All Forum Posts by: Brian Parsons

Bill - Thanks for your great explanations, and suggestions. Definitely helps me out and it's much appreciated.

One thing i've seen a few people mention here is that you should run test ads about a mobile home deal before actually buying the mobile home.

Question: How would you go about doing that? What do you say to people who answer the test ads?

I know I want to start out investing my self directed IRA in Mobile Homes (i.e. the Lonnie Deals), and at first it looked like I wasn't going to be able to do it because of SAFE act in Indiana (That's where I want to do this investing). However after further digging, it looks as though I can somewhat do a seller finance through either a land contract or a lease with option to buy (Seems kind of like a back door way of doing seller financing without having to have the mortgage loan originator license):

http://www.indianarealtors.com/Uploads/Indiana_Realtor_Advocate/Legal_Hotline_SAFE_8-6-2010.1.pdf

So, that said I'm going back and forth on which route I want to go. I'll note that I haven't done anything in real estate investing yet and this will be my first leap in this arena. That said, I'd really prefer my first investment be as hands off as I can get it in that I don't have to have a property manager or be the responsible party to get the plumbers/electricians/etc. there when the buyers need them. I think under a land contract there is language that specifies that the buyers in the contract are the responsible party for that aspect. Under the lease route wouldn't that responsibility fall under the landlord (me)? Or is it that I can have that language put in a lease option contract as well?

Any guidance on the pros and cons of each route and which might be the better route for me as someone who's never done an investment .... yet.

Yes a few people have mentioned options. I'm going to look into that.

Thanks for the suggestions!

regarding the SAFE act in MH investing in Indiana ... I found this:

http://www.indianarealtors.com/Uploads/Indiana_Realtor_Advocate/Legal_Hotline_QandA_8-6-2010.1.pdf

So it looks like you can still do this, but do it through the lease/option ... i.e. land contract.

At least that's where I'm at now in my research.

Reviving this thread ... I'm just getting started and interested in doing the MH thing like you all discussed above. I live in Indiana near the Indianapolis area and just doing some quick searches on MH's here, I have found some I can purchase and resell. That said, I looked at the SAFE act details here in Indiana, and it looks as though that for anybody (Including private investors) that wants to do a real estate transaction originating a mortgage (i.e. seller finance), and the language specifically includes mobile homes, has to have a Mortgage Loan Originator's license to do so.

Am I reading that right?

http://www.in.gov/dfi/SAFE_QA.pdf

It actually has me thinking of doing what I need to do to get that license, but wanted to get thoughts on that.

Also wanted to see how you all have done since this thread was started.

Can you give me a quick explanation of options? You stated that's another good strategy. I haven't come across that yet in my reading.

Thanks for your reply/advice! Yeah I read about the "Lonnie" deals so that's what think i'm going to try out first to raise some capital the first few years.

Thanks for the book suggestions. I'm going to check them out!

So I'm getting my money out of the stock market and moving into a self directed IRA (using the LLC structure) so I can invest in real estate. I'm very new to real estate as in never done any investing, but I know that that's the route I want to go for my IRA. I've done a lot of research looking for the route I want to go. My unfortunate problem is I only have about 25K to start :(.

I first looked at buying mortgage notes or trust deeds as well as tax liens as they seemed like a good passive route to go to get started. As I researched that type of investing, it seemed pretty risky to me since I don't have any experience. Plus finding the right notes seemed like quite the challenge by itself. Then I moved onto maybe seeing if I can try to find a foreclosed or a cheap rental. I know a local property manager that I'd use for rentals (She does a great job and we had a good relationship back when I was in one of her rentals). She is also a real estate agent, so I definitely plan on getting in touch with her about real estate in general (I know the biggest advice for newbies is to get in touch with local real estate folks, so that's definitely on the agenda). I know I don't have enough to really get started in rentals. Although at some point my main goal is to have a good set of rentals under my IRA when I retire so I can have that cash flowing (Another thing I know they tell newbies is to have an end goal, so i've already got that). But I need to do small investments for the first few years to build capital to start getting into duplexes and such. So that's the track that I want to lay for myself.

That said, I just came upon investing in .... mobile homes. After looking into that a bit, now that seems more like something that I can do with what I have to get started (Or maybe not??). I'm in the Indianapolis area and after doing a quick search online there seems to be a fair amount of mobile homes that I could buy. I'd really like to keep it as passive as I can to start (Because of the experience factor), so I think the best route would be to buy mobile homes and turn them around and do the seller finance thing. That way I wouldn't have the rental issues to deal with for my first investment (I want to get into the rental business slowly). That seems like a good way to raise my IRA balance pretty fast I'd think.

Questions:

- Does it seem like I'm on the right track, or is there a better route for me to go with the available money in my IRA?

- When setting up the seller note, it would probably be best to hire a real estate attorney to write up the note, right? What can I expect to spend on an attorney to get me through this investment?

- I noticed that there is a lot fee in these mobile parks. When coming up with the amount to sell the MH and the monthly payment target (Obviously I should look at the average monthly rent in the particular park), does the buyer typically pay the monthly lot fee or is that something the seller pays (Deducting it from the monthly cash flow)?

Any other advice I can get would be greatly appreciated. I know real estate is the way I can have a decent retirement IRA setup if I can get it started right and get it going asap.

Thanks!