All Forum Posts by: Mitchell P.

I have been trying to compile a list of mobile home parks in my target area that meet my criteria for purchase. My biggest breakthrough came when I went on a real estate listing website and started searching for individual mobile homes. This lead me to a ton of great parks in my area! The only issue is that in a lot of these ads there is no park name given and when I search on google maps there is no sign in front of the park with a name. Furthermore, when I google the area or the address of the park no information comes up. They are not on google maps as a businesses, they have no websites etc. What also makes this difficult is that I'm in Southeast Asia for another month and I can't really make phone calls. Right now I'm considering emailing the listing agent of each mobile home I've found in parks that seem to match my criteria and asking them if they can put me in contact with the owner. I've never done this before and I'm not sure what the results will be. My other option is to wait a month until I'm home and try calling the agent. I would love any feedback on this and I'm open to other suggestions for a plan of attack if anyone has anything to offer.

Roy N. Matt Geerts Thanks so much for your replies! I really appreciate it! I have at the past looked at the agreement in the past and just now as well. I understand the guideline for yearly rent increases ( 2% for this calendar year) and the possibility of an extra 3% raise if there are eligible capital expenditures. I was just curious if there was any way of getting around this other than the tenants leaving on their own and then raising the rent for new tenants. If there isn't a way to raise the lot fees more than the guideline this makes a park with lot fees largely below market rates very unattractive.

I'm evaluating a mobile home park in my area right now. The lot rents are half of what comparable parks are charging. The agent said that the tenants are month to month. I'm not sure if there are or ever were leases in place. 9 pads have tenant owned homes on them and 5 pads rent their home from the park. I know Canada had pretty strict rent increase laws. For this year the limit is a 2% increase. At this rate of increase it would take decades for me to get the lot fees up to market rates. I know I can raise the rent additional 3% per year for 3 years if I invest money into the park. What are my legal options for raising the rents 50%? Can I raise the rent more than 2% because they are month to month? Can I ask for a vacant park and then find new tenants? Can I pave the road or do another capital expenditure and then go the allowable 3% over the legal rent increase for 3 years? If I do that, does the 3% rent raise stay for ever or end after the 3%? Or does rent drop after the 3 years? Can I offer the tenants the option to sign a new lease and if they don't evict them since they are month-month? I'm looking for any options to get the rents up to market rates. Any info would be awesome.

Brian Smithers welcome! Lots of great resources on this site!

Natalie Treasure yes owner occupied means you have to live there so that wouldn't work for you.

If you can get the mortgage as owner occupied you'll only have to put 5% down. The mortgage rates are very very low right now. You'll get a much better rate on a traditional mortgage vs. Hard money. Check out ratehub.ca to compare mortgage rates of different companies. I did a deal with a bank I found on that site.

Chris Somerville I didn't really do anything major in terms of upgrades. I added a dishwasher upstairs that I bought off Kijiji for $100, removed some ugly hedges, general yard clean-up, painted the upstairs rooms and built a new vanity for the upstairs bathroom. I probably spent about $500 total on upgrades. The house was listed for $300,000 but my agent and I put an offer in the day before it got listed and got it. The house probably would have been involved in a bidding war if it had made it on the market. Mostly though the big increase was due to the ridiculous (and in my mind unstable) market growth in the Toronto core and the surrounding GTA. Ming Lim thanks for the welcome! I've been focused on multi-family for a while and every so often I would see comments about mobile home parks. I totally discounted them until recently. I decided it was worth looking into. The biggest pro for me was the fact that you are just leasing land so you are totally removed from any sort of home repairs. The mobile homes are owned by the residents. All issues with the house are their responsibility. The other great attribute is that the COC ratio is usually much higher than a multi-family.

Haseeb Awan thanks for the welcome and the offer to connect! Maybe when I'm back from traveling we can grab a coffee? Chris Somerville thanks for the link! I'm going to contact the realtor and find out more info about the park. The limited financials included in the add seem very good. I'm interested to see what the condition of the park is, the status of the water and sewage system as well as how many tenants are late on their park fees. Great find! Thanks again! Sarah Simpson absolutely that sounds great! I think I have a spreadsheet somewhere outlining all the numbers for the duplex. I'll see if I can locate it when I'm back home. Rough numbers off the top of my head: purchased for $290,000, sold for $440,000 20 months later. The rent for the 3 bedroom unit was $1,450 and the rent for the basement unit was $1,250. These rents were all inclusive of utilities and internet. Tenants looked after their own lawn care and snow removal.

I have been a member on this site for over a year but I just recently started spending a lot of time on the site. I also recently realized I forgot to post in the New Member area. A bit about me and my experience: I went to school in Kingston at Queen's University. I am a Mechanical Engineering Graduate 2013. I started investing in real estate about 2 years ago. I bought a duplex in Oshawa Ontario. That proved to be a good investment. I sold the property 5 months ago and I am currently travelling Southeast Asia but will be returning home in 1 month. My goals: I have recently read about investing in mobile home parks and I am shifting my focus to this. I have done a ton of research and I am very excited about this niche. I would like to acquire a mobile home park somewhere between the Toronto and Ottawa area in the next 2 to 6 months. I hope to make solid connections on bigger pockets with folks in the mobile home park industry to learn as much as I can and hopefully find a deal in the near future. I am very anxious to get started building my portfolio. What I can offer: While my experience isn't nearly as vast as many of the veterans on this forum I would be happy to offer what knowledge I do have to the community. I was very happy with my first investment and have some knowledge with: analyzing deals, Canadian lease writing, handyman work, tenant screening as well as tenant relationships. So if anyone has any questions regarding any of these topics or anything else for that matter please feel free to send me a message or reply to this thread. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post and I look forward to networking with you!

I am looking to purchase a mobile home park somewhere between Ottawa and Toronto in the next 2-6 months. Does anyone know of any parks currently for sale or know of someone who can help me with my search?