All Forum Posts by: Samuel Coronado

There's a science behind it, brother! Get them in at any cost. Pay for them to move in (3k-5k depending on size, location, and age where I'm at) and give them a reduced rent for a few months. There's a lot of expenses for the tenants coming in like deposit fees and such for utilities. Then slowly turn it up from there as appropriate with the market. A frog in water does it feel it begin to boil until it's too late. (that's a metaphor, not a scientific fact, so don't too closely on those words haha)

 Your local credit union is a great bet. Find a small one and go from there. Expect to pay a higher rate than normal investment loans. I'm paying 10.3% on a small park where the homes are as old as 1977 for one and then run up to 1995 for the rest. the thinking is that mobile homes deteriorate faster and therefore is a bigger risk to the lender when the income is based on park owned homes. This loan is also on a 15 year note as a result.

I'm hoping to put some tiny homes on mine as well in the future once the initial acquisition is stabilized.  

 Be super transparent. Do not try to hide anything in your current or past financial life. Some lenders even like seeing a little hardship and knowing you have the grit to come back from that. We can't always control what happens to us, but we can control how we react and what we do about it. Divorce, disease, death of a loved one/main bread winner, natural disasters, etc all happen. It's part of life (with the exception of divorce depending on who you ask), but what you do about it and the bounce back is what matters.

Selling homes isn't the only reason people get a real estate license. I worked on it just to see what kind of training agents did. I never took the test because I didn't want to have to introduce myself as an agent during opening negotiations (a legal requirement in my state), but it was eye-opening to see what is emphasized and what isn't. I've known property managers to get licensed as agents instead of just managers as well for the extra perspective. My attorney did it just for the fun. My accountant did it just to get a little more perspective as well. My wife did it just to say she did. It is not a large time commitment and extremely low costs for the exam and classes. I don't the majority of people who get licensed are doing it with the intent of actually getting in the business of buying and selling homes as an agent. It's as easy as getting a PMP, EMT-B, SEC+, SFPC, etc except this requires no technical prerequisites of knowledge. 

 

It's a normal lease expiration. 

First step is zoning and asking what they need as well as what it takes to make it happen. Each county is different with its requirements. Mine is like the wild west while the county next to me is a very very different story. I only truly needed permits for driveways/culverts and septic tanks. Everything else is being done by the individual contracting and utility companies. The order of operations would go something like this: 

Zoning/permitting

Financing

Grading the area, draining management

Gravel or paved roads 

Pads creation

Septics

Water lines

Electric

Internet

Mailboxes

communal areas (laundromats, gazebos, bbq areas, walking tracks, dog parks, playgrounds, etc)

Infil of mobile homes

Where I am from, most of the contractors who do septics can also do most of the rough and finish grading as well as any drainage needs. A civil engineer can help you out immensely. I paid about $2k for my small park but there is another investor I know who paid about 12k in all the design fees associated with it. His park is wayyy bigger, though I can't recall the pad count. Mine was about 20 or so that it was designed for. I wanted some healthy space in between them as well. 

To follow up with this: I was able to get the same policy that the park was already under. Actually got it about $50 cheaper due to my credit and insurance history. The policy was through American Modern. I will be looking for additional umbrella policy soon as well. 

I think you've done a great job up to this point. I occasionally shop estate sales for this purpose. I just got a great fridge for $200 that usually goes for $1000. I have a few backup appliances so when one goes down, I can immediately switch it out and then fix it on a less stressed timeline. These appliances aren't the same brand or clout as the originals, but they're just stand ins. Tenants are customers. I am sitting at 90% retention over the last 10 years because of the small details. 

How are the losses shown? Capex? Depreciation? Major repairs? If you've kept strong books with receipts, a P&L, and other documents, it may be easy to show the correlation and how the value added results in a higher valuation. I would also look into using a niche broker if I were you. They have the resources to market it to a ready to buy list. I'd also be interested to see what the numbers look like. I'm in the market for another park.