Book Review: “Mobile Home Wealth”

(Note: Recently, I’ve had a lot of folks contact me asking what the difference between some of Lonnie’s as well as other mobile home investing materials out there and which one I’d recommend the most. So, I’ve decided to go ahead and start a new series of posts – book reviews).

Recently, I just finished reading this book. Now, this is one that I’ve been reading here and there but really wanted to finish it up. I’m glad I did.

Before I go into the book review, I will say this is one of those books that you really have to take your time on. It’s best to read one chapter at a time and reflect on what was covered as there seems to be a lot of material. It is a bit overwhelming with the amount of information in the book, but don’t let that scare you. The author goes into each part with extensive knowledge and experience to teach each concept.

With that being said, I will say – the author does seem to have quite a bit of experience with real estate and investing even before his journey into mobile home investing. The author’s own personal story is one that started with real estate as both an agent and eventually a broker in New York before deciding to re-locate to Florida where the bulk of his journey began in mobile home investing.

As for the book, the majority of what is covered seems to be from a real estate investing point of view where the mobile home is attached to the land. Now, there are some sections that do cover mobile home investing in parks (as personal property) without the land attached. Though the bulk of the author’s experiences in the book seems to be investing in mobile homes on land.

Regarding the material covered, I would say this is a very good and extensive book on mobile home investing in general. The book covers the basics on how you can make money investing in mobile homes with different exit strategies (i.e. flipping, renting, “Lonnie” deals, lease options, etc.) finding deals, determining values, writing offers, inspecting homes, obtaining financing and closing procedures.

While reading these sections, I found the author’s stories and experiences to be quite entertaining and even humorous. There were many times I found myself chuckling being able to relate – I found his stories to be very pleasant and interesting.

(Note: For those who have read the book, you’ll definitely know what I’m talking about. One of my favorite stories was how some of his tenants take the skirting off in the summer so their dogs could lay underneath the trailers out of the hot sun. I’ve definitely seen that at times, mostly in lower end parks and areas).

Apart from the stories and the author’s experiences, the value I saw in the book really came for me in the section on negotiating. There were a lot of stories and things mentioned that I’ve encountered that I could relate to – the author just pinpoints them here. Though, there were other stories and things I learned in this section that I had not experienced before.

To me, this section was very important as it went over the intangibles. Most real estate books go more into the objective, the “how-to,” which I believe anyone can read and learn about. But, it is the subjective which is usually not taught where experience comes in and where true success comes from.

For me personally, it has been the subjective (not the objective) that has been a direct result of my success in this business. Without the subjective, the objective is truly that – just numbers on a piece of paper. And, that is why I believe many new investors struggle as they only take the time to learn the objective without knowing the true value of being successful –  the subjective which are things that cannot be measured in quantity, only quality.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. There were many things that I already knew through experience but also other things that I learned. I think it’s a good book for mobile home investors alike, whether new or seasoned.

I hope you enjoyed reading this book review. With the high amount of requests for my opinions on these, it’s something that I’ve decided to start doing from time to time.

Happy investing!

p.s. Feel free to leave comments on any post either here and/or my Facebook Page. Comments are always welcome, thanks for reading!