All Forum Posts by: Torrey Moe

Mario, yes, definitely aware of the zoning risk/need for research into any given deal.  This is often why buying existing parks is smart from what I've learned so far from various park owners.  I've learned it's typically not smart to buy the listed parks but instead send out mailers or dial for dollars or drive park to park (the most heavy lifting but certainly a great way to meet a lot of park owners and learn a lot about the business face-to-face, old school... I've enjoyed doing this quite a bit thus far).

I must  say I respect this question and would imagine this is a common concern right now.  Is it arrogant to say that we should for sure assume that there will be no crash and that we should just buy, buy, buy and expand doors as quickly as possible?  I'm no expert at this point, but it seems healthy to ask the hard questions.  Having listened to many experts, however, it does seem that buy, hold, refi, expand to more doors, etc is the answer generally, though it never hurts to have healthy emergency savings... Hold the capital and you can always pay down the properties if needed down the path, but why do that at this stage?  Capital and cash flow need to balance out as exciting as chasing cash flow is.  As an insurance agent cash flow has always been my primary focus, and it's been a winning decisions, has fed my family nicely and allowed me to take risks most people can't, but capital is important too, and I'm beginning to learn a lot about the key of either finding capital or growing it, but ideally both.

What do you all think of a mobile home park converted into a tiny home community with larger yards.

Rate would  be bumped up and sites would be converted to being available for tiny homes or nicer RVs/motorhomes.

Standards would be part of marketing so that boomers and others wanting affordable but nice housing contexts would be drawn in.

This would be one model - buying existing parks that are more rough and fully flipping it into this style.  Some of the lots would be wiped out for a community garden context every maybe ten spaces...

Another model: Thinking about 20 minutes outside of cities could also be developed from land if utilities can be lined up for the land.  Buy the land, develop it into half acre parcels and having standards for growing food and raising animals for food with a butcher station on the property and a bartering style farmers' market where tenants can sell to the public and barter with each other or sell to each other.

These are very early stage thoughts.  

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment in Merced.

Purchase price: $225,000
Cash invested: $5,000
Sale price: $272,000

This was our house hack home. We enjoyed it as home and did Airbnb out of the back separate entrance bedroom as well as rented the RV pad on the back of the property with a couple of different RVs that we flipped one at a time. We housed travel nurses and had at one point over $3,000 in gross cash flow from this property giving us a net profit from the property.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Seeking an option for net zero or net profit housing.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Bought on open MLS market as soon as we saw the house hacking opportunity with the separate entrance back room and RV pad.

How did you finance this deal?

FHA

How did you add value to the deal?

Refinished flooring myself with Home Depot sander I bought and then bartered into a deal where I bought a 40 foot Park Model RV that we rented on the property for $1,200/month at one point.

What was the outcome?

Great. Helped us bring our business debt down with cash flow from $250k to around $150k - combined with other efforts - and we sold at a net profit of $41k with which we have been able to dive into house flipping.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Definitely prefer the vision of house hacking with say a four plex and living in one of the units. That said, it's certainly enjoyable when you set it up right to do it the way we did it since we got to enjoy living in a nice single family home on a large lot with relatively light foot prints from the travel nurses - they are out working most of the time.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Agent and lender here in Merced. Jeff Lawry with London Properties and Scott Crawford as my lender. Great guys! Highly recommend them.