All Forum Posts by: Mike Szabo

@Logan M. Western North Carolina

Hello all,

My wife and I have a mixture of long term and short term rentals. We recently came across an opportunity to buy a mobile home park but this is a totally new investment strategy for us. The numbers seem decent but ultimately we don't know what we don't know. I wanted to get some thoughts on whether this is a worthy venture. Deal is as follows:

13 unit mobile home park with all tenant owned trailers so It is essentially the land with utilities.

Each tenant pays there own water, electricity and trash.

It is on city water and has 6 separate septic tanks supporting the 13 units. 

The maintenance cost for us would be lawn care and septic pumping every 2-3 years.

The tenants are all on month to month basis.

Numbers:

$600,000 purchase price

seller financing with $120,000 down payment (20%)

4% interest on 20yr note

Current rents are $310 per space per month but market rent is more towards $400-450.

Expenses:

Taxes $1500 per year

Insurance -$1500 per year

Lawn care -$600 per month for approximately 8 months of the year. 

Septic $200 per tank every 2-3 years

All seems pretty good but I am trying to see if there's something I am missing?

@John Warren Thank you. I know that there are commercial properties off market that commercial brokers hold. This specific property however is listed on the MLS. It would still probably benefit me to build relationships with brokers for future deals.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to get some opinions about a multi family property I am going to pursue.

My wife and I own 8 properties but the only “Multi Family” in that portfolio is a duplex. I am also a real estate broker but I sell mostly single family homes and have only dealt with duplexes and other very small commercial properties. I feel pretty informed in the process. I have read multiple books and listened to a lot of podcasts. However, at the end of the day, I don’t know what I don’t know.

With that said, if I were wanting to purchase a 12 unit apartment complex, would it be smart of me to hire a commercial broker?

I would love to go solo and be able to take the full commission. I would then use that money towards improvements in the property. I just don’t want to miss learning from a commercial broker and don’t want to make mistakes that could otherwise be avoided.

@Jordan Lockaby Thank you! Yes, it was definitely an undertaking but well worth it. We have to get creative in Ashevilles market to make LTRs work.

@JD Martin HaHa. It isn’t so bad!

@JD Martin it is off Bradley Branch Rd in Arden.

@Allison Ezzi Thanks Allison. This one actually is on a smaller crawl space. I know that it had multiple offers before ours but no one could figure out what to do with it.

@Joe Mathew I would be happy to talk with you. I have mixture of long term and short term rentals in the area.

@Ryan Howell I think they are taking notice of what just happened in Highlands/Cashiers. Effective January 3rd 2022 they are not allowing STRs in R-1 zoned areas.

I think that making rules like this in an area that is based around tourism is foolish. Short term rentals help bring in more revenue to an area than people think. They give tourists an alternative option to boring hotels, while spending money at restaurants and other area attractions. They also employ housekeepers, maintenance people and many others in the housing industry. That being said, I do think they should have some rules in place so that it is not the wild west. The city of Asheville has way overstepped their authority and made rules that do not make much sense. Brevard is a great area to invest and hopefully will continue to be after this is all said and done.