Mobile Home Parks (Replay)

Summary

The Economics of Everyday Things: Mobile Home Parks (Replay)

Host: Zachary Crockett
Guest: Frank Rolf, Co-owner of Mobile Home University; Paul Bradley, President of Rock USA
Release Date: July 28, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The Economics of Everyday Things, journalist Zachary Crockett delves into the world of mobile home parks—a sector that has transformed from being a last-resort housing option to a lucrative investment avenue. Through insightful discussions with industry experts and affected residents, the episode unpacks the economic dynamics, investment strategies, and human impact behind mobile home parks in America.

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The Evolution of Mobile Home Parks

Historical Context: Mobile home parks, initially luxurious trailers for the affluent in the 1920s, underwent a significant transformation post-World War II. The federal government's purchase of thousands of trailers to house factory workers led to the establishment of permanent mobile home communities. Over time, as early residents moved to suburbs, these parks gained a reputation as affordable housing options for low-income Americans.

Current Landscape:

• Statistics: There are approximately 43,000 mobile home parks in the U.S., accommodating around 22 million residents, which accounts for over 6% of the nation's housing stock.
• Ownership Shift: Traditionally owned by small, family-run operators who maintained low rents and minimal upkeep, the ownership landscape has shifted towards larger investors seeking higher returns.

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Investment Surge Post-2008

Frank Rolf's Journey: Frank Rolf, initially running a billboard company in Dallas, identified the scarcity of mobile home park zoning as a valuable economic opportunity. In 2012, he purchased his first park in Texas for $400,000 with a $10,000 down payment, despite skepticism from friends and family.

"When you're in the billboard business, you're constantly looking at zoning maps because you can only build billboards in certain zonings. And I noticed over the years that the most infrequent zoning I ever saw was MH or mobile home."
— Frank Rolf [04:08]

Growth and Education: Rolf expanded his portfolio to over 250 parks across 25 states, managing 31,000 mobile homes. He also founded Mobile Home University, educating aspiring investors. According to Rolf, about one-third of the top 100 mobile home park owners in the U.S. started through his courses.

"The majority are perfectly happy paying the higher rent as you're making the improvements, because they never dreamed of living in the world's cheapest property. They just wanted to live in a nice place."
— Frank Rolf [09:52]

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Economic Dynamics and Resident Impact

Investment Appeal: Mobile home parks are attractive to investors because:

• Land Ownership: Investors own the land, while residents typically own their homes but lease the land, granting park owners significant control over rent adjustments.
• Stable Returns: Rolf claims cash-on-cash returns ranging from 15% to 40%, describing the model as "like owning a waffle house with your customer chained to the booth."

"You only rent the land when you own a mobile home park, so there's no toilets to fix or issues like that. And the customers are relatively easy to please."
— Frank Rolf [16:41]

Rising Rents and Resident Struggles: From 2010 to 2021, average monthly lot rents increased by 55%, outpacing apartment rent hikes. In some instances, new owners have doubled or tripled the existing rents, significantly burdening residents.

Resident Stories:

• Sheryl Straberger: Witnessed her lot rent surge from $382 to $593, and subsequently to $645, excluding additional utilities, causing financial strain due to limited income and medical expenses.

  "When you first drive in, to the right of coming into the park, they have the clubhouse, which is nicely decorated outside... We just got the August bill, and it's $735. It's a lot for her because all she has, she has a very small pension from my dad, and she has just her Social Security."
  — Sheryl Straberger [08:53]

• Blair Roberts: After purchasing a home in a park near Detroit for $3,000, he faced immediate issues post-acquisition by an investment firm, including skyrocketing rents and deteriorating park conditions.

  "This has literally been the worst place I've been. I should have never came here. The stress, the mental wear and tear it has on you, them not caring."
  — Blair Roberts [16:23]

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Challenges Faced by Residents

Residents often grapple with:

• Lack of Mobility: Unlike apartment leases, mobile home residents cannot easily relocate, trapping them in escalating rent scenarios.

  "If I lived in an apartment across the street from an apartment that's $200 less of the same quality, I can easily, at the end of my lease, move across the street... In a manufactured home, you cannot easily move across the street."
  — Paul Bradley [07:13]

• Maintenance Issues: New owners may increase rents without accompanying improvements, leading to deteriorating living conditions.

