All Forum Posts by: Celeste Fackrell

Sarah,

I have a park in WV.  I have my Lot Agreement; a hybrid of some others that I can share.  That said, I make NO WARRANTY or CLAIM that it is all-encompassing.  It has worked for  me for the last 3 years.

Is your park in WV, or do you own one yet?

Let me know if you're interested.

I did cabinets 2 different ways.  Craigslist usually has several sets of cabinets that have been taken out of homes for a remodel, that various owners want to sell.  I bought a huge kitchen set of cabinets, taken out of a nice home,  for $1000.  I used the cabinets and did 2 + trailers with them.  They were nice, 15 year old 3/4" plywood boxes with hardwood faces.  MUCH better than the 1/2 particle board boxes in the trailers.  We got a little creative putting them together and outfitted the kitchens and bathrooms.

In the other trailers, I made new boxes out of 3/4" plywood and new faces out of hardwood.  It ain't rocket surgery.  3 youtube videos and a 1/2 case of beer (not around the power tools), and you can be a cabinet maker.  Again, I have the tools and the know-how.  My manager (not a carpenter) and I did an entire trailer, including countertops in a weekend, for about $400.  He had to finish them with a nice semi-gloss paint, after the weekend.    We used sanded plywood on the ends so they looked nice when painted.  For the boxes, we used standard ole plywood; $32/sheet.  If you don't have a table saw, get your cut list together, (which you absolutely want to do to save on materials) you can even have Home Depot, or Lowes, or others cut them for you.  (careful, they aren't the most accurate so have them cut them 1/4" oversized and then cut them with your skill saw (with a new blade) and a straight edge.)  Viola', you have cabinets. 

Buy the pre-fab countertops, up to 12' long, at HD or Lowes, and put them in.

My cabinets look nice, are sturdy, and other than a door getting torn off, aren't going anywhere soon.

sorry about the double post; hit the wrong button!

John,

I had a similar (albeit smaller) situation on my hands when I bought my first park 3 years ago.  6 homes, all rented when I bought it, and all vacant a month later due to issues similar to what you described.  I too had the decision to remodel or replace as they were all in rough shape.  I opted to remodel 4 of them, and demolish 2.  As it turns out, I should have remodeled 3 of them and demolished 3.  I am a contractor, know what I'm doing, and did a lot of the work myself.  

Whatever you do, make sure you don't bring new trailers, or spend so much on remodels that you price yourself out of your rental market.  I have the most expensive trailers in my area averaging about $475/month including lot rent and no utilities.  I can get this rent because I did a nice job remodeling and I now have the nicest trailers in the area.  I have people wanting to move in all the time so vacancy is never an issue.

When it was all said and done, and what I'm moving forward with on my next larger park that I close on in two weeks, if I have to spend much more than about $6,000 on the remodel; I'm selling/demolishing and bringing in a new trailer.  In my area, I can find a newer, nicer trailer (takes some looking around and negotiating) for about the same money.  $4,500 +/- to move it in, put new decks/stairs on it, replace flooring, paint, and misc repairs.  I'm in it $10-12k, and can rent it all day for $475 a month.  I have also sold 2 of them, but since I did the repairs, and now know how their built, I have very little maintenance.

The one remodel I did, that I'm in about $12k, I would never do again.  Its still an old trailer; lipstick  on a pig. 

I found a local guy that did the demo/removals for nothing.  He is a Scrapper and he saved the old flooring, HVAC units, toilets, steel frames, etc.  We both won.  It took a couple of months for him to get rid of the trailers, but that was fine with me.  (We split the dumpster fees for the unusable stuff, about $300/trailer.)

2 year pay-out, happy tenants, low turnover, low maintenance, high demand.  Town LOVES me because I turned a dump into a nice little family park.  

I would be happy to discuss more with you if you like. 

Courtney,

Although I don't think most would agree, I started with a very small park; 8 pads, 6 homes.  What was appealing to me was that my park had Tenant Owned Homes, Park Owned Homes, empty pads, some small infrastructure issues, some good tenants and some bad.  It seemed to have a lot of the same that a large park would have.  I am a long-distance landlord, and knew that I would be as I searched for parks in the future.  

I test drove everything.  Remove and replace, remodels, new rules and new leases, cleaning up the park, finding a manager,etc.  I learned a LOT with very little Capital involved.  It has been a great training ground and I am now scaling up on my next one(s). The plus side is, I can now keep my little park as it is VERY easy to own with the right Manager in place, or I can potentially sell it for at least twice what I paid for it.  For now, as it put an extra $1000+ in my pocket every month, I'm holding on to it.

I don't think there is a minimum range.  This park was comfortable to me.  Find your comfort level.

BTW, I know of a nice little park in NC that I evaluated but passed on for non-park related reasons.  If you're interested, and its still available, I'll be more than happy to pass on my information to you.

For this to be go on my evaluation sheet, with the limited information I have, and a 20 year pay-off, (which I would not buy on), and a reasonable return, I would pay around $125k.  That said, for a 10 year payoff, my go/no-go price is about $90k.

I'm more than happy to share my evaluation if you like.  I made some assumptions on G&A Expenses, property maintenance (different than trailer maintenance), garbage fees, tree maintenance, fence maintenance, road maintenance, licensing, septic tank pumping, etc.

I'm no expert; just my thoughts.

Your 5 rental incomes (3 @ 400, 1 @ 475, and 1 @ 375) include lot rent correct?  OLD home's I'm guessing?

How close to the park do you live?  Will YOU be doing the labor for home maintenance?

I own a small park (8 lots) in WV.  It is a beautiful little investment.  I am in the process of buying another 17 lot park. 

If you would like, I would be more than happy to talk to you about how my little park has progressed.

If others are interested in a discussion as well, just send me a note.  Investors, partners, bankers, realtors, I don't care, I love the different perspectives!

Sam

I am assuming you will get to the area occasionally, BTW.  If you're International and don't get to the area, then I have to agree with @Jeffrey H.

If the rest of the diligence works out, I wouldn't be afraid of it.  Although not international, I am several hours away from the small park I own and it works great for me.  I went through a couple of people but I have a manager in place that is responsible, takes care of tenants, does small repairs, and runs the park in my absence.  I pay him more than I would typically pay a manager, but in return he takes good care of my park, homes, and tenants.  My "over-payment" is small compared to my piece of mind.

When asked, he "walks" me around the park using a video link so I can see the condition of the park anytime I want.

I go to my park once a quarter roughly, and usually then only because I feel like I need to; not because I actually need to.

If the numbers work, and the park is viable, make sure you save some time and money to find the right manager(s), and best of luck!