All Forum Posts by: Robert Blanchard

Sounds like you found a good niche and are doing well with it.

How much is Insurance for each one?  Does the park that you have yours in also let owners rent out Mobile Homes?  It is very rare in my area that rentals are allowed but I know of one person doing it.  

Have a great day and happy hunting for your next Trailer!

@Jefferson Lilly

 I keep looking for a starter park to buy but even the 25 space ones are insanely priced due to the hot RE Market in the Denver Metro Area..or even up to 100 miles away.

I have a relative that lives in a park with 300 spaces.  It took the Park almost 10 years to get approval just to expand the park where the old Club house used to stand when the property was a Country Club.. that burnt down over 30 years ago.  They were able to get  Sewer and Water Taps for the 27 space expansion but very pricey.. over $10K per space. 

I do miss the "old" days when Lonnie Deals were easy to find and you could charge up to 10% interest on the private note when even Greentree was charging 7 or 8%. 

@John Carpo

 I agree with Jefferson, A boot camp of some sort will get your feet wet in the ins and outs of owning a MHP.   120+ lots will require some sort of on site Managers along with a few amenities.    Managers can make or break a park.   They are the ones that will be doing the screening on the people that are trying to buy a MH in the park.  If they are lax on that aspect of their job, you will end up with problems.   I had one Manager that approved a Guy that had FOUR court cases against him. I was selling a very old MH for $4K in a Park that I did not own. One was even for eviction.  He left in the middle of the night less than 60 days after he took possession of the Mobile.  He stole my brand new dishwasher that I had purchased but did not install yet. He wanted to move in ASAP...as he was living in an Motelwith 2 kids, a dog and a women.   Glad I got the down payment in cash.  

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.  You might also look into buying a Storage Facility.  They are the only things that get a better return on investment than MHP's do per square acre.

How many of the duplexes the area of yours have washers and dryers?  

The $900 should be recouped within a year with higher rents and if you put used appliances in the units you should not be out more than a few hundred for those. 

If the hookups are done with metal braided hoses the chance for a leak at that point  is very unlikely.

If you use a Washing Machine Pan hooked up to a drain under the the WD, even if the machine leaks or over fills, the water will not be a problem and not flood the unit. 

I suggest to do it as it should make the Units much more desirable than units without a W/D. 

@Orlando Paz  In most states a Mobile Home is considered a Motor Vehicle and has a title that is identical to a Vehicle so they are easy to transfer ownership, but counties will tax the MH annually.  You will need to call the county or city to see if there are any back taxes owed on it.  Also, contact the Management and find out what has to done to the outside of the MH to make it comply to any "curb appeal" rules.  If the front or back steps need to be replaced or repaired that is an additional cost to factor in. 

Another thing to be wary of is of any water bills that might be owed.  Many areas will attach the bill to the MH and not the Owner, so when you go to have it turned on you might get a nasty surprise.  Especially if the domestic dispute involved someone flooding the MH or breaking a water line.  

In most MH's the sub floor can get wet once without much damage but if it gets wet twice you will have many soft spots in the floor.  

What year is this MH?  Does it have a regular pitched roof or a metal one?  The metal ones almost always leak at some point.  In Colorado we have Swamp Coolers installed on MH's and that is the main spot where the leak.  They might put a skylight in that spot which also would be a point to look for water damage due to a leak. 

Mobile Homes use different type of Furnace and Water Heater which can cost 30% more than the usual type.  

Please keep us updated on how things proceed with this deal. Are you planning on renting it or selling it? How many lots (spaces) are in this park? If you do a good job and find a good buyer for this MH, the Park Management might steer some deals your way if they do not already have an investor that they prefer to deal with. Also, you can give a bird dog fee to residents in the MH Park if they give you information on a MH coming up for sale. Only give them a bird dog fee if the MH has never had a For Sale sign in the window or on the space. As with other types of RE, the best deals are the ones that never get listed anywhere. Even if you end up spending $5K on a MH, if that MH can be flipped for $15K with less than $3K in rehab costs, your ROI percantages can be very good. My father has been doing this for 25 years until he retired.

Has anyone ever considered offering profit sharing or bonuses to your key employees tied to your companies revenues or profits.

It could be in the form of a bonus if your RE Business meets or exceeds its goals for a period of time.  In the long run, you will be making more income even after paying the bonus if your employees really work hard and help you break all of your goals.

Some employees will only work for you until they gain enough knowledge to go out on their own.  This makes it harder to retain them but you could offer a partnership of sorts once they "outgrow" their current position.  You could mentor them to help them become successful in exchange for a percentage of their deals. 

Sometimes it is hard to know what type of compensation package is correct for a certain employee, but if you go to glassdoor.com, that website lists salaries for different positions at different companies.  

During your annual performance review with your employees, you can ask them what they would change about their job to make it better for them.  Sometimes it is flex time if they have younger children at home.  You could even ask them what they think that their hourly or salary should be.  If they come up with a number much higher than what they are currently being paid, you can ask them why they think it should be that much higher and then explain that that number is not possible but this number is. 

I do not have any employees but have been in the work force for close to 30 years.

@Daniel Levine  How much risk and hands on do you want to be?   

@Anson Young does a meetup in the Denver area.  It would be a good place to "pick the brains" of some Colorado Investors. Here is his post for the April 27th one:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/187...

There are plenty of turnkey RE investments out there but if I was in your shoes, I would want to be hands on and do some, if not all, of the rehab myself so I could handle those phone calls from your renters if you decide to be a Landlord.  

Multifamily might be an option for you and might be a good one since the rents in the Denver area keep going up and up. 

How long have you been in the Conifer area? I grew up in the Littleton area, and would love to have some property in the Mountains of Colorado.  

Good luck in whatever you decide to do. 

Robert

I second what @Cal C. stated.  She probably made a few more calls and got hung up on after she stated that she wanted $250-350K for her property.  Maybe she talked to a Realtor and they suggested that she list it for $200K.  Either way, she is in a bind and realizes that she needs to get rid if a problem and these yellow letter people might actually have an option for her. 

@Shane Woods  What does the birds eye Google view of this house look like?   Is it really run down or full of stuff in the back yard?  I suspect that you might be renting a roll off dumpster (or 2) if you get this house.

@Rayman Shakuri

Here is the U.S. Government Mint site:

http://catalog.usmint.gov/

But..I was on their website and they are charging a premium of 10% for the Eisenhower $1, and the price for the Indian $1 is listed at TBD or to be determined.  

I doubt this hack is viable now the the Mint is charging a premium for the dollar coins currently available on the site.  

I was going on what I had read and even heard on Clark Howard. 

I apologize for the misinformation. 

Edit: I found an article describing why the Mint stopped the program for selling large quantities of coins at face value and free shipping.  It was being abused thus the program was ended.

http://mintnewsblog.com/2012/01/the-end-of-circula...

Robert

I have read online in other forums where people were using Credit Cards to purchase $1 coins from the Mint.  Before the Mint tightened the reigns on how many you could buy, you could purchase $15K at a time for their website.  Now it is $1K every 10 days, or was  when the person posted the thread. You might have to pay shipping via UPS to get hem shipped to your house.  The thread did not mention that part of the process.  

Then you would take the coins into your bank and make a deposit into your account.  

Most people do this to accrue Airline Points, but you can use this hack to get money from your Credit Cards also.  

@Tyler Haskell

  First, thanks for your Military Service.  Second, Congrats on getting started on your RE "Career" in your 20's.  Where did you find your properties?  I hope to end up with 10 long term hold properties and do some fix and flips.  

Have a great weekend,

Robert