Mobile Homes

Hi Everyone,

    I was wondering if anyone has any insight on investing In moblie homes? A few years ago I bought a trailer for around a $1000. I lived in it for a year fixed it up a little (new carpet, paint,tile, floor board work etc.) I invested about $700, sold it a year later for $3000. I didnt know anything at all about REI at this time but It seemed to work out pretty well. Thinking about it now I could have rented it out. Hmmm. 

  Has anyone else done this type of investing? And if so,what kind of advice can you give. Is this a good way to start out?

Well unless you are glutton for punishment don’t rent out a mobile home (MH). Besides most parks won’t let ya do it and even if I owned a par I would not want to rent them.

The big key to investing in MHs is to sell them on owner financing. You were able to sell your MH for $3,000 cash, but if you offered owner financing to someone you could have sold it for $6,000 with $500 down and 24 payments of $250 @ 12% interest. If the loan went the whole 2 years you woul dhave collected a total cash return of $6,214!

I am so glad I am seeing more posts about MH investing. It really has me pretty excited so I want to talk about it. Heh! :stuck_out_tongue:

ARamirez is right on! I would never recomend renting a MH. We buy parks from owners who have a lot of rentals and we quickly sell them to the current occupent on a note or as soon as the renter moves we do the same. The nit-picky repairs will drive you nuts. And for anyone looking to invest in MH’s for the long haul I would suggest finding newer MH’s and pay a bit more for them. These will go out 30 yrs on a note instead of the shorter terms so really you only have to buy that MH once for maybe 2 or 3 older ones. This over the long run will save you money even though you are paying more today. Also the market has never been better for finding cheap MH’s because financing has never been so difficult. And buys tend to stay and pay longer in nicer MH’s. The parks like them too.

Yes you are in the right business no only as a beginner but also for the long haul. I have only 32 SFH’s left and I am selling them as fast as possible while at the same time I am aquiring MH’s which I now have 60+! I make more money with MH’s and really have less hassle.

All the best Mr MH

Hello all,
Mobiles has been the way for me, started out with 7 and it turned into 3 parks , I usually do all my homes Lonnie style, or shoud I say Ernest Tew style with a net lease / option.

Ricky ;D

Find books by a guy named Lonnie Scruggs. Do a google search to find him. His books are about the mobile home biz and he has made millions on them

Jim Booth

they’re not far away…

http://www.reiclub.com/authors/Lonnie%20Scruggs.html

hi

im amazed that there are clever guys/girls out there.

great!!

i must admit ive learded/lernt something from this forum.
and ive been in the buiness for 46 years.

moke

Hi all. Another Newbie. I am just learning about REI I have no money and BAD credit. Would this be a good place to start MHs? How do you come up with the intrest rate to charge the new owner. Whats the best way for me to start in creative investing. Thanks ???

Mobile homes have one thing that homes do not, a much higher cash flow. We own about 30 singlewides and buy houses with the money the mobile homes throw off.

Although many mobile home parks will not allow rentals, some will if you gurantee the lot payments and allow the park to screen the tenants. We prefer to own the land but are now purchasing repos that are in place.

Our goals for each mobile home is to purchase them for $1,000 to $6,000 and to have them pay off in two years or less.

::slight_smile:

Good luck

hey, I’m a newbe also I’ve got 3 rental homes but I’m trying to get a couple MH for my mother and mother in law. They don’t have alot of income, anyhow, how do you find the repoed MH’s. Is their a site or something to find them on

I have the same question as emoshlimo… is there a special way of finding repoed MH’s like a website or is it pretty much like finding a house?

you gotta call the reps for the finance companies - some are online, some have their phone numbers online

Greetree
Oakwood
Washington Mutual
vmfrepos.com

I’m selling primary residence I owned for 25 years with no capital gain. I also bought a lot with old MH on it and had to take the old home off because of mold. Replaced it with doublewide manufactured home. Spent alot of money for new well, sheds, new home fill dirt, trees removed, putting in driveway, walkways, new deck and planting new grass. I want to sell the lot and MH now , plus my other home and buy one larger home. Will I have to pay capital gain and can I take off all the other expenses I have incurred. Any input would be helpful

hey Leverage!
i would highly reccommend that you read the OFFICIAL book of all books on MH investing. by the Godfather of MH investing Mr. Lonnie Scruggs. good luck my friend.

robert

VERY interesting posts here. We are looking into a wonderful looking mh, built in ‘99 and being sold by original owners. This is a 3/2, - 1400 sq. ft with custom upgrades. Really nice looking. It’s on .34 acres with a shed and a nice mountian view. We’d thought of lease/option, but can envision taking temporary residence in tn. when we sell our home in florida in 3-5 yrs and move up there ( middle tn.) We are also buying land and plan to build if we don’t find our ’ dream home’ already built.
We are closing on a triplex there next week and will do a walk thru prior to setting a closing date.
Is it that hard to get a ‘good’ tenant?

This a very informative thread

A very informative thread indeed! We’ve put our “brick-and-mortar” deal on hold for the mopment (the numbers weren’t working for us on this deal)and are looking to do some MHs. I was thinking of doing the rental thing until I read this thread. Thanks for the info! :bigok:

Hi NAWKAW, I am sure there are some good tenants, but years ago when I rented out a MH I found out more people were living there than I rented to. I am seeing the same thing happening today the family across the street from me has allowed someone else to live with them. They are moving so the owner may have found out and asked them to move, but I don’t know. The MH behind me never stays rented more than six months and then it might be another six months before it is rented again. I don’t know if the people are being asked to move or not, but renting sure doesn’t seem very profitable to me.

Clint