• Financial Hardships: With median household incomes around $35,000, many residents are severely impacted by rent hikes, which limit their ability to cover essential expenses.

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Solutions: Resident-Owned Communities

Rock USA's Initiative: Paul Bradley's nonprofit, Rock USA, promotes resident-owned communities where homeowners collectively purchase the land beneath their homes. This cooperative model offers:

• Economic Benefits: Residents enjoy lower lot rents and increased property values. Homes in these communities typically sell for 16% more than those in investor-owned parks.

  "A resident owned community is a cooperative, so homeowners get together on a one member, one share, one vote rule."
  — Paul Bradley [18:52]

• Ownership and Equity: By owning the land, residents gain equity and mitigate the risks of arbitrary rent increases by external investors.

Current Impact:

• Approximately 1,000 mobile home parks in the U.S. are now resident-owned, supported by partnerships with philanthropic organizations like the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.

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Market Outlook and Industry Sentiment

Shrinking Market Dynamics: Despite the high returns, the mobile home park market faces challenges:

• Declining New Constructions: Most municipalities have ceased building new parks due to lower property tax revenues and opposition from homeowners.
• Recurrent Redevelopments: Annually, a couple of hundred parks are demolished for redevelopment, with minimal new parks being established.

Investor Confidence: Investors like Frank Rolf remain optimistic, viewing mobile home parks as resilient investments that perform well during economic downturns.

"It's probably the only one I have confidence in because it combines housing with being contrarian. And I'm a pessimist by nature, so I like things that do better when things are bad."
— Frank Rolf [20:53]

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Conclusion

Mobile home parks represent a complex intersection of affordable housing and high-yield investment. While investors like Frank Rolf thrive on the stable returns and control over land rents, residents often face financial and living condition challenges due to escalating rents and minimal maintenance. Initiatives like resident-owned communities offer a promising solution to balance economic benefits with resident welfare. As the market continues to evolve, the sustainability and ethical dimensions of mobile home park investments remain pivotal topics for stakeholders.

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Notable Quotes

• Frank Rolf [04:08]: "When you're in the billboard business, you're constantly looking at zoning maps because you can only build billboards in certain zonings. And I noticed over the years that the most infrequent zoning I ever saw was MH or mobile home."
• Paul Bradley [07:13]: "If I lived in an apartment across the street from an apartment that's $200 less of the same quality, I can easily, at the end of my lease, move across the street... In a manufactured home, you cannot easily move across the street."
• Sheryl Straberger [08:53]: "It's a lot for her because all she has, she has a very small pension from my dad, and she has just her Social Security."
• Frank Rolf [16:41]: "You only rent the land when you own a mobile home park, so there's no toilets to fix or issues like that. And the customers are relatively easy to please."
• Blair Roberts [16:23]: "This has literally been the worst place I've been. I should have never came here. The stress, the mental wear and tear it has on you, them not caring."

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This episode was produced by Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston and Greg Ribbon, with additional assistance from Lyric Bowditch and Daniel Moritz Rabson.

Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Zachary Crockett]

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[Frank Rolf]

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[Paul Bradley]

Combo with fries in a frozen drink for just $9.99.

[Narrator]

Okay, so what are you waiting for?

[Frank Rolf]

I'm not waiting. The new Queso Crunch Burger only at.

[Paul Bradley]

Carl's Jr available for a limited time at participating. Restauran tax not included.

[Zachary Crockett]

In 2012, a small audience of real estate investors gathered in a conference room in Colorado to learn about a lucrative opportunity.

[Frank Rolf]

We'll be together the next three days with just one goal, and that's to make everybody here a competent mobile home park investor. So we're going to show you how to buy properties, negotiate them, renegotiate them, finance them.

[Zachary Crockett]

That's Frank Rolf, co owner of Mobile Home University.

[Frank Rolf]

Do diligence on them, how to properly buy them, close on them, turn them around and operate them and even sell them. It's kind of college styled, about 30 hours in length, where we teach them everything from finding mobile home parks to evaluating them and running them.

[Zachary Crockett]

Eleven years ago, capitalists weren't clamoring to own mobile home parks. That has changed. Today, investors are cashing in on one of America's biggest and most vulnerable affordable housing markets.

