Welcome back,
Whether you are investing currently in mobile homes or not, mobile home owners will continue to want/need to sell for a variety of reasons in and around your local market. The question is, will the mobile home sellers know who you are and how you can help them at the time they need to sell?
In today’s video I am very proud to introduce a dedicated high school teacher and part-time mobile home investor. In the short amount of time Dawn has been training with the Mobile Home Formula and learning to invest safely in mobile homes, she has already successfully purchased and resold her 1st mobile home inside of a pre-existing mobile home park.
Since recording this video below Dawn is on to purchasing deal #2, another beautiful double wide for less than $3,500 cash inside of a nice pre-existing mobile home community.
Mobile home investing should be predictable when operated in a safe manner while following a time-tested formula to take a massive amount of action, make multiple purchase offers regularly to multiple sellers, and move forward with the path(s) of least resistance.
Dawn’s 1st mobile home deal was certainly a “path of least resistance”. This doublewide mobile home was on the newer side, three bedrooms, central heat and air, no repairs needed, and purchased for only $1500 cash.
Once the homeowner/seller had vacated the mobile home, the seller and Dawn were ready to close. With no repairs needed to the mobile home, Dawn was able to quickly advertise the mobile home for sale online and off-line to attract eager buyers.
Investor Pro Tip: Unlike in Dawn’s situation where the seller wanted to close only once he moved out, in most situations once a seller and you agree to a win-win purchase price/terms aim to close as soon as possible. If the seller needs to remain in the home after closing only hand over around 50%-70% of the total purchase price, however make sure to get all Title(s) and paperwork signed at this closing. The seller will hold onto the keys and retain occupancy, and the investor will withhold 50%-30% of the purchase price and a separate agreement stating when the seller will move out of the home and a penalty if the/she should remain or leave the home dirty.
Within 14 days Dawn quickly attracted a buyer to pay $15,000 cash for the mobile home. This buyer did not want to keep the mobile home in the current location, but rather wanted to remove the home from the park to place on the buyers own private land.
Interesting Note: Attracting cash buyers that only wish to remove the home is fairly common as of 2022. The reason for this is a combination of slow build times at the mobile home factories, low inventory of new homes, and high new mobile home prices. This makes your used mobile home look pretty attractive if a land owner needs a mobile home fast and affordable.
This particular mobile home park was understanding and indifferent about Dawn’s new purchase being removed.
The seller was happy. The buyer was happy. The park was okay.
Dawn’s hard work profited her over $13,000 in less than 30 days.
Removing the mobile home:
Deal #1 was located inside of a pre-existing mobile home park. However, the purchaser wished to purchase the manufactured home only to remove it from the current location.
The Real-World: Normally most mobile home parks will be upset, very upset, if you begin removing mobile homes from their parks. The reduction in mobile homes means a reduced monthly revenue from lot-rent and reduces the overall value of the community. Some park managers are indifferent or even happy about you removing certain homes from the park… it is weird but it happens.
The park Dawn is working with had no problem with the home being removed.
Investor Pro Tip: Avoid burning bridges with mobile home parks when possible. Mobile home park managers and park owners speak with one another. If you are caught pulling homes out of mobile home parks this reputation may spread around quickly. Ask a park manager if they have any issue with you removing a home or reselling a mobile home to a buyer that wishes to pull a mobile home out of the park. If the park manager has a problem with this then avoid selling to a buyer that will remove the mobile home. Important: Keep a good reputation with communities and community managers.
Why this seller needed Dawn’s help?
This particular seller had lived in his mobile home for over a decade previous to selling. At the time Dawn met this seller, the seller was in the process of purchasing/building a new single-family home to live in with his daughter and grandchild. In the seller’s mind, he was going to walk away from the mobile home and abandon it to the park.
The seller was moving on to a better living situation.
Abandoned mobile homes are not uncommon and can be found in different parks throughout every state. What a mobile home park decides to do with the abandoned homes varies from park to park.
Since the seller was mentally prepared to accept nothing and walk away from the mobile home, Dawn’s offer of $1500 and taking over lot rent gave the seller exactly what he required to move on with his life.
Everything in the last few paragraphs above is mentioned to paint a picture of the seller’s situation. In the seller’s life, the most important thing was moving on and getting out from underneath this unwanted mobile home.
So, why did the seller need Dawn’s help? She was able to provide a fast and easy sale for the seller. Plus, she was in the right place at the right time, and built a trusting relationship with the seller.
