All Forum Posts by: John Fedro

Hey all,

Clayton, I really regret to hear about your father's passing. I'm sorry to hear about this lost your family and now the headaches you're having from the city. The city can suck-it for not working with you to keep the status of the park active. I am almost certain the city council could not wait for a reason to get rid of your family's park. Side tangent: city's talk a big game about affordable housing however mobile home parks are some of the last non-subsidize types of affordable housing. Even if the city worked with you to make the park look better or pay higher taxes, that would be preferable to losing the status as a park and having to get rid of all these homes and/or kick everyone out.

With all that said I partly hope there are not too many residents that will need to move. In other areas of the country this may be a bit easier to dispose of the homes. However Las Vegas is a bit of an island surrounded by not much else for a while. There were some good suggestions made about reaching out to local parks, however I'm sure that word is getting around already about the park going out of business. Another good suggestion was getting the word out via mobile home/park investor specific Facebook groups. Perhaps a local reservation would be in need of them. I will also link this thread to a private Facebook group I run that may be helpful. Placing the homes for sale for free locally and not so locally via Craigslist and Facebook will let a good majority of people see what you have available. Perhaps a local mover may be interested in taking these homes and moving them to vacant land they have.

Depending on the ages and sizes of these homes it will certainly be easier to get rid of some versus others. If you have to dispose of these you may be looking at $3000 or more per mobile home.

You may get approached by people wanting to keep them in state or move them out of the state or country. I wish that I had a magic bullet solution for you however I hope this helps some. All the best.

Hi Chase and everyone,

This has always been a great website with lots of helpful folks giving their free advice and heartfelt stories to try to help investors.

Good question about asking around for references prior to working with anyone in the real estate industry. For as large as the country is, the real estate community is relatively small if you have been investing for more than a decade or so. The more information and clarity you have before moving forward is typically better.

I received your email (Chase) that you recently sent over as well. Congratulations with regards to you and your wife investing in multiple properties last year already. I love that you both are doing this together as a team. I have no doubt these deals, lessons, and hopefully successes did not come without a great deal of hard work and effort on your part. Keep up the great work moving forward. Additionally, thank you both for your military service to this country.

This is certainly an odd feeling I’m having about talking about myself, but here goes...

The only folks I decide to partner with are investors where we’ve talked over the phone and have a clear understanding of what is expected and moving forward. There are too many things to do in this life without wasting time starting a business that was not truly understood to begin with. There is too much hype in real estate, Biggerpockets does a good job cutting through the hype usually.

Personally, in the past I have been misled by greedy coaches I was trusting to help me and look after me somewhat. Many of us sadly have, however this is a whole other topic.

Anyone expecting to invest in 10+ mobile homes per year should expect to put in hard work, effort, action, and be uncomfortable at least 20 hours or more per week. Talking to strangers daily is a must.

Chase, you asked about if anyone knows how the formula works. It starts with immediate hard work and persistence, and eventually some automation. Here are things in a nutshell; massive action is taken and a few dozen offers are given to specific sellers that fit your criteria with 2-3ish weeks. Although dozens of offers have been made you will only move forward with one or two properties that represent the “path of least resistance” to buy and resell. This repeats again and again. Whether the homes have to be moved, wholesale, recent fire damage, tax problems, title problems, in senior parks, you may purchase it with installment payments, at an auction, with land, pre-eviction, etc. the deals should be well thought out and you should know exactly what you’re spending your money on, holding costs, rehab costs, and a realistic exit strategy or two.

Please keep in mind that there is no training that has ever been created (in my opinion) that will not require the help of calling someone almost daily and asking questions. Your effort is required to make yourself successful, plus we speak together very regularly and I want to see 50+ pictures of every home you look at in order to help with offers, negotiations, closings, rehab, etc.

There is enough information online to be able to purchase a mobile home, transfer the ownership, and reseller. People are buying and selling every day of the week. There are enough free articles on this website, as well as hundreds of free mobile home investing videos on YouTube. Anyone can begin investing in mobile homes with trial and error.

Dave said it right above, be cautious about spending any money in the real estate field. Don’t follow hype, follow logical investments and daily specific action. Everything you spend money on should be an investment. Every investment in a property should produce you a serious return on that investment. Every dollar you spend with a handyman should produce a headache-free-return in investment. Every dollar you spend in education or working with a coach of some kind should produce a massive return. We all learn one way or another. However, some will never take the action in the first place.

