All Forum Posts by: Marshall M.

I'm not an investor, so obviously take my advice with a grain of salt. I think if you're serious about this, you want to own the pads (aka the land) and not the homes (except maybe one for your manager and/or leasing office). Obviously this varies from deal to deal.

Fixing up mobile homes is a dangerous game because first of all mobile homes are already depreciating assets and second of all no one knows how much work you might need to put into it to get out ahead. The parks I have visited end up spending thousands of dollars rehabbing homes, but they have the advantage of not having to pay the lot rent for those homes anyways.

If you're serious about investing you can look up "mobile home parks" "mobile home communities" and even "trailer parks" for sale across craigslist, loopnet and mobilehomeparkstore.com. Direct mail and cold calling owners are also good tactics that I've seen.

MHvillage.com or craigslist

Obviously varies according to the audience but here's a template to get you started:

1) Title page

This is the asset name, address, main picture, date

2) Pictures of asset (5 - 10)

3) The opportunity (exec summary)

Describe the asset, the location,  the strategy and the financing at a high level. 

Provide a high level SWOT that goes over the strengths and weakness of the deal.

4) The asset

Everything goes here, number of pads, parking spaces, zoning issues, recent and planned cap/ex, average tenancy, rent, has there been flooding, are there private utilities, etc. What are you going to do with the asset

5) Borrower section

Who you are and what value do you plan to add to the asset. What can you tell me that will instill trust and confidence in you? Net worth and liquidity is good for a bank if you're the guarantor.

6) Property financials

Show historical income statement. Project cash flows. Provide assumptions. LTV and DSCR. Comps where necessary.

7) Talk about appraisal and any reports from inspection

Shows the comps, make a nice nap, etc.

8) Market

Talk about what's going on in the local market

Really doesn't need to be very long. Hit the main things, show the opportunity, answer the question "why now?" and prove its a good asset.

I'm happy to look over your first draft for you. Just shoot me a message.

Sounds sketchy, but I'd ask for tax returns, executed leases and maybe even set up interviews with residents. He doesn't even have personal bank statements you could look at where he's depositing the cash? 

Hey Derek,

Most deals I have worked on have one entity that owns the land and another entity that own the homes. Although I couldn't tell from your post, it sounds like the park is already developed but you're trying to figure out how to buy it? In that case a commercial broker should be able to help you buy the entire property with the homes. 

Let me know if that answered your question.

Hey everyone, thanks!

@Larry Fried While I am generally location agnostic, I would like to start as close as possible to LA. 

@James Wise Fantastic does not even begin to describe it. 

@David Avetisyan Thanks David! I'll see what I can do about next weekend.

@Peggy Liu Definitely! Sent you a message. 

Hey everyone! My name's Marshall Masterson and I'm a recent college grad originally from the D.C. area, but have been living in Santa Monica, CA for the last six months and I've been really enjoying it out here (it's the first time I've never had to shovel snow). 

I've been a longtime lurker: I've listened to over 50 of the podcasts (and counting) and they have been immensely helpful. I can't begin to tell you how much of my off-the-cuff knowledge has come from those podcasts. 

I introduced my friend at work to the podcast and he did the same with his friends in NY and now his friends are all flying to Charlotte, NC to identify some buy and hold opportunities (they obviously forgot to listen to podcasts where Josh warned listeners about investing with friends!). Nevertheless, it's been really cool to see them take action. 

If you're in Santa Monica or somewhere within a few hours of LA's world famous traffic, I'd love to meet up and hear about what you're up to. Thanks guys!