All Forum Posts by: Rick Fagan

I have found several for sale in my area.  There are 32 parks in my county alone.  The biggest challenge I have is finding investors who are comfortable with septic tank systems being 15 years old and working with someone who hasnt bought a park before.   I recently found 19 pads, all utilities, inside the city limits of a small town, $89K,  I thought it was a very good buy but I frankly I dont know how to put it all together for someone to make a decision.  That has been  my experience so far.

I have found that resources will not help much with MH in parks (or land you dont own).  In your case I have believe the value is in the cash flow that is generated from the MH.  There can be but not always a lot a potential problems with buying a MH without land.   Having said all of this it is my favorite investment as long as I know the owner or park manager very well and I buy the home cheap.  It will do you little good to value the home via NADA and then find out that you cant sell it for cash at the price you want.

@Greg H. I think most investors (at least the investors I know) who buy MH's with land will be paying cash and keeping for retirement income.  Financing isnt a big deal for them.  I do believe there is a growing market for companies that will finance MH's with land and hopefully that will get better.

It has been a long time since I have bought a MH and not made it look very nice. I am not a big fan of ugly homes.  I do believe you will find it too expensive to pay the moving and set up fees/cost to move a home unless you buy a very nice home for cheap.  Most people dont move MH's because of the expense.  I think if you are patient you will find home and land for a good price. I believe @Curt Smith does this very well.  Having said all of this I would buy land home deals if I could pay cash.

There is a lot to learn about buying homes in parks.  Curt has good reasons to shy away from homes in parks.  I had to reduce my investment strategy in parks to a 10 month payback.  But, I know the park managers extremely well and pay them very well to be in their parks.  Even knowing park mgrs. well doesnt insulate me from problems.   

That is a long sentence.  :)  My basic rule of thumb is to never give title until it is paid for, ever. 

Hi Wayne.  Payton told me the same thing about 1-2 weeks ago.  It helped a lot.

It is my humble opinion that it depends.  I would not rent a home if there was significant differences in rates.  If the rates were similar then I would think you would be ok.

For those of you that are still buying MH's are you owner financing, lease optioning, or what type of agreement are you using to sell the home?  I just dont get it yet.

@Ken Rishel

Very nice feedback.  I appreciate your comments.  I have not put together an executive summary yet or a proposal for this park.  I think I might start looking for investors in the $50K range.  I am pretty sure the investors will feel comfortable with my experience running the park so hopefully that is not a hurdle that I need to jump.  Is an executive summary similar to a resume?  If so, I could put one together pretty quickly.  Would you have any comments on a quick investor summary that you have seen and that you thought was well done?  Again, thanks for your imput.