Looking to START it all

g’day all,

great website folks, what a great community you have here.

I’m brand new to this (like Red). I read Deals on Wheels about 10 years ago and then I got busy (doing the wrong things obviously). Nevertheless, I’m in a major metropolitan area with many seasonal effects and buying/selling periods.

I wanted to collect some thoughts and opinions on my particular situation and/or plan of attack.

I have a partner that wants to share resposibility on investment capital, project management & of course profit sharing. Together, we have a good general contractor (semi-retired) that is ready to go.

Our plan is to purchase MH units on lots (one at a time) and sell our first few, then maybe rent others down the line when the cashflow will support that.

We will need the assistance of a hard money lender for a few deals (maybe more); we will be forming an LLC so we can actually form the partnership and obtain funds this way.

It would seem we have the players in place, just need to swing into action. As I mentioned earlier, I just wanted to open a dialogue here and let myself be known. Of course, if you can offer any type of commentray over our simple plan, please do.

At this point, we are not actually interested in managing an MH park just yet; I run a seperate small business that pays the bills, so I can’t step away from that and I want to rehab more than manage.

Thanks a lot…

Ozzie,

I think you are on the right track. This forum is full of people who have done what you are proposing and can provide valuable feedback.

Your biggest challenge will be finding the deals. If you can do this successfully, the money will follow.

Let us know how you progress.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the reply…I have already struck a purchase agreement for a planned flip.

My main interest is flipping (for the next 12 months at least). With that said, I had a follow-up question(s):

With respect to course material(s) available, is there a publication (or set of publications) that stand out from the rest that goes through screening parks for worthiness?

I know my area pretty well, with respect to a general gut feel of the demographics, but as far as park activity (comps and average days on market and other parametres) with respect to park activity and sales information.

Is there a way to walk into a family park (I’m only 32) without smelling like an investor to the pm?

If there are certain protocols, checklists and other such “scouting” information available to sniff out the better parks (or consumer-desired parks) I would be most grateful for a lead-in to such information, whether that be in the form of a book or course. There are quite a few books out there, but my criteria is fairly specific and I figure that most on this forum have read most publications out there & I’m on a shoestring right now, so I’m just hoping to dig deeper into scouting the right parks, with “what to ask/say” and “what NOT to say/ask” and to whom (park residents and park managers) to ascertain fact from fiction.

We Australians talk alot, so I think you get the idea by now.

Cheers!

Oz