Using POHs To Pay For A Mobile Home Park

[Jimmy Toussaint]

So, I'm looking through MHP deals that have a ton of POHs and a few TOHs. From my research, I found that it's more advisable to own the park and lease the plots than it is to own the mobile homes on the plots because simply leasing the plots lowers OpEx and saves you a lot of headaches. I get it. I was wondering if it was possible to employ a strategy where I can turn renters of a mobile home, into buyers of the mobile home and sell the notes in order to pay for the park itself, and essentially buy the MPH for free. 

For example, lets say tenants pay $650 all in (land lease + mobile home rental) and I offer the tenant to buy the home they're renting (presuming the mobile home is suitable for purchase) for more than the value that I bought it for (lets presume I purchased the park for $300k and there are 15 units, making the per unit value $20k per unit). I'm thinking I can lower the monthly cost for the tenant, to $625/month to own versus $650/month to rent, making ownership a more attractive option to tenants since it will be cheaper, sell the tenant the mobile home for $35k ($15,000 more than the per unit price that I paid for it), and essentially mortgage the mobile home to them for less than they paid in rent. I presume this strategy would lower my OpEx since I'd no longer be responsible for repairs and maintenance on that mobile home. At $625/month to own, the breakdown could be - lot lease: $325, mortgage: $231 (which is 20 year lease with a 5% interest rate) and the remaining difference could be for mortgage insurance. Is there anything in this strategy that sounds absurd? Ridiculous? Clueless? If so, what am I missing? What are the risks/pitfalls?

In the event that the scenario that I presented in the last paragraph was plausible, is there a market to sell notes for personal property? Mobile homes aren't considered real property, so what are the challenges surrounding selling notes for mobile homes? How do I make the notes as attractive as possible? I'm thinking that if I can turn renters into buyers, and then I can sell off the notes, I can then sell enough notes to essentially end up buying the MHP for free, because the mobile homes will be able to pay for the park itself. I don't know if this is a bit overzealous though lol and I don't know if this idea is crazy or not. Answers to questions like these will help me in analyzing some of the deals I am looking at. If some or most of what I presume in this scenario could be possible or plausible, then some of the deals that I'm looking at could go from being a bit too risky to being more attractive. So, I'm just trying to work that out

Apologies if this is a bit lengthy, I know this may be a lot to digest, but these questions have been nagging me lol

[Frank Rolfe]

You're on the right track but some of your assumptions are too optimistic. Typically, you need a difference of $100 per month to motivate a customer to buy over rent, not $25. And the average mobile home that you can monetize with debt is around $10,000, not $20,000 as your example might suggest. But let's apply this to your example of a 15 unit park you buy for $300,000 with all park-owned homes. 

Assuming the homes are 1990s or newer, you can finance those through 21st Mortgage potentially for $10,000 each (the minimum loan is $10,000 and the payment you are suggesting in the example would pretty much require that limit), so you could sell those 15 units and the customers could use 21st Mortgage for a lending source and you would receive a check for $150,000 in total. That means you only have $150,000 into the land, which effectively doubles your cap rate on the lots and you have eradicated the pain and suffering of rental mobile homes.

All park owners use this plan to some degree, but it's all based on the number of POHs in the property at closing. Some deals have none and some have one on every lot. Beware of any home older than 1990 if this is your plan because 21st will not finance any deal less than $10,000 and most 1980s and older homes will not blue book to the values you need.