All Forum Posts by: Paul Moore

Hi @Wes Mccullar. It sounds like you’re off to a great start. I would certainly get a mentor and learn all you can. Then see about the possibility of partnering with them when you find a deal. In my experience there’s no substitute for this type of relationship.  

I usually don’t offer this, but I would be happy to send you a free copy of my book on large scale multifamily investing if you PM me.  Or an eBook PDF if you prefer. 

Best wishes!  

Hi @James C Clark Jr. That sounds like a promising project, especially in the current climate where these types of projects are needed. I would recommend making your deposit refundable in the event due diligence turns up something bad, or more importantly, the zoning is not approved. There is no guarantee it will be approved until it is final. You will incur a few thousand dollars in costs, I predict, getting the zoning approved, etc. 

A friend of mine was doing a similar project in West Virginia with a guy who apparently had no heirs, or none he liked.   he actually got the guy to agree to just sign the property over to him at his passing. In your case, you could perhaps offer a higher ongoing payment but ask if they would be willing to sell the property to you for fair market value or even one dollar when they both pass away.  

You’re going to have to be absolutely sure his wife can’t change the lease or business plan after he passes away. Sometimes kids get involved and the lawyers get involved and suddenly you might be out of business.

Best of luck!  Give us an update later in the year.  

Hi @Jonathan Pavkov. Welcome fellow Columbusian (former for me) to BP!  And to my favorite asset type. You may want to check out a fairly new book called The Mobile Home Park Manifesto.  And please fee free to reach out to me.  My firm has invested in dozens of mobile home parks and we can help point you in the right direction.  There are ~ 44,000 MHPs in the US and ~ 85% are owned by mom-and-pops.  And it’s the only asset type I know of with lower supply and increased demand every year.  Good Luck!  

@Phil Haynes. My favorite investment is mobile home parks; the land!

My least favorite investment on the planet: mobile homes. I have acquired four of them in years past and three were perhaps my worst all-time investments.  there is a lot of data backing up my opinion, but you have to decide for yourself. If you are extremely hands-on on and local and don’t mind being a babysitter and are happy to evict, you may be able to pull this off. Most people with MHP expertise would not try this.  PM me if you’d like to discuss more. 

Hi @Samuel Dykstra. Great question. And you got some fantastic responses above. I just returned from a conference where investors are mailing literally thousands or even tens of thousands of letters or postcards per month. It’s tough.

If you’re not ready to do that, I agree that you should be doing a lot of driving to find homes that look abandoned and trying to acquire those. Many investors won’t work that hard but it sounds like you could.

@Steve Vaughan is right on as well. Look for intrinsic value by finishing basements, garages, and other living spaces. My friend divides up houses and rents them by the bed and makes a lot of money that way. I’ve written extensively about this strategy in the commercial real estate realm. Drop me a PM for links or you can find some recent posts about uncovering intrinsic value.  Good luck!  

Hi @Stephen Girard. You are wise to ask!  I recommend the Howard Marx classic:  Mastering the Market Cycle - Getting the Odds on Your Side.  I’d also recommend the Buffett biography Snowball.  It’s long but quite helpful  30+ hours on Audible I’d I recall. There are some other great books on Buffett that helped me as well  best wishes!  

Hi @Apurva Shah. Congratulations! One thing that can be missing from these types of reports is the right brained, story side. I always recommend painting a clear, honest picture of updates. Good and bad. Most passive Investors care more about that than all of the detailed numbers, but I think you should include both. Good luck!

Hi @David Sanford. The problem is the payoff at year-end. That’s going to be tough.  You could loan it out as a hard money loan to a reliable contractor or through a hard money loan. Make a clear rule that you have to have the funds back by a certain date. Then wait 30 days and do it again.  

That’s a surprising rule - I wonder if you could get them to delete that provision next year.  If so, you could invest in an AirBnB/VRBO property in a strategic location.  My friend has three at ~ $700-1mm that he has only 10% down on and he reports that they cash flow over $60,000 each annually. I’m looking into this myself. 

Syndication or fund is my favorite investment over the long run however. 

@Account Closed. Their program is called MPP - Multifamily Partners Program.  I can connect you to them whenever you wish.  PM me when ready.  

@Rick Trivedi. Our firm puts most of our effort into due diligence on prospective operators. You can reach out to us and we can set up a time to discuss it. I also have a Wednesday noon EST Coaching call, free, and you can join if you wish. We discuss all things real estate related.