I have been doing traditional real estate investing (wholesaling houses) for about 3 years and have been “in” real estate for about 9 years doing residential/commercial loans. I am also a licensed Realtor in the state of Florida.
I have been very interested in the MH investing niche for about 3 months. I understand that Lonnie Scruggs is the “man” when it comes to investing in MH’s. So I was just about to buy his ebooks and start doing these “Lonnie deals”.
I just discovered this site and have been pursuing a bit.
I also have a 27 year old acquaintance (who I recently met) who has almost 100 MH’s. He has been doing this for about 8 years, told me that it is very lucrative, and that I should try it to see if I like it.
However after seeing a few very concerning posts about this business and our current economy has greatly effected this business, it’s made me very apprehensive to getting into it.
This forum seems very active and looks like a lot of you are very seasoned in MH’s and MHP’s investing.
I would like some feedback as to weather you would advise a newbie to get into investing in mobile homes or not. All feedback is welcomed as I am very serious about moving forward into this.
The best thing I ever did was buy a cheap mobile home park in 1991. If I had it to do all over again I would try to buy a park a lot sooner or right out of the shoot. I prefer to own the park I do the Lonnie Deals (LD’s) in as that way I am in complete control. There has been huge debates over whether any money can be made just doing LD’s. I don’t know because I never just did LD’s. In an ideal world I would prefer to own none of the mobile homes in our park and just rent out the dirt. In my case I found out I made more money when I owned none of the homes in the park as opposed to now where I own 1/2 of them. Income is higher, vacancy is higher, and expenses are higher. It is very expensive to repair and maintain mobile homes.
So to you I would say maybe do a few LD’s with the ultimate goal of owning your own park, it is the greatest.
I agree with Mike and Rick. A park is and should be the goal for most investors (not all investors so don’t slam me) But starting out with a couple Lonnie deals is a great way to wade into the business. You may or may not like dealing with the business, customers, sellers, park managers, homes etc. The economy has effected everyones business, but if your acquaintance is currently successful “farming” in your area then it should not be hard to find and do a few deals. In my business Lonnie Deals are the least trouble and most profitalbe short term of all types of deals.
I have been networking with several MH investors on this forum and other forums.
Most of you and others tell me that the park is the better way to go. I spoke to a local realtor that specializes in buying and selling MHP’s. He told me that I need about 100K to get into one of these. He stated that “cheap” parks cost about 300-400K and that I would need about a third down.
While I would love to go that route as opposed to buying the MH’s themselves, I do not have that kind of capital. I live in South Florida. I don’t know if that’s what the prices are down here where I’m at or this realtor is “cookie cutter” meaning that he deals with “traditional ways” of buying these parks. I assume there are ways to negotiate and find good deals that I could do seller financing with little down. Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know as this is all new to me.
With that being said, do you all have that kind of money to get into these parks, are there creative ways to obtain these parks with little down, or are parks much cheaper where you all live?
Thanks in advance!
Geo
PS. If there are any investors in the South Florida area, I welcome you to contact me. I would love to take network and grow with you. While I am new to MH investing I am not new to real estate investing and have a successful track record in traditional RE investing.
I live in Tampa. I have done some lonnie deals but focus more on L/H stuff. I can talk about any kind of deals 24/7 though. Feel free to call me anytime.
RV components are not always desired, because they are somewhat of a moving target if you are talking about daily and weekly rental. They are labor intensive. Someone has to collect daily weekly or whatever. Now if they are rentals in a park and they cannot be moved easily that is a different story. Your desired quality of park will determine if you want RVs. In CA they are very common in older parks because of lot sizes. New MHs wont fit and there is other reasons to have them in CA like no set up inspections. I dont have any so my knowledge is limited Sorry