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All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Account Closed has started 0 posts and replied 133 times.

Post: Thoughts on what this park is worth? i need to make an offer

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

Don't make the mistake of overpaying for this because you are self-managing.   Self-managing is not the norm so you should at least pay yourself a management fee in addition to your return.  Here's are some other numbers you can plug in:

1. Insurance: Liability (If you plan on financing this and I hope you do, you will have to have it) $750-$1,000; 

2. Park owned homes will be .75% - 1% of your insurable value.  In this case, the amount required to bring another home in.  You can buy, move/set-up/renovate a home for $10,000 if you know what you're doing and if you are ok with mid-late 80's model homes.  $1,200-$1,600.  This won't go on your P&L because you are valuing the homes at a wholesale value.

3.  Speaking of wholesale value, the homes are probably worth no more than $2,000 a piece.  Most of these homes can be sold for around twice that for cash but it will likely take you 2-3 years to sell off 16 to residents who are worth selling to.  Most of your current residents won't be buyers.

4.  You may manage this yourself but that is not the norm.  For a park like this, your management compensation package should be around $400-$500 per month.  $250 for in free lot rent and $150-$250 in either free home rent or salary.  This won't buy you much but that's the industry norm on a park this size.  Your next buyer and your bank will use a number very close to this so you better put it in or else you've overpaid.

5.  Dirt roads require maintenance.  In addition, banks and future buyers are not fond of them.  Even if you can keep the cost of having them down, you still have the added headache of having less financing options and a reduced number of future buyers when you exit.  

6. Travel: Imagine you are self managing and imagine you have tenants who aren't trained to pay on time. Also imagine that you are in court every month for the next year after you buy this park. That will soon be your reality. I would again, re-think self-managing. Some states require an attorney to represent you in court if you own in an LLC. If this is the case, then you will need to make changes to my P&L below.

The annualized land-lease component P&L will likely look like this:

Revenue
Lot rent: $48,000
-Less Vac Loss: $2,640 (5%, you may be more like 10% in yr 1 considering the current owner probably doesn't have a screening process)
Total: $45,360

Expenses
Water/sewer/trash: $17,280
Insurance: $1,000
Taxes: $7,692 (this is an insane number for a park this size.  Make sure this is RE taxes and not personal property.  Your taxes on homes should not be included on this eval because they belong to the wholesale value of the inventory)
Management: $4,800
R&M on infrastructure: $2,700
Lawn/Snow: $1,200 (hard to estimate when I haven't seen it or know where it is)
Legal/Accounting: $1,000 (see number 6)
Travel: ? (you'll be there about 4-6 times next year even if you hire a manager)
Advertising: $500 (don't just rely on Craigslist)
Electricity: $900 (don't include electricity for homes here, this is street lights)
General Admin: $250
Reserves: $1,800 (there are people on these forums who will tell you that you don't put this above the line.  My mortgage broker says you do.  I trust my mortgage broker over some guy on bigger pockets)
Total: $39,122

NOI: $6,238

On a 10CAP, you would pay $62,380 and maybe give a total inventory value to the homes of $32,000, for a total of $94,380.  Changing the taxes above will make this offer amount much higher if those include the home taxes.

Your upside is in recapturing a portion of the water/sewer/trash. The best you can hope for is about 90% due to leaks and bad debt. So, $15,552 can be added to the NOI each year at a cost of around $4,000 for the meters and installation. If you bid it out really well, you can do it for $4,000 on 16 analog meters under the homes with digital displays on the side of the trailers. You may even DIY the labor since you plan on self managing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to install a water meter.

I would find out what the RE taxes are on the park and fix my evaluation.  Then, I would take the $15,552 of upside and add it in to get an offer range.  For example, since installing meters is such easy upside, then you might say that the potential NOI is $21,790.  My criteria states that I want to be at better than a 13CAP after easy upside is achieved.  So, my max offer is $167,000 here plus the inventory of $32,000, minus the $4,000 to get it there, equaling roughly $195,000.  So, I'll start this seller out somewhere between $94,380 and $195,000.  Where I am willing to go on this range depends largely on leverage.  If the seller is holding the paper with really good terms, I'll usually be willing to go all the way up to $195,000.  If there is no financing (from seller or bank), I might not even be willing to do $94,380.  Your goal is to have something like this cash flowing better than 20% within three-four months and also have some equity.  If you self-manage, it should also pay you for your time above and beyond the return.

Post: Mobile Home Park Investing

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

Jonathan, much appreciated!  Our goal was to give the most actionable content available so I'm glad you are out there making it work!

Post: 1m mobile home park

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

On the financing side, you should be ok to get a local bank to do this provided the seller has kept their books and is operating the park somewhat normally.  The 73% occupancy will be a finance challenge but it is still in the range of what most banks are comfortable with.  For you to get financed, you will generally need to meet the following requirements:

- Have a net worth in excess of the loan amount

- Have personal reserves of roughly $100,000 (10% of the purchase price) after you close.

