All Forum Posts by: Adam Johnson

I wouldn't delay contacting your attorney.  In this situation, your attorney's advice will likely be far better than any advice here, particularly because the person that contacted you back (the son) is an attorney.

That said, I wouldn't delay moving forward on legal action with the aid of your attorney.

I realize this thread is a year old, but wanted to add that counting on late fees for ANY pro-forma is bad business, in my opinion. I collect a lot in late fees for various types of property, but I charge off more in bad debt. If you are counting on late fees as a revenue source, you are 1) planning on running your business poorly and 2) setting yourself up to pay too much when you buy it.

I enforce late fee payment every chance I get, don't get me wrong, but I see it as an offset against defaults.

Your comment about hiring someone to tell you if an investment is good or not set alarm bells off for me.  It is great to have trusted and knowledgeable advisors, but dangerous to let them make final decisions for you. Make sure you understand your investments well enough to be able to make your own decisions as well. Spend time educating yourself before jumping in face first.

Very good points. One solution is to maintain control of these components and their maintenance by contract (as the landlord), but Bill them back to the tenant as a CAM charge. This should be spelled out in the lease, including what percentage of CAM charges are the tenants responsibility. A NNN lease should never be considered an excuse to be an absent landlord. Protect your asset!

Jim Johnson hit my points exactly. That is a very small Park for a remote owner. Relying on the local handyman is dangerous, what if he is no longer available? How do you replace him? What do you do in the meantime.

The numbers don't impress me, neither do being all park owned homes.  The only way a park this size would get a second glance would be if it was geographically close to something else I already owned and managed.  Even then, 500+ for 11 units isn't worth a return phone call in my book.

Best of luck and happy hunting!

Sounds good. I forgot to mention fire separation due to mixed use. Not impossible, but trickier if the retail space is occupied already.

Plan for surprises. The ideal time to separate utilities will be now, but that can add more upfront cost. The upside is lower operating costs, or at least better control over costs than you would have with single meter utilities.

Does the zoning allow for this? Have you looked into any code requirements to move nice the upper floors? Considerations need to be made for possible additional stairways, elevator for ADA compliance and sprinklers. Some of these are local, some state level code issues.  Parking requirements can sometimes prove troublesome as well.

That's for sure. Not even December yet!

Protection from drafts and wind is critical.  Heat tape is your number one choice, but if there is a gap in the skirting that allows the wind to get to the pipe, you are fighting a losing battle.  Be sure to follow safety instructions on the heat tape, but generally you can wrap the pipe and heat tape with insulation to protect it from drafts and keep the heat where it should be.  You can also install the service connection pipe in a larger "sleeve" pipe to protect it better.  The sleeve doesn't need to be super heavy duty, even drain tile pipe sliced lengthwise to aid in wrapping the pipe will do the trick.

We have slowly been adding homes the park and/or buying/re-selling homes already there.  We improve the water line protection on every home we sell.  It doesn't need to be really elaborate, use the heat tape (per instructions for safety) and protect it from wind.

I try very hard not to get involved.  Our park rules clearly state that we are responsible only up to the point of connection, which is in a box below grade.  The tenant is responsible for operating and maintaining a heat tape to protect the line from that point to their home, as well as throughout the home as necessary.  I don't go so far as recommending a plumber, I simply advise them to contact one that they choose in the event that they freeze.

It is important to have, and enforce, a rule about heat tape.  It is equally important (slightly less so if sub-metered) to enforce tenants NOT running water to try to prevent freezing.  That doesn't work and will also freeze up their (and potentially your) sewer lines during extended deep freezes.  When we took over our park, water consumption jumped approximately 10-15,000 gallons per DAY when it would get really cold out as a result of everyone running water to try to prevent freezing.  Running water still freezes.  We have reduced that number, but it continues to be an ongoing challenge.