Each one of us has our own journey to go through and the speed at which we will move forward in that journey. Moving forward I wish nothing but the best for you, as well as everyone reading these comments.

Chase, I did a quick search around your area and found over 400 mobile home parks within a 50-mile radius of you. There are even more mobile homes attached to private land. You’re certainly in a decent area for this type of investing. However, nothing will happen without each one of us taking action to build our own businesses and local reputation.

Moving forward if you or anyone else has any mobile home related questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. I’m happy to answer general questions whether you are a member of this mentoring/training or not. Please feel free to email me directly for quicker reply. All the best.

Mario, you are so right about the Tribe. Great folks and so much knowledge about mobile home park investing. 

Talk soon,
John Fedro

Hi Ben!

Right on! Excellent work with this one. Congratulations on pulling the trigger on this investment in the first place. With $17,000 invested it certainly sounds like you did a good bit of improvement on this home. I'm sure that this buyer will love this home for many years to come. Great work again!

Also, thank you for sharing this win with us. Keep up the great work moving forward. This is only the beginning.

Talk soon,
John

Morning Jonathan,

Thanks for reaching out and connecting to us here. Looks like you are a newer member on this website. Take your time to look around and gather up all the free information that you can. There is a ton of great information and amazing investors here on this website. A lot of them are willing to give away a good amount of value and help for free. Check out the all the forums as well.

When it comes to mobile home park investing, where you are purchasing, managing, and reselling the entire mobile home communities, Dave and Frank from mobile home park University are considered a popular choice. Kevin Bupp has a great program as well for teaching you how to invest in parks. Also, Katerina has a newer program with regards to teaching mobile home parks that I've heard nothing but very good things about. I believe any one of these folks will spend time with you and help you with deal analysis and review.

When it comes to investing in the individual mobile homes themselves, there are a few different teachers as well. A couple newer programs have come out in the past few years, this would be Jay and Samara trailer cash program and also Sharnice and Byron's elite mobile home investors program. I also have a program that has existed for just over a decade now that has taught most of the people for now teaching mobile home investing themselves. The program I have is called the mobile home formula and includes working together one-on-one with folks.

Make sure no matter who you work with, whether it is a paid program or somebody local that you trust and knows what they're doing, make sure you are able to talk to this person regularly, share pictures, get deal analysis, and talk about your questions one-on-one in real time.

In your location of southern California you will definitely have a wide territory. There are mobile homes to be purchased under $10,000 if you travel inland a bit and know how and where to advertise. However you will definitely find a lot more homes over $100,000 in your area. For this reason wholesaling some of the higher-priced homes will be a strategy that you will use. Also, potentially partnering with other moneylenders or investors to purchase homes, repair them and flip them for cash will be another strategy. Depending on the exact area of the mobile home you can also expect to get a really large down payment, over $30,000 or more from some tenant-buyers. This means that if you do decide to sell a mobile home on payments it is important to get all or most of your money back with the down payment if possible. However again, you'll have to get in front of the sellers and they will have to know that you exist and how you can help them in the first place. I hope this helps and make some sense.

Matter who you decide to go with, or if you choose the school of trial and error, continue to push forward and understand that this is definitely not a get rich quick business. You will be putting in a great deal of time and effort to help folks one at a time to grow your capital and portfolio of properties.

Either way, this is a great business! For you and everyone reading this mobile homes has provided so many of us with a great lifestyle and ability to help others that we did not know we have inside ourselves.

Remember that you can always ask questions free here on bigger pockets. Keep up the great work and keep learning.

Talk soon,
John

Hi Clinton, 

Great job finding or attracting this potential mobile home park opportunity. Ideally this park is currently off market and not really being advertised well anywhere. Smart thinking posting it here to get the opinions of other investors in the group. 

While I have been investing in individual mobile homes for a couple decades, my experience purchasing parks is only a fraction of that time. I mention this because there are certainly other folks in the group that have been investing in parks for decades and that are great teachers of park investing. 

This certainly does not sound like the biggest deal of all-time. If you do purchase this park and get it running to 100% would your exit strategy be to refinance it or resell and move the money to bigger properties. I only mention this because the money used to purchase this property could be better spent on a bigger property with more potential. 

As mobile home park owners we make money a handful of ways. When we purchase a mobile home park we may increase the lot rent, fix vacant homes and rent or sell them, fill vacant lots with used or new mobile homes, billback utilities to residents, etc. 

