All Forum Posts by: Will Graham

I'm curious if anyone has any creative ideas on how to fill up empty lots in a mobile home park. I've looked at a lot of parks recently that are not full. Oftentimes sellers use it as a selling point because of "potential." Obviously there is a little bit of value in having the pads already developed, but doesn't really feel like it adds that much value to the park. It seems very expensive to find used mobile homes, move them in, and hook them up and find buyers/renters for a small return. 

When buying parks do you all give any value to empty pads? Is it even worth the time/investment to try and fill out a park? Thanks

Hmm...has some potential I'd say. I would also include roughly 5% for vacancies, 10% for property management(bonus if you do it yourself), and roughly 7-10% for maintenance. You also left off the mortgage when you were calculating the cash flow. Unless you were planning on paying cash. 

So all of that definitely cuts own the cash flow. One option would be to bill the water back to the tenants. You could look into how much it would cost to get separate meters, or just do a split bill based on # of occupants. That would help.

I'd also compare rent rates to the local area. That will give you an idea if there's some money to be gained there. 

@Caleb Wayne Dobrinski A lot of folks have already mentioned it, but buying a small multi-family and living in one unit would probably be your best bet. 5-6k would probably get you pretty close to a duplex on an FHA loan depending on your market. You might need just a little bit more cash, but you're close. The biggest advantage to house hacking is the potential to remove your own housing expense, or even make a little bit of money on top of it. That will allow you to save WAAYYY more on a month to month basis for future deals.