All Forum Posts by: Ben Nelson

Yeah unfortunately I don't think re-zoning is an option. we're only about 8 minutes to town, but too far away from growth for anything other than an ag zoning. I do like the idea of the "glamping" or something like that. I'm not sure what restrictions there are around that with the zoning, I'll have to look into that.

I am looking into potentially partnering on someone for wine grapes, but not really sure where to start with that. It's the ideal use for the property I think, but it's a small amount of grapes on only 8 acres or so.

@Jana Crum - A big part in finding and attracting a partner is finding a deal that makes sense for their goals...what is it they're looking for? Is it cash flow, or is it a bigger upside? Are they short-term focused, or long-term? It also means finding a deal that makes sense. I'm not sure the purchase price on this home you mentioned, but if it doesn't cashflow without a significant down payment or by paying cash, it probably doesn't make a big enough return for most investors to get excited about. However, you mentioned the possibility of a duplex, and adding a unit could completely change the scenario. We did that on one we have and turned it from breakeven to a positive cash flow of around $1500/month - albeit we ended up with a bit more capital tied up, but our overall returns jumped significantly. 

That sucks. Possibly a good learning lesson for the future...whenever you purchase, don't bank on the current taxes, especially if you're doing a value-add. The county often will re-assess the value at sale. A sale or permits for rehab/construction are 2 big things that often will trigger them to re-assess. We just had it happen on one of our properties just outside Portland as well.

They typically have an appeal process, so you could try that, but you definitely need supporting evidence as to why they assessed your property too high.

@Trent Warner I'd be more than happy to connect. Just sent you a connection request, shoot me a message and we'll figure out a time to connect more offline

@Ralph Pombo Yeah I’ll keep you posted. I totally get the frustration, to your point there are site-built homes they finance no problem with lower building standards than newer manufactured homes. Maybe eventually lending will catch up. It’s almost non-issue with financing one for a personal residence, it’s just the investor/rental financing that has the problems.

@Ralph Pombo - yeah I figured it was something like that, how you ended up with the property. :) It all comes down to lending guidelines. Simply put, lending guidelines just don’t like manufactured homes as rentals. I’d say it’s possible that some of that could change moving forward with newer manufactured homes, since the way they’re built continues to improve and they are gaining more acceptance in the market, but I think there’s still a lot left both in stigma from consumers as well as from lending from the days of “mobile” homes.

I’ve done a lot with manufactured homes over the last 10 years, so I’ll reach out again to a few of my contacts. If I hear anything different back I sure will let you know.

@Trent Warner - a big piece to help solve your problem is building a great team. A team that knows the market and can give you the information you need without you having to spend all the time digging up the info is critical. You shouldn’t follow them blindly, you can always vet their info, but professionals like your local Realtors and property managers are working in the market every day full-time, and will have a much greater insight into a market than you’ll ever get trying to understand it on your own, especially on a very part-time basis.

@Mel Park I agree with @Rich O'Neill - being an investor in a syndication is a great way to start, to learn the business and make some great profits. Just make sure you vet the team very well. It does all start with what you want out of investing though - if your goal is just to make your money work for you and make some profit, being involved in some good syndications could be a great fit. If you want to be more hands-on and build another business, you might get bored. Then again, you may learn from being a passive investor, and then decide to build your own syndication business. 

One other quick note on rehabbing - if you don’t know anything about construction, be very careful about your team and make sure you hire the right people. It’s super easy to get taken advantage of especially if you don’t know enough to at least have an intelligent conversation with them about the work that needs to be done. Another possibility is bringing on a partner that can help fill in your weak areas with their strengths. The right partner can save a lot of time, money and headache from mistakes.

Hey @Ralph Pombo - Did you originally buy the home as a rental or was it a prior permanent residence? I'd venture to guess it was a prior residence - if it was purchased as a rental I'm actually extremely surprised you were able to finance it in the first place. Unfortunately you've stumbled into the black hole of non-owner occupied manufactured housing. There's essentially almost zero financing available for manufactured homes unless it's owner occupied. It's extremely unfortunate, but that's the case, so it's not even the 2nd position or HELOC aspect that's an issue, it would be very difficult to nearly impossible to get a new 1st position loan. There are a couple specialty lenders that do specifically manufactured, and they may do it, but the terms aren't great. I've heard a couple small credit unions that may consider it but have never been able to verify that myself (a reminder to myself to check with them again).

This also may be an instance to look at the investment itself and ask if it’s the best you can do. Unless you’re getting a lot of extra rent for the acreage, to me owning a large parcel is just extra work and liability for not much more return, if any. This could be a good time to review and see if this is something you want in your portfolio long-term, or if it’s time to take that equity and buy something that will perform better for you and fit better with your goals.

Right, it's agricultural/farmland zoning so it can't be developed. Otherwise that's the obvious answer if I could. ;)