In your original posting I am unsure if this is in a metro market or more of a rural type of area. However it does sound like water and sewer may be public utilities and master metered with the park paying the bill and possibly collecting from the residents. Additionally, I cannot determine if the lot rents are under value where they are or if the lot rents are at the current market rates. 

Since there are only 12 spaces or less, this part does not financially support a full-time manager at the property. There are likely minimal issues and if this is in your backyard then you may end up managing the property. 

Like I mentioned above, if this is in your backyard then a smaller park like this can definitely make more sense. However this is probably not something you would want to purchase and manage from states away. 

Depending on the current net operating income, the price does not seem crazy. However you would definitely want to know how easy it is to add those three extra spaces prior to moving forward. There is a lot of other due diligence to perform after a contract is signed. Lowering the price or having the seller agree to some type of seller financing would make the deal sweeter and allow you to have capital to bring in a few extra units. 

Hope this all helps and makes sense. I definitely do not know everything about mobile home parks, so I look forward to reading what others have to write and add about what I certainly may have missed. 

Thanks for the shout out, Howard. 

Keep in touch moving forward. If anyone has any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best.

Hi Yinka! Of course. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. Email is best as Im not always on this site. Happy to help if possible. All the best.

Hi @Gena Mueller. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. My email is always on for you and anyone else with mobile home related questions. Happy to help whether you are a member of our Mobile Home Formula mentoring/training program or not. Either way, feel free to keep in touch. All the best. Talk soon, John

Hi @Gena Mueller,

First things first, great job being here on biggerpockets and asking more questions. Biggerpockets is a really great website with a lot of free information and helpful folks with a good deal to offer. Ask more of your mobile home investing questions here for more free help. Jeremy and Samara definitely know their stuff when it comes to mobile home investing. Around six years ago Jeremy and Samara, the founders of trailer cash academy, signed up to work with me and learn mobile home investing and mobile home wholesaling. The same desire and ambition they have taken regards to building their course, is the same ambition they had when getting started with mobile home investing when we began working together in 2016. The program Jeremy and Samara learned from is called, the Mobile Home Formula. It took Samara and Jay a few weeks of time, many many questions, and hours of talking over the phone together to be able to close their first few deals... This is common for most folks when beginning mobile home investing safely and fairly quickly. Anyone interested in mobile home investing should not expect an easy ride. This business does become easier and more streamlined once you have a reputation and know what you are doing. However in the beginning I 100% encourage you to have someone on your side that you can pick up the phone and talk to in real-time. Work with someone you trust and have done your research on. If you are taking action daily, and there are things to do most days of the week, you will have questions many of those days as well. Have someone to call 7 days a week if needed. No matter which course or mentor you use make sure you have clarity on who you are working with and what your time and money requirement should be moving forward depending on your goals. I hope this helps and point you in the right direction. 

Talk soon,
John 

Hi Frank,

Good screening questions above. I'll let Bill answer them for himself. However I'll add that Bill is a great guy. He definitely knows what he is talking about when it comes to mobile homes and real estate in general. I've known him for a number of years now and consider him a friend. If you are looking to learn more about mobile home investing he can likely take care of you. Hope this helps. If you have any questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best.

Talk soon,
John 

Hi Jameson, 

Thanks for reaching out and taking the time to comment. Additionally, thank you for your detailed question as it certainly does help me understand your situation a bit better. Mobile homes on private land can be great. I recently made a lengthy video concerning mobile homes on private land and I've also made another video about deal breakers going through mobile homes. They are both on YouTube however biggerpockets typically is a problem with me posting external videos on the site. 

Congratulations with regards to the first two rentals! I have no doubt that these deals and successes and lessons have not come without a great deal of hard work and daily effort on your part. The mobile home on private land sounds like it is in a very good area. Assuming that you can purchase the home to make the cash flow numbers make very good sense then by all means it may be something to consider. With regards to the mobile home itself, I would encourage you to hire an inspector and perhaps a plumber if there is a well and septic tank. The mobile home will eventually need to be replaced, however depending on its current age and how modern it looks, it may be able to last another 30 years or more. 

With regards to your answers about the parameters of the land, mobile home, area, cost, etc. the answers are definitely "it depends". Many of the answers to the questions in the previous sentence are not deal breakers, but rather issues that I may want to renegotiate the price or terms a bit. It is nice that the lot sizes are a half acre or 1 acre, the more land typically means higher the price. If you're renting a home or selling on payments we can typically get significantly more monthly for an extra bedroom, but not an extra acre of land. I hope this helps and starts to point you in the right direction. If you have any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best. 

Talk soon,
John