Here is what this seller needed:
✔ One person to trust and work with.
✔ Someone easy to work with.
✔ Some to buy the home AS-IS.
✔ Someone that knew the laws and what they were doing.
✔ Someone accountable.
✔ Someone the seller likes and trusted.
✔ The seller needed the ability to remain in the home until the new home was built.
✔ A fast sale on a closing date of the seller’s choosing.
For the seller, the speed of the sale was more important than the profit.
Remember: This seller was moving one way or another. Someone was going to help this seller and own this beautiful doublewide mobile home. If Dawn did not arrive, the park would have owned this mobile home for free. However sellers will not call you or find you if you are not advertising correctly.
After closing Dawn has kept in touch with the seller asking various questions. He remains happy with her service.
In conclusion, mobile home deals rarely fall into our lap as newer mobile home investors without hard work and daily effort. After you’ve built up a noticeable reputation for yourself and made hundreds of purchase offers, opportunities have a way of finding you more and more. In the beginning of your mobile home investing career the majority of your time and effort should go towards building your reputation, networking, and specific advertising and marketing daily and weekly.
Mobile home investing should not be thrilling, but rather predictable and a safe business. If you are taking action regularly then you should absolutely have questions about mobile home investing almost daily.
Moving forward when you have any mobile home related questions never hesitate to comment or reach out to the email below.
Love what you do daily,
John Fedro
support@mobilehomeinvesting.net
.
Related mobile home investor videos:
13 Comments
ANGELA
April 13, 2022This is nice to see. I have a question I bought property from a tax sale in TN with a double wide on it.
How do I go about getting the mobile home titled in my name?
John Fedro
April 18, 2022Hi Angela. Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Dawn is doing a great job building a reputation and business. In Tennessee mobile home titles are transferred at the department of motor vehicle. However if you bought a tax sale parcel of land with a mobile home already on it, then the double wide may be considered real property in the title relinquish to the state years ago. I would definitely encourage you to contact the local tax collector and property appraisers to see if this mobile home is real property or personal property. You may then start to go down the steps needed to obtain a title if one is desired. If there already is a title and the DMV should be able to help you with this. Since you on the land you will be able to file for an abandoned title and obtain clear title without too much effort. Hope this helps and begins to point you in the right direction. Feel free to keep in touch moving forward. All the best.
staci
April 17, 2022If you have friends that give you a trailer they wrote out they sold it to you for a dollar 5 years ago but it isn;t notarized is it still good or worth anything in the letter he wrote says he give it to my mom for $1.00 then his signature is prove my mom owns the trailer
John Fedro
April 18, 2022Hi Staci. Very good to hear from you. Thank you for reaching out and connecting. In some states a title is the only thing needed to transfer ownership. However a majority of the time a title or some other paperwork is needed to transfer ownership from one person to another. The fact this was signed many years ago will not be too big of an issue, however you are correct that some bills of sale need to be notarized and others do not. Please click the link below and then click on your state to learn more of the step-by-step instructions to transfer from one party to another. This page will let you know if a notary is needed on the bill of sale or title. https://www.mobilehomeinvesting.net/mobile-home-title-transfer-state-by-state/ I hope this helps and point you in the right direction. Moving forward any follow-up questions you have never hesitate to reach out anytime.
Stefanie
May 1, 2022Hello John,
I’m trying to purchase a family property which is taxed as a DWMH. The issue my family remolded the entire home except for a few original pieces. The electrical box states that the Data Plate is located over the hot water heater which is no longer in the home. The register of deeds has no property rider or improvement the home is deeded as real property. The home was never titled with the state of NC DMV. Also, the seller loan paperwork ( refinanced not the original) Does not contain any serial numbers. The home had been BRICKED and a new foundation poured. We knock out some bricks to reveal painted on Numbers 12345L 12345R. I contacted the ITBS paid the fee and was told they needed more numbers and no record was found on the numbers provided. I also Contacted the Manufacturer they said “ Oh does are Model numbers” …. I don’t know what do do? Any Help would be great appreciated.
