New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
Hello Bigger Pockets!
My husband and I are putting words into action and we’re finally about to get started with investing in real estate. We chose Mobile Homes for a slew of reasons that I won’t get into here, but suffice it to say that the money needed to get started was a main factor in our decision.
We are looking to start marketing that we buy mobile homes so we can get some leads. What methods of advertising you have see the best results with? I know we may not replicate those results but we’re open to any creative ideas you have.
Flipper/Rehabber · Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 333 posts · 459 votes
6y
@DeAndrea Douglas
More than half of the mobile homes in parks I buy to flip I purchase as bank repos.
Mobiles, being personal property, not real estate, depreciate.
There are always people who quit paying their loans. Banks/Mortgage companies often sell these homes cheap because they do not have the available resources to efficiently rehab and resell them. They’re in the money lending business, not the rehab business. They know investors buy most of these houses and the investors have to make a profit.
I’ve purchased many houses for $5K to $10K, put $5K to $10K into the rehab, and sold for $30K to $50K.
On average I’ve more than doubled my investment on most of the mobiles I’ve flipped. Sure can’t do that with most real estate!
Flipper/Rehabber · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2017 · 75 posts · 44 votes
6y
@DeAndrea D. How did you find out about mobile home investing? There are some great videos on Youtube about mobile home investing that discuss this topic... The best deals that I have found came from face to face networking with park managers or other investors (both free). You can spend money on bandit signs, business cards, and etc. Hope this helps...
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@Matt Bonestroo Thanks and it does help. My husband came across videos from a few different people on YouTube and brought the idea to me. The numbers made sense for what we are willing to invest so we decided to form a strategy.
Our current marketing plans are to continue to talk to park managers, network with other investors, bandit signs near the parks and we’re also going to put an ad on Craigslist to see if we gain any traction there.
@DeAndrea Douglas - Bandit signs are very effective for me. Talking to park managers is good as it helps you figure out what parks are good to work in and which parks aren't.
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@Ravi Blevins Thank you! Is there anything you can think of that makes the relationship smoother? My first thought is don’t be a jerk in general, but do you have any relationship building tips?
@Ravi Blevins Thank you! Is there anything you can think of that makes the relationship smoother? My first thought is don’t be a jerk in general, but do you have any relationship building tips?
Be humble and operate from a place of trying to be helpful and valuable to the park. For example, if you make it about you paying the rent on time and keeping the home maintained while you own it that's helpful. Letting them know you will try to sell it to good qualified buyers will make you come across as someone who cares about more than making a buck. Some park managers are harder to deal with than others and some are just too difficult to deal with but make it about the win/win.
I work with one manager that is always pointing me to homes of the residents that give her the most problems....lol So far I have bought 2 of those homes and she hears less complaints.
Specialist · NY · Member since 2019 · 10 posts · 4 votes
6y
Greetings Andrea,
A big challenge here if the budget is a problem.
If that ever changes, the way to attract the most quality leads is to target people who are going through different situations and may be looking to sell their home at a price you would be comfortable with.
In order to do so would like to create your own database of customers in your city looking to sell.
Robert Kiyosaki says that you must go through 100 deals before you make a decision.
A good way to create your database is by lead generation facebook ads in which you will capture interested customers' email, name, phone, etc.
Should you have further questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Real Estate Broker · Naples, FL · Member since 2013 · 9k+ posts · 6k+ votes
6y
There is a website you may be able to buy advertising on. I believe it is the mobile home park store or something to that effect. You will also find parks for sale on the site.
Rental Property Investor · Fayetteville, NC · Member since 2014 · 884 posts · 670 votes
6y
Just make sure that you understand the zoning and rules for MHs in your municipality. Where I live they can't be moved into the county if they don't have a HUD label or a pitched roof (no flat/rounded roofs). I imagine that they are probably pretty lax if you are in rural TX.
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@Jonathan Ryzowy I’d been considering coming up with a system to capture a far amount of leads and had though about using Facebook ads to do it. I don’t expect this to be a quick process at all, but we’re operating as if it will take a us a few months to gain some traction and within that time we should have hit another savings milestone and have more money to put into the business. What amount do you recommend using for a test ad? My first thought is $300 minimum over a month.
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@John Thedford MHVillage and I believe the other one is mobilehomeparkstore.com. I saw advertisements on both and that’s how I found more parks in my area. I keep dining more that aren’t listed on those site so it gave me a great place to get started. Most of the ads I’ve seen are for selling the home, but I don’t see why I couldn’t use them to advertise that I buy them. Thanks for the tip!
