All Forum Posts by: Daren Jones

@Jen Roberts Hi and welcome. First step is educate and part of that might be to figure out where you are planning on lending and if they have any licensing requirements. To mitigate the risk, something that is probably high on your list and hopefully others, figure out where you want to lend and on what types of properties. Lending on any property that is or will become owner occupied might be something you will want to stay away from as you will most likely trigger licensing as well as Section 32 (high cost).

A typical scenario you might want to look at lending might be a flip, mult-family, mixed-use, etc...non-owner occupied. They have what you consider "enough" down 25% (?), figure out your loan terms will be "X" %, 6 months, "Y" points.

There are additional variables to consider after you have thought about the type of property, rate, fees, terms (LTV), and that is what I consider the most important part you can underwrite and that is the borrowers take out strategy. If they cannot pay you back you might not get all your money back if you do not underwrite the property correctly.

Stay conservative and make sure you look at the big picture. Talk to local mortgage brokers, bank loan officers and real estate agents in addition to forums like BP and others that have been mentioned. They will not only give you possible leads on borrowers but can also be a great recourse for that take out to pay you back.

@Dagan Flowers from the information you have provided I would for sure try to build a fourplex. You will be surprised that it should not be that much more expensive to do so, especially if you bring the square footage of the units down, go up to two levels (assuming the duplex is one level) and make them 2/1. You will have a little more cost for the extra kitchens but hopefully you are able to keep the footprint roughly the same size. Remember, even if the cost is a little more you will be receiving rent from four doors that you stated is almost the same rent per door could almost double your income per building with only adding minimal building costs.

Good luck with your investment.

@Austin Jacobsen Did you get your mobile home park built out? 

@Joe Schultz Hi. Well, I am sure this is an all too uncommon issue. I have not received my shovel ready permit in my hand as of today. I am hoping to have it by October. Of course there is nothing guaranteed but that is my hope. If I receive it by the end of September I might be able to build this year. If not, it might need to be pushed back due to weather in our area.

All of my prices have increased but I can still make the numbers work.

@John Walker Are all the trailers POH? The banks or credit unions you have talked to, are they trying to place value on the POH (if they are POH)? Some of the smaller local or even regional lenders could be approached using Community Reinvestment Act credit for a park. Again, there are a lot of unknown variables but it is an attempt. Also, I agree this could be a perfect approach for seller financing or worst case hard money. 

@Kyle Craig Hi, I am working on getting final numbers on a 78 unit park right now in OR. In my experience you are going to have a lot of variables that you will need to take into consideration while giving a blanket number. The biggest variable is the price of pipe right now which keeps going up. These are some of the things I think are important to make sure you look at;

1. Cost of labor in you area-obviously get an estimate from a few contractors who are licensed bonded and insured to install the pipe.

2. Cost of engineering. What exactly does the governing body in that area require for civil engineering on replacement

3. Cost of material. If you are having a general do this work then you can lump #1 in with this. What type of pipe does the governing agency require you to use for water and sewer.

4. Material on the surface. Where are the current pipes located, do you need to go around other utilities and are you trenching through, dirt, gravel, concrete or asphjalt? Road repair alone can be a fairly costly endeavor. In my area you need 10' of horizontal separation between water and sewer so this is a minimum of two trenches.

5. Connections at the spaces. Are you dealing with a straight forward connection at each space or is this an older park where each connection partially under the trailer? 

Engineers will likely throw out a $ per linear foot number for a rough estimate. I know this is not the answer to the question you asked but I am not sure it is that easy to give you an exact cost. If it were me I would budget on the high end but then again I am pretty conservative and I don't like surprises when it comes to my money.

Good luck with your project.

@Joe Schultz It is going pretty well. The governing bodies are working a lot slower than I would prefer but overall it is going well. We are finishing up the civil drawings and I would hope to have the permit in hand by late fall/early winter but might not break ground until next summer. Negotiating some of the GFC and improvement district fees as this will be the first RV park in the city limits.

I agree on trying to keep the trees.

How long do you anticipate it will take from the time you fill out the application with the city/county/state until the time you have an approval? 

@Austin Jacobsen Congrats on keeping the development going. It can be a lot of work.

@Joe Schultz I am developing a park as well. Let me know if you have any questions.

Good luck,

Daren

@Lisa Leung this is not an inexpensive proposition but one that can be fruitful for sure. I would highly recommend starting with the city or county planner. Another fairly easy step is a local engineering firm, they can give you the soft cost as well as the hard cost estimates, at least a ballpark per pad up front. There are of course many variables but it will be a start. If you don't have the contacts for engineering firms you could ask the previous owner who they used for their site across the street or the city/county who that owner used.

The fill of the 40 spaces might be a loaded question as well. So many variables, but some of the previous contributors here on BP have some great advice as well as some other articles on different sites regarding different fill strategies. The manufacturers of manufactured homes also have programs to help you like the CASH program, etc...

Good luck, sounds exciting!

What types of questions do you have?