Have you ever thought of making a mobile home park investment? If not, why?
Real estate investors sometimes ignore investing in manufactured home parks. Single-family residences, multifamily housing, or various types of commercial real estate are typically preferred by us. However, parks for mobile homes (also known as manufactured homes) can be attractive investments—partly because others frequently disregard them.
You’ll soon realize that mobile homes may add value to your portfolio despite not necessarily being the most glamorous asset class.
How to Invest in Mobile Home Parks?
You can invest in mobile home parks in various ways, from straight-up purchases through REITs, crowdsourcing, and private equity. For any budget and level of risk tolerance, there are investment possibilities. Let’s examine some of the most accessible paths for smaller private investors in more depth.
- Purchasing a Mobile Home Park
Buying a small park outright will be the most obvious course of action for most investors. A few real estate investors have used this approach with varying degrees of success. Every prefabricated housing neighborhood I’ve seen has its particular difficulties. There is a tonne to learn if you plan to try and purchase, upgrade, and mobile home park management on your own.
Before you part with your money, there are a few crucial things you should ask yourself. What, for instance, is your whole budget? How much time and energy are you willing to invest? Do you have an idea of how much common improvements will likely cost roughly? Furthermore, are you certain that you understand how to properly evaluate mobile home parks in the first place?
Is Investing in a Mobile Home a Smart Move?
Investments in mobile homes are distinctive. The following variables will all affect the answer to your question:
- if you intend to acquire a new or used mobile home,
- how much rent you presently pay,
- whether you will need to borrow money to buy the mobile home, and if so, what financing alternatives are available.
- The cost of renting a mobile home space in your location and your long-term financial objectives.
When you choose whether buying a mobile home is a wise investment, there are a few things to consider.
Why doesn’t everyone invest in mobile home parks if it’s so profitable?
Even while mobile home parks have the potential to generate large profits while also maintaining low vacancy and administrative costs, the majority do not.
The asset, however, prevents the problems from becoming a problem. Rather, as a result of management strategies.
Old school owners are a major part of mobile home park management companies. These owners typically function less effectively and maintain inadequate financial management records, making resale challenges.
This doesn’t indicate that the proprietors of these mobile home parks lack sophistication; rather, it just means that they are out of touch with the assets’ contemporary operating flexibility.
In the current world, proprietors of mobile home parks can generate impressive returns by:
- Utilize operational flexibility strategies.
- Install contemporary management techniques
By using organized management that relieves the owner of financial obligations, operational flexibility tactics, including the capacity to collect money from owner-financed dwellings, change lot rent to market rate, and store, all have the potential to generate income while cutting expenses.