Frank Rolfe, CEO of MHC owner American Home Communities, LP, writes in NuWireInvestor that buying a small manufactured home community for retirement income is a feasible way to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Given that safe investments only give you a return of two percent, you need $3,000,000 in order to earn $60,000 a year. Noting that only 60 percent of Americans have sufficient resources to comfortably retire, Rolfe suggests buying a 30-100 homesite ‘”mobile home park” valued at $500,000 with 5-20 percent down can return an income of $60,000. Many communities have close to 100 percent occupancy, and it’s an affordable housing market for which the demand, especially in a recession era, is ongoing. He says you do not have buildings to maintain and upgrade, only water and sewer service to keep flowing and roads to keep solid. Noting the importance of being fair to the residents, it nevertheless costs $3,000 to move a manufactured home; and even if you do lose a few, raising the rent $20 a month on a 50 unit MHC will bring in $1000 more each month. The days of a ten percent return on your IRA or mutual fund investment are gone.
