All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Kevin,

You are always welcome to run those past me as well.  I am always willing to lend a helping hand.  Phone number in the signature block.

I personally think the pros for a fund outweigh the pros for property specific.  We just haven't positioned our company to do a fund yet.  Yet being the key word.  A fund invests in multiple properties where the property specific only handles one at a time.  

For us, a fund would allow us to be more nimble and take advantage of more/different types of opportunity.  It would also allow us more flexibility to shape the risk & returns of the overall portfolio.  

For you, a fund would provide less risk.  You aren't exposed to just one property or one market.  Your returns are also a little more predictable too.

A pro for the property specific for you is that you can underwrite the individual deal yourself.  You have a little more control so long as you know how to underwrite it and have complete faith in the syndicator to execute the business plan.

Personally, I like doing a fund more than property specific.  It offers a better service for the client but it requires that the client have a lot more faith in what we are doing.  For us, we just haven't done the complete leg-work and education process to start operating a fund.  We've got a very full plate this summer with acquisitions so hopefully we'll find the breathing room to change that scenario in the future.  We are also small enough that doing property specific syndications hasn't become too cumbersome yet.  The money for any good syndicator is floating around in the market place.  I work 60+ hours per week to find a home for it and most of it is still homeless.

Frank and Dave raise a lot of equity to go out and buy multiple parks from one fund.  We raise money one deal at a time.  From an investor and syndicator standpoint, there are pros and cons with each.

Matt,

Frank and Dave's funds do well and I've never run into an unhappy investor who's done business with them. Our company also does pretty much the same exact thing but on a property specific level right now. One thing you will find dealing with an experienced syndicator is that the good ones have access to a lot more money than they currently have deals they would ethically put their money partners in. We have that problem and a few others I know have that same problem. If Frank & Dave are taking in passive investors right now, you should probably jump in. They are very competent educators and owners. The returns we are giving in the world of mobile home parks to our passive investors are unheard of in any other niche of real estate. It's just a fact of life. If you can get past the unfavorable stigma of the asset class, you'll realize 8-10%pref and 20% IRR with any number of syndicators in our space.

Probably need to go with Curt's advice on this one.  We are in the preliminary stages with CASH so I've got 0 real experience with them.  Curt and his partners are much deeper in the process than we are.

Joel,

Big thanks for the plug on Kevin's show.  Him and I are doing a mobile home park specific podcast starting in a week or two.  Have a bunch of shows already recorded and we are including a lot of our unique practices into the show.  I think you'll enjoy it quite a bit once our website guy gets everything setup for the launch.

Bill, Bestplaces.net is a good place to look for those stats.  You should also lean on the info provided by Wikipedia and the Chamber of Commerce.  You are attempting to answer basic questions with your research:

1. How strong is the economy? (Metro/County/City/Zip)

- Indicators are unemployment, Household Income, diversity of employment

2. How strong is the local housing market? (Metro/County/City/Zip)

- Indicators are housing prices, rental prices, housing vacancy

Notice that crime and population change aren't used to answer these two questions.  In nearly all cases an area with a real crime problem or a real population decline is also going to fail to satisfy these two questions.  One of the great strengths of the park industry is that the entire industry is compressed.  Your research can be a lot less involved than what every other asset class has to do.  Parks offer a very affordable option at a great value and you can't build new ones.  Therefore, even in somewhat iffy markets, the demand is usually still very high.

Bill,

Population declines/increases are skewed almost as much as crime rates are. When you enter mobile home park land, your major concern is with the barriers of entry to SFHs and apartments. You are really looking for healthy apartment rents and healthy SFH prices. You are also looking for diverse employment, low housing vacancies, and healthy incomes. (Healthy=stable/not spectacular)

In any event, population declines are very low on the list.  Very often, a population decline that is not followed by another economic indicator is worthless.  Example that comes to mind is Pittsburgh...  -3% form the last census, but any park buyer worth their salt would kill to get in that market.

I somewhat agree with Jeffrey (and we have also talked about it)

The current expense ratio suggests an NOI near $130,000. However, you are in Durham and you can clearly look at your own database and know what that means. Also, 41% on the expense ratio probably also suggests there are opportunities to cut expenses and you and I both know you can raise rents slightly. Durham is also not a 10 CAP market. What few trades we've seen there suggests that it is probably more like an 8-9 CAP market. I'm actually a little jealous that you've found a way to enter that market.

It's a solid deal in a tremendous market.  Don't second guess it and just go execute.  Is it a home run?  Nope.  Is it a deal worth doing?  Absolutely

Talk to BB&T.  They do parks in that part of NC and they are very easy to work with.  I'm glad I could help you where I could and I look forward to your continued success.  Oh, and tell Jefferson I said Hi!  He'll need to bring Kevin and I on his show soon ;)

Great job Ian and Ryan!  Keep doing what you are doing.

You need to lookup the NY tenant-landlord handbook and figure out when you can take the following actions:

1. Send a demand letter for rent (Certified mail, posted on the door, etc.)

2. File a complaint with the court (3, 5, etc days after the demand letter goes out)

You need to evict this person if they are not paying rent and they moved in.  In the future, you need to get a security deposit and 1st month's rent before handing over the keys.