All Forum Posts by: John Paul Schreiner

@Account Closed Fort Worth

@Account Closed Rhanks for the response! I’m actually putting some thought into it recently. I just found out I won’t be able to get it zoned for MH or RV. So I’m trying to come up with some other options. Do you have some suggestions on finding out more about the Tiny Home world? I’m concerned that would take a significant amount of upfront investment. 

Looking for advice...and I’ll try to keep it short.

My grandfather owns a small mobile home park in Texas. The land itself is divided into 8 lots. One of the lots was supposedly sold to my grandfather, but the title was never filed and the taxes ended up not getting paid on it. This is a key part of the property because the driveway for the rest of the court is on it. But it has no structures on it.

Five years ago that property was sold by the county for a tax lien. The current owner purchases these liens and has several 100 properties. He has probably spent close to $13,000 on it for the purchase and property tax. I approached this investor and asked if he would be interested in selling the land. (Pretty sure he has never stepped foot on it and my grandfather has kept it up) Since it was not listed for sale, he eventually told me the price was $25,000. We agreed to pay and sent the contract to his office. He then told us through his secretary that the price was $27,000. When we called today to verify this, he said the property is no longer for sale. Wouldn’t even give us a price.

I’m trying to figure out this guys motivations? Are we SOL? It’s a key component of the property. It has potential devastating impacts to growing the business or even the property value as a whole. Would a property attorney be worth looking into? Any referrals for one?

The property in question is outlined in red. 62P4

My grandfather has owned a small mobile home park since the 50’s. It is failing along with his health. He has 13 metered pads with 8 currently being rented at $300 per month. He also has enough undeveloped land on the property to add 10-15 more pads. I recently game across a property management company that is willing to come in and help get the park back in order. Something my mother doesn’t have the skill set to do. 

I think there is an opportunity for me to come in and turn the property around make it a cash flow generating investment while helping my family out at the same time. I am looking for some creative input on how to make this happen. Originally I was planning on continuing to operate the park as a MHP but the management couple thinks it would perform better as a RV Park. Doing this would mean I wouldn’t have to apply for a zoning change (long story).

Here is my plan:

- Purchase the property from my grandfather for $225,000 and workout a seller finance payment plan. 
- Collect current rents, clean up the place. 
- Invest some of my own money and find some financing to add pad spots. Maybe 5 to start with. Assuming $10-15,000 per spot  - Setup some RV storage while renovating
-Increase lot rents to $400
- When my grandfather passes (maybe in a couple years?) or when I have improved the property enough, get a loan financed through the bank to hopefully get back most of the investment money. I will need to do this to pay out the inheritance money to his daughters on the original purchase price of $225,000. I might be able to continue seller financing through his daughters.

There are a lot of ways to work this out and also several details not included to keep this brief. 

I am trying to figure out how to structure this so that we can beat avoid a large tax burden. I don’t want my grandfather to have to pay capital gains tax and I don’t want his daughters to have to pay taxes on their “inheritance” money. I’m not sure that’s possible. 

Also, any thoughts on the general investment would be appreciated. Thoughts on mobile home park vs. long term RV park?

I'm looking for a good CPA in the Fort Worth area with real estate experience. I would prefer to find someone that can offer some guidance rather than just do the paperwork. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the input. I had a feeling this could be handled differently depending on the view point. We did purchase the property under the LLC to maintain asset protection. Which do you think is the more common route?

My father-in-law and I own a duplex rental property that we have a commercial loan on with our LLC. We are pretty green with understanding all the in's and out's of rental properties, but we are educating ourselves. We are considering refinancing our property outside of the LLC with a conventional mortgage. Doing so would increase your monthly cash flow by almost $500. From my understanding, we could keep the title under the LLC and go through financing individually. Is this correct? Are there liability implications for going this route?