Air my dirty underwear in public? YOU BET!! (long) - Posted by Steve-WA
Posted by Steve-WA on September 24, 2010 at 10:44:07:
My note portfolio is slipping away. I have experienced the apathy that Tony described months back, and I just find it tough to stay excited about LDs, when the poor just keep getting poorer.
I went through a spate of give-ups a couple of years ago, where the no-rent relataionship I had with a few parks changed due to ownership or mgmt change, and with a loss of dependability of my workers, I couldnt get them repaired and sold without paying lot rent, so I signed over like, 10? over a 2 year period. Now keep in perspective: this was not a huge gash, more like a lot of little paper cuts over that time.
We did start into the land/home acquisition several years ago, and have semi-developed some properties into viable rentals, such that we have a stable of 12 MHs, each on their own lot (well, one lot has two homes, making it a “park”). And since becoming “blue-collar” (anyone remember me saying my only tool was a pen?), those 12 are about all I can keep up with. For the last two weeks, everything has been caught up and only a minor repair here or there, so the breather is nice.
Notes are paying off, and there is the occasional in-park repo; with the rental workload lightening (for now), I can focus a little time and effort and money on them to get them re-sold, and “resetting” the notes.
WORD OF CAUTION: I was so proud a few years ago of obtaining a fairly healthy line of credit for my LD business, but I did not use it properly. The money DID go toward growing the business, but I did not put it back as I should have, and am paying interest now like crazy. Lines of credit are to be used for short term investments, and are to be paid off ASAP, such that the line is again open for the next project
Also, we refi’d two of our L/H rentals to the tune of $200K cashout, which was used to buy 2 more single wides on property as rentals, and to downpay for a mortgage on a 3/2 stick-built in Hawaii. The island market was down when we bought, but it kept going down, along with the rental market. Along with vacancy, and remote property management problems, it jsut fell apart. We are currently in the mill to surrender the deed in lieu of foreclosure. That 100K is gone, but the teeny tiny silver lining is that the 2 L/Hs we bought with the other 100K and are renting are covering the refi mortgages.
My current mental struggle is to make the math work once the notes deplete to a level that requires income replacement. Due to the Hawaii debacle, our credit looks like a MHP applicant (hopefully once the deed-in-lieu is done, it will recover; as it is now, we have a $400K + account in collections), SOOOOO acquiring more L/Hs as rentals ain’t gonna happen right now, even though they are ripe for the picking.
ramblerambleramble . . . . . . . point of order: what I am focusing on now, is taking care of what I have - rental repairs and improvements are being made in the sturdiest fashion, and working to keep the good stable of renters that we have. Tweaking what we can to increase income, working to keep paying toward/off what we can.
What I REALLY need to do is start putting money aside to rejuvenate the LD business, adding new notes. I have learned SOOO much from doing this for the last 8 years that I should be able to do it better on a new go-round.
BTW, selling some rentals to pay down/off others is not an option now, as nothing (MHs) will sell. These days, cashflow is the gold ring. MH properties in my area are NOT - repeat, NOT - an equity asset, but the rental market is strong, as I get an average of $800 for a 2 bed, 1K for a 3.
Nose just above the waves,
Steve-WA
