Land/ Home Rentals?

I have a question about Land/Home packages and using them as rentals. Obviously these packages cash flow very well compared to a stick built home. The question I have is, what happens after you hold the property for 5-10yrs? If you have a mortgage on the property normally you get 30yr financing and it will take the full 30yrs to pay it off. Typically doublewides do not stay in good shape that long, so if you hold onto it and still have a mortgage on the property what do you do when this happens? Do you pull the doublewide off and put a new one on? Do you try to sell it for cheap to just get rid of it? I am just a little concerned that after getting good cash flow on the property that it will not hold up after 10-15yrs? I am sure that i am missing something, can you please explain your strategy and timeframe for holding on to these as rentals? Thanks for the help!

I only rent mobile homes and I have some as old as 1960 models still holding up just fine.

Mobile homes, especially the new models are not going to fall apart at some specified date. They are built much like stick built homes and think about some of those cookie cutter homes that go up in a weekend, how well built are they?

Think about it, these homes are resting on steel I beams. Most stick built are not. My homes were rated to drive 55 mile per hour for crying out loud!

All rentals will require maintenance and upkeep. Mobile home rentals in my opinion are less expensive and easier to repair.

We have developed what I call “landlord friendly” repairs and improvements that make the home look better, last longer and make future repairs easier to access and accomplish.

For improvements we now install green backed (water resistent) laminate that looks like hardwood flooring and ceramic tiles in wet areas of these homes. The look is great and repairs down the road are reduced dramatically.

Tony

I agree with Tony. I am not even a handy man but common sense and this is important----screening your tenants and keeping an eye on your property is the key. My first purchase was a 1966 12x50 Fleetwood which is still in fine shape and getting 400 dollars a month with upkeep of about 400 a year on my part, I have a senior couple on limited income who will never move til death and I will never raise their rent. Would I rent this out to a 20 year old couple with a dog, no unless I want to replace unit. In any event as Tony knows the land is the appreciating asset. I laugh inside at my friends who rent out nice stick built homes for a couple of hundred more than my mobiles. My repairs and investment cost are so much lower. So like they say you make your money when you buy and you are buying cash flow and appreciation of assets, it works.

Hey tony,

What is your strategy currently for getting financing on double wide land packages for long term rentals? i know the banks are wanting about 20% down for investor loans, are you getting in for those terms and then refinancing after a year and pulling more money out to go buy another one? also, from what i have heard that banks are only allowing investors to have 5 loans. i have about 400k from private money lenders but it is all short term money for 2 yrs max. what would you do if you had access to 400k in private money for 2 terms at 7-9% interest rates? i am in the corporate world and need about 4k a month to live off of in order to leave corporate america. I also have a good amount saved back in cash for a rainy day. any ideas would be greatly appreciated. i am wanting to buy some small mobile home parks as well. thanks for all the advise.

We recently refinanced a doublewide land/home deal through a local bank. I cannot stress often enough that the way to the bankers money in this game is through the small local banks. Don’t call them, don’t present your deal to the lady in the lobby. We have to get in front of the decision makers and stay there. It will take a lot of “no’s” before you get a yes so don’t be bumbed out. Just go on to the next bank. You only need one “yes” to do the deal and get the banking relationship off and running.

Right now banks are operating in a different world. They seem scared of their own shadows in some cases. I don’t know that they yet know what to make of all the changes, bailouts, mergers etc.

The credit crisis the country now faces is little different in origin than the same thing we saw 10-15 years ago with mobile home financing (in parks not owned by the borrower). The bankers and gov’t tried to do the same bad math and came up with the same bad answer, just on a much bigger scale.

At the moment, I am not buying but not because I don’t think there aren’t deals out there because I see them and believe more will be coming. This is very similar to the foreclosure environment I captured a few years back in my area.

Pesonally I am not in the acquisition phase right now. I intend to sell a few properties to pay off or pay down others. I set a modest income goal along with an asset target (net worth) that would not necessarily impress most gurus but that I intend to provide myself and family with the time to better manage what I have as well, spend time with my growing family and do the things I love to do. Yes, I will likely buy some foreclosures and keep those while selling off (culling) some of the properties I currently have that do not fall in line with my current phase of investing.

When I do start buying I will do much the same as Scott and I wrote about in our Land/Home book. Before assuming the landbank will follow I would likely have to re-establish banking relations with small, local banks. They are the ones who can still make these kinds of loans, keep them in house and be flexible with terms.

Even if I had to start all over again and let’s say that I either had to go hard money or put 20% down. I would bust my hump to gather up 20% (remember we are buying these properties cheap. 20% of cheap is still cheap). One can do side jobs, work OT, sell some of the junk we have sitting around etc. to come up with the money. We may not have it today or tomorrow but let’s face it we will come up with 20% of cheap eventually.

With a track record and some skin in the game, hard money will become softer in terms that will allow us to cash flow better, even at 100% financing and then when we establish the small bank relationship we can refi to better terms and better cash flow or a lump sum of cash.

I believe there is a great deal of hard money (people fleeing the stock market) out there and this over supply should soften terms.

Tony

Do you or anyone that u know borrow out the equity of the singlewide or double wide land/home property to buy more mhs or land? Is it ok to have my SW/orDW rentals on 1 acre if I can still cash flow about 400 per month per unit? Who would be responsible for mowing the grass in most cases?

Thank You!!!

Mitch