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@Jerry Lucker I’m just getting started and have been starting to build relationships with park managers. I know they can point me in the direction of tenants that are looking to sell, but I’m mostly asking about other ways to find sellers. I don’t want to only rely on the generosity of the PM to get my business going.
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@Justin Tahilramani Absolutely! You'd be surprised what kinds of zoning laws you come across in rural Texas. We have some land that we weren't allowed to put tiny houses or mobile homes on because it's zoned for SFH. There's only one home there too! Understanding the zoning is why we decided to stay relatively close by for our first few deals. We'd rather not have to have any of them moved to avoid a lot of the hassle of having to comply with the those laws. Do the zoning laws come into effect even if you don't move it? Like if the title is changing?
Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2016 · 224 posts · 333 votes
6y
@DeAndrea D. I own 5 parks and am always looking to fill vacant lots with homes and/or sell park owned homes to investors who will keep my parks full and operate with shared interests. We own in TX, NC, SC and KS (GA is next). Let’s explore how we can work together. We have a park in the Charlotte MSA that we could use particular help with.
Listed below are several things that come to mind when I think about working with investors who buy and rent mobile homes in our parks.
Regarding marketing for homes to purchase, we look on Facebook Groups, Facebook Marketplace, and talk to other park owners near us. We also see deal flow through our network of owner/operators who own parks nationwide. My advice is to let people know what you’re doing and what you’re looking for. Setup a Facebook Page, go on a podcast, attend meetups, and find a few park owners to work with. I think you’ll find that some of them (like us) want to outsource lot infill to a reliable third party. We have other priorities and finding partners who can be trusted to bring in decent homes, rehab them, and get them filled according to our screening criteria is valuable to us.
Here are some things we think about when considering investors/Lonnie Dealers who buy homes, rehab them, move them into our parks and rent them to residents. These same ideas come to mind when we look to sell park owned home inventory to investors who are willing to rehab and rent them to residents while keeping the homes in our parks for several years.
We focus on turnarounds that typically have 5-10+ vacant lots. An investor who can quickly and reliably move in homes into the vacant lots will be someone we look favorably upon.
We typically have park owned home inventory that we’d rather sell to an investor than do the work to rehab the homes ourselves. Investors who have appetite to do this in volume (2-5 homes) are people we like working with.
We want the home to stay in our park. The goal for us is to keep our parks full. We look favorably on investors who want to keep the homes they buy and rehab in our parks for many years.
We will typically cap the number of homes that an investor owns in our community to less than 10% of total lots in the park. Banks don’t like to see a huge investor presence in the park and it will diminish buyer interest when we consider selling our park.
An investor who maintains their home and values quality and steady residents is someone we like working with.
We need our investors to communicate with us via email and text. In addition, we collect payment digitally. Constraints that prevent investors from operating effectively in a digital wold are major negatives for us.
Investors who understand the move-in process, permitting requirements, and coordinate all steps with moving and utility hookup vendors are the type of people we work with repeatedly.
We like working with investors who operate as partners and demonstrate a shared interest in maintaining a high quality community.
Flipper/Rehabber · Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 333 posts · 459 votes
6y
@DeAndrea Douglas
More than half of the mobile homes in parks I buy to flip I purchase as bank repos.
Mobiles, being personal property, not real estate, depreciate.
There are always people who quit paying their loans. Banks/Mortgage companies often sell these homes cheap because they do not have the available resources to efficiently rehab and resell them. They’re in the money lending business, not the rehab business. They know investors buy most of these houses and the investors have to make a profit.
I’ve purchased many houses for $5K to $10K, put $5K to $10K into the rehab, and sold for $30K to $50K.
On average I’ve more than doubled my investment on most of the mobiles I’ve flipped. Sure can’t do that with most real estate!
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@John Jacobus Wow! Thanks so much for all of that information. If I’m understanding correctly, if you’re working with investors you prefer to have them renting homes to tenants in your park, not seller financing them to tenants?
New to Real Estate · Cypress, TX · Member since 2019 · 38 posts · 7 votes
6y
@Jerry Lucker You certainly cannot. That’s another reason we chose mobile home investing. Depreciation is why we’d want to seller finance the homes once we rehabbed them. No need in us owning them long term.
Investor · New York, NY · Member since 2016 · 224 posts · 333 votes
6y
@DeAndrea D. As a park owner, I would prefer to have all of our residents owning their homes. However, this is not always possible. If the investors that we work with can find buyers of the homes they bring into the park (immediate buyers or buyers who are on an installment plan), then that's super. In the event that they can only find home renters to occupy their homes, that's OK with us too. Either way, we get the benefit of receiving the lot rent.
Whether the investors we work with sell off the homes they buy & rehab or rent them out is not a major consideration for us in determining who we partner with.