All Forum Posts by: Carl E.

@Paul Stout

The dog issue is a tough one. I've evicted multiple people over it once when a tenant was breeding a WOLF hybrid and passing them out to the other tenants!!

I have to pass on a lot of otherwise qualified tenants too because of their pets. When people call and say they have a lab/retriever/hound "mix" it is ALWAYS a doberman/pit/rot/chow mix :)

Good luck on this, I feel your pain...

@Robert Livero

If this park is in a good area with strong economic indicators, and the 300-375 estimate is what the home + lot rent is priced at, then I would definitely seriously consider paying full price for the property. If those assumptions I made are correct, then you should be able to immediately increase the rents to 500-600/month (for the home + lot rent). At a 50% expense ratio your return is north of 25%.

One big due diligence item is to check the condition of the wastewater treatment plan, if it has one. EPA regs are tough on WWTPs and you don't want to tangle with the EPA. Every permitted treatment plant must submit monthly reports of operation and I believe those are public. Get a hold of the reports and talk with an experienced wastewater treatment plant operator to get his opinion on the condition of the plan. If it's on city utilities then you're golden.

@Derek Williams

Check out the podcast "Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow" by Kevin Bupp.

It's a GOLDMINE of information for new MHP investors. I own a small (41 space) park and have actively run and managed it for 6 years now, but I still gained a ton of knowledge from Kevin.

Best of Luck!

@S.M. Morton @Kevin Schulte @Rich Ferradino

Another fantastic podcast is Real Estate Investing for Cash Flow by Kevin Bupp. I've listened to over a hundred hours of podcasts by this guy. He focuses on Mobile Home Parks but brings on heavy hitters from many real estate related industries. As a new investor (I own a small mobile home park), the knowledge and experience gained from Kevin is invaluable. From basic management stuff to raising private capital (which is what I'm currently working on), it's all there.

Don't forget to listen to the podcasts at 1.8X speed for efficiency, of course :)

You'll get used to it after a while and then you can listen to a LOT of content in a much shorter time.

Best of luck!

@Jay Hinrichs, I agree that there are a lot of things that can go wrong during a construction project, but I'm using a modular system of building, so we don't have all the headache of bad framing/roofing contractors, etc etc.

I appreciate the input!

@Lee Smith Thanks for the insight! Any recommendation on how to find a private investor? You're probably going to say "start with friends and family" :)

I am a home builder in Northern Indiana. The biggest challenge I run into is getting my customers approved for a construction loan. Most banks (if they even do construction loans), will require a 700+ credit score and 20% down on the hard costs of land acquisition + construction.

Here is what I'm thinking:

1) Get a pre-approval for my customers for a traditional loan

2) Get some sort of equity down from the customer (cash or land) so they've got skin in the game

3) Do an appraisal on the after construction value of their home

4) Assuming the numbers work out and we're covered in the event that the original customer can't close, build their home for them with us fronting the money

5) Sell them the home at completion

I have two questions for you all:

1) Do you think a hard money or private lender would be interested in this, assuming I'm offering 12% interest on their money for the 3-4 month build time

2) Do you see any legal problems with taking money from the customer and then selling the property to someone else if the customer screws their credit up during the build and is unable to close? I would refund them any portion above the sale price + our profit margin + hard money.

Thoughts?

@Jared Rine

Hi Jared, do you do hard money loans in the Midwest? What types of assets are you looking for?

Thanks @Aaron Linden! Are you actively investing in the South Bend area?

Hi all, my name is Joel and I'm an aspiring multifamily investor from Indiana. I currently own a small (41 space) mobile home park (read my bio for the gory details on that!), and I'm actively looking for more multifamily properties (MHPs or apartments).

Also looking for potential partners, and a local mentor would be fantastic! I have a good amount of equity in my park, access to a 100k LOC, and I recently started a modular home dealership/General contracting company that is generation some nice cash flow.

My goal is to aggressively pursue value-add multifamily opportunities with the end goal being to generate at least a $1m/yr cash flow. Once that is achieved I would like to buy, grow, and flip businesses, probably in niche manufacturing.

So... BiggerPockets... Let's see what all the fuss is about :)