[Frank Rolf]

When I bought Glenhaven, my very first eviction was a veteran who had severe mental problems. Very nice individual, but didn't have their act together in a big way and hadn't paid rent in months. And I then had to evict her for non payment.

[Zachary Crockett]

I had to do something for the Freakonomics radio network. This is the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. Today, mobile home parks. At the dawn of the automobile industry in the 1920s, trailers were toys for the rich, a way to travel the country in luxury. That changed during World War II, when the federal government bought tens of thousands of trailers and used them to create permanent housing communities for factory workers. After the War Dedicated mobile home communities were built to house returning veterans. Over the years, many of these early residents migrated to the growing suburbs. And mobile home parks, or trailer parks as they became known, gained a reputation as an inexpensive last resort housing option for low income Americans. Today, there are around 43,000 mobile home parks in the US home to 22 million residents. That's a little more than 6% of the nation's entire housing stock. The majority of these parks have historically been owned by mom and pop operators who typically keep rents low and don't do much maintenance. But that began to shift when people like Frank Rolfe came around.

[Frank Rolf]

When I got into it, you were really embarrassed to say you actually owned a mobile home park.

[Zachary Crockett]

Rolf didn't start his business career with mobile home parks. In 1996, he was running a billboard company in Dallas.

[Frank Rolf]

When you're in the billboard business, you're constantly looking at zoning maps because you can only build billboards in certain zonings. And I noticed over the years that the most infrequent zoning I ever saw was MH or mobile home. So I knew as an economics major the whole concept of supply and demand. I knew if the zoning was extremely restricted, there must be something valuable to it.

[Zachary Crockett]

He bought his first park in Texas for $400,000 with a $10,000 down payment.

[Frank Rolf]

Everyone, friends, family, they all criticized the basic concept. Many were concerned it would lead be to be, you know, physically attacked or robbed or all kinds of wild ideas, mainly based on the stigma they had from watching perhaps too much television or movies with mobile home parks depicted in them.

[Zachary Crockett]

Rolf is one of the five largest mobile homeowners in the U.S. his firm owns more than 250 parks across 25 states, enough lots for 31,000 mobile homes. He parlayed his success into Mobile Home University, which teaches other people how to invest in the industry.

[Frank Rolf]

If you look at the top 100 owners of mobile home parks in the U.S. about a third of those all started with our class.

[Zachary Crockett]

Rolf says that broader interest in mobile home park investing really took off in the years following the 2008 housing crisis.

[Frank Rolf]

You had the Great Recession and you also had interest rates drop basically to zero. So you had a lot of people looking for alternative investing that did well in recessions, and there were very few things that did. But one that appeared on people's radar was mobile home parks.

[Zachary Crockett]

Paul Bradley has noticed this shift too.

[Paul Bradley]

When I first started attending national trade shows, older white guys, by and large, today it's a lot of young men and women, brightly dressed and very expensive shoes. That predominate the trade show.

[Zachary Crockett]

Growing up in New Hampshire, Bradley had family members who lived in mobile homes. Today, he's the president of Rock usa, which stands for resident owned communities. It's a nonprofit that represents mobile home park residents. He says there's a reason mobile home parks are appealing to investors. When you acquire one, you're buying land, and the residents might own their homes, but they don't own the land the homes are sitting on. Turns out most mobile homes aren't very mobile at all. They can cost thousands of dollars to move, and 90% of them are installed once and never relocated. That gives park owners a lot of power to raise rents at will.

[Paul Bradley]

You know, if I lived in an apartment across the street from an apartment that's $200 less of the same quality, I can easily, at the end of my lease, move across the street. In a manufactured home, you cannot easily move across the street, even though the affordability may be that much better. In the words of the industry, these are cash cows. This is what Frank Rolf of Mobile home university refers to as like owning a waffle house with your customer chained to the booth.

[Zachary Crockett]

Since Frank Rolf and his students began investing in mobile home parks, park residents have been feeling the squeeze. According to data from the real estate Firm Northmark, between 2010 and 2021, the average monthly rent on a lot in a mobile home park went up from $382 to $593, a 55% increase. That's significantly more than the increase in rent on apartments. In some cases, new owners have doubled or tripled rents after purchasing parks.

