All Forum Posts by: Andrew Thomas

Awesome! Adding to my calendar. :)

Have you reached out to the Nevada MH association, or REI group in the largest metropolitan area in your region? They might be able to provide you with the info you need, or at least be able to point you to someone who has that info.

I'm sure others with more experience will chime in, but the first thing I would check is your local codes / zoning. If these helpful governmental agents are not on your side, it will be a costly uphill battle. For example, is your MHP actually zoned as a "mobile home park"? 

A small park I looked at purchasing has been a MHP for 30+ years. However, all this time, it has been zoned agricultural. The planning department will not allow any homes to be brought in unless the property is re-zoned. Additionally, any homes brought in must meet specific architectural restrictions (5/12 or greater roof pitch, certain minimum square footage larger than most older singlewides, etc).

This has had the "(un)intended consequence" of the owner not being able to sell the park, not being able to refill empty lots, diminished value, etc. 

My brother owns a MH, and has been living there in a MHP for several years.

He is a tech in the utility industry (doing "shutdown" work); he makes GOOD money and has a lot of time off. He could afford a really nice, big SFR in some McMansion subdivision.

However, he is single, and the lot rent is much cheaper, allowing him to squirrel away more money. He also owns a large amount of acreage "out in the sticks". His choice to live in a MH has allowed him the freedom to pay down a large amount of his land, and to buy equipment he needs to start a farm... dump truck, bulldozer, backhoe, etc. He plans to move out to his land in the next 12-18 months.

So, for now, he prefers "MH Life". 

My county tax assessor didn't let COVID prevent them from raising property taxes in our county.    :-/

Give serious consideration to raising rent slightly (10% or so, as previously mentioned), if for no other reason than to keep current with the rising cost of doing business / higher taxes.

Currently, I'm in the 90% who do not own any parks... but I'm trying to change that, dadgummit...  :) lol My goal is to own 250+ doors, in at least 5 different parks, by 12/31/2021.

In April, I took the online MHU Bootcamp. I think it was worth my investment, though I have not implemented / purchased a park, yet.

I like being able to re-watch the videos after the weekend, and have reviewed various parts several times. So much information is provided in a short time, especially for those of us with no real estate / MHP background... "CAP Rate?!". I'm thankful I am able to go back and review the information as needed.

They also provided MP3 audio files from some podcast series that Frank and Dave did. I'm fuzzy on the details, but I think some of the information is now out of date since the recordings were made. IIRC, it had something to do with financing / selling homes, and probably related to SAFE/Dodd-Frank rules... I think the podcast had been recorded prior to that law. They did cover the law in the online / video course, so pay attention to the videos, rather than the audios, on that specific subject. That topic aside, the audio recordings provide lots of "real life" history, wisdom, and funny stories from Frank & Dave's life in the industry.

There are several hundred pages of documents in an e-book format, several spreadsheets, and other forms. These provide a wealth of info to help get an operator operating operationally in a quick manner. The only thing I think I would do differently is to possibly provide a printed form of the documents...

Don't misunderstand. I love the portability of e-books. However, I also like having a printed document at hand, which I pencil notes on, highlight, and add colored tape flags to for quick reference... but maybe that's just me. There are so many pages, I don't think "printing and stapling" the pages myself would work well. I think the spiral bound version would be better.

They have a forum, which has some good info, and Frank is active there in addition to his contributions here on BP. The forums are helpful.

Personally though, I think the MHU class was a better fit to help me get started and excited about the industry, rather than only reading a forum. 

 Laura, the MHU training by Frank Rolfe, which Paul spoke of, was in person for the past several years. Due to "the funky lung skunge", the course is currently provided online. At the time, they indicated that online attendees would be able to attend a live event, whenever in-person classes could safely resume, for a small amount.

You can learn more at MobileHomeUniversity.com 

I took the online class in April. It was like drinking from a fire hose... three days, 8+ hours per day. At that time, the "books" were sent as PDFs, rather than printed, and there were also audio recordings from their call-in show, as well as from previous classes. Additionally, attendees had access to the recorded classes to watch again. I have re-watched several of the classes more than one time. 

I don't currently have a park. My goal is to have 250+ doors by 12/31/2021. I believe MHU is well worth the cost of time and investment. Hope that helps. :)

John D: My second park was an abandoned 8 unit court with only 1 habitable singlewide. The others had collapsed and had trees growing through them. It was 1 mile from the larger park and was 10 acres total with 3 acres developed for singlewides. Over a 1 year period, I demolished the park, bought the existing home, replaced all the water system and reworked the road. We bought 6 used MHs and remodeled them. The net return is over 22% on our investment 4 years later. That is great, but I worked for a year clearing brush and hauling debris ect. Many people will not do that for any level of return.

There is a park like this one near me. Looks like it had about 12-15 homes, based on the old satellite maps, but currently only has 2 homes. It is literally next door to another MHP which has roughly 40 homes (and is 1/2 of a park on the other side of the road... probably 70 homes, and 100 spaces total between the two "halves"). The bigger park was two separate parks that merged last year, as far as I can tell (signs used to be different park names, now signs on both sides of the road are the same company / park). 

Anyway, this little park is septic, and possibly well water. Found your comment while researching and trying to decide whether to try to buy the little park.

Incidentally, on Friday, I met with the owner of an 11 space / 7 home park that is less than one mile from these other parks. He started it 30+ years ago, and is thinking of selling for retirement. ... These little parks are all over the place. Was driving right past them and not really even noticing them before. :) lol

Q - "Who would buy a house with a swimming pool?" 

A - Hopefully, my neighbor! Kind of like a boat, the best swimming pool is one that someone else maintains. :) lol

As far as interests and social media, I'm guessing people who have kids, are into being outside, like swimming, exercise, healthy living, etc. Probably also somewhat location / regional. I think Florida homes are much more likely to have a pool, as compared to homes in Alaska. :) 

Are you asking as a potential landlord, a potential poolowner at your own personal residence, or as someone who wants to sell swimming pools / pool supplies / pool accessories? The reason I ask, many landlords I have talked to about SFR have recommended AGAINST installing swimming pools, or even buying REI properties which have pools, due to the liability... resident's kid (or some random trespassing kid) falls in the pool on the property you own, you may have a lawsuit.

Sergio, I took Frank's MHU online course in April. Good info if you are someone like me with no real experience with MHP investing. TONS of info. In fact, yesterday, I was re-reading one of their ebooks. There is SO much to learn!

I took the class, but I still don't know everything about MHP investing. :) lol  The good thing is, now I have the resources to review to gain a better understanding.