Mobile home park turnaround - I'm stumped

[Adam Johnson]

Experienced investor here.  Bought a park 6 years ago, distressed property, about 2 hours from my office.  High vacancy, poor condition, poor management.  I started off great the first couple of years.  Was staying nearby during the week at times, working a full week to revive it, really had strong forward momentum.  Early efforts were aimed at cleaning it up, removing some abandoned homes in terrible condition, etc.  Tenants became very happy with the progress.  Generally, we still have good relations with tenants, but still have high vacancy.

Shortly after taking over, we switched managers .  We made a mistake, that was corrected last summer.  That manager had a tendency to inject himself into EVERY aspect of operation.  I would instruct one way, he would disagree and do it his own way anyway.  Long story short, we were developing a ton of leads for prospective tenants to move homes in and/or buy homes that we owned and were selling (we don't want to do rental homes).  We converted almost zero leads.  We hired Realtors to help sell homes, same result, usually after he became involved somehow.  Since replacing the manager last summer, we have found a Realtor that is responsive to leads we send, does very well with responding to messages, etc., but doesn't know manufactured housing more than what we have taught him.

Our experience is largely in turning around distressed rental properties.  All of our other properties (multi-family) are closer to home and were purchased distressed and usually completely vacant.  They are all stable and run very smoothly at this point under our direct management.  The mobile home park is lagging way behind where it should be big time.  My problem is almost completely a sales/marketing problem.  

Here's my question/need - I want to start from square one with sales/marketing.  Somewhere I really botched up along the current path, so I want to go back to the beginning and figure it out.  Can anyone give pointers or referrals to a person/company that start with market research - to determine if the market WANTS our product?  Secondary - after we accomplish step 1, I could use some pointers or referrals to a person/company that can develop and help implement a marketing plan.

Thank you in advance.

[Frank Rolfe]

OK, let's start this all over again. Here's how you do it correctly in a modern world:

1)  Port your park phone number through Who's Calling so that you get a record of every phone number that calls in, if the call is answered, the duration of the call, and a complete recording of what was said.

2)  Find a resident in the park that is a great salesperson -- positive attitude, great with people -- and make them your sales person at a commission of 3% on every home sold. They answer the phone.

3)  Follow the 9/3/1 rule -- for every 3 calls you should get a showing, and for every 3 showings you should get an application to buy the home.

4)  If you are not getting at least 9 calls a week, you need to ramp up advertising using Craigslist, Facebook, the largest metro newspaper classified ad under "mobile homes for rent", direct mail to Class B and lower apartments, a banner on your entry fence, for sale signs in yards and windows, and a resident referral letter.

5)  If you're getting 9 calls a week, but not getting any applications, then listen to the Who's Calling recordings and see how good they are on the phone.

6) If they're good on the phone, then call those numbers and do exit interviews with the customers and see why they did not buy -- often they'll tell you the manager didn't show up or they were drunk, etc.

7)  If these customers tell you that the manager showed the home well but it's more than the ones down the street, then you need to adjust your price.

8)  If the customers who apply can't qualify, then you may need to alter your terms for acceptance.

We operate over 200 parks in 28 states in this manner, and we've never seen a park you can't fix if you take a scientific approach. That's assuming the market and home product is decent.