Mobile Home Park Valuation

[Nick Senella]

I work as an insurance agent, and have done a ton of studying of REI, but haven't made my first purchase yet. I have a client that owns a 20 unit mobile home park (pads only) that I reached out to a few weeks back to see if he'd be interested in selling. He wants to meet me this week to discuss it further. I don't have a ton of cash to put down up front, so owner financing would probably be my only option at this point. Any advice on valuing a park? Average value per pad, etc? From what I understand, he's getting about $200 per pad per month.

[Edward B.]

@Nick Senella, short answer is that many investors appear to be offering at a 10 percent cap rate for a park that is just renting the pads. So rough math 20 times $200 equals $4k per month or $48k per year. Expenses and everything depends on a variety of factors but should run between 35% and 55%. Assume 50% and you are looking at a value of roughly $240,000. Actual value will depend upon the actual revenue and expenses and a variety of other things. That would be the long answer, though, and I would need a lot more information to determine that.