All Forum Posts by: Jim Johnson

just a note- on Thursday Morning we have a breakfast in Lafayette. We will talk about presenting deals to other investors. I will bring my package so everyone can see it, and if you bring a flash drive- I will give you a copy. I will not email it out- to get it you must attend. Morning Glory Cafe @ 1377 Forest Park Circle Suite 101 Lafayette, CO 80026
The group here is called- Connected Real Estate Investors in Denver. I happen to be presenting my package, so if anyone from here wants to join- feel free to jump in.

I am not sure if this link will get cut by a moderator- but here is the link to the facebook page of the local group-
[/url]http://www.facebook.com/groups/354372074634392/[url]

So the emotions are fun to track in this process. A park that looks good pops up, and then something is wrong with it... just done email on one where the everything lines up- right until the seller is applying the CAP tot he Gross Income... and my last contact with the Broker was- he was thinking of raising the price. Too bad- he is about 300,000 overpriced. Today I had about 20 fresh leads on 350 emails sent...
Something will pop...

working on about 15 new leads daily now. Some might pan out.
These are stagnant deals that should be listed nationally, but are only on the local MLS systems.
So here is tech tip- I use 'Atomic Mail Sender' to do my mailing lists. I runs on my computer, I can set it up to use my gmail account... I also use the Atomic List Manager.
I do not want to send out thousands of emails at a time- I could not manage the reply's, I can send about 350 a day and not get overloaded... this system lets me not pay monthly for a server site- like constant contact etc... if I need to sen out more- I can use more than one email.
Tech tip- emails accounts have limits on the number of emails you can sent. SMTP server limits. Gmail is about 500 a day- others very. If your sending more than 500- you can split the sending between other accounts- or route through a SMTP server other than your gmail server...

Dale- good question. I also have contacts into the big players, but LOTS of the best deals, never are listed by the big guns. Many are listed as land- homes or in a local commercial MLS. So- you did the math- here is how we break it down. In every city of 1500 or more- we contact two agents- one residential and one commercial. We tell tehm we ahve access to loopnet, and mobilehomeparkstore stuff- we are looking for pocket listing and local mls stuff. I have that same agent list for almost every state- not some of the new England area- too far for me to go... and we are only looking for mobile home parks.

I sent out 350 emails yesterday evening- 9pm my time. Over 30 reply's so far- some saying- I have a great lead... etc... It is about 9:30am. So that is overnight, 12 hours. Today- I will send the next 350 out...

So what is everyone doing to find deals. I will share the things I do- as I do them, maybe others will as well.
So today, I sent out 350 emails to agents in texas asking if they know of any parks for sale in their areas. I have 1400 agents emails in texas- 2 in each town with more than 1000 people in it.
So- out of that I will get some good leads. The parks that are good, but I am not interested in, I will probably put under contract and then flip the contracts, or pass on the lead for a 'fee' if the deal gets closed.

I will do this same email blast to about 30 states I am looking in.
So that is one of my ways of finding deals- what say you all?

I am asked time and time again how to go about managing mobile home parks out of state. While there are lots of high tech tools I use- the biggest tool I have is time. See, time is the thing that lets you bring perspective to a situation, it adds clarity, and saves lots of money. There are very few things that happen in the operations of a mobile home park that require reaction. As the owner and off site manager, your biggest skill set is using your head to solve problems. It might be building a set of steps to solve an issue. You might weigh the cost benefits of a emergency repair, or the cost of leaving something in a failed state and really hit it with a clean head later. After you have a plan, you are acting. You will always make adjustments on the way, and some of them might be on the spot- but in the long run if you control through reaction, and not through action, you might rethink your management style.

There are so many steps to buying a mobile home park, but there are a few that you must do to move forward. Many people get stuck in the process, and the what if stuff, and never even take the step to make an offer on a park. Break this down a bit- if the park is for sale- it is for sale. So the asking price is not what your looking for- MAKE AN OFFER. I will add- make a intelligent offer. Look at the income, expenses, the local market and the rest of the stuff that is important to you- and make a offer you can support with your data. I have seen parks go under contract for 50% of the asking price. At some point- park owners that are selling just want some action. Maybe the park has been listed for a long time- and they have not had an offer in forever.

live example- today, there are 428 MHP's that are listed on loopnet that have been listed over a year. There are 247 that have been listed over 2 years. There are 52 that are just listed in the wrong part of the MLS- I wonder how much 'action' those parks are getting...

Step 1- find a park and make an offer- step 2, who knows? Maybe the reason the park is not selling is there is bad financing in that area- so they 'solve' you financing issue by doing a owner carry...

my point is- you have zero idea of what your next step is until you 'have a ball in play'. It takes a lot of hits to make a home run...

That is just one place to look- there are many others

I look at the 'mid level' apartment rent in a given market. Then I take the blended home payment and space rent payment added together to compare this too. I am looking at totals and the ratios. I want the total payment to be about 70 or 80% of the amount charged for the apartment. I also want the lot rent under 50% of this number. There are some fairly complex reasons for this, but in short, if space rents are too high, it drives the price of homes way down OR extends the payments out too far... It also has a effect on vacancy and people plucking homes out of the market for lower space rent markets.

Buildings - I have clubhouses and single family homes inside of my parks. I rent the homes, which is a pain. If I could have I would have split them off on the purchase side and sold them off. Mine are required, or deep in the park so splitting them out is really not a option. I have though about selling the homes, and still charging the 'lot rent' as a CAM charge on a very long term lease.

Building look nice, and for certain types of financing you will need them, and pools, and parks etc. I run in the smaller park crowd so Conduit Loans and the like are not things I think about much. I like simple, not too many moving parts.

Trends- well, yes. So in Texas and in Nebraska, in one city each I think, they have started a 'rental permit' and 'renters permit'. So the land owner gets a permit, and can only rent to people with permits. They want secure and verifiable ID, which some people do not have, or are not willing to go down the road of that type of oversight. This could really effect parks that service farming areas, or labor pools.

Also- in some states to title a home in your name you need secure and verifiable ID, same issues as above. Houses pass without processing the titles- another problem. The trend is to hold the landlord accountable for not renting to someone- you can fill in the blanks.

Last- The safe act has made on site financing a thing of the past. Many have moved to lease options. So any profit you though you mike make on interest is gone. If you borrow to bring in the house you will have to factor it into your sales price...

opinions vary... but that is my quick and dirty take...

I would be looking in Michigan for homes as far North as you are. If you contact me I will get you a name of a guy I know that has lines on homes in your area as well. He is a great 'bird-dog' for finding homes.