Posted by Rolf on April 20, 2007 at 23:28:42:
Keith,
Good perspective.
OK, Ohio Lonnie dealers, what is it you want?
Rolf
Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Rolf
Posted by Rolf on April 16, 2007 at 21:34:58:
Hi.
I’m new to this forum and this is my first posting.
I am supposed to close escrow on 4-24 on a 42 unit community in E.
Palestine, OH (Columbiana County). I am going to be evicting several
dirtbags and their homes are as crummy as the owners. They gotta go. I need
homes and I would like to hear from any Lonnie dealers interested in doing
business in the community. My hands are pretty full with fixing the place up
and I just don’t have the time to do this myself.
So here’s the deal I’m offering:
In exchange for bringing in really clean homes and setting them up, I will give
you the first month of space rent free. Plus I will post a big sign (homes for
sale, will finance, no banks) on the state highway in front of the community
and share the credit report I pull on any applicants. The kicker is I will only
accept homes with either really good looking metal or vinyl siding plus they
must have peaked roofs with shingles. I’m trying to upgrade the look of the
community.
If this interests you, please contact me and let’s go into more specifics.
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Jeff-oh
Posted by Jeff-oh on April 19, 2007 at 06:52:18:
Rolf,
It is a small world, I got married in EP at Centenarty just down the road from the EP MHP. I assume you got the one on Oh 170.
In fact my wife’s parents still live there out on Padgett. I have to stop in next time we are up there.
I will say this to you. In that small community your investors will be your biggest asset. At 42 units it will only handel 1 or maybe 2 good investors. Treat them very well. They will do far more for you than you are currently offering.
They will advertize your park, to individuals they will sell your park as the place to live. The home in EP is very weak right now and thus prices are low.
Here in Cincinnati, We work with a MHP company that offers…
Free lot rent to the “active” investor whenever the home is in their name… Homes do churn. you will approve new people into your park and then they will turn into “dirtbags” and stop paying you and the investor. Do not tie your investors hands by demanding they now pay the lot rent. Remember they too have lost the cash flow. Let them go find a new renter for you.
You do not need to offer this to ever Joe that says he is a MH investor, but seasoned investors like Karl-OH, Glen-OH, Dr.B , etc will find a park that will work with us as we do wirk with them.
Fear less about the investor as an advosary, and work as partners for your common good.
One story… There is a park system around here that does not work with the investors and we love pulling homes out of their parks.
Also, don’t be too picky about the homes to bring in. Clean and livable or could be made clean and livable. Mid 80’s and later etc. Again you are dealing with a depressed housing market. They newer homes you seem to be requesting will start to rival that market. I know of at least one full stick built houst on .5 acre of land on Market street that can be had for ~50K. That is a total house payment of $270.00/month for a 3 bedroom on land stick built. That’s some stiff competition for a moble home payment + lot rent.
I know this home because it belongs to my wife’s best friend.
Contact me on the side I would love to talk with you. I stop in and visit next time I am up. I live 280 miles from EP.
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Luke-MN
Posted by Luke-MN on April 17, 2007 at 08:28:36:
May I make this suggestion. If you really want people to go through the time, cost and hassle of moving a home into the park, you should give them free lot rent until it sells not just the first month.
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by land-o
Posted by land-o on April 20, 2007 at 06:30:31:
I have a contractor that installs my homes for me, he also gets killer
deals on single wides that need pulled out of distressed situations.
He has park owners knocking at his door to fill their parks. So he
makes a workable deal with the park owner, he will put the trailer in
for free rent, (up to one year) and if he gets the trailer back, he only
owes rent for it while the buyer was in it. He does a good job installing
and seldom gets them back and has a reputation as probably the best
one to use in this area, so he always has a waiting list. So by offering
one month free you really are not offering anything to a guy about to
put a 6-10 thousand dollar cash investment in your park.
If you give a guy one year free rent, he sells the trailer including rent
and so he get the first year rent from the buyer, and if you let the
investor not be holding the bag for an empty, he is motivated to get
the bums out making management pleasant to the PM.
