Finding Used or Abandoned Mobile Homes to Buy in North Carolina
Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2016 · 224 posts · 333 votes
We have a mobile home park in Fayetteville, NC that we’re trying to fill with 20 used / new homes. We have engaged 21 Mortgage and are in the process of registering for the CASH Program. However, we don’t think the market can support a rapid infill of all new homes. As a result, we are looking for used mobile homes to buy, rehab and rent.
Does anyone have experience finding, buying, rehabbing and renting used mobile homes? Any advice on the best way to go about this and the best source of leads? What are the best advertising channels? Who’s doing this at volume (5-10 homes)? What are the lessons learned?
@John Jacobus used homes are not that big of a deal if you have all the pieces in place. It starts with finding the homes, but it's also smart to have your whole team built beforehand to move them, set them up, and do whatever rebab is needed. Here are some ideas that have worked for us to build a team:
USED HOMES
MOVING AND SETUP
REHAB
Rehab can be approached a couple different ways. You can get the home setup and market it as a "handyman special" and you won't need to do the rehab. Or you can completely rehab the unit and make it really nice before you sell it. Obviously, that will attract completely different tenants, so you have to decide what direction you want to go. Depending on what the home needs, you may be able to use a local handyman to do the rehab, but we have found it's best to hire contractors who specialize in MH. They are familiar with the different constriction of MH and have access to the materials and parts that are unique to MH. Home Depot does not carry MH parts and a handyman who is not specialized will spend all day trying to find them.
All the best,
Jack
@John Jacobus Theres a lot of mobile home parks in Spring Lake, a smaller town right outside of fayetteville. Most of which have been awhile for quite some time and the owners are probably either passing the management on to their next generation or struggling to keep them running. I would try calling owners of the parks to see if they're interested in selling all or any of their used mobile homes. A problem you might run into though is finding their numbers online. Like I said most of them have been around for a while and stick with just the sign in front of the park with a number. Most of them dont use online marketing, just word of mouth and yard signs.
What do you mean by, "However, we don’t think the market can support a rapid infill of all new homes."? Just curious.
@Account Closed We've found that there are far more mobile home renters vs. prospective owners. Therefore, if we bring in new homes to sell to new owners (via CASH Program), we don't think there is sufficient demand to move the new inventory and achieve our business plan of filling our park's vacancies in a reasonable time period.
@John Jacobus Where do you think you will be saving money ? Sure you can get a used mobile home cheap. Now you have to pay to move it , pay to set it up , then pay to have it rehabbed . Thats ALL cash out of your pocket . Then you rent it out and it gets torn up by the tenants , and you have to deal with what needs fixing along the way . Run some numbers .
Why not strike a deal with a dealer to put a home or 2 on some sites , brand new ready to move in tomorrow . Get the customers financing and the site is rented . OR rent them a brand new one .
I have a friend who has a park , old trailers get demolished and hauled away ( about 4 grand ) . He buys a BRAND NEW unit for the site , sells it to the next tenant at his cost . He then gets rent for the site , and the place looks better with new homes . He has done this 8 times in the past 3 years . Two were park residents who moved into the new ones and he got rid of their old ones
@Account Closed We've found that there are far more mobile home renters vs. prospective owners. Therefore, if we bring in new homes to sell to new owners (via CASH Program), we don't think there is sufficient demand to move the new inventory and achieve our business plan of filling our park's vacancies in a reasonable time period.
AH ok. Makes sense now after rereading it. I missed the "sell to new owners" part. I was thinking rentals.
@John Jacobus would this happen to be Gray’s Creek ?
@John Jacobus from what I’ve seen, nice park. I live about an hr from Fayetteville if you ever need a third party someone nearby to check on the property with you being out of state just let me know. Or anything else. I’ll keep an eye out for homes.
@John Jacobus check with the non auto auctions sometimes they have those repossessed homes laying around that you can get for cheap. I used to see them quite frequently out here before i was in the MHP space.
But i would just call your neighboring park owners and see if they have homes they want to get rid of them just rehab them. You can get those for cheap.
@John Jacobus used homes are not that big of a deal if you have all the pieces in place. It starts with finding the homes, but it's also smart to have your whole team built beforehand to move them, set them up, and do whatever rebab is needed. Here are some ideas that have worked for us to build a team:
USED HOMES
MOVING AND SETUP
REHAB
Rehab can be approached a couple different ways. You can get the home setup and market it as a "handyman special" and you won't need to do the rehab. Or you can completely rehab the unit and make it really nice before you sell it. Obviously, that will attract completely different tenants, so you have to decide what direction you want to go. Depending on what the home needs, you may be able to use a local handyman to do the rehab, but we have found it's best to hire contractors who specialize in MH. They are familiar with the different constriction of MH and have access to the materials and parts that are unique to MH. Home Depot does not carry MH parts and a handyman who is not specialized will spend all day trying to find them.
All the best,
Jack
@John Jacobus You could always make connections with the local mobile home dealerships in the area. Many times they have customers who need to sell their used mobile homes to buy a new one. Hope that helps!
@John Jacobus hey, my father and I have a mobile home park in Fayetteville as well. We have used Craigslist to find used ones selling for a good price. Lately there has been low inventory up there so now we are leaning towards purchasing new ones. A couple of the mobile homes that was left there when the tenant left, we rehabbed. (two that was worth rehabbing)
Best places to look for deals online... Facebook Marketplace, Offerup, Zillow, and Craigslist. Start with Facebook Marketplace... Just be careful to not get in a "pulling" war with the neighboring parks.
As @Jack Martin mentioned, there are a lot of hidden costs with moving and rehabbing/moving a used mobile home. A lot of the parks in the Phoenix market are starting to demo houses older than 1980. The newer houses improve the curb appeal, and raise the value of the park. Are there any financing companies in your market? It would make more sense to put new houses into the park if you have a way to cash out of the deal at closing. Let me know if you have any questions!