Welcome back,
In today’s 68-minute Mobile Home Investing Podcast episode #32 I’m very proud to introduce you to active California mobile home investor, Stacey. In a very short period of time Stacey has already gained an incredible amount of market knowledge, thicker skin, mobile home park contacts, and a growing network of buyers and sellers.
Stacey invests in Southern California. Over the last few months Stacey has been getting a crash course in real-world mobile home investing in the southern California market. In today’s podcast we talk all about this crash course experience.
Special Thanks to Stacey for coming on today’s podcast in order to give value to other mobile home investors she’ll likely never meet.
Ambition & Motivation Required
Listening to Stacey it is easy to hear her high level of ambition and motivation to succeed in business and help others. I so respect that Stacey does not seem to ever make excuses for her mistakes.
When Stacey and I met she had already purchased her 1st individual mobile home inside of a family style pre-existing park. When meeting Stacey she was into her first mobile home investing deal over $40,000, working 60+ hours each week in her career, and unsure of the next correct move.
Stacey was learning with the familiar “Trial and Error” method.
This Trial and Error Method is how so many of us mobile home investors slowly learn and begin building our investing businesses. It is a normal, costly, stressful, confusing, and lengthy way to learn most new hobbies, skills, or businesses.
We each do the best we can with the limited knowledge and experience we have at the time. We all don’t know, what we don’t know.
In today’s podcast episode Stacey teaches us how she lost time and over $20,000 on her first unassisted mobile home investment. Stacey candidly discusses many of these initial mistakes made on her first deal so we all can learn and grow. Hear how Stacey overcame many of these obstacles and what she will/won’t ever do again in her mobile home investing business.
A Few BIG Steps Moving Forward Each Day
Mobile home investing is not magic. Whether you want to wholesale, fix & flip, sell on payments, or rent mobile homes for profit, there are only a certain number of steps to complete. Along your journey there are many distractions to watch out for.
Everyday each of us has a limited amount of time we may grow our businesses, network with others, outsource activities, and take specific actions towards our mobile home goals. Depending on your free time and goals you may want to absolutely be committing to 20 hours, 30 hours or more per week dedicated to your mobile home investing business.
In every podcast episode and case study video on this website there is a theme. Hard work and daily action. Specific hard work and specific daily action taken again and again to grow your mobile home investing business.
Deals 2, 3, 4…
Stacey has busted-her-butt to make a reputation and name for herself within local communities in the Southern California market already. Stacey is pushing past her first mobile home deal full-of-mistakes, to succeed in her second, third, and fourth mobile homes moving forward.
Keep up the great work Stacey! There are so many more homes to see and people to help.
California Investing VS. Other States
Yes! There are motivated sellers and profitable mobile homes to invest within in the great state of California. There are very PROFITABLE mobile homes to purchase, resell, broker, or wholesale.
Yes! When you don’t know what you are doing it is very possible to LOSE money with mobile homes in ANY state. Today’s podcast is mainly about Stacey’s first mobile home deal that she admittedly should never have purchased as an investor. Learn from Stacey and don’t repeat these same mistakes.
✔ True: Many areas of California (and other metro areas across the country) there are cash buyers waiting for a mobile home to purchase all cash. Prices for many mobile homes are rising when you buy and resell.
✔ True: In many areas of California (and other areas across the country) there are reasons and mobile homes you should NOT purchase as an investment even at a $100 price.
✔ True: Mobile home parks across the country will vary in the park’s wants, owners, greed, rules, restrictions, application process, fees, future potential, cleanliness, demand, supply, etc.
✔ True: Many attractive mobile home opportunities will sell to the first or second mobile home buyers that come along. You’ll likely never know about these opportunities when you’re only looking online and/or have little reputation.
✔ True: As an active mobile home investor you’ll likely need to move fast (contract to close within days of meeting) when you see/create a win-win opportunity with a seller.
✔ False: There are no good deals in California.
✔ False: All mobile home park managers won’t work with investors.
As Stacey points out in today’s Podcast, every investor should know his/her market prior to making any purchase offers to any mobile home seller. Always use your capital wisely. Always make sure to know what you are purchasing, repairs, holding costs, labor, adverting, exit strategy, etc.
In this mobile home investing podcast episode below we cover:
✔ 1:25 Did you have any real estate experience before getting started with mobile homes?
✔ 4:31 Stacey took a quick day seminar about mobile home investing then took action to build her business.
✔ 11:31 Making her first purchase offer directly to a mobile home park.
✔ 21:10 Working together with a local handyman to repair mobile home deal #1.
✔ 35:12 When did you have your first “oh crap” moment?
