Mobile Home Park Seller has Zero records...Now What?!

Mobile Home Park Seller has Zero records...Now What?!

Real Estate Agent · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2018 · 32 posts · 33 votes

Quick background.  I'm a San Antonio investor that primarily wholesales but will mix in a number of fix/flips throughout the year.  I received a call from a seller that saw one of our marketing pieces the other day and he wants to sell his 11 unit mobile home park here in town.  I got some of the details and at a high level it appears to be a pretty great deal.  Great price, produces solid income, low expenses, but also has value add opportunities that could make this a really really great deal in the near future.  

I set up a time for him to come into my office and ask him to bring rent rolls and expenses, basically a P&L, lease agreements, really any and all documentation he has for the property.  He shows up with a manilla folder with nothing inside.  He pretty much just wrote a grid on the inside of the folder and this was his "spreadsheet" for keeping track of who paid what rent by month.  And this was only for 2019.  

I asked him "Is that it?" To which he replied, "Yeah".  He essentially has no records at all.  He manages the property himself, does a lot of the maintenance himself, and knocks on doors to collect rents each month.  He inherited the property from his parents years ago.  He came up with the sale price by using his tax appraisal and "adding in a little bit". 

This week my plan is to get affidavits from him and all the tenants stating what kind of lease they are on and how much they are paying.  Also, get the seller to sign off on something stating how much he pays for maintenance, water, electric, and any other expenses he incurs.  

I've not ever bought a mobile home park so I'm exploring all of my options regarding financing, whether or not to hold it, wholesale it, or buy it and flip it eventually.  I don't know that banks would lend on it right now without records and I need to find out how long I would need to own it before they would.  I'm going to discuss seller financing options with him this week and I've also been reading up on Master Lease Options. 

Anyway, more questions than answers right now so any insights on dealing with a situation like this would be helpful.  I have it under contract to purchase right now and I'm 5 days in on a 60 day close. 

0Reply
16 views

Most Popular Reply

Real Estate Investor · Ste. Genevieve, MO · Member since 2009 · 363 posts · 944 votes
7y

When a seller has no records and deals strictly in cash -- and there are plenty of moms and pops like that -- the typical path is to have seller financing, or see if the bank's appraiser can establish a value in the absence of records. In addition, you'll have to do terrific due diligence since you are starting from scratch, and get the actual numbers from the utility providers and three bids on the items that cannot be supported by third-party reports.

See this reply in the discussion

8 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Real Estate Investor · Ste. Genevieve, MO · Member since 2009 · 363 posts · 944 votes
    7y

    When a seller has no records and deals strictly in cash -- and there are plenty of moms and pops like that -- the typical path is to have seller financing, or see if the bank's appraiser can establish a value in the absence of records. In addition, you'll have to do terrific due diligence since you are starting from scratch, and get the actual numbers from the utility providers and three bids on the items that cannot be supported by third-party reports.

  • Real Estate Broker · Kirkland, WA · Member since 2018 · 549 posts · 411 votes
    7y

    @Ryan McLeaird

    Mobile home parks usually don't have a lot of change or turnover in the rent rolls. I would think there would be a way to make that work. Your lender would know best.

    Here's what you really need to know though. You need to find out how many homes are owned by the park. That could really be the big problem there. Mobile homes in a park are personal property. As such, lenders don't want to roll them into a commercial loan BUT they also drastically skew the income. For instance if you rent pads only for $500 and rent the mobile on the pad for $1500, that's a massive difference but it's based on a piece of personal property that has virtually no value.

    Commercial lenders get really funny about this. One time I sold a 30 unit apartment building and we had to write up a separate bill of sale where my buyer had to purchase the 30 refrigerators in the building separately outside of the purchase and sale agreement.

    Best of luck with this. I think you can probably make it work one way or the other.

  • Real Estate Agent · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2018 · 32 posts · 33 votes
    7y

    @Geordy Rostad he says he owns them all. I’ll validate this for sure as I agree with you, this would drastically affect the value. 

  • Wholesaler, Rehabber and Landlord · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    7y

    Most lenders are going to want to see some financials. Best bet is to do some owner financing with maybe a 3 year balloon. This way you can get some history. I dont believe that anyone is going to pay over BCAD price if there is a good amount of value add.

    You probably have to put your own spreadsheet together with income, vacancy, 40% for expenses and come up with a value at a certain cap rate.

  • Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2016 · 224 posts · 333 votes
    7y

    A very common scenario.  Push for seller financing as it’ll be difficult to finance an acquisition that small with limited records.  We own a park in NE SATX and would be happy to weigh in on this if you want feedback.

  • Real Estate Broker · Kirkland, WA · Member since 2018 · 549 posts · 411 votes
    7y

    @Ryan McLeaird It's funny how often I see this.

    Here's the best play then... purchase the place with numbers based solely on the space rent. Put a value on the mobiles separately such as $1000-$5000/ea and write those up in a separate contract. Have him do seller financing for 3 years or so as suggested. During the 3 years, rehab/replace and then sell every single mobile in there. Sell them on contracts to really juice the numbers if you like but sell them all so the park no longer owns them. After all of that, you will have a highly marketable, easily financeable asset where you are truly enjoying the benefits of mobile home park ownership.

    Are they all single wides, all doublewides, or a mix? A park full of doubles is certainly more desirable and valuable. The nicer you can make the park look, the more valuable your investment will become. 

  • Real Estate Agent · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2018 · 32 posts · 33 votes
    7y

    @Geordy Rostad That sounds like the best plan for sure.  Each of the units are single wides.  

    If I was going to buy these homes myself the offers would be in the Free to $5k range.  But if I'm selling them to the current tenants my thought was to seller finance them around $20k on 5-10 year terms, take $3k (or more) down on each, and then they're paying for their own house and paying me $300-350/mo lot rent.  Keeps them around the same payment as their rent in total and I get out of the mobile home ownership piece. 

  • Real Estate Broker · Kirkland, WA · Member since 2018 · 549 posts · 411 votes
    7y

    @Ryan McLeaird Yes!! You've got your head around this thing the right way I think. You can season the paper on the mobiles and sell that off too if you need to raise cash. I'd expect there would be a LOT of buyers for a $20,000 note at 15%-18%!

    Just make sure your numbers work with the gross income at $300-$350*number_of_pads instead of the BS number he's telling you because of the mobile rents. 

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.