Posted by ray@lcorn on April 20, 2006 at 08:24:26:
Matt,
All of your questions have the same answer… it depends.
In general, there will rarely be an over-supply of parks because of the difficulty in getting approvals for new ones. For that same reason, yes, there is a lot of institutional interest because of the protected nature of existing parks.
That said, the REITs and large companies that operate parks will generaly not be interested in those of less than 100 spaces. (That number was 200 just five years ago, but because of the scarcity of product the bar can be lowered if they can find two or more parks in the same market and capture some economy of scale.) In my opinion the “sweet spot” for investors is in the 75-100 space range.
If you understand that each deal must be evaluated on it’s own merit, then you can understand that every local market has to be given the same consideration. That means that if the market is expoeriencing population growth, then the demand for housing will support a turnaround project. However, that assumes that you find one, get it bought, and know what to do with it. Most deals are created, not offered.
One of my favorite truisms is : “Opportunity, without the capacity to capture it, is an illusion.”
As a shameless plug, I wrote a book about MHPs designed specifically to increase your capacity. I guarantee it answers all your questions and more you haven’t thought of yet. See http://www.creonline.com/catalog/b-137.html
ray