Anyone owned or operated a mobile home park ?

[Lakewood90712]

Looking for a way to be a landlord for income after retirement , and not having to deal with the "house" part . Might be a hair brain idea , but I'm even looking at things a little outside the box.

Next year at F.I.R.E , I plan to sell my home of 28 years. And rent a small house from my dad's family trust. I would be both tennant and landlord , as I am the trustee. I could get about 260k currently for my home-( would have sold for 400+ in 2007 ) . If I took out a loan on it , and parked it in treasuries, current rents would not produce cash flow. I do not forsee any apreciation going foreward. The tract is 70 years old , sale prices are back to approx 2002 levels and still dropping.

Drive south one mile , and things are a little down in the retail/mall corrodor , drive north , and now it's 50% vacancy of commercial , graffiti , barb wire etc. Same area was full and buzzing with acctivity until the housing bubble burst.The so cal economy is slowly sinking, and except for the upper class and above , household income continues to drop. We have little manufacturering left , after most of the Aerospace jobs left the state. That was the real economic engine that fueled the area economy during the cold war.

Currently about 35% of the population in CA is employed. That is a huge drop from 10 years ago , and 35 % is far lower than most states. Lot's of people , 65% , are too young or old to work, disabled , or just no longer looking for work. I dont see how conventional real estate investments will work in this situation.

 

[chinaco]

I have not been in that business.

But I would recommend that you approach it like a business.

One of the first items.... even before a business plan is to research it and do analysis. Is it a viable business?? In that location? Who will be the customers? How many do you anticipate? What can you charge? What will be the expenses? etc...

Look before you leap!

It would be easy to wind up just owning a low paying job!

I would also compare it against working a job (for someone else). If you cannot generate salary and benefits above working for someone else (doing something you would want to do)... then why take the risk?

 

[GaryInCO]

I agree. You could very easily end up in a low- (or no-!) paying job, plus all the risk. Maybe you'd like your boss better, but would it be worth it?

 

[Mulligan]

When my dad remarried his wife had a small one of about 6 mobile homes. Tremendous frustration! Wouldn't pay their rent, or mow the grass. Always an excuse! Finally after a few years, they got rid of it. It was nothing but a hassle to him. You wouldn't believe the stories he would tell me about the process and the people living in them. But, I'm just giving you one example.

 

[calmloki]

If a loan we made goes bad and we must foreclose we will end up with an old trailer park on the lower 1/4 of 15 acres. Not looking forward to that, as there are still two occupied mobile homes there. Don't really want to do the swamping out and major repairs that the place needs for it to be a properly run park. A thought is to turn it into a boat/rv storage facility, which would require large 3-sided sheds, but no or very reduced water/septic load. Too far from our home to actually run as a trailer park.

 

[Lakewood90712]

If a loan we made goes bad and we must foreclose we will end up with an old trailer park on the lower 1/4 of 15 acres. Not looking forward to that, as there are still two occupied mobile homes there. Don't really want to do the swamping out and major repairs that the place needs for it to be a properly run park. A thought is to turn it into a boat/rv storage facility, which would require large 3-sided sheds, but no or very reduced water/septic load. Too far from our home to actually run as a trailer park.

Storage facility gives me an idea, renting a vacant commercial building and subrent storage spaces. Lots of vacant commercial buildings and lots of folks still willing to pay almost as much per sq. foot for storage as for a simple house.Go Figure . Minimal maintenance hassles. Would need to set up a securty system and access control. Insurance might be a large expense.

If they don't pay rent , after a waiting period and public notice, you auction the stuff off .

 

[Ally]

I lived in a mobile home park when I first was married and there was very little housing available in the oil patch of TX. There were lots of really nice residents, retired folks, etc, and then some transient types who never paid their rent. The owners complained alot about other residents not keeping up their yards, not paying, etc. Other than that, I don't know anything.

 

[MikeD]

They attract tornadoes!

 

[REWahoo]

They attract tornadoes!

Yep. For liability purposes be sure you don't rent to anyone who didn't opt for the roll bar upgrade...

 

[Aiming_4_55]

Just do your homework and run it like a business. It is a part time job, no fooling anyone!

Just reading the thread, it might be better to treat outdoor maintenance as an association, but if they are not paying rent, they probably will notpay maintenance fees.

 

[Htown Harry]

There's an association for everything:

WMA - Welcome

http://www.selfstorage.org/

One aspect of running a mobile home park vs. traditional rentals that I would find a hassle: utilities. Being responsible for water distribution and wastewater collection brings a huge amount of red tape.

 

[JDARNELL]

I have looked at this also. My thougth were ROI was the key and what other ways could I increase revenue? FEMA trailers, owner finance repos etc. Having said that have a manager in place would be key. Preferably a manager who was a former pro wrestler or bouncer.

Storage might be an option also. I think with a lot of these places people buy them, put a senior couple in the apt to run them, set on them until the land becomes valuable for something else. It would be much easier to cut a lock and auction stuff off than to collect rent from a trailer park.

tomcat98