John Fedro
May 6, 2022Hi Stefanie,
Very good to hear from you. Thank you for the follow-up information as this does help me understand your situation a bit better. I regret to hear that you removed the data plate by accident and invested all this money. I hope that you are still able to live in the home and enjoy everything that your family remodeled. You’ve went to a great deal of effort to contact the state, contact the manufacturer, contact ITBS, and you have looked everywhere around the mobile home and frame that the Vin can usually be found. Not even in the legal description or property records can this information be found. It sounds to me as if this is a bit of a ghost mobile home. My opinion almost a quarter of mobile homes are these type of ghost homes without any information on them anywhere or to be found. In situations like this are usually able to contact your state and work with HUD to obtain a new VIN number and HUD number. However in these situations the older mobile home typically has to be brought to current home codes. Every state has a manufactured housing Association I would encourage you to call your state’s manufactured housing Association to ask for a list of any attorneys that specialize in manufactured homes. My opinion this is the next step to seek legal counsel. Keep in mind that there are likely other lenders that may not need the VIN to the mobile home or may simply lend against the land. However I definitely am not sure of the entire situation. I do not believe this has helped too much however I hope the points you in the right direction. Please feel free to keep in touch moving forward. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Stefanie
May 1, 2022The issue is that we can’t purchase the home with a mortgage because the appraiser required the HUD Plates to give the bank a complete Sampras. Also my insurance company said that can’t insure the property without the HUD Plate Data.
John Fedro
May 6, 2022Hi Stefanie,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. All mobile home/manufactured homes built after mid 1976 are supposed to have a HUD label on the back of the mobile home. This is a small business card sized piece of metal with numbers and three letters pressed into it. It can usually be found on the rear side of the mobile home. However keep in mind that this HUD label may be missing, stolen or covered up over the years. There is also a data plate inside of the mobile home that is simply a piece of paper with a lot of the pertinent information on it. If this is missing you may be able to find a replacement by contacting this website. https://www.ibts.org/what-we-do/verification-letter-certificate/ You will also want to contact your state’s title transfer department to see if they will help or can point you in the right direction. If you have any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out any time.
Talk soon,
John
Rob
May 23, 2022Hi, John. I was wondering what you thought about investing in 55+ manufactured homes in Florida. They have a resort feel to them, but the lot rent is expensive.
Thanks,
Rob
John Fedro
May 25, 2022Hi Rob,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Yes, mobile homes in 55+ communities, or any age restricted communities, are definitely something that we invest in as mobile home investors. However these age restricted communities are around the country and in different locations and in different amounts. In some areas and cities there are dozens of senior communities locally, while in other areas there is just one or two senior communities for the entire county. And in some areas there are no age restricted communities. With all of that said the parks, locations, mobile homes, approval processes, managers, time of the year, supply and demand all vary. Age restricted parks can be very profitable for us and the managers there can be very happy that we are working with them, however just like any other community the answer whether you should invest there or not is, “it depends”. There is a video I put together and made on YouTube for free that talks about investing in 55+ communities. The link can be found here. https://youtu.be/sOk0feZlg2o I hope this helps and point you in the right direction. Moving forward if you have any follow-up questions or deals you are looking at never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Ramin
June 10, 2022Hello John,
I am an investor who is new to the idea of mobile home parks. I recently bought a piece of land that I hope to develop into a mobile home park and I was wondering if you could give me some helpful tips and any ideas on where the best places to look to buy these mobile homes or get them manufactured.
Thanks in advance!
John Fedro
June 15, 2022Hi Ramin,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Congratulations on the purchase of this land! I hope you have a few strategies on how to make this land profitable. Potentially building a mobile home park or RV park or storage unit of some kind may be possible. However there is a difference between a permitted and legal mobile home park, and a random piece of with a number of mobile homes brought on to the property over time. A permitted park cannot be taken down over time, however a parcel of land with the zoning changing can cause you to lose the mobile homes that are there or be unable to replace them if needed. I would absolutely encourage you to reach out to the local zoning department in your area. You may also want to talk to the city Council or city about having the property rezoned to become a mobile home park and then have a meeting with the city planner or city Council to be able to place a certain number of mobile homes on your land. You may have to have a number of land tests and architectural designs created prior to getting this mobile home park permit approved. There are one or two books out there that talk about developing a mobile home park from scratch. I would absolutely encourage you to do some more research on this before spending too much money bringing in mobile homes if you’re not able to create a park. With that said if you would still like to find mobile homes for sale I would encourage you to reach out to every local park that you can find to ask if they are getting rid of any unwanted mobile homes. There are definitely many other strategies and methods to have mobile home owners/sellers calling you and finding you as well as you proactively targeting mobile home sellers. However reaching out to the hundreds of local parks around you will certainly be helpful as well. Remember you can move these from a few hundred miles away as well. Hope this helps and points you in the right direction. Moving forward if you have any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out anytime.
Talk soon,
John
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