All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Brian Adams what are your thoughts on where we are in the cycle? Are you continuing to buy? Are you using longer term (7-10 yr) agency debt or something shorter term?

Brian Adams which of the deals you mentioned have you been the sponsor on? All except the 270?

Ariel O. understood, but was thinking as you grow and try to buy bigger parks, you'll eventually have to bring in equity. The company I work for invests in apartments and we buy deals $15 million and up. We are constantly raising money for our fund because we buy around $100 million in deals each year. Very few people have $25 million they can invest each year without bringing in OPM.

Ariel O. When I mention equity, I'm not referring to getting a loan to buy the park, rather, equity needed for the down payment and rehab. I'm hearing from sponsors that equity is hard to find.

One of the big challenges I've read about lately is the ability to raise equity. For the same reason a many people don't chase these investments, many equity investors are gun shy as well.

Land cost and construction costs make small developments very difficult to build profitably.

Everything I'm reading about MHP investing is so overwhelmingly positive.  Part of that is due to the fact that most is written by park owners, so that's understandable.  I like the business model, but am curious why no one is discussing the risks/potential downsides of the industry and what they are.  Things like:

- hard to find good deals?

- difficult to raise money from investors?

- tough to get financing?

- hard to manage?

Ariel O. Thanks for the comments. Are you finding good velocity of deals at the higher cap rates, or are the majority you see at the lower?

@Johnny Kula what size are you looking for?  Anything over 4 units your best bet is to make friends with commercial brokers who specialize in MF and get on their lists.

You are getting a lot of good advice from local Chicago investors. It's obviously up to you to determine if you found that diamond in the rough that they all missed (or passed on), or if maybe they are all passing for a good reason. I've worked for major investment firms in both cities and lived in both cities. The two cities are NOTHING alike when thinking about investments so in my opinion, comparing neighborhoods is a risky strategy. For starters, SF is 49 square miles and Chicago is 237 square miles. Secondly, Chicago is very pro development. SF exactly the opposite. Just givig you a few things to think about. Best of luck!