. And I’m sure that on May 31st of each year I’ll make a toast to the great manufactured home community gold rush.
Q
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