All Forum Posts by: N/A N/A

I have had interst in purchaseing mobile home parks in my area, but have been scared off by many bad stories.

Does this park that your looking to purchase have city sewer? In my area most of the parks are in the rural setting or country where the Environmental people have come in and forced park owners to have septic plants that cost anywhere from 100-400 thousand dollars. Its either pay this or close your park.

Wendell Howard, Erie, Pa.

rbecklan:

I started out with a couple of mobile homes in the beginning of my real estate career when i was in my twentys. I do agree that it could be possible to do what you do and have some awesome returns but I had the following problems:
1) The mobile homes were in parks owned by others. The owners of these parks in my area (and i am good friends with many of them) do not want other parties or owners involved with there daily parks and business. They, the owners of the parks want to buy the mobile homes pennies on the dollar and either rent them or lease option them for a nice rate of return for themselves.
2) The owners of the park want to deal soley with the tennants or lease option tennants with out going through another party. Especially with tennant landlord problems dealing within the park.
3) The owners of the mobile home park have you in a "bad way". They have the say to who you lease option of sell your mobile home to. They have the final word to who you sell to. Thus, you must pay them lot rent of $200-300 a month until you find a buyer that they will allow to live in there park. Many prospective buyers will have bad credit and are risky ( that is why there dealing with you versus other lenders) making it very difficult for you to find the "perfect" tennant that the owner of the park will allow to live in there park.
4) Once you upset the owner of the park they will not allow anyone to purchase or live in your mobile home. Now you are paying them lot rent per month with no buyers. You cant move your mobile home out of the park normally because of issues (high prices for trucking, etc)and permits(size limits and new laws are always changing) to move them on the highways, other parks normally have guidelines of newer years of mobile home or larger sizes which are the newer mobile homes (normally not the ones you got the deal on) causing many problems.

Anyhow, with my experiences i sold my two mobile homes and began to buy two and three unit houses in my area.

Wendell Howard, Erie, Pa.

My name is Wendell Howard and I live in Lake City, Pennsylvania. I have been a part time investor for 13 years now. I own 6 properties which consist of a total of 14 units (will have 15 soon when I complete remodeling one more). There all residential apartments except one which is an office i rent out to an insurance company and one is garage used for storage.

I started out with about a thousand dollars and purchased a three unit (FHA 2% down)and lived in the one and rented the other two units out. The rest of my properties have come from networking and creative financing with nearly no money down to purchase. My properties are located in the county and not the City which I feel are much more valuable since the City of Erie is experiencing major financial issues thus affecting landlords with excessive fees, inspections, taxs and the overall de-valueation of properties.

I perform 90% of all repairs and remodeling plus i work a full time job. I love Real Estate and have a wild pasion for it. I have read countless books and my goal which assists with my pasion is to be free or nearly free and be able to quit working an outside job someday. I am 43 years old and have always wanted to quit working an outside job by 45. However it is beginning to look like i wont make it. The shortage of extra cash being the major problem due to the following: 1) my low paying job and no job oppurtunities in my area , 2)Positive Cash flow from my investments low due to creative financing and purchaseing with no front monies, 3) Repairs and remodeling costs due to high prices of materials and etc.

My geographic area still has good demand for rentals and i have good tennants, but there is nearly no appreciation here. I am beginning to think of new alteranatives such as purchasing in other states. However i need much more knowledge of doing this.
I am sorry for such a long intro.. You have an awesome sight here and am very interested in participating in your forums.
Wendell[/b]