All Forum Posts by: John Arendsen

@Andy V. is spot on about the DF issue. That has stifled if not almost rendered the lease option, owner financing, etc biz totally sterile. There's some varied opinions and philosophies on this thread no doubt. But the bottom line is how you want to work yourself and what best fits your comfort zone. Good luck.

If you want a fixed 15-30yr low interest conventional loan most lenders will require a foundation and as @Jeffrey H.has stated it must not have been moved from its original situs unless it is coming directly from the factory or a dealers lot. 

What this means is that you cannot buy one on the cheap from a private party and move it to your site. Additionally, if the home was built before June 15, 1976 you would definitely not be able to get a conventional loan on it.

So you're pretty much relegated to purchasing a new home directly from the dealer and/or factory which would not be cheap and defeats your purpose from what I'm gleaning from your original question.

If you're planning on buying and renting MH's in rent/lease MH park communities you must first know that the norm in the industry is that subletting is forbidden pretty much across the board. Now if you're investing to fix and flip that's a different story providing you're in a park that's in the path of progress and not in a blighted area. 

MH's are very tricky to experienced and sophisticated investors and can really get a novice in trouble right out of the shoot if you don't have a lot of experience. My suggestion is to find someone in your farm that's got some good experience and that checks out as far as character is concerned. 

Personally I wouldn't waste my time trying to build relationships with park managers. They generally could care less about that and only want to do the the job they were hired to do. Not bird dog for investors. 

Park owners unless they are their own managers as well are generally pretty detached from the day to day workings of their parks and really don't keep track of home sales unless they are in the arrears in their rent or have been abandoned or are in default.

That's my 3 cents worth. Adjusted for inflation. Good luck.

I agree with @Bill Gulley, But the one thing he missed was that the head of it all is only "ONE GUY" quite possibly soon to be "ONE GIRL" or one "ONE EMOTIONALLY UNCONTROLLABLE & UNPREDICTABLE GUY".   However, I am glad to see some attempt at some sort of control and oversight just the same.

Well, I've certainly got the best @John 

@John Thedfordundefined

@John Thedford, presently I merely have a position in a publicly traded entity that has a subsidiary who manufactures greenhouses period. They build them lease them to all types of agbiz and don't directly participate in the cultivation or trading activities in the industry. 

Not sure what I could lose on this one other than a few thousand shares of stock which I can live with. What legal right would the FED have with me beyond being a stockholder? Just curious.

@Kimberly Jones, as a word of friendly advice I caution you to refrain from using the word CURE as part of your lexicon re; MJ. Until a product has been thoroughly tested and researched and is deemed officially FDA approved and a cure for any/all specific ailment/s they've approved it for you are treading on some pretty thin ice when you make any claims about a drug, vitamin, herb, etc.

I've had some personal experience with this in the past with some vitamins and herbal remedies. I know you don't want to journey down that road.

I've contacted the CEO to apprise him of your interest and am awaiting his response. I'll let you know when I hear back from him.

You're absolutely spot on about the particle board, sawdust and glue part. Mostly Elmers glue for that matter which is water soluble and only serves to exacerbate an already very tenuous unpleasant situation. 

We've been replacing particle board sub flooring for years for insurance companies. Probably paid for a couple of my kids college education and drainage issues probably paid for a couple of others for sure. But what's interesting is the insurance company will not pay for mitigation. 

They will only pay to replace like with like. So if the homeowner wants to replace the particle board with OSB or plywood they have to pay the difference which in the overall scheme of things is quite negligible and well worth it.

Belly boards aka vapor or varmint barrier is always a problem and needs to be checked regularly as plumbers and other tradesmen will tear it from limb to limb and not repair or replace it correctly if at all. Or varmints i.e. rats, mice, possums and even skunks will often choose to nest up in those cozy little areas. 

One final thought, more for the benefit of your readers than you because it appears that you've already replaced your roof, always make sure whoever does the roof know where and how to walk on it before they just start prancing around breaking those already very skimpy and flimsy trusses. 

I can't even begin to tell you how many truss repairs we've done over the years. If I had more kids it might have paid their college educations as well. But on a more positive note I know that it has paid for a few luxury cruises and exotic vacations for my wife and I over the years. LOL!

Great post. Lot's of good and very factual info. It's great hearing from folks who've actually strapped on a tool belt and jumped in the trenches.

I do have a number of MH's in my RE investment portfolio, however, they are all centrally located within steps from the beach in Leucadia. In fact most of my RE is Coastal. That stated as a Manufactured Home and General Contractor we have been and still are actively engaged in manufactured housing foundation retrofitting, repair and installation State wide. 

We've been working in several resident owned MH communities throughout the Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Thousand Palms, 29 Palms, Desert Hot Springs, Indio, Banning, Beaumont, Hemet, Parris and Moreno Valley areas for the past few decades.

However, we only work in "RESIDENT OWNED MH COMMUNITIES" i.e. condo and/or sub division conversions, Planned Unit Developments (PUDS) and private lot/parcel placements of MH's. We work directly with the lenders, RE Professionals or law firms representing Title companies on curative title issues.

We do not work in rent/lease MH park communities at all in the desert area for a lot of reasons. As such were we to ever become interested in investing in MH's in the desert areas it would only be in resident owned situations.

Just be very careful about where you invest, how old the home is. Don't purchase anything older than a home built from June 15,, 1976 or before and even then be very careful about investing in any MH built in even the late 70's as many used a number of caustic (formaldehyde) and carcinogenic (asbestos) chemicals and substances until the laws changed in '79-'80.

Additionally, if the home has ever been moved from it's original situs (one site to another except from the manufacturers and/or dealers retail lot) as conventional financing would be very difficult to come by. Finally if the home is in a rent/lease community you better make sure that you have the park community's permission to sub lease. Many if not most MHP owners do not allow sub leasing and that pretty much squelches any motivation for investors. 

We're in the desert frequently and even own a couple of Marriott timeshares. So if you ever want to get together and discuss this further please feel free to reach out. Hope this helps. Good luck.