[Sheryl Straberger]

There's no limit to how much they can raise the lot rent. There's nothing, nothing in Michigan whatsoever.

[Zachary Crockett]

Sheryl Straberger is a retired nurse. She lives in a mobile home park in Grand Blanc, Michigan, with her mom. Her parents bought their home for $25,000 in 2007. For years, the lot rent went up $10 per year, but when new owners took over the property, it jumped up $39 per month.

[Sheryl Straberger]

Today, the lot rent has gone up to $645 a month, and that's not including the fees, the water, the sewer, the trash. We just got the August bill, and it's $735. It's a lot for her because all she has, she has a very small pension from my dad, and she has just her Social Security. That's it. She has a lot of medications that she has to purchase, and, you know, that $39 could go towards a medication or, you know, something for her, not lot rat.

[Zachary Crockett]

For residents like Straberger and her mom, every dollar counts. According to Bradley, the median household income for homeowners in a mobile home park is $35,000, about half that of the median American household. But Frank Rolf says rent hikes are justified. When you look at the bigger picture.

[Frank Rolf]

There are people out there right now who have not raised their rents in 20 years, and we've bought parks like that. Well, you know, going in, people are going to be mighty unhappy because the rent has been frozen in time. By far, the majority are perfectly happy paying the higher rent as you're making the improvements, because they never dreamed of living in the world's cheapest property. They just wanted to live in a nice place.

[Zachary Crockett]

When he buys a park, Rolf says he invests a lot of capital in improving the properties, which are often in a state of disrepair.

[Frank Rolf]

The first thing that most mobile home parks lack is they have terrible street appeal. A typical entry is going to run you at least 10 to 30,000 for the entry. Roads can easily run you anywhere from 100 to 300,000 just on a 100 space property. If you have to replace water or sewer lines, you're probably talking somewhere in the 3 or 400,000 range, all the way up to a million. It's not uncommon on a park with lots of trees to spend 50 to over $100,000 in removing dead limbs and trees. They're also trying to reignite their pride of ownership. So once you, for example, put a nice entry in and a nice office and fix the streets, at some point people start getting their self respect back because in many of these properties, by living there, they feel inferior because it's in such poor condition.

[Zachary Crockett]

Cheryl Straberger confirms that as well as raising the rent, the new owners at her mobile home park have taken pretty good care of the place.

[Sheryl Straberger]

When you first drive in, to the right of coming into the park, they have the clubhouse, which is nicely decorated outside. The aesthetics look great. We have a pool, there's a little playground for the kids.

[Zachary Crockett]

But that's not always the case.

[Blair Roberts]

We have a lot of disabled elderly people here. We got families just starting off and then we got people, you know, that probably lost a lot during COVID and just needed something to start over with and this is all they had to go to. And that would be me. Lost everything during that time and honestly had no choice.

[Zachary Crockett]

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[Frank Rolf]

Contact us.

[Zachary Crockett]

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[Narrator]

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[Zachary Crockett]

For Blair Roberts, living in a mobile home park was a last resort. After more than a decade working as a chef, he ran into health issues and had to dial back his expenses. He bought his home at a park in Warren, Michigan just outside of Detroit for $3,000 in 2020 so he could live closer to family. And he claims that his problems there began almost immediately.

[Blair Roberts]

I bought my home and received no title. Probably like half of the people in here, they can't find our titles, so they say.

[Zachary Crockett]

After he moved in, the park was bought by an investment firm. The rent he paid for his lot went up, but the increase didn't come with many meaningful improvements.

[Blair Roberts]

A month after my neighbor came over and said, hey, man, you got a whole bunch of sewage outside your house. Raw sewage. That I found out was the main sewage over here. It's everyone from a few lots down of mine, so every time they flush their toilet, it comes up. I done picked up hypodermic needles. We have bad streets, no sidewalk. It's bad here, man.

[Zachary Crockett]

Both Roberts and the city of Warren have initiated litigation against the owner of the park where he lives. The case is ongoing, and the city declined to comment on it. Roberts Robert says the legal action has led to some improvements, but he still doesn't feel it's a safe environment for his kids to visit.

