I was thinking that a good place for me to start in MHP investing is with a small park and I’ve looked at two so far, one with 7 pads and one with 10. They both are city water/sewer, are individually metered and on city roads with TOH’s; with one open pad in one and 3 in the other. The homes are well maintained and have long term tenants for the most part. I’m hesitating though due to the low rental income and a concern that it might be ‘more trouble than its worth’ for lack of a better metaphor; if I have to deal with tenant issues that require hiring professionals or travel the 4 hours each way to and from the park to deal with any issues in person. The parks are in very rural, low income areas and the rents are @$100 +/- and the asking prices are @$100k.
Appreciate any advice you’d like to share - thanks to all who have been so willing to answer my questions on this forum!
You are thinking about all the right things and this is the dilemma with small parks, especially rural ones. There is some educational value baked in there to get you into the business, but in general it’s true they are not worth it unless an hour away (in my opinion - others will say never worth it).
I have some other posts on issues you can experience with operations in ultra small towns too that further complicate matters.
Stay patient and keep looking is my advice.
FWIW my advice is don’t waste your time/energy/resources with something that has no real chance of being a good investment. If you focus on properties that DO have a very good chance of being great investments, you’ll still have plenty of mistakes and failures to learn from. There is no reason to “educate” yourself by intentionally pursuing bad investments.
I agree. Wait a little longer and try to find a better opportunity that can generate some real returns. You seem to have done a lot of the homework and are asking the right questions, so anything you need to learn you will learn regardless of whether it’s a 10 unit or 40 unit park. My first park was a 46 unit park 4 hours away, and after some trial and error finally figured out the business model that work best for me/the park. Those long drives can be tedious at times, but would be even more so if i did not have the upside of a 46 pad park to look forward to.