✔ 38:55 What did mobile home deal #2 look like?
✔ 41:00 How many purchase offers did you make to other mobile homes prior to purchasing your first deal?
✔ 43:12 How long did it take you to resell mobile home deal #2?
✔ 52:40 Stacey discusses waiting 4 weeks for a mobile home park applicant to be denied.
✔ 55:35 What do your 3rd and 4th mobile home deals look like?
✔ 1:01:15 What is your exit strategy on deals #3 and #4?
✔ 1:02:59 Stacey’s advice for southern California mobile home investors.
Thanks for following along. Check out the podcast episode below. We hope it helps you and your mobile home investing business.
Love what you do daily,
John Fedro
support@mobilehomeinvesting.net
Listen to John and Stacey’s Podcast here…
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12 Comments
Jack Mendez
September 28, 2020Thank you John and Stacy. I have already received a great deal of help from your website. The question I have is on Stacy’s first deal would it not have been better to sell the home on payments or rent the home to try and break even and not lose money. Not sure if this makes sense. Thanks again for the podcast. This gives me a lot of confidence in knowing that mistakes can happen but I do not have to give up. Blessings, Jack
John Fedro
September 30, 2020Hi Jack,
Thank you very much for reaching out and connecting. Very good question about selling on payments or even renting before taking a loss on a property. I should have addressed this a bit more in the podcast. We did mention a few times about knowing your market however Stacy and I should have expanded more on this topic. By the time he and Stacy got together there was already over $30,000 invested in the property. I mention this because the amount we could cash flow over the current lot rent of $2250 per month would only be a few hundred dollars or more. In fact, Stacy’s broker phone, and then eventually Stacy’s phone, were ringing almost constantly however when folks realized the lot rent was this expensive they were not interested. People understood that after they paid mobile home off they would be responsible for this high lot rent. This was the park with the highest lot rent in the area. When this is the case we typically do not want to be in these communities. It will cut into your profits and scare away a good number of potential and serious buyers. If the lot rent is this high there could be other things going on as well, however the lot rent alone was enough to scare people away. The home was beautiful, the park was certainly beautiful, but the lot rent was the dealbreaker for these folks. It was for this main reason of relatively zero cash buyers or payment buyers wanting to move forward at a price greater than what Stacy was already into the home for. At this point Stacy needed to make a decision to hold on and continue paying lot rent and continue receiving the same feedback from buyers. Keep in mind this was during the summer when people are certainly looking to buy and sell. Covid has not slowed things down too much when it comes to buyers purchasing in Southern California. Stacy made the right decision, in my opinion, to pull the cord and get out to the next serious buyer with a serious offer. I hope that this helps and makes sense. Also, I hope that it answers the question. If you have any follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to reach out. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Gary Chan
September 30, 2020My concern about buying a mobile home is having to pay lot rent, let’s say $600 per month during rehab and vacancy. I imagine taking 3-6 mos to rehab, and up to 3 mos to fill a vacancy, then dealing with a nightmarish eviction that could take 3-6 mos and losing possibly 6-12 months paying lot rent for people living in a mobile home that I bought. Is there a solution to this problem?
John Fedro
September 30, 2020Hi Gary,
Thank you for reaching out and commenting. Additionally, thank you for the detailed message as this certainly does help me understand the situation a bit better. As I was reading your comment I had a bigger and bigger look of disgust on my face. The reason I mention this is because 3-6 months to rehab a mobile home is a terribly long time. I would more encourage you to get involved with deals that take three weeks or less to rehab. Even three weeks is a long time. Perhaps if you are doing all the work yourself very part-time on the weekends it would take a number of months, however we are looking to close multiple deals per year and need to move quicker. I encourage you to outsource a number of your repairs now and moving forward when possible. However that is a whole other topic in and of itself.
