Welcome back,
This article should be heeded by all newer investors looking to get involved with mobile home investing inside pre-existing mobile home parks. The below story follows a mobile home park, it’s residents, and a community of activists looking for justice from a system they feel is forgotten about them.
Whether you agree or disagree with the videos and story below (they are reality) there are many great things we, as individual mobile home investors can learn from their story, the actions of all parties, and the results.
Points of Remember:
1. Mobile home park owner’s can decide to sell out at any time.
The risk of any one mobile home park (that you have investments within) being sold in the next month, year, or decade is slim but valid. The logic is if a mobile home park is performing well and not in the immediate path-of-progress you should be safe to begin investing.
Before purchasing inside any “new-to-you” park ask the park manager and residents about any potential knowledge about the park being sold or rezoned? Most likely you will hear a “No!”
If the park does happen to transfer ownership while you own a mobile home (or five) inside that park there are options if you are proactive. Mobile home parks are bought and sold all the time. The issue comes down to what the new owner plans to do with the newly acquired land..
2. Mobile Home Parks residents are real people.
Mobile home park residents are real people that depend on the stability of “their” mobile home park as their home, front yard, community, neighborhood, support system, daycare, employment, backyard, and/or more.
Advanced Investors: If you have sold a mobile home via payments to a hard working, honest, economically low-classed family and have seen each family member smile from ear-to-ear you can understand that each home/family is much more than a profit figure, each family (each individual) is a separate life. Investors are servers of the people… as long as everybody pays on-time..
3. Mobile Home Parks may be a future goal for you for even BIGGER future profits.
If individual mobile homes are “cash-cows” then owing a complete mobile home parks are “cash whales!” I can only theorize that in order for this mobile home park owner to sell out his park, future cash-flow, future appreciation, and his community he/she likely received an over-retail purchase offer for his/her land, likely a 7 figure payday.
Investor Advice: Complete at least 10 transactions with individual mobile homes on private land and/or inside mobile home parks. With this experience and current cash-flow make the educated decision to begin learning how to properly invest in a complete mobile home community for the purposes for cash-flow, appreciation or resale profits. Or simply continue investing in individual mobile homes and forgo many maintenance/management issues.
How was each resident notified they would have to vacate the park in 90 days?
When the 32 families of the Riverdale Mobile Home Park in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, found out that they were losing their homes to the state’s latest fracking operation, the news didn’t come from their landlord, or an eviction notice in the mail—they read about it in their morning paper.
The February 18 article, published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, nonchalantly detailed the approval of three natural gas projects in Lycoming County, PA, including a water withdrawal station that would pipe millions of gallons of water from the Susquehanna River to fracking stations in the mountains further north. The article noted that an “added benefit” of the plans was “the removal of mobile homes,” which were located in a potential flood plain.
Later that afternoon, Riverdale’s landlord came by and confirmed what residents had already read in the paper: The property had been sold to Aqua America, a water company dedicated to fracking. The full magnitude of the blow came days later, when the eviction notices arrived, informing the residents that they had until May 1 to relocate so that work on the site could begin in June. Each family was offered $2,500 if they got off the property by April 1; $1,500 if they moved by May 1; and zero compensation after that. It wasn’t nearly enough; lawyers for Riverdale residents later estimated that the cost of moving each trailer was, on average, between $8,000 to $10,000. Taken from motherjones.com
One Question Quiz:
Question: Why any investor receives cash-flow?
Answer: You create a value that a seller and buyer both pays for. Trained investors put together Win-Win-Win real estate transactions together weekly. Ideally with the intent to always:
- Help seller sell unwanted mobile home = Win
- Help buyers find affordable housing to buy =Win-Win
- Help yourself years of cash-flow profit = Win-Win-Win
Go out this week and look for opportunities to create value for sellers and buyers alike. I f you have any specific mobile home investing questions do not hesitate to reach out.
Love what you do daily,
John Fedro
support@mobilehomeinvesting.net
Related Mobile Home Park Sell Out videos:
14 Comments
Vyonne Lewis
August 1, 2012Wow!! I can really feel for those residents. I really appreciate you bringing this story to our attention. Has a park ever had to close and kick your home or buyer out?
Vyonne
John Fedro
August 2, 2012Hi Vyonne,
I am glad that this story has touched so many of you. Thank you all for your emails regarding this story too.
Concerning your question about has a mhp ever closed while I owned a home inside, the answer is no. However, I have been through 1 park that was about to be sold and converted to SFR, the sale was not planned for almost a full year away but the park management and residents were very helpful by informing me of the sale.. obviously I did not purchase any homes in the park. This story was from when I had first began investing.
A similar story happened to be again a few years later. This time I was contacted by a resident of the park that had to sell due to the park closing and him not having any other alternative but to sell. I bought his home and 2 of his neighbors’ homes (total $3,500 for 3 nice homes) and paid a mover to move them to a near-by park.
The point is that most times you will be aware a park will be selling. Again, many times parks do sell without the slightest change to mhp life. Only in cases such as the article above where the park is being bought by a large company that plans to turn the park into a new “X”… this is when residents have to start making a plan “B”.
Sincerely,
John
Wayne Lamson
August 21, 2012Hi John,
Boo to the owner for this move. I have never seen anything like this before. Thanks again for posting this. With the call from Daniel this post makes much sense. Wayne
John Fedro
August 22, 2012Hi Wayne,
Normally I would agree with you however there are always 2 sides to each story. I know if I was approached by “Big Oil” and handed 7 figures I would be really temped to take the deal.
