Flipping Mobile Homes.

[Paul West]

Dear BP,

I am new to real estate investing and wanted to start with mobile homes for 2 reasons. My brother knows them inside out and has been repairing them for over 20 years and they require less capital. Another reason also, probably the main and best reason at this point since my brother and I have discussed this is that it will create some more affordable housing. It's hard for people to find a place to live here that are in the lower income area's. I have been dragging my feet on the first investment and want to start with 1 trailer. I would be for the most part the investor and my brother is going to house hack it.

I feel like I need some guidance to pull the trigger and am not sure where to find that. If someone could direct me to where to get guidance with flipping trailers I would truly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Paul West

[James Hodgson]

Direct mentorship can be a very tough thing to find. I would suggest spending solid time researching keywords in the forums based on where your knowledge is lacking. Often, the finances are the hardest part and scariest part to figure out. How do you plan on financing? Go down the rabbit hole of just asking more and more questions. 

Then the next step is to chart out a deal on paper and see if you can find any real case scenarios to compare it to. Find all the units in your market that is sold over the last year or two do a little digging to see if any of them had a value add Reno done. One way to tell is when you’re looking on Zillow at the “last sold for Price” you’ll see short, selling time frames with large jumps in the sale price. Again the stuff takes time, but if you’re serious, it’s very simple to do.

if you don’t have the savings account ready to go or any kind of financing lined up, just watch your market for a while as your saving. Then when you get close to the right amount saved up, you will absolutely know the right deal when you see it. Took me eight years of researching and then a year and a half of watching my local market to finally get my first duplex. Good luck, flipping is not for the faint of heart!