Motor Home Guide to Idaho Outdoors

Idaho is the "Gem State," and motor home enthusiasts love it. What makes Idaho so wonderful? It has some of the best unspoiled natural beauty in the United States. It can also boast that it's one of the most scenically diverse states in the union, despite its small size.

Here are a few facts about Idaho that can help you decide if you want to visit.

- Idaho is the most forested of all the Rocky Mountain States, with nearly half of its land covered in tall, whispering pines.

- More than half of the land in the state is federally protected, which means that it's more than half national park.

- It is also one of the wettest of the Rocky Mountain States, with thousands of lakes, rivers and streams winding through its forested mountain terrain. That also means some of the best fishing in the Rockies!

You can thank the massive ice-age glaciers for the beauty of northern Idaho. When they melted, they left behind all the lakes, rivers and reservoirs that cut their way through the lush evergreen forests. Up in the north, where along the Montana border, are the Idaho side of the Bitterroot Mountains, a favorite mountain range of campers, hikers and fisherman all over the country.

This is also the area where the famous French expedition crossed on its way to see exploring the Louisiana Purchase. The area is rich with history and culture. You can learn about the early journeys of explorers to the great northwest, and the Nez Perce tribe that still lives there and practices its traditional culture to this day.

In the central part of the state, you will find historical highways that cross the great rivers including the Salmon River, Little Lost River and Silver Creek. In the northeast, every highway is a scenic drive, and you'll want to make sure you take your time and make lots of stops along the way. Bring plenty of film!

You can also see Craters of the Moon National Monument, a truly unearthly terrain of lava rocks, sagebrush and cinder cones. Craters of the Moon is so named because of its lunar landscape and eerie otherworldliness. It is definitely a place you'll want to see along the way.

In southern Idaho, the lush forest begins to give way to high desert. The Snake River winds through the high country, leaving an arid valley full of pretty desert scenery and lots of great fishing spots.

Anywhere you stop along the way, you'll find a decent motor home park. Idaho is known all over the RV world as the place to go, and there are great accommodations everywhere. Here are a few of the local RV parks that get the best customer satisfaction ratings.

Hi Valley RV Park - Boise

Open all year round, Hi Valley RV Park is conveniently located just five minutes from downtown Boise. It's a perfect spot the mixes the city conveniences and the wilds of the mountains. They also have all kinds of information about things to do all over the state. You can contact them by phone or email for more information.

Bambi RV Park - Coeur d'Alene

If you're taking in Idaho's beautiful forested north, Bambi is a great place to stay. It is a small and friendly mom-and-pop RV park with 21 spaces and full hook-ups. Located in Coeur d'Alene, it puts you close to grocery stores, restaurants and other city entertainments. They have a toll-free you can call for more information.

Waters Edge RV Resort

For more remote lodging along the beautiful Payette River, check out Waters Edge. You can walk right off your campsite and find wonderful hiking, fishing and other activities. They also offer sailing, horseback riding, and they have a wonderful hot springs nearby. You can contact them by phone or e-mail for additional information.

Idaho is an RVer's paradise. Go there yourself and you'll see why everybody's always talking about "The Gem of the Mountains."

Marketing Your Mobile Home Park

When I am looking to market my mobile home park whether it be to potential residents to bring their homes in or to sell homes in the park, I believe that the first contact with the potential customer is key. This first contact may be via a telephone call to your office, a drive-by by the potential resident, or in many cases could be a referral from a current resident or some other local business (chamber of commerce, dealer, broker, etc).

Let's face it, if you or your manager is rude when they call in, they probably will call the next park. If they drive in and the roads are in bad shape, the sign is falling down, or there are dangerous dogs running around, they probably will turn around and look for the next park. And the same holds true with referrals from your current customers. If you current customers don't like living there they will bad mouth you all over town and never refer their friends and relatives to move in. Continuing on to other local businesses that would otherwise refer your community to potential residents, you don't stand a chance if you have a bad reputation.

So I think the best form of marketing is to build your credibility in your town, keep your current residents happy, and make sure that those potential customers have a good first impression whether it be a phone call or a drive-by.

