All Forum Posts by: Dave Rav

@Craig Parsons trick?  Nobody is tricking anyone.  If anything, the real "trick" is providing a service to someone at no-cost, then having to pay the repair bill when the infrastructure for that free service breaks or when performing regular maintenance (pumpouts).

Family size is definitely a consideration.

When was a tenant, I cant recall anything being provided for free.  That would be like saying, "hey you have all these extra parking spots, let me just park all 5 of my cars in your parking spots.  After all , the spaces are just there anyways, right?"

Wrong.  Number 1, it's their property and they determine its use.  Number 2, there was a cost associated with setting up that amenity.  And number 3, there is value in extra parking! (ie, you can - and should- charge for that)

@Logan M. and others:

something else I've been mulling... if you have septic for sewer, why not bill tenants a flat rate?

After all private utility isn't "free" as it's perceived to be.  There is an infrastructure and maintenance cost to the landlord.  (Free for tenant, yes)

And I'm suggesting a flat rate sewer fee.  The cost would be LESS than the tenant would typically pay through city sewer.  All the while, this small cost helps offset the cost of the septic.  So hopefully all parties would be happy with the arrangement.

Thoughts?

We too have considered providing WiFi.  I do like your idea of the "tech package" with assoc. fees.

The major con that has kept us from implementing has been - management burden.  You touched on this as well 

If any problems, mgmt will be flooded with calls regarding this non-essential amenity.  People will get unhappy rather quickly.
this, plus it's one more thing to "babysit".  We prefer hands-free as much as possible (most utilities and services for us are tenant-responibility).  

These considered, not sure the potential extra profit would be worth the hassle.

yes.  We've done that.  Most important things are knowing about the Park you're in:

1)  How do they view investors?  

2)  Are investors allowed (can you rent out the homes)?  We've seen answers range from a flat "no" to only allowing lease options to full "yes".

3)  How much is lot rent?  Look at this like a regime fee on a condo.  Does the regime fee offset your ability to make positive cashflow.  We like parks with lot rent that is on the lower side of average.

4)  Most parks have a process for approving your tenants.

Further, we own a Park and do allow investors to rent out their homes (we have 2 currently).  

I'd say cap rates simply get your interest in the property.  

Too low and I pass.  Way too high, and I feel someone doesnt know how to calculate!  Its the ones that are "reasonably good" that I look further into.

@Matt McCurdy - by the way, FB marketplace posting was F-R-E-E.  This is different than FB advertising (which costs, and we've done in the past)

A followup to our RTO unit. So, using FB marketplace we spent $0 on advertising, received over 60 messages and had a tenant buyer placed within 72 hours. They moved in put down $6k and now the property positive cashflows $650/mo.

There's your success story.  Feb 2024

I think maybe your sample size is too small to consider these summarizations. I would think rent to own or owner financing would work superbly. We posted an RTO in South Carolina last week and received over 2,600 clicks on the ad! We had over 60 messages and easily 20 serious RTO tenant-buyers! Additionally, with it being tax return time, folks have money to execute. Do your thing!

Hi Jimmy.  Yes, financing can be challenging.  But you are correct, often seller fi is a component of the financing.  It does vary, but it never hurts if you ask the seller.

Will the park your buying be POHs or TOHs?  Some banks may only loan based on the value of the land.  

Very sorry to hear about your loss claim.  When I fire read your post titled "FIRE" I thought you were referring to financial independence! :)

We too have experienced a fire in a POH.  Similar to you, ours had just undergone a renovation about a year prior.  The fire was not intentional; the tenant simply didn't pay attention while cooking in kitchen.  (this is the cause of well over 50% of fires - cooking).  Our tenant admitted such, but in the end it didn't make a difference.  We were fortunate this doublewide wasn't a complete loss, as it was a 4/2 and brought in big cashflow.  Quick response to firefighters (located in a suburban area of Columbia, SC)   Still, the renovations, claim filing, and hassle wasn't fun.  Getting smoke odor out of a home is nearly impossible  Months later, the smell of smoke remained despite attempts to mitigate and eliminate this odor.  Thankfully, the future tenants didn't seem to mind though!

Absolutely!  You never know a person's situation.

A couple other reasons why a person would seller fi:
1) they have had other offers "fall out" due to any number of issues with financing

2)  they have a "unique" property, which may be difficult to sell using institutional financing.