Posted by Greg Meade on July 24, 2003 at 21:52:31:
Rod,
This was a deposit account only. The only way to access money is to use online bill pay. Works GREAT. I pay expenses out of the account ,then pay me with bill pay. My banker helped me set up the account and I was honest with what i wanted. The best part is FREE!
Small MHP - hands-free? - Posted by Gregory
Posted by Gregory on July 24, 2003 at 12:55:48:
I?m thinking about buying a small mobile home park in 120-180K range. That would be my first RE investment and I?m trying to really understand my maximum possible exposure here. My biggest concern is not income / expenses part, as I think I can analyze it well enough myself, and hey, even if it all goes vacant overnight, I?d still have enough holding power to hold on to it. But being a newbee, I don?t have enough clue how time ? consuming it could be for out-of-state owner to deal with a 5-12 units park. It?s my understanding that usually you have a manager who in exchange for free rent and, may be, some cash, oversees the park, serves notes, does some maintenance, and collects rent. However, from your experience, how often your personal involvement would be necessary? Or, if set up properly, it can (and,may be, in your opinion, should) be a hands-free investment (even if own and rent out some of the homes in that park, not only lots)?
Any advice is greatly appreciated. And sorry for my English, as I?m not a native speaker.
Gregory
Re: Small MHP - hands-free? - Posted by Greg Meade
Posted by Greg Meade on July 24, 2003 at 20:10:23:
Gregory,
I own a small park and sold another last July. The real prob I had with remote ownership was money handling. Seems people tend to think of your money as their money over time. one control I put in place is i opened an account at Maxim Bank 1 mile from Park. They had free checking and were open on Sat. until noon. I then went online and ordered 4 boxes of deposit slips and had each tenant sign an agreement that rent was deposited in my account by them in cash every first. worked fine until I realized that there were a lot of 225 (lot rent) and 475 (mobile rents) so i had to have #1 pay 225, #2 226, etc. Once i had an amount for a specific tenant, I could go online and find out who paid what, when. If there was a no-pay, i would e-mail pm and have him take care of it.The tenants loved it cuz they got a receipt immediately and it was very near the Park.The other secret I learned was I opened accounts at Plumbing Co., well co, septic, A/c, Hardware , etc. and worked off a Purchase Order System. Worked great for taxes and gave me control of costs! Good Luck, i am sure you will do fine!
Re: Small MHP - hands-free? - Posted by Rod - MO
Posted by Rod - MO on July 24, 2003 at 21:44:57:
Greg,
I assume you made sure the people could not do a cash-out at deposit. What a disaster that could be.
Rod