Perhaps a better compensation plan could have been worked out with the residents though. Now these residents may forever have a bad memory about this park, mhparks in general, plus it seems some folks literally had little options to go elsewhere with such short notice.
Thanks for the comment,
John
Sven
August 26, 2012This is one of the reasons why I am going to purchase MHP’s. I will own MHP’s to help provide for my family but also to provide a basic needed service to people -affordable housing. I would ONLY evict for non-payment. I realize I may not get rich with this mindset, but it will be good enough and I will sleep good at night knowing I’m helping my family by helping others.
Too much GREED got us here, we are ALL affected in one way or another.
Above is how I am going to help, what about you?
Like john wrote above…”look for opportunities to create value” and most importantly… “LOVE WHAT YOU DO DAILY”
John Fedro
August 28, 2012Hi Sven,
Excellent! Have you began looking at local mobile home parks to purchase in your area?
I think the mentality you have to start is great and very noble. There are plenty of companies that put people first and are growing rapidly. The concept that you have to decide to either be a great business mind OR a caring human is a fallacy. You can always put people first while sticking firm to your rules and evicting when warranted.
thanks for the comment
John
Toni Nurnberg
March 10, 2015I currently own a mobile home park in Arizona with 14 units, which I also own. We have below a 2% vacancy rate and a good cash flow 10% CAP rate. I want to sell this park and move to Colorado. How can I market my park to people like you?
John Fedro
March 11, 2015Hi Toni,
Thank you for reaching out to me on this matter. Depending on the area of AZ I can help personally or know other investors that may be interested. Either way I’d be happy to know more and proceed accordingly. Please email me personally at support@mobilehomeinvesting.net. Please include any info, sales flyer, or P/L sheet you may have.
Talk soon,
John
Kim
February 9, 2020I own a park model in Fla and I live in Ohio! I just heard they are selling the park! Can I still sell my unit? It is completely remodeled from walls to walls! Brand new kitchen with granite countertops, stainless appliances, everything new inside and out! They are only offering $3,000 for doublewides! What are my options?
John Fedro
February 21, 2020Hi Kim,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. I very much regret to hear about the situation. Since this is a park model mobile home I’m assuming that it is a single wide, although you mentioned the park paying $3000 to double wides. You may have the option to move the home if you know a park that is paying good moving incentives to have a home moved into their community. However the mobile home probably need to look pretty good to go into most parks. You may also be able to sell the home to someone that is interested in moving it and placing it on their land. However if it is a park model mobile home it may not be that big or desirable to someone with a lot of land. Depending on how big the park is there are likely other sellers that are going to be selling in may drive the price of your home down a bit due to the supply. I know this does not help solve your problem however I do very much encourage you to advertise this home for sale as much as possible online and off-line. You can absolutely sell your home as you are the one with the title. I hope this helps. Keep in touch. If you have any follow-up questions I will be here. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
RON HOLLENBECK
March 21, 2021SO I have just been informed the park I bought a home in last year will be going up for sale , I would hope a new buyer would just raise the rent and move forward, my fear is they will re-develop the park into row houses or the like , with out knowing the intentions of the new buyer is there a insurance policy I could purchase to cover my investment if it cant be relocated to new park ?
Thanks
Ron
Portland Oregon
John Fedro
March 29, 2021Hi Ron,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. I very much regret to hear about this uneasiness that you are having. You’re right that ownership could certainly come in and convert everything into homes or condos. You certainly know your area better than I do, in Portland prices are high and if the mobile home park is bringing in good money then perhaps the new owner will simply keep it as a park and raise lot rents as you mentioned. However there is a small chance, unless you live in a very prime area, that the new owner will redevelop everything. In my experience you will have a years notice or so in order to move your property. I have not heard of insurance that would cover this type of situation, however I have also never looked for either. I would encourage you to call up insurance broker after insurance company to see if they provide something like this. My apologies I’m not able to be more help in the situation. If you are able to learn something and find some type of insurance like this never hesitate to comment back and let us know what you found. Keep in touch. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Maureen K Croushorn
August 28, 2021I was looking for answers to my problem with a mobile home park that I am currently buying an older mobile home. The park just sold and I’m hearing that the new owners are going to make everyone move My husband and I took every bit of our savings to buy the mobile home. We retired from Omaha Nebraska, came down to Hollister Missouri, found the mobile home here,and moved here We have done nothing but make improvements to the house and the lot. We don’t have the money to move the mobile home, plus it might be too old to move. What can we do? We can’t walk away from our home, it’s all we have. Do you know anyone in M
Hollister or Branson Missouri that could give us advice? This is devastating to us.
John Fedro
August 31, 2021Hello Maureen,
Thank you so much for reaching out and connecting. Additionally, thank you for the detailed message as it certainly does help me understand your situation a bit better. I very much regret to hear that you’re going through this situation. Make sure that the mobile home park will be converting to something else before making any calls. However if you do find out that the mobile home park is changing its zoning and will be asking everyone to leave, or simply asking certain folks to leave, this is definitely within their rights. They certainly have to give you a few months or more to vacate and they will usually provide you a few thousand dollars or more for moving expenses. Some parks will even try to purchase the mobile home from you in order to risk any bad press in the local news. It certainly sounds like the only thing you’re guilty of is taking care of your property, having a pride of ownership, and paying your bills on time. The age of your mobile home will certainly affect its desirability. Whether it is a double wide or single wide will affect things too. However in many areas of the country mobile homes that must-be-moved are certainly desirable for the right price. Please feel free to reach out to me directly at support@mobilehomeinvesting.net for more help and questions moving forward. Keep in touch. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
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