All Forum Posts by: Chris Reeves

Boy is it fun to bring back a thread like this from the dead - look back over the last twelve months and see that rents popped something like 20% in the Inland Empire  - people got both cash flow and a whole lotta appreciation.

As for the next twelve months - who knows. . .

Great replies and mini-education all. Appreciate it.

John Anderson - you have no idea what the offer was actually - it was in fact exactly what the real estate agent recommended, not a low ball at all. And yes I will of course move on.

Ah, well thanks. Stupid question then - I thought offers to sell were in fact legally binding. "I agree to sell you X for Y and this agreement in force for Z days."

Hey folks,

This situation has not happened to me before so I thought I'd ask to see if anyone else has been through this.

1. On August 16 I received a seller's counter offer on a property. The written deadline for acceptance on the counter offer was August 19 (which I presume means any time up until 11:59 pm).
2. In the early afternoon of Friday, August 19 I received a written "withdrawal" of the counter offer from the seller. The withdrawal noted that I had not accepted the counter offer by 2:30 pm central time, and claimed the seller therefore had the right to withdraw (the original counter offer did not mention a time deadline - only the date of August 19).
3. I e-mailed my real estate agent to ask why the seller had withdrawn the offer. She wrote back that he told her he received a "substantially" higher offer and that the very day he attempted to cancel his counter offer to me 9 hours early, he went into contract with another buyer.

When I received the e-mail containing his written withdrawal of the counter I thought "oh well, that's that" and initially thought I had lost the right to accept his counter offer. I did not realize until today, Monday August 22, when I checked the documents again, that the seller's "withdrawal" of his offer to sell his property was not actually a valid withdrawal - that in fact I had all day August 19 to accept his counter.

It seems clear to me now that the seller was eager to send written notice of withdrawal of his counter offer because he had received a better offer and was chomping at the bit hoping I would not accept by midnight August 19.

My question is - is there anything I can do here? Do I have any grounds to demand the seller perform? I'm going to call a real estate attorney in the morning - just wondering if anyone has been through a similar situation.

Thanks Jack - looks like a good read. Ordered!

Any recommendations appreciated - I'm not asking for books about investing advice - I'm more looking for something along the lines of a historian or economist writing a book about the history of the multi-family industry. Google searches are coming up short. Thanks!

You've explained nothing at all about your deal.

Oh BTW - one thing which this industry seems to take as a "truism" is to NOT place a cap rate on the park owned home income. The logic is that in the long run every penny in rent collected on a POH is spent again in maintenance rehab after tenants leave. If you apply that standard to park evaluation you *only* count lot rent, then apply the standard 30 or 40% expense ratio to the lot rent, then apply your desired cap rate (divide one year NOI by the cap rate) and you back out to a park value that way.

Hi Derek,

From what you have posted so far - so good. What is the utilities situation? If you don't mind - give us the lot rents as well and we can back out a rough cap. General range of NOI which I have read is 70% of collections if the residents pay water, 60% if you do.

Keep in mind Derek - I am not a MHP expert - I am from multifamily transitioning into MHP's and have been to Frank Rolfe's boot camps and read his books - so I am evaluating your deal based on what I have read about the industry.

A 12 cap on actuals with no park owned homes and 25% upside in a decent area by filling lots sounds pretty solid.

Why does the seller want to let such a nice little place go?