A mobile home park.
Crazy investment idea, that wasn't crazy 50 years ago
- Thread starter skyactiv
- Start date
Not sure on the question?
I saw a bit the other day, about how “predatory” these places can be. Once a renter buys in, they are kinda stuck, as mobile homes aren’t easy to move, and many movers won’t move one after a certain age. And park fees can go up at will, and the renter is now stuck, if they bought their trailer outright.
I saw a bit the other day, about how “predatory” these places can be. Once a renter buys in, they are kinda stuck, as mobile homes aren’t easy to move, and many movers won’t move one after a certain age. And park fees can go up at will, and the renter is now stuck, if they bought their trailer outright.
We sold my wife’s grandfather’s “modular” home in a retirement community in FL after he died for $5,000 just to get out of the lot payments. They can be pretty lucrative investments if you own one but it’s hard to get new ones approved in many places.
Aren't most capital investment groups buying up all the mobile home parks? I remember reading that, and they're jacking up the fees massively..
I think the following is true. If I'm wrong or off-target, please comment.
In earlier times, mobile home sales and parks were indicia of local, booming economies.
Mobile homes were there because home builders hadn't had the time to build.
That's the formula.
Today, mobile home parks have a less than savory reputation.
The residents are not just "transient riff-raff", they're poorer and don't move on.
I believe long term residents are aging with the rest of society and folks on fixed incomes don't keep their homes as well maintained as once they may have.
A worker moving on in the old days, likely spruced his unit up a bit to get it to sell faster.
There are 4 mobile home parks in my circle.
1) On US Rt. 46, the whole place looks worse than when I was a kid.
2) Immediately past Teterboro's main runway. I must walk through it and assess as I've never set foot on the land.
It always looked horrid from the street.
3) On Rts. 4+22 near Whitehall, NY. Today it houses stone quarry workers. It's not aging well.
4) A trailer park in Amityville, NY I shouldn't name is a small, nice one. It sits within a black community and is filled with employed white people. My pal's sister bought into it and lived there whilst working for the phone company. When she bought the dead parents house in Hicksville, my pal bought it from her. The 40 or so units are quite nice....except for his. He can't hammer a nail.
I'm told the surrounding black community does not want a trailer park full of poor black people possibly dragging their property values down, so the "whites only coincidence" is overlooked.
Does this sound like a playing field you want to invest in? It does not to me.
You'd need iron fisted management techniques to keep people in line.
Since renters are notorious for trashing the properties of others, service to unit owners is likely the only sensible route.
Maybe shoot high! Develop a trailer park allowing only new units and provide 1 acre "zoning" on rolling, lakeside land.
Bury all utilities in trenches and charge accordingly. Ha-ha
I hope this post isn't expunged.
In earlier times, mobile home sales and parks were indicia of local, booming economies.
Mobile homes were there because home builders hadn't had the time to build.
That's the formula.
Today, mobile home parks have a less than savory reputation.
The residents are not just "transient riff-raff", they're poorer and don't move on.
I believe long term residents are aging with the rest of society and folks on fixed incomes don't keep their homes as well maintained as once they may have.
A worker moving on in the old days, likely spruced his unit up a bit to get it to sell faster.
There are 4 mobile home parks in my circle.
1) On US Rt. 46, the whole place looks worse than when I was a kid.
2) Immediately past Teterboro's main runway. I must walk through it and assess as I've never set foot on the land.
It always looked horrid from the street.
3) On Rts. 4+22 near Whitehall, NY. Today it houses stone quarry workers. It's not aging well.
4) A trailer park in Amityville, NY I shouldn't name is a small, nice one. It sits within a black community and is filled with employed white people. My pal's sister bought into it and lived there whilst working for the phone company. When she bought the dead parents house in Hicksville, my pal bought it from her. The 40 or so units are quite nice....except for his. He can't hammer a nail.
I'm told the surrounding black community does not want a trailer park full of poor black people possibly dragging their property values down, so the "whites only coincidence" is overlooked.
Does this sound like a playing field you want to invest in? It does not to me.
You'd need iron fisted management techniques to keep people in line.
Since renters are notorious for trashing the properties of others, service to unit owners is likely the only sensible route.
Maybe shoot high! Develop a trailer park allowing only new units and provide 1 acre "zoning" on rolling, lakeside land.
Bury all utilities in trenches and charge accordingly. Ha-ha
I hope this post isn't expunged.
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Zee09
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I like how you used the word "whilst"
Brings me back to the days when I dealt with the Britt's on a daily basis.
We have one behind us, seniors only. Well maintained, quiet, no parties, no wild kids roaming the streets breaking into cars, no meth heads stealing catalytic converters, etc.
As an investment I'll bet it's a money pump. As a place to live, it makes no sense to me, unless financially you have no other options. With few exceptions, real estate is an appreciating asset. Mobile homes are personal property and are depreciating assets. As mentioned above, you are at the mercy of the landlord, without the option of moving.
As an investment I'll bet it's a money pump. As a place to live, it makes no sense to me, unless financially you have no other options. With few exceptions, real estate is an appreciating asset. Mobile homes are personal property and are depreciating assets. As mentioned above, you are at the mercy of the landlord, without the option of moving.
No, don't call it that... Doesn't sell. Don't call it an RV park either.
Instead name it a Tiny Home Community.
- Make little lots with a pad, water, electricity, sewer. The closer to large (and growing) cities - the better. You'll have more business than you can keep up with, since houses in those cities cost more than a monthly payment on a tiny house + lot rent + utilities. Especially if you give skoolies the same rights as trailer-built Tiny Homes have.
- Make sure to advertise as a long-term solution for owners of Tiny Houses in this crazy overpriced housing market. That will keep the weekend RVers away.
- Absolutely gotta have to have a maintenance/upkeep crew 24/7/365. Otherwise it will become another unmaintained nasty mobile home park...
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At no time in my life do I recall them being the sign of properity / boomtown. Possibly its regional.
I grew up in a mobile home - on our own property albeit - until my parents could afford to build a real house. However there were a couple trailer parks in our small town. I knew people that lived there back then. They were fine people, just didn't make much but most worked.
As an investment - who knows. It might be better than owning say a apartment building - because your renters own their house so all you have to maintain is the services, etc.
Best way to make a trailer park would be having ground ties set in concrete slab to strap them into and maybe a HOA type of bylaws.
And maybe the owner could pay an insurance to insure rent is always paid. Let them handle collections.
Maybe 1/4 acre per lot.
And maybe the owner could pay an insurance to insure rent is always paid. Let them handle collections.
Maybe 1/4 acre per lot.
To be really successful you should simultaneously run for your town planning board so you can effectively ban all the other trailer parks.
The way towns are zoned up my way, the trailer parks are dumped on the town line, so their drama can spill over into the next town over.
It's not all cashing checks, you do need a spine and the ability to get deadbeats to move along. There are 50 of them and one of you, and they talk amongst themselves about how to appear pitiful in court, dragging the eviction process waaaaay out.
On the flipside if you have it all tuned up and working right, it's a good income stream, getting 50 checks on the 1st of the month. To really get ahead you need others working for you.
The way towns are zoned up my way, the trailer parks are dumped on the town line, so their drama can spill over into the next town over.
It's not all cashing checks, you do need a spine and the ability to get deadbeats to move along. There are 50 of them and one of you, and they talk amongst themselves about how to appear pitiful in court, dragging the eviction process waaaaay out.
On the flipside if you have it all tuned up and working right, it's a good income stream, getting 50 checks on the 1st of the month. To really get ahead you need others working for you.
