All Forum Posts by: Leslie A.

Sounds like talking them into letting you rent it out is your best bet.  Are you getting a good deal on it?

How old is it?  I've moved a 26 year old home before with no problems.

@Mike Gennaro 

  Rachel H. has a book called "Adventures in Mobile Homes" plus an excellent blog called Adventures in Mobile Homes.  I especially enjoy reading the case studies.

Around here some of them have homes the park owns that need repairing and you may be able to buy the home from them or sometimes they may give them to you.

Some of the parks may have moving incentives if you want to move a home into the park.  One of the ones I talked to (but this has been a few years ago) was offering $2500 toward moving and setup costs.

Hi Jim,

I'm in Texas, so don't know what it's like in Connecticut obviously.  I've always heard on forums that parks don't like investors, but in my own personal experience, I've found that almost all the parks I've approached  have been receptive to investors both selling and renting homes in their parks.   I've talked to 7 or 8 and 5 of them said yes.

Yes, the park will have to approve the tenant, but the strictness seems to vary greatly by park.  You definitely want to discuss that and get that settled with the management before buying anything.

I say go meet some park managers!  It was scary at first for me, but all of them have been really nice, so no need to be shy.

@Ron Gage 

  You might want to listen to Bigger Pockets Podcast 075 with John Fedro.  He talks about how much to pay for homes for maximum profit.

Hi Gary, 

I don't have experience with Section 8, but I've read the book "The Section 8 Bible".  You might want to get that, it had a lot of good info.

have you read "Mobile Home Wealth"?  It has quite a bit about rentals

Top dollar for me would be $5,000.  

@Mike Gennaro 

  I know this is an old thread, but wanted to add one thought.

If you develop your park with cash or pay it off quickly with profits, I think it's worth the risk.  If you're going heavily into long term debt, that may not be wise.

Mike,

Yes, we've talked before.  I forgot exactly what about, but I think I'll look it up.  We also have a lot of plant workers coming into our area, plus apparently, we have a strong market for rentals in general.

Mine are all located in parks that we have to pay lot rent on.  We're working on developing our own RV park, but not sure if we'll be successful.  We pay $260 for lot rent, with rents between $650-$780. 

We do weekly rents with 6 month leases.  I'm not sure how long the renters will stay, but we have security deposits to try to keep things long-term.  We chose weekly rent because we can get a lot more money that way.  It is more hassle, so I don't know if I'll like it in the long run.

Why is the MH rental niche uninhabited?  I'd say that it's not.  There are tons of parks that have rentals in them.  Those owners just aren't on forums, I think. 

Of course, some have tried it and didn't like it, and there are those that would criticize landlording in general.  And, of course, most RE investors look down on MHs.  I think the ones who are open to them may be the people who have actually lived in one and discovered they're not that bad! :)

Over on the CRE website, there were several people who focused on MH rentals and felt they were profitable and worthwhile. They've closed that MH forum, but the archives can still be read.

It seems that most MH investors in the past tended to do Lonnie Deals - owner financing rather than renting them out, to avoid maintenance issues.  With Dodd-Frank and the SAFE Act, it's not being done as much anymore.  It's the reason I decided to do rentals.