All Forum Posts by: Sebastian Dombrowski

I'm technically not buying a mobile home park but this is the closest forum I could find for my problem so excuse me if this is just the wrong place for my question or if it's not relevant to you.

That being said, I'm considering buying a property that has 2 mobile homes on it: A double-wide and a single-wide both from 1985. My plan is to buy and hold so I can  rent them out. The cash flow looks great but I'm a little concerned about my exit strategy. I have a few questions regarding that and was wondering if you could help me:

1. I've heard that mobile homes don't really gain in value. I can see that being the case for the mobile home itself but does that also apply to the package as a whole (land + mobile home(s))? I would imagine that if the area becomes more desirable or prices just rise in general, the value would rise as well.

2. I've read that the average lifespan of a mobile home is 35 to 50 years. The mobile homes are from 1985 so they're already 38 years old. Does that mean I'd most likely have to replace them in the next 10 years or so or can you just fix them "indefinitely" like a normal house?

3. The mobile homes are technically a little over the property boundaries (on city property) but they're grandfathered in like that. If I'd ever want to move them a few feed back, would that be pretty much just as expensive as moving them to the next town over or is that just a small cost?

4. If I wanted to sell one of the mobile homes and only keep one on the property to rent it out, would it be very difficult to find a buyer for such an old mobile home (also considering the cost of moving it) or is that not a big problem?

I know that's a lot of question but any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks you very much!

Thanks @Dale K Poyser, @Bob Collett,. @Soh Tanaka, and @Michael Noto. I do understand now better why they would charge such a fee. The amount is debatable I guess. 

Thank you so much @Jan H., @Nathan Gesner, @Jon Kelly, @Theresa Harris, @Ben Scott, and @Drew Sygit. I didn't really think of the upfront effort they have for placing tenants. That actually makes a lot of sense now why they are asking for the cancellation fee.

Also, thank you @Nathan Gesner and @Ben Scott for pointing out the "cancellation due to mismanagement" clause. I'll keep that in mind when reviewing / negotiating the terms of the contract.

Hi Bigger Pockets folks,

I'm in the process of getting ready to buy my first rental and I'm interviewing property management companies right now. One company that I was interviewing with is asking for a fee if I quit my contract with them before a tenant's lease is up. Essentially, they want whatever I would have paid them until the lease is up. So if they manage a unit with a tenant who's lease is up in 10 month and I quit my contract with that management company right now, I would have to pay them their monthly fee x 10. That amount might wipe out my whole cash flow for the year. That seems very strange to me and a lot of money for nothing in return. So my question is, is something like that normal or is that a red flag that they try that hard to disincentivize me to switch property managers? Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Sebastian

@Rachel H.That's a great idea. Thanks, I'll do that.

@Timothy Paul R. That's what I've heard as well. I was just wondering if it's even worse (in practice) for mobile home parks.

Hi BiggerPockets community,

I would like to invest in a buy-and-hold but prices (and tenant-laws) seem just crazy in California. So I really only see 2 options: Going out of state or potentially buying a mobile home park. Since in the BP pod cast they always talk about how advantageous it is to invest close to home, I started looking closer at mobile home parks. During my research, I stumbled over the Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL), which seems to be even more restrictive than normal tenant laws in California. So my question is: In practice, how difficult is it to evict a mobilehome owner from a park in California?

(Sources I used for research on mobile home evictions: )

https://www.tobenerlaw.com/mob...

http://newpointlaw.com/califor...

http://www.fastevictionservice...

https://legalbeagle.com/630194...

From what I found online, even in non-recourse states, it seems to be more difficult/impossible to get a residential loan for a 1-4 unit property for an LLC. I'm wondering why that is.

It is my understanding that loans given out in a non-recourse states are only secured by the property itself and the lender cannot come after other personal property of the lendee (i.e. non-recourse). Because of the limited liability of an LLC the same would apply to a loan given to an LLC. So for the lender it would be no different to lend to a person vs an LLC. So why do banks seems hesitant to give loans to LLCs?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

@Travis Moe I'm facing similar issues that you are facing. There is nothing reasonable to invest in where I actually live and even if there was, I couldn't afford it. So thank you for your insight. I will look keep looking at the CV and see If I can find any of those deals you mentioned.

@Travis Moe Thanks for your response Travis. I wasn't aware of that. I see that you are actually from the Coachella Valley. Would you recommend investing there (in Buy & Holds that cash flow)? I saw on your profile that you acquired a Buy & Hold yourself not too long ago in Jacksonville, Fl. Did you invest out of state because you didn't see good investment opportunities in the Coachella Valley (if you don't mind my asking)?

@Frank Wong Thank you, that makes sense. So new builts are a plus not a minus.