All Forum Posts by: Shawn Nachurski

@Grant Ed Congrats on your success thus far! Investing in NJ can be difficult. That makes it a great place to start your investing. My wife and I belong to SJREIA and invest here in South Jersey. If you ever want to network feel free to reach out.

@Chris Young MHPs can provide consistent and predictable income for sure. With that said there can be a lot of moving parts when owning and operating a MHP. My wife and I own 2 parks and are currently negotiating a 3rd. We jumped into this space without any training. Fortunately, it worked out for us. I agree with Lila Ravve about attending training if possible. If we could have done it all over again we would have partnered with someone already in the space.

Before you find a partner or purchase a park you may want to get clear on your goals. We made a ton of mistakes that ,in hindsight, could have been avoided if we were clear on what we wanted to accomplish. (For the record, we still make a lot of mistakes.) Finding and spending time with like minded people is super important. Find and attend Multi-Family Meet Ups or REIA's. I drive 2 hours one way to network with people that own multi family properties. Good luck.

@Lance Francis

I also live in NJ. It can be difficult to find cash flowing rental properties here. We have very high property taxes and yearly inspections in some towns adding to the operating expenses. I used to own 18 units (SFR and small multis) in NJ. We sold 5 units and since bought 2 Mobile Home Parks in Indiana. We are currently negotiating a 3rd park. I received advice in 2017 to look outside of NJ for MHPs. We did and it proved to be a good move for us. Moving into multi-family and out of NJ was the best thing we could have done. We partnered with a friend from NJ and scaled up. The cash flow from 1 park (1 transaction) exceeds what our entire NJ portfolio generates.

In my experience you can make money in NJ but you really have to know your market of course and have lots of capital. A good place to start is finding a REIA (Real Estate Investment Association) or a Real Estate Meet Up in the are areas you want to purchase and start networking. Good luck.

@Tyler Hardy Nice work on finding a Real Estate niche. We currently own 2 parks. One park is what we call "A Turn Around Park". Although this park will have more equity and cash flow when we are done I prefer the park that has less moving parts. We are currently negotiating a 3rd park and it is a turn key park. Our limited experience showed us we could have purchased 2 parks with less effort than all the effort we put into the "Turn Around Park" we are currently working on. Essentially, our time and money would have been better spent on acquiring other parks. With that said, we did gain a lot of knowledge and experience. 

You are on the right track looking for a partner. Find someone that knows a lot more about MHPs than you do and work with them. It will save you time and money. And it will most likely get you a deal sooner. Good luck. 

@Ethan Jackowski Nice work on putting together a vision of what you want to do in Real Estate. I agree with Bob Prisco on getting 1 deal under your belt. If you have no money or experience you may want to find someone with experience and work with them on a deal or two. It is a great way to gain experience, increase your knowledge and mitigate your risk. Good luck.

I called over 50 brokers before I got one to take my call seriously. Once they heard that I don't already own a park or thought I was a "boot camper" I got the run around. You just have to push through that nonsense and keep dialing. There are immediate things you can do such as look up "MHP Investor or Multi-Family Meet Ups". I sometimes drive 2 hours one way to go to a "Multi-Family Meet Up" to be with like minded people. Often times is not convenient to do it. (I changed my trip to Indiana this month so I could attend a multi-family meet up in Indianapolis.) You have to find MHP operators and reach out to them. For instance, Indiana has on line resources where you can look up: Name of the park, address, utilities, number of lots, expiration of MHP license, and phone number for the point of contact. This is a good place to reach the people on the ground. Other states may have the same on line info. Brokers on MHVillage are not likely to put a stranger in contact with an operator. The Mid-West Manufactured Housing Show in Louisville, KY is in January. This is a great place to meet people who own parks. We are currently in negotiations on a 62 lot park. The broker took my call on this park very seriously because I introduced myself as an operator that owns 2 parks already. But 2 years ago he would have most likely blew me off. Stay with it and make contacts. Hope this info helps. 

@Tab Teehee Thanks for sharing your experiences, the good and the bad. My wife and I are turning around a 21 unit MHP and it can be very frustrating. Your stories definitely help me keep my sanity as I fly to Indiana to keep on top of things. Super happy for you and your wife. Congrats! Thanks again for sharing. 

@Terrell Simmons It may sound trite but it all depends on your goals. Getting clear on what you want to accomplish is super important. My wife and I own 2 MHC's now and are actively negotiating a 3rd. It is important to focus on a specific location and strategy. We invest in Indiana because we have a team on the ground that we know and trust (lenders, maintenance, vendors, etc). Also the laws there favor the land owners. Our communities have MH's that are POH (Park Owned Homes), LPO's (Lease Purchase Option), and ROH (Resident Owned Homes). By far the easiest to manage are the ROH. Our strategy is simple. Convert rentals and LPO's into home owners. Lot rent is affordable. People that own their homes (they have the title in hand not a Rent to Contract) tend to to come up with the $300-$350 per month in lot rent. This provides consistent and predictable income for us without a lot of moving parts. Maintenance on MH's can get expensive depending on the age and type. 

My advice is find someone who is already operating in the MH space and work out a partnership. This is the best way to mitigate your risk and fastest way to learn.