How much leverage and where to look at MHP on the market?

My husband and I are looking into investing in MHP on the West coast. We are not sure how much money to put down and how much to borrow. My husband is still working but he is in his 50s and we are not sure how long he can still work in the tech industry, he might not survive until retirement. We would also like not to pay too much taxes. We’re not sure where the fine balance is and how to find it?

Any advise?

We are also working with a MHP broker but he is sending us few deals to look at. Is there any place where we could look at listings? We realize that many listings don’t even get to the market but wondering if there is any site where we could see and look for properties.

You can find mobile home parks on Mobilehomeparkstore.com and Loopnet.com. You can also find a complete list of mobile home park brokers on the Mobilehomeparkstore.com site, and I suggest you call each and every one of them. You can’t possibly get enough volume of deals from just one broker to ever find a good one, unless you are really, really lucky.

Be prudent in the amount you allocate for the park purchase, You need a down payment, but you also need capital to renovate the property normally, and for a rainy day. Beyond that, only you can decide what that amount is to invest.

On another note, when you own mobile home parks for a living, you do not have to live in any one area – you are free to live wherever you want. This is one of the big benefits from the industry. I know that California is very expensive to live in (at least urban California is). If he no longer works for a normal company, then I’d suggest you look at moving to an area with a much lower cost of living. I live in a town of 4,500 in Missouri, and the quality of life here is fantastic and you can buy a house on a golf course for $190,000. You should consider harnessing the power of mobile home park investing, additionally, to cut your costs and upgrade your quality of life – that’s even more important than making more money as it’s tax free.

Thank you Frank.

You might also consider outreaching directly to park owners. You’ll get state-by-state lists of you attend F&D’s Bootcamp (highly recommended). It is important to reach the owner, not the manager (who fear they will loose their job with a new owner). Make calls, send postcards - go direct to the owners.

Best,

-jl-