Assuming you can get rehab time down, in my experience it will roughly take 15 people or less walking through your mobile home before somebody is interested and wants to purchase it. Assuming that you are selling via payments. If you are selling via cash it may take double the amount of people walking through the home. Remember the people walking through the home should be semi-qualified and should know what they are going to look at. You do not want to send people to the home that would not fit the parks background check or have enough money to move forward with you. Additionally, if you do plan on selling on payments then it is of vital importance to properly prescreen and prescreen and prescreen each potential tenant-buyer. In all of my experience I have learned that almost no one wants to go forward with an eviction if it is not needed. Most people will leave with some kind words, a little bit of time, and perhaps a tiny bit of money. However if someone wants to drag out the eviction process you’re correct that it may take many months for this person to leave. Depending on the mobile home park, when you fill the unit the park may release you from the rental agreement and you will not be responsible for the park lot rent. This will not protect your interest in the mobile home that you have sold, however it will keep you from having any type of an eviction on your record. However, I want to reiterate that it is very important to make sure you know who is going into your mobile home and you avoid putting in risky people in the first place. Most folks that respond on a payment type of advertisement may not be the right folks credit wise or have the ability to pay for the next number of years. I agree that we want to make sure we put the right people into our properties to avoid an issue of nonpayment. Bad things happen to good people and even when people cannot pay, we are looking for folks that want to get a job again and keep in touch with you along the way. I hope that this all helps and makes sense. Moving forward if you have any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Josh R
January 12, 2021Hi. We purchased a 1985 single wide, and want to replace with a new mobile. I was told I need 200amp service. Would the 1985 mobile already have the 200amp or do I need to do the upgrade. The 1985 never had any upgrades done. Thanks
John Fedro
January 14, 2021Hi Josh,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Congratulations with regards to updating on the newer home. In 1985 will typically have 100 or 150 amp service through the home in my experience. Most new manufactured homes to require an upgrade to a 200 service. Let me know if this helps and answers your question. As always, if you have any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Judith Moore
February 23, 2021I’m trying to fine a title for my grandmother singlewide. How can I fine one. She passed on in 1994 and I move in to single mobile home in 1995. My dad brought it for her. My dad passed on in 2017 which i didnt have chance to get info about the house. The land is in my name now and i dont have the title for the house.
John Fedro
February 24, 2021Hi Judith,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. I very much regret to hear about the losses in your family. Thank you for the detailed comment as the certainly does help me understand your situation a bit better. However I’m unsure of what state that you and the mobile home are located in. However I can absolutely say that you are not the first person to go through a situation like this that needs a duplicate title, or the title track down and finally placed into his/her name. I would absolutely encourage you to click the link below. Once you get to that page scroll down a bit and click on your state. You will then find instructions to transfer title. You are not looking to transfer title but rather obtain the mobile homes VIN or serial number to call your states title transferring department. Explain the situation clearly to them and they will let you know the quickest way to move forward legally to obtain ownership of the mobile home. I hope that this helps and starts to point you in the right direction. If they are not very helpful then there are ways to move forward as you are the landowner as well and can likely eventually file for an abandoned title if possible. If you have any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best. https://www.mobilehomeinvesting.net/mobile-home-title-transfer-state-by-state/
Talk soon,
John
Richard Womak
March 31, 2021Hi John,
We sold a property with a house trailer on it
At closing , 50k was withheld because we didn’t have the original title
Come to find out the trailer had a loan which was paid off in 2001
Taylor Bean and Whittaker had the lien….they are out of business
Gmac had it …..also out of business
Ally Financial has it “Maybe” but will not release the lien “which was paid off”
Because I can’t provide a vin number
I tore the skirting off the trailer with the new property owner and all the numbers matched everything
Which I submitted to ally financial
GA DMV has been nice but can’t move without lien release.
Thank you for all the past help.
Richard
John Fedro
April 6, 2021Hi Richard,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Additionally, thank you for the detailed comment as this certainly does help me understand your situation a bit better. Great job tracking down lender after lender in order to find the current lean status. Additionally, great job ripping off the skirting and looking hard to find the home serial number or VIN. Sounds like you found it on the frame of the home. Glad to hear that it was there or able to be found. Sometimes this is not possible and things have to be moved forward a different way. You may be able to go to court in order to get a court order to release the lien and transfer title, however the lender working with you and the previous seller would be the ideal way to move forward. If you have provided the VIN or serial number that you found to the lender that hopefully this is all that they need. Again, tracking down the lender is usually the hardest part assuming the loan has been paid off but never released. This is definitely not the first time this has happened and it will not be the last. Keep in touch moving forward. Thank you for sharing this story with us and it definitely does inspire me to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. Most problems and challenges can be solved with enough dedication and focus. Please let us know what happens.
Mario
March 4, 2024How do I remove one person from the title of a mobile home that currently has two people listed, and can I add another person to the title afterward?
John Fedro
March 4, 2024Hi Mario,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. In the state of California this is a fairly simple and straightforward process. The first step is to call the hcd and provide them with your vin or serial number. Depending on your specific mobile home they will give you quick instructions on how to remove just a single person from the title. Depending on the situation you may have to submit a form and a fee to have this done. Good job wanting to do everything legally and by the book. You can contact the hcd at this number. Their phone number is (800) 952-8356. I hope this helps and points you in the right direction. As always, if you have any additional follow up questions never hesitate to reach out any time.
Talk soon,
John
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