Welcome back,
Whether you are new to this website or a frequent guest I am so glad you are here. Thank you for sharing your support and encouragement over the past eight years while I’ve being actively journaling online about my mobile home investing business.
Recently I’ve hit a business milestone. In addition to purchasing and holding individual mobile homes. I now control my first mobile home park. 🙂 I now have a vested interest in a 110-unit mobile home community located in northwest Kansas.
Join Me On This Journey
Over the coming weeks and months I plan on documenting exactly what I’m doing as much as I can. I encourage you to subscribe to my YouTube channel below and come along with me on this journey. I’m sure there will be some mistakes made, lives changed, lessons learned, and many great successes along the way. *Hopefully no twisters.
Click the Subscribe Button at the end of this video to be alerted to new MHP episodes.Â
Facts and Numbers:
- This community is 110 lots of mobile home fun!
- Currently there are 61 homes on the property.
- With only 29 of them owned by park residents.
- The remaining 32 homes are park owned and in need of moderate cosmetic to minor structural repairs.
- Many of these homes are from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
- Small city population but growing.
- Some of the 32 vacant homes will be rehabbed and others removed entirely from the park.
- Additionally, new and used homes will be moved into the park.
- At the moment park morale seems low. Without much supervision, many residents have been living without rules, structure or consequences.
- Entrance & Exit strategies to be discussed in the coming videos. 🙂
My partners and I are really looking forward to increasing the value, togetherness, reputation and safety of the community (community of people). This will in turn add to the happiness and well-being of all our current residents already living at the park.
Related: 7 Community Building Ideas I’ll Be Using To Improve This Mobile Home Park
Why did it take 10+ years to purchase your first mobile home community?
I have been getting some emails asking why it took over 10 years investing in individual mobile homes in order to own my first entire mobile home community. The answer is simple, and it is a very good lesson for you to learn from.
The enemy of progress is comfortability. While investing in individual mobile homes both inside pre-existing mobile home parks and attached to their own private land, was very comfortable.
- Over a short time you can and will understand your market. What you can offer/buy/sell a MH for?
- Over a short time you can and will be known in your market. Word-of-mouth advertising is wonderful.
- Each mobile home adds more and more positive cash-flow each month.
- Things are/were easy and very duplicatable. My attitude was, "Don't fix what's not broken".
While I have been presented with very good opportunities over the years I foolishly passed on them to pursue what was comfortable, easy and very lucrative. Too quickly a classified owning a mobile home park as too management intensive, when in reality that’s what a park manager if for. 🙂
In conclusion, love what you do every day. One of the reasons I love real estate so much is that there is so much to do and learn. There are so many niches, careers, and specialties to consider and make you money. Even within the mobile home investing field there are multiple ways for you to help so many people and create value.
If you have any comments or questions please don’t hesitate to write them below.
Love what you do daily,
John Fedro
support@mobilehomeinvesting.net
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20 Comments
Neil Massey
April 10, 2015Hey John,
I loved the video. Can’t wait for more. That makes sense about the getting comfortable part. Been there myself so many times. Keep it up and I’ll be watching and following your lead. Thanks for everything boss.
Neil massey
John Fedro
April 11, 2015Hi Neil,
Thanks so much for the kind words and support. I’ll keep the videos coming and look forward to making them for you. If you ever have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to reach out.
Talk soon,
John
Bob Pates
December 8, 2015I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading regarding MH Park Investing and so far my most informative reading is by ole Uncle Zally, but anyways, something that I don’t believe that you discussed was future financing of one’s MH Park. let’s say that you buy a “Land-Leased” MH Park. It may be that you have a loan coming due on your manufactured home community, have identified a property you want to purchase, or simply want to access some equity. Whichever the case, you may need a loan. A few ears down the road, you’re considering Financing The next step is to evaluate the financial condition of the property. Typically, a lender
will ask for a current rent roll along with property operating statements (income and expenses) for the past three years. When examining the rent roll, the lender will be looking for rental, lender-owned, or investor-owned homes in the community. While property owners may be motivated to rent homes; from a lending perspective, the FEWER THE RENTAL HOMES, THE BETTER! I’ll stop there. As a MH Park Owner why would I allow other MH Investors to Buy and Sell MHs in my Park, when it’s possibly to be used against me when applying for a MH Park Loan. I keep harping on this point to you, but you still don’t seem to talk much about it and I understand that it would be bad marketing on your part regarding your business? Lastly, how many MHs do you own? How many MH Parks do you own?
John Fedro
December 11, 2015Hi Bob,
Thanks for commenting back and adding value. Every mobile home park owner is a bit different and if you do not see the value in allowing mobile home investors to engage in business within your park then you never have to allow them if you do not see fit. Many mobile home park owners are happy to allow investors in their park OR sell a home to an investor as long as the investors behave themselves, follow all the rules, and keep homes in the park when possible. However, like you said some parks absolutely want to repurchase as many homes as they can from sellers and flip them for a profit. Both models are completely fine. With that said I will mention that almost all mobile home parks do not allow “renting” inside their walls. Some do however most do not. I mention this because in the above comment you mentioned “the fewer rental properties the better”. I couldn’t agree more.
