All Forum Posts by: Belinda Lopez

Check out Facebook. There are several mobile home park investing groups where folks post properties for sale. Setup alerts in Craigslist. Join your local Real Estate Investors Association (REIA) and network, network, network!

There are tons of great lenders who specialize in working with investors.  Zeus Mortgage Bank, Jet Lending, Investor Loan Source and of course your local bank and credit unions.  What is it you are trying to do with the property?  just hold long-term as-is for cash flow and appreciation?  are tenants in place with a lease?  does it need repairs?  Zeus has a program to help you buy then houses in ten months with $10k out of pocket - do you want to do that? or just slowly buy and hold a certain amount of rentals?

Good luck!

Hi Sean,

Welcome to Houston! Be sure to check out the local REIAs to quickly find local investors and build your buyers lists. You don't need a Texas LLC but do need to find a few good title companies that work with investors. There are some new disclosure laws that you need to be aware of when wholesaling. No need to try to be deceptive, just tell everyone exactly what you're doing, be sure to have "and/or assigns" on the contract and make sure you are marketing your position in the contract, not the actual property.

Hi David,

  it sounds like you have the start of a great plan for retirement!  Many long-time owners started modestly and used proceeds from the first few spaces to add on.  One owner adds anywhere from 5- 10 new spaces as that was manageable in terms of costs and also allowed the spaces to fill up pretty quickly instead of adding 20 or more and having empty sites.  It's a balance. 

There also seems to be a certain size where management becomes exponential instead of incremental.  Several parks we've been involved, once they hit the 72+ spaces, suddenly required a whole lot more hands-on management.  Under that size, the park was able to be managed by a single on-site manager and part-time maintenance.  Under that size everyone knows everyone and the park can self-regulate any problems.  Over that amount and the manager can lose track of exactly who is coming and going.

The park you describe is what I call a residential park versus a resort park with many amenities and seasonal guests.  Residential parks are very similar to mobile home parks as the owner can bill monthly and bill back electric and other utilities on a monthly basis.  We've seen some long-time "guests" stay 12 - 15 years in one park.  We regularly see school buses in these parks as well.  Folks just want a safe, clean and affordable place.  Some have pets that apartments won't allow.  Almost all prefer having their own space instead of an apartment.

Pricing to put in the pad sites will vary depending on your location but can run anywhere from$8k - $20k from raw dirt to finished site.  This includes your permits, utilities, pad materials, labor etc.  Yes, you can save some but doing it yourself but there are also price breaks when doing multiple sites at a time vs. just one. 

We also learned that concrete or paved sites are not worth it to folks if there is a huge price difference.  What they really wanted was well draining, level sites with shade being the only other thing folks would pay more for a premium site.  Some of the most profitable parks are not "pretty parks" but have other features that make folks come and stay.  

@Gil Flmeinga, there are several sites that feature RV Parks for sale, just google them but I've also discovered that some of those sites are just ways for the site owner to get the best deals first before they post them out!  Because they are such a niche, not many Brokers really know how to list or sell them as they are rare to see good deals listed.  There are also some Facebook groups (I know I have one) that are for RV & Mobile Home Park owners that folks post parks for sale.

They are absolutely less intensive than hotels and it depends on the type of park as to how much the owner needs to be around.  They can absolutely be run absentee from the beach or place with a laptop and phone IF you have a great manager on-site.  I always say "the park takes on the personality of the owner" so if the owner is a great business person who treats the park like a jewel it will be a great park.  If the owner treats the park like their own personal ATM, never does maintenance, rents to anyone, then the park with quickly gain that reputation with residents & neighbors and the local law enforcement.  Please don't anyone here ever have one of "those" parks.  It's a great niche and so many folks need affordable housing, we need more owners to take pride in their parks and offer a safe place to live and they can create an incredible cash flow as equity and appreciation grows each year.  One park really can make your whole retirement and it doesn't even need to be a big park.

@JerryTa, any reason why the glue down over the new click lock?  I used the new click lock and I'm in love with it.  Goes together so much easier than laminate, softer underfoot than tile and wipes clean.  

My only secret source is Home Depot sales, negotiating with the Pro Desk and then our cash back rebate on top of that.  Veterans also get an 11% discount at Home Depot so hire a Vet for your team!

Harvey homes are the big unknown in the Houston market right now.  Yes, folks have a short memory and plenty of buy and hold investors are picking these up at pennies on the dollar but the fix and flip exit strategy is pretty risky for investors.  First time flooded homes are different than multiple flood homes so you REALLY need to know the areas where folks are fleeing and where they are rebuilding and returning.  It can take years to rebuild, work through insurance issues and move home.  Many folks just give up and walk away.  Mortgage companies have given many folks months of not having to make payments but that is coming to an end and we are seeing a definite uptick in foreclosures.

Labor is now readily available but so are the fly by night guys who take folks money and never finish the work.  There is no licensing of contractors in the state so that can make it tough to find quality contractors.

If you are coming to Houston, come on down! There is plenty of room for quality investors and plenty of opportunity. You might want to try the strategy others are doing and coming down for a few weeks, attending all the local REIA and investor meetings and do your analysis before moving. There are plenty of opportunities to partner with local groups as well.

I'm involved with the Realty Investment Community of Houston and we help educate and offer networking for local investors. We are seeing more non-local folks than ever at our meetings just like yourself; folks wanting to survey the landscape.  Our largest meeting is the first Saturday of the month and then we have several smaller meetings throughout the month where you can really ask questions and get to know some of the top, most active investors in the area in a friendly setting.  We also offer to send out wholesale deal info like those to our membership who are the top buying group in Houston.  Deals sell within days, sometimes hours if they are truly deals.

Welcome to Texas!

How to Build a $100k/year Wholesaling Business + How to Get Your Phone Ringing off the Hook with Motivated Sellers

Wholesaling is an awesome strategy—it produces quick checks of $5,000, $10,000, or even more WITHOUT the need to fix or manage properties. It’s one of the few real estate strategies that really does allow you to make money without a lot of cash or credit. But what you DO have to have is education—otherwise, you can’t bring great deals to the table and can’t make money.

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Vena is famous for her no-B.S. teaching and her ability to simplify tough concepts so that even a brand-new investor can easily grasp them. Whether you’re a brand new wholesaler or struggling tomake more and better deals, you’ll learn something that will add to your bottom line. So bring a notepad, bring a friend, and get to this event—it will change your financial life forever!

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Vena Jones-Cox has been a full-time real estate investor since 1989. She’s wholesaled over 600 properties, and has written the definitive homestudy program on how to flip properties quickly and easily. She’s the

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What is the main target guest for this park?  Would it be long-term folks who are monthly? or would it be a destination park with lots of amenities and higher overhead?  Sounds like it has good infrastructure which means your startup costs would be much lower.

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30 Days to $10K: How Wholesaling Really Works in 2018
with Vena Jones-Cox

Everyone knows that wholesaling is the quickest and easiest way to put cash in your pocket in the real estate business. The problem is, most people don’t actually understand how wholesale deals are supposed to work, why buyers are willing to pay you $5,000, $10,000, or even more to take over your contract, or how to find deals that work in today’s seller’s market.

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