[Blair Roberts]

My oldest, her mother won't even let her come here. She doesn't want my daughter in these living conditions.

[Zachary Crockett]

Would you say that for you, as a resident, this has been a good investment?

[Blair Roberts]

This has literally been the worst place I've been. I should have never came here. The stress, the mental wear and tear it has on you, them not caring.

[Zachary Crockett]

In a promotional video for Mobile Home University, Frank Rolf boasts about the returns he gets on his parks.

[Frank Rolf]

You only rent the land when you own a mobile home park, so there's no toilets to fix or issues like that. And the customers are relatively easy to please. They're just happy to have a roof over their head. So basically, mobile homes and mobile home parks equal money, and the returns are very high. Normally 15 to 40% cash on cash.

[Zachary Crockett]

But for the people who buy mobile homes to live in, people like Blair Roberts and Sheryl Straberger, the returns aren't so hot. If you own a traditional home, you own the land it's on. That land is a scarce resource, which is why traditional homes appreciate at 3 to 5% a year on average. But if you own a mobile home, all you own is the physical structure, which depreciates in value over time. It's more like owning a car than a house. The typical price for a single wide, a home that is between 500 and 1,300 square feet is around $73,000 new used. That same unit will go for $10,000 to $25,000. And when residents move out and try to sell their home to the park, they're sometimes offered a fraction of that.

[Sheryl Straberger]

Some of the other folks in other parks have told me that they try to sell theirs, and the park offered them like $2,500. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. That's like, you know, that's nothing.

[Zachary Crockett]

Park owners like Rolf want nothing to do with the mobile homes themselves. They know that the true value of their investment is is the land.

[Frank Rolf]

We're in the parking lot business, so we try not to own any of the homes. All we own are the roads, the utility lines and the common area structures and the common area land.

[Zachary Crockett]

One solution to these problems is for mobile home park residents to band together and buy the land under their homes. Paul Bradley's nonprofit, Rock USA helps residents do just that.

[Paul Bradley]

A resident owned community is a cooperative, so homeowners get together on a one member, one share, one vote rule. They can set up their own corporation and buy the land from that corporate investor. They still retain ownership of their home just like they did before, but now they have one share in the corporation that owns the land beneath their homes.

[Zachary Crockett]

These efforts are financed in partnership with philanthropies like the Rockefeller foundation and the Ford foundation. Today, around 1,000 of the nation's 43,000 mobile home parks are resident owned.

[Paul Bradley]

The economic benefits are substantial and grow over time. So first co ops have been enjoying lot rents on average of $50 below market after 5 years of ownership and $100 per year below market after 10 years of ownership.

[Zachary Crockett]

Bradley also says that homes in resident owned communities sell for an average of 16% more than homes in investor owned parks.

[Paul Bradley]

So that's equity and that's real money in the pockets of low income families. You know, for us, our North Star starts with land ownership because it's hard to build anything on top of land that's owned by a profit motivated landlord.

[Zachary Crockett]

There's a broader issue at play in the world of mobile home parks. They are a shrinking market. Most municipalities have stopped building them altogether because they don't raise as much property tax revenue as other forms of housing. And homeowners don't want parks near their houses.

[Frank Rolf]

I would say you've got at least a couple hundred a year that are torn down for redevelopment and virtually none built.

[Zachary Crockett]

Even so, park owners like Rolf still have faith in the business model.

[Frank Rolf]

Of all the industries out there in America, it's probably the only one I have confidence in because it combines housing with being contrarian. And I'm a pessimist by nature, so I like things that do better when things are bad.

[Zachary Crockett]

Paul Bradley has heard that sentiment before. Most recently at an airport after a trade show, he started talking to a park owner about recent closures and the industry's growing affordability crisis. The owner gave him a knowing look.

[Paul Bradley]

And then he gets a grin on his face and says, but the profits are just too good.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett this episode was produced by Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston and Greg Ribbon. We had additional help from Lyric Bowditch and Daniel Moritz Rabson.

[Blair Roberts]

I mean, it's like a fracture. You break your arm. You can't put a bandaid on it to fix it. That's impossible.

[Zachary Crockett]

The Freakonomics Radio Network the Hidden side.

[Frank Rolf]

Of Everything.

[Narrator]

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[Paul Bradley]

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