All Forum Posts by: Derek Robinson

Hey @Marcus Holland!

Welcome to Bigger Pockets!  I live in Asheville and invest full time.  Have you been to the local CREIA events?  They are a great place to meet friendly investing folks and network.

@Bill F. , have you tried to use this guy to negotiate waste removal? I tried calling in January. It seemed kind of disorganized and no one would ever call me back. It seemed like maybe this was just a side project that wasn't as successful as he thought it would be?

@Reid Hanley , I have parks in different markets and use both these companies (it so happens that I don't have a choice in the markets I'm in, one won't offer trash service where another one will). Anyway, I have had no issue with Republic. The bill is automatically withdrawn monthly and trash is picked up weekly with no interruptions. Ive had quite a few issues with Waste Industries. When I first purchased one park, I called to have service put in my name. It took three weeks and several angry phone calls before they picked up the trash. I was still getting charged and they would keep making promises, but week after week, no trash service. I had another park and the driver decided he didn't want to drive down the gravel road into the park anymore, but I was never alerted of this. so after three weeks of no trash pick-up, tenants started to complain. it took several calls again and multiple people before someone could give me any answers. It all came down to poor communication within their company. I also had trouble with being over charged a few times.

@Adam Philpot, interesting that you estimate the price by a multiplier.  I've never seen anyone do this for a MHP.  Not that it's wrong, I just haven't experienced this.  I own 7 parks and analyze deals for myself and others all the time.  My first number I look at when analyzing a deal is the price per lot.  Your evaluation comes out to $10k a lot, which is typically an incredible deal if over 50% of the lots are filled with paying tenants.  If you keep losing deals, it's probably because you are trying to pay too little.

I would echo @Sam Hales on the CAP rate, and I usually see them offered at a 8% to 10% CAP. That being said, I have paid around a 4 to 5% CAP knowing that I can raise it to a 20 to 30% CAP by raising rents, cutting expenses, and filling empty lots.

@Phil Collett, Hey Phil.  If I were you, I wouldn't invest in an asset you are unfamiliar with so far from your home base unless you had someone in Ohio you could trust to keep an eye on things.  I live in North Carolina and own 7 parks currently.  I try to keep them within an hour or so drive.  Most parks are lot rent only, but for the ones that I own trailers in, I have local property management companies handle these.  Most property management companies won't advertise managing mobile home parks, but if you call around and talk to enough of them, you'll most likely find one that will.

I've done very well with parks and returns are so much higher than other assets I have.  Good luck to you and let me know if I can answer any questions!

@Jason Burr, I was reading through this old post and thought I'd reply to your question on turnover.  So far, two of my houses have kept the same tenants I inherited.  They are treating the properties well and I have no complaints.  On the 4 unit apartment building, my plan was to push out all tenants by slowly raising rents.  I've gotten three out in the past year and rehabbed their units.  So on those I've gone from $300 to $400 a month.  The fourth unit I'm keeping at$350 and keeping the tenant.  He keeps an eye on the place and mows the grass.  He's been a great tenant and is kind of the "community leader" of the building.

I've got two mobile home parks there as well.  I only own 2 of the trailers, tenants own the rest.  I inherited these tenants and they are great as well.

My overall experience in the area is if you do decent background checks and provide clean and safe units, you can attract great, low income tenants.

Hey @Claire Austil.  I can't speak to appreciation.  I feel like the market will come up, but that's my long play.  I've been in Spartanburg almost 2 years and I've had great experience with tenants paying on time, not doing damage, etc.  I've got a great property manager down there as well.  I have 2 SFHs, a 4 unit apartment building, and two mobile home parks.  All cash flow well.  I'm focusing more on the mobile home park investing currently, so not really looking at SFHs anymore.

What has your experience been?

@Wade Cecil Hey Wade!  I live in West Asheville (a block behind Ujoint!).  I've been a full time investor for 2 years or so, investing for about 12 years.  I started with single family, now do a little bit of everything.  Let me know if I can help you in any way.  Welcome!

@Ryan Groene anyone ever tell you that your profile pic looks like Matt Damon? :-)

@Arnold Oh I've actually toyed with the idea of starting a property management business for mobile home parks.  I'm closing on my 6th park this week and manage them all in house from 1 to 2 hours away.  I only buy parks with tenant owned trailers, so there isn't much in terms of maintenance.

I'm not sure if the math would add up to make it profitable for me and low enough cost for a client.  IF I charged a standard residential rate of 12% and a lot rents for $250, that's only $30 per lot.  I feel like larger parks (50 lots +) are large enough to have on-site management, so I'd only be attractive to smaller parks.  Most of these smaller parks are owned by mom and pop operators that drive to the park to collect the rent and wouldn't want to give up a piece of their income.  I think to make it profitable, I'd have to scale pretty quickly and I doubt there is enough park owners within a reasonable distance that would even want the service.

Sorry, that was more of me thinking out loud!

If you are in a decent area with a handful of property management companies, you can find one that will manage the park for you if you call around and explain the asset.  I have parks in Spartanburg, SC, Hickory/Lenoir, and Charolette and each of these markets have a standard residential property management company that will take on my parks, but I had to call about four in each area before I got one that was open to it.

If you have any questions or want advise on parks, feel free to shoot me a message!