All Forum Posts by: Doug Pintarch

Sometimes newbies come on with barely a pipe dream. "I quit my job, have no cash and I am living in my parents house and I want to own 50,000 units." Half the responses are "you got this, go for it". I am all about positive encouragement, but cheering someone on when they are not ready can actually be dangerous.

On the flip side, I have seen new investors complain that more experienced investors are negative and their mindset is antiquated. They don't want to hear any of the bad stuff and they can't hold up to adversity. Good luck surviving in this business if you cannot even weather a few comments and learn something from it.

My favorite posts are when people say, "Here is my plan, tell me why it won't work." That is someone who understands critical feedback is a key to success. It like when Apple or Tesla pays hackers to find problems in their code. You want to find problems, not ignore them. That is how you get better.

 That's good advice. As a matter of fact I know there's at least 20 or so threads here on BP where I've told people they need to go out & drive for Uber in their spare time while stacking cash for their next down payment on a rental property.

@James Wise

Yes.  People think no money down means there are no other expenses because they don't differentiate between down payment and the myriad other costs that come with buying and keeping a property.

As the others have said, it only takes one bad tenant to bankrupt the person with no cash reserves although I will say if someone is totally committed to success, they will find a way.  Seems I read a thread a while back about how you got started buying properties with credit cards or something like that and now you've got a thriving business.  

Of course, that's a lot different than "no money down" which to me means "I'm not going to take any risk and if something goes south, it's on somebody else to take the hit."  What you did was actually, "I'm putting everything I have, plus some, into this and it's GOING to work."  

I salute the investors who say "Burn the boats, we're not turning back".

Stephanie

I constantly see new posts from members saying things like

• Got a sweet deal, but no money. What do I do?
• How do I find private money?
• How do I fund my deal if I have bad credit & no income etc?
• I want to get started but have no money, What do I do?
• I want to flip houses but I don't have any money. What do I do?

Do you think that there is way too much encouragement and content out there that promotes no money down investing? I find the majority of the no money down content to be very unrealistic.

Thoughts?

The real issue is redevelopment & constricting the supply of MHCs. More MHCs are torn down each year than are newly developed. Dr. Esther Sullivan was mentioned earlier, and she points out the issues with redevelopment in her recent book.

Anyone interested in investing in MHCs should pick it up and read it. After turning the last page, the majority of investors would understand that investing in MHCs is a good thing for society at large - as it helps preserve the country’s affordable housing stock.

Dr. Sullivan’s research chronicles the hardship families face when manufactured housing communities are redeveloped, which occurs when the highest-and-best use of the land is no longer a MHC. When original owners sell to redevelopers, residents are evicted and forced to relocate.

The point she drives home is exemplified in one of our communities in GA — Country Oaks. Had we not gone in, increased rent, & improved the community, it would have eventually been redeveloped into a higher-and-better use. At that point, all residents inside the MHC eventually would have lost their homes to redevelopment. After our turnaround, the mayor wrote a letter of recommendation outlining our our positive impact on the community:

• Letter of Recommendation from the Mayor

Our team has never — and will never — redevelop a manufactured housing community that we own. Affordable housing is in short supply, and we should all do our best to keep the current stock that has been developed.