All Forum Posts by: Aaron R.

@Brent Bialik. I think that property is pending. They are marketing at a 6.8% cap rate. Do you expect to have positive cash flow?

@Andriy BoychukGenerally I pay my trusted plumber their standard rates for sewer pipe investigation. Normally this will be 1 plumber at ~$100/hr plus a per hour fee for the equipment. Make sure you hire plumbing companies that don't work off commission, they'll tell you if you ask. For the last park I bought total cost came to around $350.  Pretty insignificant compared to the 850k purchase price.

@Colleen Carnahan First of all, you should check your comps to see what others are doing at your price point. 

Flooring: I personally wouldn't put laminate in my flips. That being said, laminate can work if you pick the right one. Also, we spend about $2 for wood plank tile (including mortar and grout) and another $2.25 for install. Not sure what you plan to spend on laminate for materials and install, but the savings may not be that much.

Counter tops: You may want to try pre-fab granite/quartz. This will definitely save you money if you can make it fit your kitchen. I'm seeing quartz more often than granite these days in Central Phoenix.

Windows: The old phoenix single pane windows certainly don't help a house sell. This matters to buyers, but you need to get quotes so you can understand how much it will cost you. 

@David Song I've had good luck working with the local movers in my area to find homes to move into my parks. Just give them a call, explain your situation and they may have homes that fit your criteria. Also be aware with old single wides there may be laws that prohibit moving homes built prior to 1978 from park to park without certain renovations if you plan to get the home installs permitted; which is recommended. This is the case in Arizona. In Arizona we are allowed to move older homes from private lots to parks though without the renovations. Also, you may want to provide incentives for people to move homes in such as paying all the moving costs. 

@Clint Looper I bought a park that was 42% occupied this past March. This park came with about 20 park owned vacant homes, most of which required significant rehab work to make them habitable. Some we just had to scrap. We are now at 65% and will probably be at 90% or greater by March of next year. Word of caution is that you need to have plenty of cash available and need to locate an onsite manager/maintenance man that is willing to work hard for you. Fixing up old mobile homes is a can of worms and can get expensive compared to the sales price of the home. If a home needs a lot of work or we move a home into the park we will lose money on the sale of that home a majority of the time. However this is fine because our intention is to raise the value of the park by bringing the occupancy up. I've seen a lot of park owners let their park's occupancy drop or remain stagnant because they don't understand the value of filling spaces even if it costs them money. 

The other thing you need to understand is the condition of the infrastructure that you will own. That can cost you a significant amount of cash. When maintenance is deferred things like electrical pedestals, water lines, gas lines etc start going bad and need repair/replacement.

I'm happy to share the details of the repipe project as we move through it.

@Andriy Boychuk. We have used American leak detection before. They are very expensive. Then there is the actual cost to dig and repair each leak. We operated for a few years with very few leaks, fixing as they happened. At some point it makes sense to repipe. I'm confident when we sell our park we will recoup the money we put in.

We are getting ready to put new water lines in our 45 space park within the 6 months. Existing pipes are 50+ year old galvanized. In just the past 6 months we've had more than $5,000 in water leaks and about $10,000 in the past 1.5 years. At this point there is no choice but to replace them. Not sure the exact cost as we are still in the planning phase (utility locating, surveying, and mapping out the best/least expensive route). 

@Thomas S. Sorry, meant to say it is due on the 1st, but late fees start after the 6th.

In my 100% occupied 45 space park we charge $5/day. Rent is due on the 6th. Starting on the 7th they are charged $35 and so on. In 2016 we collected $8694 in late fees. We let a tenant get a month behind before sending notices and starting evictions. Since they own their home they are motivated to get caught back up including all back late fees.