A mobile home fell in my lap (virtual wholesale) 🤔should I?

Question

As I was wholesaling a virtual deal under contract, a gentleman came and asked if I did rent to own. As I build report, he was living in a mobile home behind his parents house and wanted to move but didn’t have any money and the parents wanted the mobile home out. So I told him you want to sell the mobile home and he said can you do that for me and I said YES!.

NOW WHAT🤔?

Susan Maneck · Answer

I've done one mobile home deal in my entire life and it was so crazy and reckless I'm amazed it worked out for me in the end. I was offered a job teaching at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff for just one semester. It was about 30 years ago and I thought the rents were high there.  I found this former resort area near Flagstaff that had lots for sale specifically for mobile homes. So I got this idea to buy a lot there and buy a mobile home in Tucson and move it up there. I found a double wide repo that was six years old for 11K which they were able to move to Flagstaff for 1K.  I bought the land for 12K and spent another 10K building a pad. This was when interest rates were out of this world and put all but land on my credit cards. After I got all the pieces put together it appraised at 45K and I got a loan for 35K at a whopping 12% interest. After that semester I got a position at the University of the South so I rented the home at $550 a month. Three years later I sold the property for 53K. By that time I had moved to Florida and had another temporary position at Stetson University. I used my money to help buy a 3/1 house from HUD for 37K. I spent 10K fixing it up. After a year I finally landed a permanent position in Mississippi so I sold that house at my moving away garage sale for 55K. Don't try this at home kids.

Rachel H. · Answer

@Luis Serrano If you're not familiar with the niche, it's best to learn it first before you pursue any opportunities that come by. I'm not quite sure what a virtual wholesale deal entails, but it's nothing I've ever pursued in my entire real estate investing career as I prefer to invest locally.

Should you decide to pursue the deal, proceed with caution. You'll have to have an exit strategy in place before you do anything to make it work and have a back-up plan just in case things fall through. Hope that helps. Good luck!

Jenn Barona · Answer

@Luis Serrano retiring a mobile home is when the mobile goes from being considered a automobile with a vin number that can be moved from one location to another and becomes real estate affixed to the land. Here is a website that give you a good breakdown. https://mobilehomeliving.org/m...

Maryanne Cameron · Answer

Check out BP episode 75, John Fedro is the expert on MHP. It should give you an idea of what you're getting into. Good luck!

Steve K. · Answer

@Luis Serrano you probably know this but mobile homes being sold without the land are considered personal property and are titled more like a used car than a home. What this means for a wholesale transaction is it’s harder to “lock up” the deal. Normally when a seller realizes they can get a much better deal without using the wholesaler’s services, the wholesaler may try to threaten the seller by clouding title or suing for specific performance (although both are sheisty moves and rarely work). With a mobile home you wouldn’t even have those options. If the seller talks to the park owner to get permission to sell and the owner makes them a lower offer than yours, or they find a buyer on their own, or your buyer goes to them directly, or the seller decides not to work with you for whatever reason, they can easily just cut you out any time. There may be a way to have the seller put the title into escrow or let you hold the title until you find a buyer, but it’s unlikely a seller would agree to this without receiving payment first (and it obviously wouldn’t be in their best interest to do so).

Luis Serrano · Answer

@Rachel H. Thank you, I am in the closes stages on the house in Mississippi now waiting on due diligence. So it’s doable

Luis Serrano · Answer

@Maryanne Cameron will do. Thank you.

Luis Serrano · Answer

@Jenn Barona I am a rookie on this... what do you mean retired?

Luis Serrano · Answer

@Susan Maneck amazing story

Jenn Barona · Answer

Mobile homes are a whole new ball game. Depending on the age, if they have ever been moved, what kind of tie downs and more it may not be able to get conventional financing from a buyer. Which means you would have to have a buyer who would be willing to buy it knowing they could never sell it using FHA/VA/USDA and even conventional loans with some banks. Moving it where I live in Gainesville, FL would cost upwards of $5,000 so depending on how much it’s worth it may not be worth it. Check to see if the mobile home is retired too.

A mobile home fell in my lap (virtual wholesale) 🤔should I?

Most Popular Reply