All Forum Posts by: Mark Gruetzmacher

I am kind of digging up this old thread.  Things have been busy for me the last few months with my J.O.B. and I haven't had time to do much.  I have contacted this lady with this park recently and asked if she still wanted to sell it and she wants to meet again.  I want to get a feel of how the park has changed since I first inquired about it 6 or so months ago.  I already have mobile homes but they are all in parks around my area and like everyone on here says, it is better to own the land the home sits on.  So since there is not a lot of cheap land with mobile homes here I have to either keep them in various parks and pay the lot rent or find a park to buy.  There has not been any parks selling anywhere close to me.  I did some across a guy that had 25 spaces but he wanted north of 900K.  I about fell over.  So in the back of my mind I keep thinking about this park here I mentioned 6 months ago.  I totally understand that it might create some work for me and I am ok with that.  My schedule will allow for that.  I have a call into the city planning and zoning for any info they can give me as well and the same with code enforcement.  Everything out here is small town stuff unless you live in either Rapid City or Sioux Falls.  Most towns are tiny so there is no large metro areas really.  But I still keep wondering if I can make something work on this park.  

Does anyone have any ideas what I should check out with the park, what to look for, what kind of rough numbers for purchase or a formula.  I see people toss out stuff but some people says 50% expenses, others 30%, etc.  This park is on city water and sewer so that is a plus.  If someone wants to send me a private message we can discuss it also.  I am just trying to do some more DD before I go and talk with her again.  I did tell her that we would need to sell finance since there is not much out there for financing.  So I am hoping she is on board there.  What is a good going Owner carry interest rate and term?  I am not sure what she will want as money down either.  But it never hurts to check I guess.  

Yeah like others have stated, so sort of down payment is needed.  But what you should also consider it that selling financing is an issue with Dodd Frank and the Safe act.  Read up on that subject here on BP.  Sure there are way to be complaint and sure people sell on payments all day long still but I would not want to be on the wrong end of the deal with those regulations.  At the end of the day is it that great of a deal if it takes over 8 years just to make the little bit you talking about?  Sounds like it is not worth even looking at.  I would look for a deal on a mobile you can buy, clean it up some and sell for cash.  Just my thoughts.

Forgot to mention.  I would research into on doing land contract/contract for deed, etc.  That used to be a viable option but not so much anymore since the Dodd Frank and the Safe Act.  Search here on BP for tons of info on that.  

@Brandi Bryan What year is the mobile home? As for renting I will give you my 2 cents worth so to speak.  First off before you do anything, contact the park that it is in and find out if you are allowed to rent the trailer out.  Some parks will allow it and some don't.  If they don't then maybe you could buy and then sell but that has issues on it's own as well that I won't mention since your looking at renting.  

There are a lot of people out there that hate mobile homes or think they are junk and not worth the time.  There are also people that think they are cash cows.  Ideally the best way it to have it on it's own land but there are lots of people that have them in parks also.  

With that said, I own 4 in parks and 1 on it's own piece of land at least for mobile homes.  I want to think I actually do pretty well with the cash flow.  Mine vary from $425-600 cash flow after lot rent.  All of mine I have bought and fixed up as well.   Some won't need anything done to them for years hopefully and some will need some outside repairs soon.  If you have a decent mobile home and watch the condition and keep up on the maintenance you should be good.  They are not that much different that a house if you are dealing with newer homes.  If they are older then you might have some issues but nothing that is not fixable usually.  The lower cost to get into them is what makes them appealing to people and if they can cash flow good numbers then they can work.  I don't have any problem keeping them filled either.  

I guess I look at it like, if I can buy a SFR for $100K and I am lucky to rent it for $1000, that is 1%. If I can buy a mobile home for $15K and rent it for $650-1000 that sure sounds good to me. Every market is different as well. Some places it works good and some maybe not so much. For your low investment it sure might be worth a try depending on what it is and condition. Heck even the older 1970's stuff here brings good money. Best of luck.

@Melissa K. I would be cautious providing seller financing.  That used to be the normal thing a lot of people did but since Dodd Frank and the Safe Act came into play your not allowed to do deals like that anymore.  Well unless you jump some hoops and have a RMLO do up the paperwork and qualify the buyer etc.  I don't do that so I do not know what all that entails.  There are some very knowledgeable people on this forum that hopefully will see your post and can tell you more than I can.   

I agree with Ed.  Stuff in the 80's and up do really well.  Of coarse that all depends on your market.  I have been keeping them for rentals myself making a good return. I usually buy stuff that needs works to get the best deal and then fix up and rent out.  Rentals are tricky with more and more parks not allowing it though.  But like Ed said you can turn them and make some money for sure.  I would watch out seller financing anything as Dodd Frank and the Safe Act more of less put an end to the easy selling on contract.  

I agree with what people are saying.  Mobile homes and work out really well.  If the numbers work then do it.

Thanks for doing the meetup.  Hopefully we can do it again.  

About anywhere works for me, what time was it again?  Noon?  Hopefully I can make that. It will be close.

Yeah where was it at again and what time?