This guy and I are buying 3 trailers together, I got two 14X47’s and he
gets the one 1983 14X67 2/2
Pays
for the trailer 2500
electric contractor 1000
set up and haul 2200
skirting 800
permits 350
Misl steps 400
landscape 250
mistakes 10% 650
total 7150
So you want a guy to install 7150 dollars on your property and let it sit
there in a weak housing market until he sells it, and you want him to
pay you rent for the privilege?
(tain’t gonna happen)
by the way,
I would think you are asking for trouble though to just “evict” better to
get a rental agreement from the bad tenants. Then put the squeeze on
them to conform to the rules, you would be surprised how people will
“clean up” if they are managed. Especially if you have other empties,
you might squeeze them for 6 months or more before they finally
sell, or give you their trailer, plus it is good practice to learn how
to slowly turn a bad tenant to a good one
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Rolf
Posted by Rolf on April 17, 2007 at 10:05:37:
That’s not a bad idea. I could handle that as the space would be empy
anyway.
Rolf
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Rolf
Posted by Rolf on April 17, 2007 at 23:04:50:
OK. How does this offer sound:
- Free lot rent until the home sells. (What do I do if it is overpriced
and doesn’t sell?) - I or my manager shows the home to anyone who wants to see it.
- Grass stays mowed around the home.
- Big sign on highway.
- I share the credit report with you.
- On-going work to spruce up the community. It’s actually pretty nice
right now but it needs more clean up.
I’m still looking for newer homes with pitched roofs. Is that
unrealistic?
Rolf
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Dr B (OH)
Posted by Dr B (OH) on April 17, 2007 at 20:57:42:
I agree with Luke. As a nearly full time investor, I wouldn’t bother with anything else.
It is very hard to attract new homes in this market. Many parks offer $1000 move-in credit to homeowners (still get a deposit). Offer to “pay for” setup if you have a licensed MH installer on your maintenance staff. Free cable/satellite for a year, etc.
p.s. I am not in your area.
Happy Trail(er)s,
Steve
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Ruben (KCKS)
Posted by Ruben (KCKS) on April 18, 2007 at 15:59:41:
If you were in my area I would work with you because those terms seem reasonable.
Your fear of the price being too high could be overcome by talking with the investor to see if they are realistic in their numbers. If you get an investor who knows what they are doing they will lower the price to sell the home. After all the investment only makes a profit when they sell. By talking with them in advance and letting them know what your concerns are you should get a pretty good feel for them.
If the home did not sell after a while why not just offer them enough cash to make a small profit and then sell the home yourself. You do not need as big of a profit as I do as an investor so you could purchase the home at a higher price and still increase your parks cashflow and equity. Just my 2 cents.
Ruben Flores
816 918-9041
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by thoughtgang
Posted by thoughtgang on April 21, 2007 at 14:56:10:
hey-i looked at this park-the numbers looked great, but the tenants and surrounding community scared me off. i hope it really works out for you and you turn it around. I think they were asking around 600k with the owner carrying most of it.
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Rolf
Posted by Rolf on April 20, 2007 at 02:04:00:
Ruben,
Thanks for the vote of confidence and ideas. Give me some time to
figure out which way is up and then I’d sure like to pick your brain.
It seems that everyone has their own opinion of my plan and most of
them are completely opposite of each other. And these opinions are
coming from serious investors so I certainly am paying attention. I’m
starting to think that maybe I ought to just take one of those cheap
cash advances off of my credit card and go buy some of these things
myself. As long as I can break even I’m OK and I’m within a couple of
homes of that right now.
The only thing I am absolutely certain of is I will devote lots of time to
clean up and landscaping. Most parks I have seen look like c**p IMHO
and I can’t help but think decent, tough (not extravagant) landscaping
would help me attract and hold good residents.
Rolf
Re: Ohio Lonnie dealers wanted - Posted by Keith (OH)
Posted by Keith (OH) on April 20, 2007 at 20:09:46:
Rolf,
Everyone has their own opinion of your plan because all the investors have a different perspective of the value of a deal. Not that you need another opinion but I would bet you would have better luck finding an investor to work with you if you ask them what they need instead of telling them what you are offering.
You are already prepared to give up something you just don’t know what or how much until you find an investor who asks for it.
Good Luck with your venture,
Keith
that’s because you’re a landscaper - Posted by Steve-WA
Posted by Steve-WA on April 20, 2007 at 07:42:25:
to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
;-)3