Before you ever spend one penny on a newspaper ad, a flyer a the local dealer, or some type of direct mailing to apartment complexes, you should make sure that you have everything in place to attract good residents once they respond. Here is my top 5 list of things you need to do first:

Focus on the entrance to the park: A nice sign that says "Welcome to ___________ Mobile Home Community". Also plant some bushes or trees near the entrance and keep the grass mowed and trimmed nicely.

Roads: Your roads don't have to paved and have curb and gutters, but they do have to be passable. If there are large potholes, patch them immediately. If they need graded, grade them. Before a potential resident ever gets out of the car they will see your entrance and drive on the roads. Make that a good experience.

Park Office: with the park office you want to make sure that it looks inviting. I have been to many an office that is not properly marked with "Welcome" or some other inviting remark. Instead it says something like, "if your rent is not paid by the 5th it is late" or "take your excuses somewhere else". Is that any way to greet a potential resident?

Park Office again: I have also been to many parks that as you are walking up to the office you are greeted by a fence with a dog inside and you have to decide whether to enter or not. Other times you knock on the door and then there are 3 dogs scratching at the door waiting to pounce on you. I don't have a problem with my manager's home being duplicated as the park office, but I do think they need to take precautions against scaring people off with their own dogs.

General Appearance of the Community: once the potential resident enters the park and is satisfied with the entrance and roads, they will encounter the rest of the park. If the park is a complete disaster with trash, junk, high grass and weeds, and so on, do you think this will be a good selling point for potential customers? At least it is not a good selling point for the customers you are hoping to attract.

Ok, now that we have the entrance, roads, office, and general look of the community ready for new residents, what do we do next? Let's suppose that we are talking about getting new customers to move their home into our park and that we have 25 vacant lots. Now apply one of the best marketing ideas I have ever heard which goes something like this. Is it better to do ONE thing 25 times to fill those lots? Or is it better to do TWENTY-FIVE things one time to fill those lots? I think the latter is the better approach. Maybe in the past you could just bring a flyer down to the local mobile home dealer and watch as he fills up the park. This is not going to happen anymore. You need to to get the flyer down to the dealer, run an ad in the paper, get referrals from your customers, join the chamber, and generally get the word out about your mobile home park.

Here is a list of some of my ideas that should get you started.

Flyer to all Mobile Home Dealers in a 25 mile radius - On the flyer, offer some form of move in special (free 3 months, lower rent, etc).

Join the Chamber of Commerce - then in all of your flyers and ads you can put that you are a member of the Chamber - builds credibility.

Entrance Sign - it works for you 24/7 and make sure to put your phone number on it!

Sponsor a Referral Program to your residents - if they refer someone give them a nice reward (not a $5 discount on the rent).

Talk to local Real Estate Brokers - if they have a customer that can't qualify on a house, maybe they will send them your way (give them a referral fee as well).

Advertisement in the paper or papers - make your ad different from the rest of the ads in the paper - not the simple... mobile home lots for rent, call ???. Instead, try something like... Incredibly Large and Spacious Mobile Home Sites... We will pay you $1,000.00 to help with moving costs! The first five callers will also get the first 3 months Rent FREE! - you get the point, make it stand out and make it enticing.

Start a Community Newsletter and send out the best stories from your newsletter to the local paper to have published. Most local newspapers have a community or local section and are always looking for good stories to publish. Also, if you get the email address from all potential prospects, you can send them this newsletter every month so when they think about moving they won't have forgot about you.

Signs on Vacant Lots - put nice signs on your vacant lots with a phone number for people to call.

Banner signs at entrance - big move in special or discounted rate or we pay you $1,000 to move your home to our park type of banners around the perimeter on high traffic areas of the park.

Telephone Book - make sure that you have an ad in the phone book as this is where many of your potential customers will find you. In the ad, you might want to include something about your move-in specials or direct them to your website to find out the move-in special of the month.

Finally, when you are out there doing your marketing, it is important to test what is working and what is not working. If you run ads in the paper and get no calls... then stop running that ad and try a different one. If none of your park residents are referring people to move in, find out way and up the ante.

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