Potential mobile home park resucitation!

[Charlie MacPherson]

I have an opportunity to buy a very small, dilapidated MHP in Maine.  It's over 100 acres though and seems to have potential to be developed further.  It's close to what passes in Maine for a busy road with good exposure.

It's currently vacated completely.  No trailers remaining.  It appears that local building codes require only a gravel pad, septic, water and power.

I'm relocating to Maine later this year, so depending on where we buy our primary residence, I could potentially be close enough to manage the property - or at least to keep an eye on the management company.

My initial thought is to operate on the model of renovating the land and utilities and then renting space only.  The idea is to NOT be in the business of being responsible for maintaining trailers that I'd own.

A different model would be to partner with either a local mobile home dealer on new MHs (much higher acquisition costs) or old, used ones at a few thousand (much higher maintenance headaches and costs).  Then rent out the homes and the space.

A still different model would be to partner with a modular home builder and offer those.  That (I think) means that we'd subdivide the lots and sell the homes and lots together.  Unless financed in-house, buyers would not be able to get loans if they don't own the land.

To make it all more interesting, the elderly sellers are willing to owner finance.

I'd like to hear from others who have developed a property like this and to learn from your experience.  

I'd especially like to look at a checklist you used to evaluate a MHP or a business plan that you built to move forward with the development.

Thanks in advance!

[Tyler Speelman]

Charlie MacPherson

I agree with other comments. The infrastructure and getting new homes would be expensive and tough.

I would recommend going to mobile home park university and downloading the free book, 21 biggest mistakes investors make when buying their 1st mobile home park.

Below are some things to consider.

Location Investment criteria
> 50,000
Near Walmart, Lowe’s close driving distance
Unemployment < 8 %
Median household cost > 100,000 so you are not competing with stick built homes
Population growing, stable, not significantly declining
Great School district
Crime rate not crazy
Job diversity: call chamber of commerce, new jobs/employers
Planning and zoning figure out what type of zoning you have what you can and cannot do. Is it legal, or legal non-conforming (grandfathered)
Bestplaces.Net is a great resource to figure out demographics.
Vacancy 20% or lower
Test add on Craigslist or bandit signs to figure out demand
Median household income > 40k

21st mortgage could finance new mobile homes. I would check them out.

Flood plain? Flood issues?
Near noisy highway or airport?
Are the vacant sites ready and able to take new homes?

Good luck!