There are many ways to beautify a home for sale or rent when money is tight. Our goal as investors on a budget should be to maximize beauty and sales appeal and minimizing our spending limit. I say, “The more money we keep in our pocket the better.” Keep in mind the list below are mainly cosmetic fixes, anything structural, electrical, or plumbing related should be seen by a professional, as well as any skill level above your ability.
Bathroom ceiling and vanity light fixtures – Most mobile homes have a standard two to five horizontally built light fixture screwed into the wall just above the bathroom mirror typically made to resemble wood. These fixtures tend to rust, tarnish and discolor very quickly. In addition, the ceiling light may be an outdated glass bulb with single light fixture. If either of these are the case in your used mobile home head to your local home improvement warehouse to pick up a few new chrome light sets. The cheapest will usually do just fine.
Ceiling fans and lights – Installing ceiling fans into rooms that previously only had a light fixture can be done in under an hour by anyone that can read directions and use a screwdriver. A cheap fan with light combo installed into each room makes for a wonderful selling feature.
Whenever I get a new place I like to give the new tenant-buyers the option for me to install the new fan/light combos in each room for only an extra $20-$40 dollar bump in their monthly payment. This is a great little profit center I have found that pays for the materials plus hundreds more over time.
Linoleum floor squares – Linoleum square are typically sold in one square foot sections in hundreds of patterns. They can be very inexpensive to purchase at any home improvement store. On many older mobile homes these squares will be discolored, pealing off or very outdated. Each square comes with a sticky backside. They are easy to cut with an ordinary pair of scissors to get around kitchen or bathroom corners. The protective paper is removed from backside and stuck to the cleaned surface of the floor. These make a huge improvement to any torn, ripped or stained vinyl/linoleum floor.
Prime all dirty walls - Kills brand paint or any other oil based primer is ideal for covering walls with marker stains, smoke damage, discolorations and ugly paint jobs. A nice clean neutral or off white primer covering the walls will unify the home, clean up the walls and leave a blank canvas for the new homeowner to imagine their favorite colors. In my experience the size of the rooms seem to increase with a fresh off white paint job.
Potpourri or another pleasant smelling air freshener is great way to add the sense of smell into the homebuyers’ experience. When the prospective homebuyer or tenant first walk through the home they will smell something; whether it be normal neutral air, a foul smelling trash can, the fresh cut grass, mildew, fresh baked cookies or your sweet smelling $1 air freshener. Make the homeowner enjoy the first smell and first impression of the interior the property.
Each of the following items should be kind to your wallet in exchange for a much faster sale and/or higher selling/renting price. There are many more tips and tricks you can use with minimal cost. Take a tour though new and used homes yourself to see what stands out good and bad.
- J. Fed
Photo: joebeone
Related posts:
- Mobile Home Investing with Creative Strategies
- Real Estate Investing For Real Blog Re-Design
- Why Mobile Home Park Rents Can Be Pushed Higher Than Others
- How to Get Seller Financing for a Mobile Home Park
- A Day in the Life of a Mobile Home Park Owner
Article Author: John FedroJohn has written 53 articles for us.
Visit John's Website: http://www.RealEstateCashFlowFormula.com
John is a real estate investor specializing in Manufactured housing and makes a FT living from these passive investments. You can too
Joshua Dorkin
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
great post J. Fed!
I don’t imagine upkeep and upgrading would as expensive as a SFR. I like the idea of adding a few extra bucks a month for ceiling fan/light fixtures
Thanks Nick! You’re absolutely correct about the repairs versus SFR. What you see is usually what you get with mobile homes.
J. Fed,
Another solid post from you on mobile homes. I always enjoy reading these, as I know absolutely nothing about mobile homes, however, enjoy learning from you.
In your post you mentioned that you found a profit centre in adding a fan/light combo for tenants at an increased cost of $20-$40 a month. Very cool idea. I like the way you think.
Are there many of these other hidden profit centres that exist with mobile homes.
For instance, do you do other thing for the tenant/buyer that enable you to increase the rent further?
I am interested to hear from you.
Onwards and Upwards,
Neil.
.-= Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..A message from the author =-.
Hey Neil. Thanks for the support. I hope that everyone finds at least one thing interesting and useful to make money with what I have learned these past few years. There are many more of these little tricks, but I think 90% of them could be applied to traditional real estate too.
1. Daily late fees are always a solid money maker.
2. Daily interest rates versus annual interest rates (if you are selling a property with owner financing) is a huge benefit to you. If the tenant-buyer is typically late every month they could end up with a debt larger than when they originally signed your note. Contrary if they pay early they will speed up the pay-off process.
3. I often lend money to my favorite and best paying tenant-buyers. I add on interest of course. Its just another way to make 20%+ on your money.
4. The same thing I do above with lights and ceiling fans I sometimes do with garbage disposals. They are cheap and fast to install. This can add $20-$30 bucks every month.
Let me know how they work for you. -John
J-Fed,
Great feedback!
You are further sparking my interest in the niche market of mobile home investing!
Keep well and I look forward to your next post!
Best Regards,
Neil.
.-= Neil Uttamsingh´s last blog ..A message from the author =-.
Nice post J Fed ,
I like your thought process of generating an extra income from your little add ons and suggestions. My very first memories of this little tactic was when I visited McDonald’s as a teenager 25 years ago! They always did and still do now suggest “an add on” such as “would you like that Large” or “Would you like an apple pie today”
As an employee , I know it’s one of the many profit tactic successes the company uses to drive top line sales and bottom line profits for little or no cost.
Great information! I am a strong believer that one can definitely design on a dime and be amazed at the results. Oftentimes, just a change here and a little change there will produce surprising results.
Great post, you don’t need to be rich to have a nice looking home, only a little imagination.