All Forum Posts by: Belinda Lopez

There are some homes with ground-level exemptions due to "grandfather" clauses but as a new owner you will not be able to get anything insured that is below the BFE.  It's really not worth the risk anyways.  As others said, behind the Seawall you might be okay but Hurricane proved otherwise.  Elevated homes often convert ground level areas to bunk rooms or spare rooms but there are not insurable and the only things covered will be your electric and water heater in those areas.

What many do is leave the concrete flooring and paint, use greenboard for the walls and raise items off the floor using risers or bricks.  That will help with tidal flooding but not Hurricane level floods.  It will flood again!  Mother Nature has no respect for your plans so all you can do is design around her.  Bathrooms are not allowed by permit and you'll have to be very creative in how you furnish and provide a/c and heating; portable units are recommended.  Just be prepared to lose it all in the next big flood event.  Think of it as a bonus room and any year it survives is a blessing.

It just depends on your goals.  Mixed parks are fine as long all the residents are all monthly.  It does not work if the RV portion also tries to cater to short-term travelers.

The RV spaces are no different than the MHP if they are monthly.  We've seen folks stay over 10 years in RVs in parks.

The 'man camp' parks are problem for long-term investors.  We're seeing folks build them quickly and then try to sell for extreme prices based on current income.  The boom always ends and unless there is something else to keep folks there, those parks can empty out quickly.

We're in the midst of our due diligence on some land that includes Wetlands on the upper Texas Coast near Galveston, TX.  We believe part of the land has now been 'lost' to the state/public lands due to changes in the mean high tide line and vegetation lines.  The part we want is only about 5 acres in a parcel of 70+ acres.  The preliminary Title commitment excludes any land that may now be part of the Public land due to those changes but how do we determine what the true ownership is? Is this a wetlands delineation survey?  some sort of other special survey?  

We don't want to buy the land given that there is basically no Title insurance on the majority of the land but no one can tell us how to determine how much, if any of the full parcel is owned by either the current owner or the State!  Not sure how to move forward with this one - amny ideas?

Definitely recommend the Mobile Home Bootcamp and other online courses like the one John Fedro offers. John's program is for individual homes. If your local area has a REIA - Real Estate Investor Association, join it and find out who works this niche. I'm in Houston and we have a small group just focused on MHP & RV Parks.

It won't be that expensive; a few extra cinder blocks and tie downs?  Most mobile homes are already about 3-4 feet up.  Heck, we are seeing them on full pilings around18-21 feet here near the gulf coast. It's ridiculous.  I'll post a pic if I can find one on my phone.  

You've got the money, you've got the systems in place but you can't find a quality deal to save your life!  Yes, one of the challenges of living in one of the greatest cities in the world is that so does everyone else!  With no end in sight to growth and appreciation,  it's getting harder and harder to find quality deals.  That is unless you have a secret weapon being used by the area's TOP LOCAL investors.   A strategy and tools that can give you the much-needed edge to keep your deal flow at an all-time high.

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Great replies by Jack & Austin.  Sounds like a great opportunity at the right price.  I would be hesitant to keep the family on b/c they could be difficult to manage and even more difficult to evict if it ever came to that.

We use a 50% expense ratio when doing our analysis as we find these Parks rarely account for their true expenses. See it all the time where the owner or Workampers hours are not counted and it can be extremely time intensive to manage a park if there are not good systems and maintenance schedules set up.  We like to keep the existing management and access to the Owner for at least 2-3 months post-Closing so we have time to fully transition and get everything documented.  A Park operations manual is a must for a new and especially an owner who has not owned or managed a Park before.

Due diligence is your friend and document everything!  Take photos of everything; including utilities, and the other items that may be included in the sale of the property.  We had one Seller initially include about $20k in Park maintenance equipment in the sale (it was in the contract) and then a few weeks before Closing it all got "stolen" yet he didn't report it to the Police.  We ended up passing on the Park.

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Hi Collin,

  sounds like you might have a great deal. That is kind of how I ended up in the RV Park niche - by chance but I'm so glad I did.  I have an eBook on RV Park development I'll send you. We also just released our first course on RV Park investing.

Good luck!

Hi Mark,

  you're found the best online forum!  Bigger pockets has a ton of resources for beginners.  I agree with others about the smaller events; even though we host a 100+ meeting each month at the RiCH Club.  We have smaller groups that focus on different niches in investing including Commercial, Multifamily, Mobile Homes and even Mineral Rights.  

If you're just starting out, start with the BP books and then maybe explore some of the niches. Competition in Houston right now is fierce; especially in the single family market.  I do RV Park Investing and found it to be a great niche with less competition.