All Forum Posts by: NA NA

Years ago an investor friend taught me the right way to approach fixer-uppers. I watched others just buy a house for what they thought was a good deal, without a plan. My friend pointed out the flaws in that approach. You don't think price until you do your homework. You have to start at the end. Here's an outline of how he did it:

1. Determine what the house will sell for when it's ready.

2. Figure every expense: buying, repairing, holding, selling, and $1000 for unexpected things.

3. Subtract this from the expected sales price.

4. Subtract the profit you want.

Now you have the absolute highest price you can safely offer, so you offer less, of course. He never lifted a hammer, prefering to let others do all the manual labor. I watched him do 14 houses one year, making a profit on every one. This is the safe way. Hope it's of use to some of you.

Years ago I lived in a mobile home (on land) and discovered that it was easy to rent rooms out in it. I netted over $8,000 per year while living in my little efficiency in the back of the home. I included all utilities in the rent, and collected weekly, or however they recieved their paychecks, just to keep it simple.

I am wondering if any of you have tried this with single family homes that have three bedrooms or more, instead of just renting the house out. I never had problems with zoning or other issues, but then mobile homes are pretty much ignored by all.

College towns are the obvious place to do this. So who's tried this, and with what results/problems/profits?

In Traverse City Michigan, it will buy about six mobile homes on lots, with about $3,000 gross rent each month.

I know nobody likes mobiles, but that's why they go cheap and provide such good cash flow.