All Forum Posts by: Joe Hartman

Any updates on how things are working out? Any leads turn to contracts or purchases?

Also, is their any magic to getting a list like this besides paying for it? Are you using a scrapper (i.e. scrapebox) on some RE agent site to get these emails?

Please keep me in the loop. I'll keep a look out for a PM or a follow up post. Might be a little hard to swing 2 boot camps, so hopefully the near future is sooner than later so I can make a choice. Looks like the teaser worked!

Jim Johnson - How difficult is it to actually find someone that has the skillset to fix things up, as well as the desire to manage a park? @75 pads, that's 150 adults (ballpark). Not the biggest pool to choose from. You seem like the type that already has things already laid out ahead of time (routines to complete, training, etc.), but what would you do if no one was a good fit? I'm sure you could find and train someone by advertising, but would a "non-professional" property manager, who did not live in the park, still work out well?

A concern of mine is the cost of having full time employee vs part time employee (greeter/maintenance) + contractors (handyman/tree service/electrician). But I guess both models work.
Thanks for all your help.

**Side Note** - are you still doing the boot camps? I’m (hopefully) planning on going to the Orlando one coming up in Jan.

Dale Osborn - Thanks for the heads up. I found them. Here are the links for anyone else interested...


http://www.biggerpockets.com/articles/2821-mobile-home-park-manager-duties-part-1-

http://www.biggerpockets.com/articles/3293-mobile-home-park-manager-duties-part-2

and here's a link to Dale's uploaded docs that are on topic as well...

http://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/Realtyman

Really appreciate your help.
Joe

Just wondering how people are managing their mobile home parks, assuming that you are not doing it yourself. Obvious answer = it depends on the # of pads, if you are renting the dirt or also renting units, if it has other income like storage units/RVs, if it is a fancy retirement community with rec centers/pools. But how would you asses a property and decide on management structures taking these factors into consideration.

Things I've seen so far,
1) "Greeter" that hand out applications, take applications, watch over and report what's going on in the park
2) "Maintenance person" - mows lawn, fixes up empty units, picks up trash
3) Person does #1 and #2 but has a much larger roll as "manager"
4) "Professional" manager or company that offers all the bells and whistles

Also, I'm assuming everyone's getting Work Comp for all employees?

Are your management people ever collecting rents, or do you have your tenants mail checks to a PO Box or deposit it to a local bank? Some banks have it where you can scan a check or take a pic and send it on your phone, anyone making use of this?

Would it ever make sense to have a "full time" person on staff? Maybe in the # of units that I won't be messing with, but just curious.

Thanks,
Joe

Which agents seem to be more responsive, the residential or the commercial?

Also, which agents have been more informative/knowledgeable about the property/area as far as things you are looking for (growth, jobs, city planning, etc)?

Is this your first test using this method, or is this something you revisit every so often?

Thanks for the updates!

Thank you both for your responses. After seeing some of your other answers, I was hoping that the 2 of you would chime in. Here's some follow up questions/comments I have for you... or anyone else out there.

1) Jim - "I tend to stay far away from markets with 'high' values..."

Invest where the #'s make sense. I'm still feeling anxious about being an out of area owner. I'm in Fl, so it might have to be something to get over.

Dale - "FL - 6 months of each year is spent watching for hurricanes"

Does that make you stay away from other areas with other natural disasters, like earthquakes/tornadoes?

2) Jim - "I can price knowing the 2 bed / 2 bath apartment rents in the area."

How exactly are you doing this? Is it something like... 3/2 mobile home PITI + pad fee = or < 2/2 rental? Before you wrote that, I was thinking that the total monthly out of pocket for the mobile home owner needs to be somewhere between a 1/1 and a 2/2, but I haven't looked into it yet.

Dale -"Nearby parks? Tampa and Lakeland, FL?"

Sorry. By nearby parks, I meant in an area that has a high density of MHP. Lakeland and Tampa were just some examples that I knew off the top of my head.

3) Jim - "Roads- the killer here is trash removal. If you have paved roads, use dumpsters at the front of the park. I have both and the asphalt requires you to put away capital improvement funds, the gravel is yearly maintenance. The banks and insurance companies like the asphalt. For me it is all the same really- though I would lean to asphalt."

All things that make sense that I wouldn't have thought of, till in that situation. And it may have cost some $ by that point.

Dale - "Asphalt is best except when it needs to be resurfaced."

Something to consider as a negotiating point when purchasing. Any ballpark estimates on how to figure the cost?

4) Jim - "So I like, university's, county seats, level 1 trauma hospitals, prisons, stable employment bases that are diverse... I look for the school district NOT to be the largest employer. Then branch out- look at the county and the state."

Most people looking into MHP, myself included, probably start from the state level and try to work down. I like this local approach and expanding out from there.

Dale - "I prefer to be close, but first MHP was in NC, 2nd in CO then 3 & 4 are in WA"

So you started distant and then went more local. Do you treat your local one's any different? Do you visit there more, just because you can, or do you still try to manage from afar? Are you using onsite people to manage, or property management companies? Is there a # of pads/units that changes the management approach... or would it be the same if you had a 10 unit or 100 unit MHP?

6) Jim - "building suck"
Dale - "No Buildings!"

So if you see a place that has a couple duplexes on site, do you pass over them, or do you just discount them down to justify the hassle? And if you bought one out of your area, would that change your management strategy, or what you pay your manager?

7) Jim - "I vote RV off the island... "

Dale - "No RV sites! You want stability not transience"

Looks like it's as bad/worse as buildings. I think I'll pass on these all together, or at least till I understand that business a little better.

One other thing I was thinking about... Are there any trends that are promising or possible problems that are surfacing? New laws? Mobile home companies producing house too big for the lots? Concerns of reduced # of mobile homes being produced?

Anything else?

I've read some of the other post, like http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/30/topics/72432-is-there-a-sweet-spot-for-mh-park-size-and-type to poll people for what they look for in a park. Things came up like 30-100 pads, no wells or septics, owner willing to finance, none of the units are rentals, park is just outside big market, stable or growing market with job market to support it, etc.

Is there anything else? Here are some topics just for example...

1) Invest in areas like CA or FL with high property values. Upside is a developer may want to buy you out, low cap rate when selling, or value still high if things go wrong. Downside is lower cap rate while owning.
2) Do you like having nearby parks? Upside easier to get market values, easier to see if there is a viable market before going, a little competition is always a good thing? Or downside might be easy for a tenant to just move their MH to that other park. If you do like it, how about at the amounts seen in places like Tampa and Lakeland, FL?
3) Do you prefer asphalt, gravel or other for roads? Upside curb appeal, downside upkeep?
4) If you don't care about investing close to home, are there areas of the country you prefer to look? Why?
5) Do you look much at aesthetics thinking that if you improve it, you can increase the value? Cut the grass, trim trees, keep the roads usable, a nice sign out front... are there any other aesthetics that you feel has a + ROI, either by keeping/obtaining tenants or raising rents?
6) Buildings on site? Are they a headache you don't want to deal with, or are they an added bonus to make $ off of?
7) RV sites? Besides making it harder to get funding, does this make you pass before you even look into a property b/c of the more time needed to run it.

I'm not a MHP owner, but am looking into it. So what's your opinion? Got anything else to say about something I missed?

Thanks,
Joe