The MHP Brokers Tips and Tricks Podcast Interview with Ed Bridgman of EOB Consulting, Part 2

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

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks podcast, Maxwell Baker, president of The Mobile Home Park Broker, interviewed Ed Bridgman, president of EOB Consulting. They discussed the services his team delivers to mobile home 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:

• This is a return visit to the podcast for Ed, who addressed several additional topics of interest for mobile home park and RV community owners and investors. Max and Ed started the conversation with the challenges related to monitoring (and getting paid for the electricity used by RV community guests. (Max, 00:59)

• RV destination owners are starting to understand the importance of metering guests’ electricity consumption. But most don’t have the infrastructure in place to do it effectively. (Ed, 1:21)

• Those owners are starting to understand the importance of individually charging guests for their electricity use. Ed used as an example a guest to his own state-of-the-art Homestead RV Community. The guest arrived in a 32-foot RV decked out with an extensive solar panel array and about 800 pounds of batteries, so Ed didn’t expect this guest to use much, if any, community power. (Ed, 2:03)

• What Ed didn’t expect was for the guest to boondock under tree cover. As a result, he wasn’t able to recharge his solar batteries, and the guest ended up using $45 worth of community electricity in just a few days. (Ed, 3:35)

• As another example, Ed had several RVs arriving together over the Christmas holiday. Several had heated floors, and each consumed 125 to 150 kw of community electricity. In other cases, guests might have electric cars or golf carts being recharged through the park electrical, or have freezers, space heaters, air conditioners or other big appliances tapping in. The point is, park owners must charge individually for consumption or go broke. (Ed, 3:47)

• Besides encouraging RV park owners to monitor electrical use, Ed also consults on helping new owners of parks turn a profit on a previously unprofitable property. (Max, 5:09)

• Ed gets called by both sellers and buyers. He helps sellers appraise their property for sale value, and will walk a property with the prospective buyer to suggest actions to increase park value and satisfy lender concerns. When investors are building parks, he’ll consult during the layout design stage to find potential problems and opportunities. (Ed, 5:46)

• Ed’s review can be so comprehensive as to include interviewing city officials and local businesses to see about the regulatory and employment environment. For instance, he might call Walmart to see if rumors are true about the company building a new distribution center just miles from the park. He also researches local affordable housing demand and the market competition, and looks for other advantages or obstacles to profitability. (Ed, 7:01)

• With all that he learns, he creates a CAD site layout for new builds or existing structures, emphasizing strategies that might be used to maximize park value. With that, they arrive at a preliminary ten-year budget that goes into a spreadsheet to give a good idea of expected capital expenditures and when the company can expect to earn a return on initial investment. (Ed, 8:02)

• For this consulting service, Ed charges a flat rate of $20,000 plus lodging and travel expenses. (Ed, 9:35)

• Through this service, Ed and his team design and maximize the profitability of an average of about three client properties a month. And through his own Homestead RV Community, they have over 240 guest reviews, for a Google review rating of 4.9.. (Ed, 10:44)

• The company website, at EOB_Consulting.com, includes a section called Step by Step. This is a free and informative tutorial that lists actions you should take in developing your own RV park, whether from new construction or purchase. It includes a thorough explanation of the five different destination RV communities. (Ed, 12:19)

• Ed can be reached either through his website, EOB.Consulting.com, or by calling him at [phone]. You can also learn more about Ed’s own property, Homestead RV Community, billed as “the most technologically advanced RV destination in the world.” Just visit HomeRVC.com and take a virtual tour. (Ed, 13:30)

When thinking about buying or selling an RV community, it pays to start with a consultation with Ed Bridgman of EOB Consulting. When the for-sale sign goes up on your mobile home park or RV community, trust The Mobile Home Park Broker and our innovative Community Price Maximizer platform to optimize your park value and sale price. Drop Max Baker a line at [e-mail] or give him a call at [phone].

Power Quotes in This Episode:

“...we come out, we walk the property with the owner, and we develop an understanding of what their vision is for this property. That's one of the ways that we are unique from our peers, we don’t try to do it from the basement of our house back in Texas. We actually travel to the property, we find every property is unique. Every property has some nuances that need to be brought out during the layout design.” (Ed, 5:46)

“...we know what the market wants, we know what the vision of the owner (is), we know the correct RV destination type, we know what the revenue generation is going to be. Now we put together a CAD design site, a complete site layout of how to maximize that value of that property.” (Ed, 8:02)