- Good credit

- Reliable income source (don't tell the bank you want this to replace your job, you'll freak them out!)

Post: 1m mobile home park

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

I would say the price is fairly close to reasonable.  The lot rents are incredibly low though.  Most of the parks I own or am involved in have rents in the $250-$350 range.  That being said, you may want to get some comps because those rents seem low even for Southern IL.

I would imagine that the expense ratio in a park like this will be close to 50% on the lots. Mostly due to the lot rents being so low. Certain expenses are fixed in a 100 space park. For example, management will cost you about $20,000, insurance will cost you about $6,000-$8,000, R&M on just the lots & infrastructure will likely be $10-$15k. With just those three expenses, you are already close to 30% on just the lot income. 50% would give you an NOI on lots of roughly $75,000 (95x$130x12x.5)

Meaning that your purchase is likely between an 8-9 CAP depending on what you feel the wholesale value of the homes are. This isn't bad but I wouldn't personally do this deal unless I could take the rents up to at least $150 or $160 immediately. That will likely be what's needed to get to 20%+ cash on cash.

Post: Hiring a MHP Manager

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

Garrett,

On a 20 space park, you are probably just going to give them free rent.  Their duties will generally be:

- Eyes and ears

- Collect the rent/deposit

- Hand out letters/notices/what-nots

- Meet/Inspect the work done by contractors

- Show Units

Any extra pay might be justified for:

- Mowing

- Competently going to court on your behalf

- Commissions for selling a home or 100% collections for a month

- Doing a renovation

Don't expect to get someone competent in a 20 space park...  However, you really only need someone who can do the basics.

Post: 1m mobile home park

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

William,

Welcome to Bigger Pockets!  First and foremost, you will need to watch yourself in southern IL.  Really test the market to be sure you have acceptable demand for your affordable housing product.  Southern IL has a lot of markets where more traditional housing competes with the affordable model, which is not ideal.

Next, anyone looking to help you out here will need a tad more information to assist you in an evaluation.  Here is a bare minimum:

Lots occupied by paying humans:

Lot Rent:

Utilities and who pays them:

Number of Park Owned homes:

- Number of occupied:

- Number of vacant:

- General condition/year:

What do you see the upside in the deal being:

That should get us started on the evaluation.

Post: Wanting to learn more about Property Management with Mobile Homes

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

Thanks for the plug Mark!

Andrew, I would advise you to look into property management on the apartment side of multifamily.  Mobile home parks are great to own, but I personally think you'll learn more from the apartment side of the business.  For example:

 - You will be exposed to much more sophisticated marketing (We usually only do bandit signs and craigslist)

 - You'll be better trained on leasing and fair housing.  Most of the managers we've inherited didn't even know what fair housing was before we came into their lives.

 - You'll be better trained on sales.  I should say that you'll actually be trained on sales.  Most of our managers have zero sales experience or ability.  Kevin and I usually handle most of the sales ourselves and we are going to be creating a central sales position soon in our company to handle it going forward.

A management company specializing in apartments will typically be able to train you much better and pay you a lot more than being a manager at a park.  If you are looking for an education, go to the most sophisticated management company you can go to.  Start wherever they put you and show up everyday to learn as much as you can from as many people who will teach you.  That would be how I would do it if that were my goal.  If given the option, start as a leasing agent.

Post: Mobile Home Park Offer Sheet

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  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

Justin,

I have never had a seller ask for a proof of funds so, unless you are sending it over for a specific purpose (e.g. making an all cash offer and showing proof that you have all of the cash) then I don't think you need to do that.  If I were the seller and I was carrying 80%, I would dump you as a buyer if you showed me a statement explaining you were getting your down payment from a bank loan.

If you are attempting to walk the seller through an evaluation, get a feel for how they evaluate first.  There are plenty of sellers in our industry who don't even know how an income statement works.  The same could be said for some brokers in our industry as well.  You are not likely going to change someone's opinion on how they evaluate the property's value so you may need to get creative and make your case within the constraints of an incorrect evaluation method.  e.g. I'm working on a property right now where we are negotiating based on what the park's value is per lot.  The sole comp we are using is a property I purchased in that market last month.  His property is nicer so we are are hem-hawing back and forth about whether it is $1,000 per lot nicer or $2,000 per lot nicer.... I know in the back of my mind what price works based on an income approach and as long as we can reach agreement on price, I don't care how we got there.  On the flip side, if I had sent him a ProForma explaining my position, we'd probably still be stuck on whether or not that was how it should be valued.

Post: Mobile Home Park Investing

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

Awesome!  I was about to get on there and find it for you.  Hope you enjoy it!

Post: Mobile Home Park Investing

Account ClosedPosted
  • Investor
  • Oldsmar, FL
  • Posts 140
  • Votes 152

Graham,

Please listen to episode 1 of our podcast.  It's entire episode devoted to a unique way to source deal flow from brokers.  I think you'll find that this is a strategy that will get you what you are looking for:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mobile-home-park-investing/id1121784143?mt=2

To you continued success,