Well, a lot actually. Names are how we associate quality and expectations with everything. Think about it. If I were to introduce you to my friend Ashley, what expectations would you have? You would probably think that my friend is female and maybe even that my friend is less than 50 years old (as different names are often associated with different generations).

So how does Ashley relate to manufactured housing communities or mobile home parks? It’s pretty simple. I recently came across a great property, but it was named ABC Trailer Park. (ABC is a substitute for the owner’s first name). Naturally, like many of you, my expectation was to find old trailers from the 1960s on small lots. In fact, when I visited the property, most spaces were large and occupied by homes from the 1980s and 1990s. The property’s name was selling itself short.

Now it may not matter what I think about that property. Like most buyers, I am primarily concerned with the rent roll, income statement and the cap rate of the property. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I would probably pay a slightly lower cap rate (and higher price) if the property was named City Estates, City MHC or even City MHP, than I would for ABC Trailer Park (using City as a substitute for the actual location).

Maybe I am just different, but what about potential tenants and lenders? I think prospective tenants might rather move into City Estates or City Mobile Home Park, than ABC Trailer Park. Likewise, a lender might offer slightly worse terms to ABC Trailer Park, as frequently a lender will ask what star rating the property has; it would be hard to say it is a 3 star property named ABC Trailer Park.

Now, before everyone starts renaming their properties to City land-lease lifestyle community (and potentially loses prospective tenants as those prospective tenants might not know what a land-lease lifestyle community is), note that none of the information in this blog post has been scientifically (or in any way) proven. Instead, the common sense stated in this blog post is merely the opinion of the (sometimes) brilliant author.

If you only take one fact away from this post, remember that a name sets the expectations of the people that will interact with that person, business or property. If you are buying a property and it is named as a trailer park, don’t think of it as a negative, but as an opportunity to rename the property and build a new brand. So the next time you are walking down Main Street and you are thinking about the importance of a name, remember that you would much rather shop at Ann’s Vintage Clothing than at Ann’s Old and Used Clothing.