All Forum Posts by: Will Stewart

I recently had one with a verbal agreement. Then the seller proceeded to shop the deal around while their attorney was “reviewing our contract” and got a higher bid. It’s life, on to the next one. 

I've never asked but I can't imagine the MHP brokers bother with parks that small. There are very few i can even think of that are that size. If you really want small I would up your size to <20 pads. A 2 or 3 pad "park" (loose use of the term) would probably be listed on the residential MLS, not a commercial listing service.

I'd just build up from the bottom first. Find a market lot rent and take the lower end of it. Extract lot rent expenses (water/sewer/plow) that don't change regardless of POH or TOH. Build your "TOH NOI" and cap that. Figure out what the homes would sell for cash in your market and offer, say, 50-75% of that per home and tack that onto your capped NOI.

It all depends on your market, but I would buy it with the intent of selling off the homes for cash as they vacate (or to current tenants)

Why not take note of when they’re finishing up for the day and go talk to them in person as well?

I’ve seen people ask about worse deals... sounds like it is 19 park owned homes rented at like $575/month. 30% expense is too low, for one. If market lot rent is $300/month, then 19*300*12*.7*10cap=$475,000 value on the land. Maybe toss in $50k value for the water system income. Then add home value- 19 x $15,000 = $810k. 

Big assumptions you need to research: what’s the market lot rent and what could you sell the POHs to homeowners for? The goal would be to sell off POHs as they become vacant and convert to lot renters. Unless you can sell these homes for $30k a pop I don’t really see a ton of upside. 

@James York I read the book a few months ago and completely agree with your sentiment. To think that an entire group of people were explicitly excluded by the government from one of the largest housing booms in our history (post-WWII) due to the color of their skin is mind boggling.

Maybe Section 8 isn’t the right answer- it might be building more government housing (as they have in the UK) or something else. I for one own mobile home parks and find they are a great way to offer home ownership to people that otherwise may rely on a Section 8 voucher.

Bottom line, I think there is (clearly) a lot of hate being thrown at people with Section 8 vouchers without much consideration for historical problems or discussion of ways to help solve the problem. 

A rising tide lifts all boats and helping marginalized people and communities get out of poverty (through government programs, investment in education, etc) in the end helps everyone. Anyways, end of my rant, I’ll await the backlash about how I’m a socialist.

@Matthew Wright

Central Maine is a good place to cut your teeth with a smaller park. Many options as you mentioned and there’s a pretty healthy demand (ie you can sell quick) even for 20 space parks. Frank summed it up well. Bringing in homes is hard work for a first timer, so if you see 10 vacant pads, I’d avoid. Public water/sewer are nice but if you’re looking local may need to buy private. Just get them inspected and have reserves. 

@Eileen McCue

Sounds about right, I just paid $4k for one in NH on a mid size MHP. I did have a quicker turn- 3 weeks- but that was because of an existing relationship 

Keep working your process, deals will come. We just broke out of a year or so slump and got two deals in rapid succession. It’s a long game. Good luck

I’ve seen smaller houses than yours in my town (Andover) go for much more than $6k a month. Sometimes takes a few months to get someone though.  Run the numbers- how do they compare to what you would buy if you took the cash out?