All Forum Posts by: William Noel

Hi guys, 

It sounds like you're group is coming together nicely! I sent out your meetup link to a few other NC MHP investors. 

I found a 3 unit park in Asheville for sale. It's tiny, but with a tiny price tag and the land value is worth more than the park. I think it's too small for us, but if any of you are interested PM me or message me through our site, www.elkhorngroup.org. Hope all is well. Will

We have found it to be pretty hassle free. It's just one of many options out there. Cozy is great, I tried it as well but we do have a lot of residents with no bank account so we use this more simple, less techno-advanced system now. 

@Christopher Hall @Account Closed 

Here is a little trick that we use at our parks. I find it to be very helpful as remote operator.

The rent collection process can create problems. There is temptation to steal, checks "lost in the mail", and a good amount of he said/she said. 

As technology becomes wide spread with park residents, I think this issue will sort itself out. In the meantime, here is a low-tech solution that is working very well for us:

1. Find the closest bank to your park with decent online banking (we use Key Bank and Prosperity Bank for our parks). 
2. Open a deposit only account for each lot in your mobile home park. Yes, this might be a lot of accounts. 
3. Make sure these accounts have overdraft protection, no fees at all, and one login to access all the accounts. At Key Bank, this account is called Hassle-Free. 
4. Send out a special notice to each resident. Tell them their unique account number and the new deposit details. We also include these details on their monthly statements.
5. On the morning of the 6th, go through the accounts, make sure the payments match the statements, and transfer the funds to your main account (this is fun). Issue notices for the accounts with no balance. 
6. Remove your rent drop box!

This is working very well for us and has completely eliminated the need for on-site manager to deal with rent or for any checks to be mailed. If anyone else has other ways of doing this I'd love to hear about them! Will

@Jeffery Waicak

I own a park outside of Dayton that was in similar shape to yours when we bought it. If you're interested in talking about the abandonment process, filling lots, and evicting residents I'd be happy to chat about it with you. Will

When buying real estate, I've made my best money with below market purchase prices or below market financing. A listing agent's job is make sure the seller gets the best possible price for their park. They will often price the park using the market rents, even if the park is currently below market. I find it difficult to get great deals from the high profile brokers on MHPS.com.

Sometimes residential agents can get good listings. To me, the fastest course of action is to go straight to the source and call parks. Even if you can only call five a day in the morning before work, call five. Within two weeks you will find a park for sale. 

One strategy that I like:

• Call every mobile home park in your target area and ask them what their lot rent is. The parks with the lowest lot rent are often the worst managed. Keep a running list in excel. 
• Starting with the park with the lowest lot rent, find the owners. You can do this by calling the County Tax Office and asking them for the owner and owners address. Simple as that. 
• Trace the owners phone number and call them. Find out what they would need in order to be excited about selling their park. 

There are lots of ways to buy mobile home parks. Generally, the closer you can get to the actual seller, the better deal you are going to get. The margins aren't as high as everyone makes them out to be. It helps to make a great purchase. 

Best of luck @Graham A. Galvin. You'll get one! Will 

Hi Damien, 

You might also want to chlorinate the well before testing. Clean all the surfaces that come in contact with the water sample. It's not just the well that you have to worry about, but the casing, the sample tap, even the vent and vent screen. Make sure your well is looking tip-top before it's tested. Well worth the time and money to hire a professional to come do this and take a pre-sample before your test, a bad well test can mean a lot of added expense and time. It has happened to me before and now I only buy properties on city water. Best of luck. Will. 

Hi Brian, 

Parks with less than 30 lots are very hard to make money on, so you have to extra certain that your purchase price is in the sweet spot. 

If you're in Arkansas, chances are the park lot rents are $150-$200. It's also hard to make money with lot rents under $200.

This park, right out of the gates, has these two issues, size and low lot rent. 

Make sure you are getting a steal on this park, not just a regular "good-neighbor" price. My thought would be $5,000-$8,000 a lot.  

Feel free to call or email anytime. Best of luck! Will.

One of my real estate mentors lives near Carmel, California. We will call him Stu. He's a self-taught genius who didn't finish high school or attempt college. Because of this, he has never felt comfortable sitting at the table with highly educated investors using complex vocabulary. 

So Stu only works with a few close friends who know him and with whom he feels comfortable. He has made them good money, but they are getting older. One has passed. 

Stu has successfully completed over a hundred deals in his lifetime.  During the crash of 2008 he lost $5,000. Very savvy and safe hustler. I am helping him put together a portfolio of his work, which is extensive. 

My questions to the community is this:

If I were to bring Stu and his portfolio to a lender in Santa Cruz, Monterey, or Carmel area, who would you recommend? I imagine Stu would prefer a line of credit with some of his property as collateral instead of a recourse loan. 

Hope all is well. Thanks for taking the time to read. Will. 

Hi Mark, 

That's an ideal way to find a park, nicely done. 

Parks with a small number of lots can be hard to cash flow, which can work to your advantage because not many people want to buy it. 

I like creative financing with a project like this where you can't get burned. A lease-option to give you time to get is cash flowing or small down. 18 lots x $200 doesn't give you much to work with, even if you like and manage on site for free. You should practice your negotiating on a park like this, not much to lose. 

Good luck with the park, I hope you can make it work. Keep your nose to the ground! 

Give me a call anytime if you want to share strategies. 

Hi Pocket People,

My wife and I manage a mobile home park in the Sierra foothills outside of Fresno. We have purchased, rehabbed, and managed nine other residential projects in California. This year in June we purchased our first mobile home park and are raising money now to purchase our second. 

We hope to meet other investors to share strategy and ideally meet in person. We live in San Francisco and are often on the road, driving all over the state to visit our properties. 

Hope all is great, look forward to meeting some of you.