Concerning all your comments with regards to obtaining bank financing when purchasing or refinancing a mobile home park, you seem much more experienced in this area than myself. I currently am involved in owning one park that I’m very happy with. There are many more down the road however my personal goal is to not use bank financing unless I absolutely have to. With private money and seller held financing I hope to purchase more parks in the future without as many bank underwriting necessities as you accurately mentioned above.
With all this said you are certainly not harping on the “parks working with investors” issue at all. It seems to me that you simply do not believe the results that I am reporting. If you are saying that most parks will not work with investors then this is absolutely accurate based on your business and how you are operating it. However, I am very pleased to say that when we aim to make park managers lives easier and increase the revenue of parks, we do not have resistance investing within many parks around the country. With that said again, some parks will not want us in there, however most will.
I hope this continues to help and make some sense. It is okay if we do not see eye to eye or having different results. If you have any specific questions or concerns about anything further never hesitate to reach back out.
Talk soon,
John
Laura
April 10, 2015Congratulations John! So wonderful to see. You’ve earn it.
Regards,
Laura Haverback
John Fedro
April 11, 2015Hi Laura,
Thank you so much for the kind words. It is being been a long journey and a labor of love.
Talk soon,
John
Paul Brecht
April 11, 2015Glad to see you ‘loving what you do’. Looking forward to going along on your journey through the park. Stay out of the high winds,
Paul
John Fedro
April 16, 2015Hi Paul,
Thanks for commenting and following along. I am already learning so much and having a ton of fun! Kansas is all high winds! 🙂
Talk soon,
John
Mark D
April 15, 2015Congratulation John! Loved the video. Will you still be bying and selling regular MHs? I’m definitely looking forward to the coming videos.
Best,
Mark D
John Fedro
April 16, 2015Hi Mark,
Thank you for your kind words and following along. If you have any specific mobile home investing questions might be happy to help, so don’t hesitate to reach out.
Concerning your question, I am definitely still going to be purchasing and reselling individual mobile homes both locally here in Kansas, back in Austin, and even in the Central Florida area when I can… As well as a few other states along the way. Once you build up a name for yourself and understand local areas the paperwork and buying and selling procedure is so simple. (I’m not saying mobile home investing is simple I’m saying that once you learn all the steps needed in the many different offers we can help sellers with then this business becomes easier and easier. I hope that made sense.) Thanks for asking.
Talk soon,
John
Gupta P
April 20, 2015WoW it is so amasing to know that about the Mobile home park just because rarely it is finding here. Thank You for giving me that information…
John Fedro
April 20, 2015Hi Gupta,
Thank you so much for reaching out and for your kind words! I am so happy that you are here on this site too. Thank you for your support.
If you ever have any mobile home or real estate investing questions don’t hesitate to reach out any time.
Talk soon,
John
rumahdewi
June 17, 2015it’s a very nice video, thank you for sharing such information.
thank you john
John Fedro
June 19, 2015Hi Rumahdewi,
Thank you so much for the kind words. I am happy that this video has been a value to you. If you have any additional follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to reach out. Always here to help.
Talk soon,
John
Easton
July 12, 2015John,
I really enjoyed your videos. I really interested in buying my own mobile home park. What suggestions do you have in getting financing to purchase a park. Your videos really motivated me to try and take the next step in this process.
Thanks
Easton
John Fedro
July 13, 2015Hi Easton,
Thank you so much for reaching out and commenting. Financing for your first mobile home park may come from a combination of private money, your own personal funds, a bank loan, and/or seller financing from the seller. With that said make sure you get your ducks in a row and begin looking for private money and contacting local and nationwide mobile home lenders. Remember that you are buying a business and there are some banks that will love to land on mobile home parks. I hope this has been helpful and is pointed you in a clear direction. If you have any follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to reach back out. Always here to help.
Talk soon,
John
Easton
July 20, 2015John,
Thanks for getting back to me. I really appreciate the advice I didn’t know there were banks that specializes in mobile homes. Where could I find these? What websites or anything. I m very excited and really striving to move forward with this.
Thanks again,
Easton
John Fedro
July 20, 2015Hi Easton,
Thanks much for commenting and very happy to help. We’ve had decent help with local credit unions in your area. Credit unions are typically more open to lending to mobile homes inside communities than traditional banks. With that said there are nationwide companies that do lend on mobile homes. Some nationwide companies you may want to try are 21st Century and Clayton Bank. I hope this helps and points you in the right direction. If you have any follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to write back. Always here to help.
Talk soon,
John
Susan Rutherford
December 6, 2015Looking forward to the journey!
John Fedro
December 8, 2015Hi Susan,
Thanks for commenting and following along! We’ve been capturing a ton of great video and I look forward to posting the videos soon. Please keep in touch and if you have any follow-up questions or concerns with regards to this type of real estate investing and never hesitate to reach out anytime.
Talk soon,
John
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