All Forum Posts by: Mario Dattilo

I agree. Many come into this asking about mobile homes and don’t get the attention they’re looking for because most are here for MHP. Great suggestion. 

Be sure to partner with someone that has different skills than you. Make sure they have integrity and their core values line up. Make sure they can add value and have a good track record. 

Passive Investors are a whole different game if they are not active in the deal and only contributing capital and I recommend you consult a securities attorney for the legals on that. 

My BP profile has several resources for mobile home park investors and those sources have a lot of content around partnerships and raising money.  

Mobilehomeparkstore

LoopNet

Crexi

First off congrats! You are asking what kind of due diligence do you need to complete when buying a mobile home park and that list is long. Other than inspecting the physical and financial aspects of the property you should not buy that property without a survey, zoning report (and legal review of it), phase 1 environmental, and utility inspections. If it has buildings other than mobile homes you should closely inspect those. Those reports above are an absolute must have. 

There is a long list of items that need to be to be reviewed on these deals to protect yourself and make sure you are buying what you think you are. Check out my profile for some MHP investing resources. Hope this helps get you started in the right direction. 

Great question. This is one of the beautiful things about MHPs and how inefficient the market is.

There aren’t any good websites. We search all the parks in the area and call them which can sometimes still be challenging if mom and pop never answer their phone.

Occasionally we will find a CL of FB marketplace ad that show a home selling and the owner notes the lot rent in the park. A lot of times they won’t mention the address or park name though 🤣.

In some cases it has taken us driving the comps in due diligence to nail down market rents.

A good safe rule of thumb is half of a studio apartment but this is not a hard rule. I have heard others say half of a 2 bed apt. I tend to play it safe with rules of thumb and do the studio calc.

Hope this helps. Check out my profile for more good resources for MHP investors. Good luck In your hunt. 📈

The only rent abatement or credit that is somewhat normal is when a home sells and the park offers concessions such as a free month or months lot rent or discounted rent for a period of time for a faster lease up. It’s still something to pay attention to because if this is needed to sell homes and keep occ up then you need to be confident with the demand for your product in the market but it is not abnormal for this type of strategy in our industry, especially when a high volume of lots are being infilled and leased up quickly.

This would be a big red flag for me. Why are they giving it to the residents, for how long?  I would have our attorney review the terms closely. I would be looking to understand if these would need to be offered to new residents moving in for the future or if this was a one time situation. Was it voluntary or mandated? What state is this in?

MHPs of that size normally run a bit higher (%) on expenses than larger ones. In simple terms the plumbing break costs $3k to fix at both parks but it impacts the small one a lot more than the larger. 

Something this small will likely be running at about 50% expenses. Make sure you’re only valuing the cash flow from the lot rent and not home rent if any are rentals. Check out my profile for some more resources to help kick off your MHP investing. Hope this helps. 

Do a market survey by calling around to each community in the area. That will give you the most accurate info you can get.