All Forum Posts by: Fred Maul

Good morning, I was recently stationed at Ft Bragg and it appears locally that mobile homes are a better way to make money over hard structures. I came across a guy selling his 4 units on 2.5 acres for $40k. The income is $1410 per month. Tennants have been leasing from between 2-5 years. It is close to a large chicken processing plant. There is room to add 3 more mobile homes, just need to install septic. Underground utilities, county water.

Would this be a good way to get my feet wet? I expect to be here for several years. I have cash to pay for the deal. What do I need to look out for? How do I value a mobile home property?

Do some research on self-directed IRAs. IRS.gov is also your friend. He can find a custodian so that he can do hard money loans from his IRA (not to you).

In order for him to make more money, he has to take on additional risk that he is comfortable with. Take a look at LendingClub.com and you'll see a similar construct of what he could do with his money in an IRA (those are unsecured notes though).

@Shanequa J. I have been browsing MLS around Fayetteville and they seem overpriced, but I had only been looking form the stand point of a land lord. CAP rates seem very low in this area unless you go the mobile home park route. I am from Tampa, where deals and investors are every where.

Thanks everyone for your replies. All, so you know I am a military comptroller by trade and I used to work at T Rowe Price as an investment counselor a long time ago. There is risk/reward for everything. To give you guys an idea, I opened an IRA 10 years ago and I calculated my annual return at 4.4%. I have a moderate risk tolerance, but I am looking for ways to beet 4.4%. I think I can do that by adding more exposure to real estate. Specifically hard money lending so long as you keep LTV at 65% and also acquire a 4plex or two; likely in my home town of Tampa, not many deals in Fayetteville. I think the house flipping technique might be able to help me find better deals which is why I've been researching it.

I currently rent two SFHs. One is in Oklahoma right next to OU and the other is in central Texas. They are homes I used to live in and not the best cash flowing properties out there... but they seem to break even over time.

On a side note, I am also putting a small amount of money into LendingClub.com in crowd funding unsecured notes; higher risk then something asset backed, but the site makes it damn easy to spread your risk.

I really had paid much attention to my assets the past couple years. Once I got transferred to North Carolina, I found myself with more time on my hands and realized I've got money sitting around not working for me.

From the responses and PMs I've had so far, I am extremely pleased to have located this site. I think I am going to learn alot from you all!

Thanks... areas I was looking at included Trust Deed Investing, the quick flip strategy and possibly land lording. I have a couple of rental houses and it's a little bit of a head ache, so not sure if I want to add to that. I'm hoping to connect with some local people here that do private money lending and house flipping.

Good Morning, I am doing research on ways to make money safely. I hate the stock market and I need to do something with my money. The more books I read the more facets of real estate investing I come across. I'll be lurking about trying to figure out how exactly to proceed.