Hey everyone!!! I bought a mobile home in a 55yr old community in Panama City Beach, Fl. for $45k with 5,000 down approx 3 yrs ago. It is owner financing for 10 yrs and payments are approx $500 a month. HOA $185…only other bill is electric. The condition of the mobile home was good. The hurricane hit and now we have a fixer up. It is liveable, although needs about $5,000 in repairs. Before the hurricane this area was selling for 120k…now sellling for approx 55k if damaged and most are slowing selling for 80k if turn key. Rentals are 1000 to 1200 in this neighborhood with only long term rentals. We are a mile to the beach…I bought it to slowly update and then sell. What is my best strategy here??? Money is very tight now to make all the repairs. It has been suggested to rent to own to someone that is able to make the repairs. There may be a need for that due to all the damage that others have gone through.Help we want to stay in the investing game :banghead but i cannot seem to get that #2 house without everything falling apart. My credit score is 684…so not that great …Help what would you do??? :flush Thank-you :beer
You put 10% down on a mobile home? Stop that.
Mobile homes are only good investments if you can resell for more, using just about any exit strategy. Buy and hold is NOT for mobiles. Stop that.
Seller finance that sucker as a fixer upper, with five grand down, and then wait for a payoff. That’s the best I can offer.
Getting your money back out is the goal. Not making money off a disaster deal.
With five-thousand-dollars you could conceivably create a $25k profit by finding, controlling and flipping one, two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollar, retail-ready house, by offering seller financing, and putting a buyer’s down payment in your pocket.
I first learned of this after my uncle flipped FHA assumable loans in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He assumed these non-qualifying loans, and then flipped the houses with financing included to buyers who couldn’t qualify for a refrigerator box. And then put the buyer/borrower’s down payment in the bank, and rinsed and repeated.
You can do the same, regardless if the loan is assumable or not.
The key is finding low-equity houses that don’t need anything, that you can offer financing on. It’s a great way to increase the size of your investing nest egg. I mean fast.
I’m trying to increase the size of your vision and imagination, and MOVE away from the scarcity-minded, mobile home disaster-vesting. Just saying.
*** Just for giggles, I used to invest in the ghetto, and found that to be the highest risk price-point ever. Anything that goes wrong just wreaks havoc on the bottom line. And more goes wrong at this level.
Meantime, higher price points offer less risk, and more reliable returns in my opinion. Why? Because there’s a higher spread between the value of the real estate and the cost of it’s repairs.
For example, it might cost $45,000 for a complete rehab of a house worth $45,000 when it’s done. So, you have to buy that house for less than zero to make any money, or get the seller to pay you?
On a $250,000 house, you spend $45,000 on rehab, and so paying anything less than $205,000, theoretically goes to your bottom line.
I ask, “Is it easier to negotiate $20k profit on a house worth $250k with $45k in rehab, or is it easier on a house worth $45k with the same rehab requirement?”
*** I realize nobody in their right mind will spend $45k on a house that’s only going to be worth $45k. No, they’ll splash on some paint, bury the dead mice in the floor vents, fill most of the holes, and replace the furnace with the one they stole out of the neighbor’s house while they were on vacation, before they spend $45k.
Anyhoo…
Lol!! Thanks for the info! I figured since I don’t have funds…I could only invest in low mobiles and get owner financing. I do have a clause in my mortgage against owner financing to another. I possibly could take $65k now and sell or hope owner doesn’t call the loan on me owner financing…btw would you do a contract for deed on a $250k house taking over payments and making the buyer pay $25k down? When you say low equity homes…you do mean a seller that does not have a lot of equity in their house? I really want to increase my bottom line…I mean I can’t go down at this point…so I am looking up!!! Thank-you!! I look for your posts and read them. You have helped give me good advice before!!
I’m glad I could help.
As far as your questions are concerned:
Problem: You have a private note. Private note holders are not like banks. They’re nosy and keep track of the security for the note. Banks, not so much.
So…
- Put the coach into a Land Trust (not LLC, or C-Corp), and sell the Land Trust on a Contract for Deed (I’ve never done this on property I don’t actually have title to, but…) Remain the trustee and beneficiary, until the buyer pays you off in full. Unless you have a clause in your note that prohibits you from putting a renter in the coach, nobody will be the wiser that the renter is also a buyer. That said…
You might option the coach (not a lease/option). This is where the Optionee exercises his option by maintaining the coach at his own expense (like an owner) and makes monthly option payments that are coincidentally equal to the rent, which includes all the underlying mortgage costs and impounds and small spread spread amount for giggles laughs.
If the Optionee fails to take responsibility for the repairs, he loses his option. If he doesn’t pay the option payment on time (or at all), he loses his option. Meantime, you’re not becoming a landlord, or 'selling on an ‘illegal’ Contract For Deed. Or liable for repairs and maintenance. See how this works?
If the Optionee doesn’t pay, you can evict, and start all over again. There’s a few limits on options. Options can’t be used to disguise 30-year financing. BUT they are free of Frank/Dodd interference, and you can build in changes to the payment amounts that you want to occur during the middle of an Option (such as conforming to an underlying ARM loan, etc.) without setting yourself up for a violation of the SAFE-ACT.
You can even assign depreciation benefits to the Optionee. BUT you NEED to seek the help and advice of a real estate attorney for your first deal, so you don’t end up doing real estate options from prison …and so you can keep using the same paperwork over and over without paying for an attorney over and over, and still stay out of prison.
- No, I don’t do CFD’s when I buy (or on a $250k house). I do use them when I sell. Meantime, I often buy using ‘sub2’ financing, because I want total control, without a seller breathing down my back over my exit strategies. Only a deed transfer gives me this freedom, regardless of how I get the deed.
- Yes, by ‘low-equity,’ I mean sellers with very little equity. Of course, by ‘very little equity’ I mean ‘very little net equity.’
If a seller has 20% of gross equity, he doesn’t’ actually have 20% equity. He’s got about 8% net equity (after all costs, fees, repairs and up-your-butt charges are deducted from the closing costs. Even then, I’m often able to whittle that remaining 8% down to a little more than ‘moving money.’
The reason I suggest looking for low-equity deals is, because those are the ones you can likely get into for practically nothing. I mean if the seller’s got no equity, what excuse do you have to give him any? Never mind, literally, no conventional investor is competing to buy low-equity deals, unless the market’s on fire for some reason.
Hope that helps.
I like the option contract! It seems it would be more profitable. I would just run all costs in to the option every month and also take an additional option fee at the time of creating the option? Getting the paperwork together may take more searching for me. If they choose to exercise their right to option ( at the predetermined price ) then proceed to close. That is how i understand it.
I love the idea of the subject to for buying and it certainly should be easier to find someone willing to negotiate with me that has low equity. I will try my luck at some cheap facebook adds and maybe Craigslist to attract sellers. Thank-you so much I really needed someone to help me dream big instead of :banghead on low deals and living in a home on wheels that needs so much repair since the hurricane…
Yes, you have the right idea.