All Forum Posts by: Ben Freeman

I think I got it solved. Thanks everyone! 

That was my gut! 

I am in the process of closing on a property as a primary residence(nonday the 4th). We currently have a duplex and our current house will also be rented out once we move. We are supposed to close on Monday. The lender is asking me to create a fake lease and have a friend sign it to close. Is this a thing? It seems unethical and I don't like it. Are there any other ways to show the income without a signed lease? 

I was trying to be pre-approved for a new primary and ran into some issues with the lender not wanting to count my income on my duplex. 

Backstory:

I purchased a duplex in may of 2022. One half was rented($1300) the other was vacant. I completely gutted the vacant half and made it into 6 bedrooms to be rented to young professionals. This reno took the remainder of 2022 and into the early part of 2023. I started to fill room in the vacant side April of 2023.  I have since filled all 6 rooms,(two will be transitioning and refilled this month) total revenue for the 6 rooms is $6325. Total income for this property is $5625. 

My lender locally will only look at the $1300 since it was on my tax return. I have signed leases with most being 12 months. How can I get a lender to count the rest of the income to not mess with my debt to income?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Ben

What kinds of projects are you looking to have done? What part of Dayton do you need work done? I work In in the HVAC industry in between Dayton and Cincinnati and may be able to help point you to some guys who do really good work. 

We just finished a brrrr deal. It was a duplex which we rent out by the room. While a little more work, the cashflow is much greater and is allowing me to continue to buy even in this market where affordability is challenged. Our next goal is to by a larger primary and convert our existing primary into a medium term rental. I think the more creative you can be, the better results you will see. 

Hello Friends! 

First off, thank you for looking at my post! I really appreciate this community and all the wealth of information on here. 

I am currently looking at  buying my first mobile home park and am trying to sort through the details to make sure its a wise buy. My background is in construction and business development. I thought it would go over the details and then see if you all  had any input. 

This is a 47 unit park on 7 acres total. Currently has 3 acres of vacant land which I think we could turn into storage units as well as, a separate 40x60 shop/ pole which I think could bring additional rental income. 

Park currently has city water and sewer, Nat Gas, electric and cable. 

asking price is $400k 

Currently has 12 paying tenants and 5 vacant pads. 

This leaves 30 trailers that are not currently doing anything. 

Of the 30, 4-6 units I think can be renovated and either sold or rented out quick. 
As I am working to analyze this deal, are there vacancy and repair rules of thumbs? Its not super old park so I don't think there will be a huge infrastructure cost for several years.  

It is a smaller town that has a lot of manufacturing jobs. I was a little concerned with the demand for affordable housing and put up some Facebook Market ads to see what kind of traffic I could get with more buy in than "is this available". I had my listing up for less than 24 hours and had over 60 solid messages asking about the houses but were also willing to give me budget information. There were over 2500 views on my listings. My gut is that there is a real demand for this park. It was recently inherited by the grandson and I think the management really was neglected as his Grandfather aged. 

I think the biggest challenge will be bringing in replacement trailers. I think that difficulty makes it my best asset, as my background is in supersize moves for heavy equipment and I have good relationships with all the job site trailer movers across the country. I am pretty good at finding creative ways to get trailers inexpensively and get them moved into my site. 

I have found a bank willing to fund the deal with 25k down and give me an extra line of credit to infill and do repairs as needed. Do you have any rough numbers to use for cost of repairs/vacancy/ cap ex for a park to help navigate the acquisition process? I am more familiar with tradition housing and rental but like the scale ability of mobile home parks and want to own 1000 pad in the next 5 years. 

What things do you think could be hidden that I should look at? I am planning to meet with the bank in the next week or so to get a better handle on the loan type and information. 

Thanks again for helping! 

Ben