Monica Main – Mobile Home Park Cash Flow System for 2015

Description of Mobile Home Park Cash Flow System for 2015

Dear Real Estate Investor,

I’ve been holding out on you…but not on purpose! You see, any of you who know my real estate investing methods know that I’ve never been a big fan of MHP (mobile home park) investing for one reason only: NO FINANCING AVAILABLE!

But all that changed early last year!

MHP lenders and brokers are now abundant in supply when as little as a year ago, they hardly existed at all. As you know, making big cash flows in real estate investments solely depends on you using other people’s money (OPM). When it doesn’t exist, you can’t work a real estate deal unless you are going in with 100% cash. And that’s never a smart way to leverage your money.

The reason MHP funding was so hard to come by was because a commercial property is appraised using these elements: (1) land value, (2) building value, and (3) cash flow. Since MHPs don’t have any permanent structures, there is no building value to appraise and this would dramatically lower the value of a property despite the cash flow. So, when a MHP owner decided to sell, he or she would sell based on cash flow but the property wouldn’t appraise at the asking price (in many cases) because the property was treated as “raw land,” or essentially worthless.

Now lenders have come to understand that MHPs are a viable investment with solid cash flows and aren’t just a chunk of raw land with a bunch of slabs of cement (or “pads” as they are called).Much Higher Cash Flow Potential…As Much as TRIPLE of an Apartment Building!

Your average apartment building will offer a CAP rate of anywhere from 6% to 9%, depending on where the property is located. If you are trying to pull of a no-cash-no-credit deal, you need to be over 9.5% or 10% in order to make the deal work financially otherwise you will barely be breaking even (if you’re lucky)!

This makes the pickings far and few between when looking for deals and starting with no money! It means you have to scour through listing after listing trying to find a deal that meets the CAP rate criteria or slash the property asking price down as much as 50% (in some cases) in order to see a cash flow.

And that just isn’t realistic!

With MHPs, it’s the “norm” to see your average CAP rate anywhere from 12% to 16%, and even then that can be considered kind of low depending on where you are in the country. If you were to find an apartment building boasting a CAP rate of 12% to 16%, chances are the numbers are based on proforma (future projections) or they are greatly exaggerated (and cannot be backed up).

With MHPs, you are looking at a LOW CAP RATE of 12% in most areas of the country and an AVERAGE CAP RATE of about 16%. I’ve seen CAP rates as high as 25% in some areas of the country.

And this is simply UNHEARD OF with ALL other commercial property deals!

As you know, the higher your CAP rate, the higher your cash flow income. And if you can barely find commercial property deals that ever exceed 8% (on average) then you will find yourself spinning your wheels for nothing!

Quick Comparison: See the Power of Mobile Home Park Investing Firsthand!

While typing this up, I went over to LoopNet.com and checked out a very small city in northern Florida for an example of how powerful MHP investing is.

I saw a MHP listed for $99,000. It has only 7 “pads” or lot spaces. The CAP rate is listed at a whopping 21% and the occupancy is 100%. Expenses on gross income is about 20% vs. your average apartment building where it is 40% to 60%. The monthly cash flow (after all expenses paid) on this deal is an amazing $2,000 a month or $24,000 a year!!

Absolutely mind-blowing!!

Meanwhile, there is an 8-unit apartment building listed right down the street for $499,000 having a CAP rate of 7%, an occupancy level of only 75%, and even at 100% occupancy, this deal wouldn’t make you but about $500 per month after all expenses and debt service (mortgage). And that’s ONLY if you are able to put 20% cash down on the deal. If you went in with no cash down, you would LOSE MONEY every month!

And this is just ONE example of the thousands of MHP deals I’ve come across in the past few months!

More Cash Flow, Fewer Expenses, Cheaper Investments…And No“Tenants“!

Wait a minute! How can this be? When there are people living in the park, aren’t those tenants?

Yes and no.

All you are doing is leasing them a “space” or “pad” which is, essentially, a slab of cement with utility hookups. Your tenant brings in his or her own mobile home, secures it to the slab, and they pay you a monthly fee to park their home there.

This means…

If their toilet breaks, they fix it. If their air conditioning goes out, they pay for it. If a neighbor kid breaks out a window, they are responsible for replacing it.

AND YOU FIX NOTHING!

All you are responsible for is landscaping, common area utilities (including electricity), and maintaining the operations of the park.

And that’s it!

Your tenants on the property are responsible for their own homes. You aren’t!

This is why it’s so cheap to run a park and make huge monthly incomes…because there aren’t many expenses.

Your average apartment building costs about 45% to 65% of the GOI (gross operating income) in expenses to run. This means that if you get annual rental receipts from your tenants of $100,000 per year, you are giving back $450,000 to $650,000 per year just in property expenses.

And that sucks!

What many of my students don’t understand is that the larger the apartment building (or complex), the LARGER THE EXPENSES. I’ve seen 500+ unit buildings (especially those in the north where it’s cold) eat up 85% in expenses on the GOI.

And who can afford to operate a building like that?? (This is why I tell my students that it’s better to get a bunch of very small apartment buildings to keep the expenses down to 25% to 35% rather than jumping at the large buildings.)

With a MHP, your average expenses are between 15% to 20% of the GOI. I have seen a few deals where the expenses have been 25%, but that’s not the “norm.” As you know, fewer expenses means more money in your pocket.

Plus…BETTER QUALITY TENANTS!

One of the biggest problems with apartment building investing, especially in lower-middle class areas, is the tenant quality. Many of your tenants simply don’t care about your building or the unit you are renting to them.

They don’t care about abusing your property including grinding up an entire Thanksgiving turkey in the garbage disposal (knowing you’ll fix it) or flushing a crack pipe down the toilet (knowing your plumber will fish it out). They don’t care about breaking out screens or ruining the carpet. It’s not their problem because the property isn’t theirs. It’s your problem. And they know it!

With MHP tenants, they are renting the slab of cement that their home sits on. But it’s their home! They not only take care of their home (because they are responsible for their own repairs) but the quality of tenant is different because they are “homeowners” and not wreckless, careless tenants.

So, even going into your lower-middle class areas that can be challenging as an apartment building owner, it’s a different story with MHP tenants because there is that sense of “pride of ownership.” This means that you don’t have to worry much about graffiti sprayed on the fences outside or someone ripping the landscaping apart with motorcycles. Since the park is made up of “homeowners” they mostly take pride in their homes and where their mobile home is “parked.” You’ll have less riff-raff and problems with tenants which ultimately lowers your operating costs and puts more cash in your pocket.

Readmore about: Monica Main

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