All Forum Posts by: Sacha LaCoss

Tenants dog dragged a couch cushion over a gas floor furnace and caused a small fire.

I am looking for recommendations for a Mitigation company to do the Repairs. Our agent sent us these names and companies-anyone recommend or suggest staying away from any of them?

Paul Davis

Gary Holmes

Isaac Cordova -Archuleta Restoration

Mark Palmer

Patrick Archuleta Bear Restoration

Thank you!

Tenants dog dragged a couch cushion over a gas floor furnace and caused a small fire.

I am looking for recommendations for a Mitigation company to do the Repairs.  Our agent sent us these names and companies-anyone recommend or suggest staying away from any of them? 

Paul Davis

Gary Holmes

Isaac Cordova -Archuleta Restoration

Mark Palmer

Patrick Archuleta Bear Restoration 

Thank you! 

I appreciate all the replies, we have always done all the remodeling and self maintained even our long distance properties but are looking to start having some of the work done by someone else (because I want to expand and hubby says we are at max doing all the work ourselves) but as we have never paid for any labor I’m pretty clueless what it should cost.  I don’t want the cheapest as I know what that usually gets you but of course I do not want to over pay either.

Sounds like the consensus is to pay by the job-which is fine with me I just wasn’t sure what was usual. Thumbtack shows $50-$60 an hour as an average for our California properties and $30 for Albuquerque so could I use that for guesstimating costs of projects?  Do those costs sound in line for these areas?  

Could I use these hourly costs as a general guide since we have an idea already of how long each task should take understanding that if it’s a small task it will probably incur a minimum charge? I’m already used to estimating materials myself 

I’m just trying to run the numbers and get a general idea if it’s worth it to go ahead and do this now or wait another year or two.

I really appreciate all the information and help-thank you! 

Thank you all! 

Looking for information on what people are paying a handyman hourly? Or do you pay by the job?

I know the location makes a difference and I am looking for information for both the  Sacramento foothills  and Albuquerque where we own properties. 

Plumbing repairs:  replacing faucets, garbage disposals, replacing bathtubs or toilets, other minor repairs but not digging up pipes type stuff ect...

Painting inside including patching holes 

Carpentry: installing doors, cabinets, deck refinishing and repair (not replacement), building/installing/repairing metal or wood gates or fencing 

Flooring installation: tile, bamboo or wood 

Changing light fixtures, switches, outlets, ceiling fans ect..

Basically anything that will not require a permit 

Thank you for your help! 

Thank you Jeffrey for the response, I’m getting the idea it might be better to pull the old MH off and just leave the land vacant, that will reduce taxes and if we pull the water meter save us $48 a month which is the most expensive cost.  Heck the taxes are less than that! 

Thank you for the response Melissa-the "subdivision" and I use that word lightly is a mix of MH and SFH and even a Yurt. It's New Mexico mountain funky with some homes worth several hundred thousand dollars and some homes that are worth practically nothing for the structure. The majority of the homes are seasonal use only though if it's summer or winter varies by owner. Many have been there 30-50 years and passed down through families.

The HOA is for the ski area and our lots are several miles away not in the resort area-they have never tried to control what homes are built on the lots, their upkeep ect... It's not like the HOA we live in who measures your grass or controls the color you paint your house. The roof of the MH we inherited fell in last year and we would have never known (out of state) if a neighbor didn't contact us.

The whole “benefit” to the HOA is season ski passes or mountain biking lift tickets-we live in another state and cannot use them so don’t want to run any chance of being sucked in and having to pay since we are currently exempt. 

We considered building a small house and renting it or doing AirBNB and could probably do well but do not want to deal with maintenance on any other out of state properties at this point. (We already own 4) but none are MH so I am working to learn as much as possible now. 

This would be a way to gain income/cover expenses  from the properties as at this point we pay OOP around $78 a month for taxes/trash/water meter even when they are not used at all.  The property is near and dear to my husband, our kids  and to me at this point so we do not want to sell.  Long term we will probably do something else with the property but that’s 10-15 years out.  

I just don’t know much about how counties/cities view the renting of lots to MH owners vs renting a structure we own and I want to know as much as possible before talking to small town Chatty Cathy. 

We own 2 lots in Northern NM we would like to rent to mobile home owners, but I’m not sure where to start? We would not be creating a “park” per say, here is what we have:

2 side by side 1/2 acre lots we own outright (inherited) previously used as a family cabin for nearby ski areas.  Rural between two small tourist towns off a dirt county maintained road. 

Lot #1 Has a tear down mobile home on it that we plan to remove next summer.  City Power, owned propane tank, city water meter, septic system. 

Lot #2 is not developed in any way but has power/city water next door at our other lot 

My thought is to get Lot#1 rented and then take earnings from it to develop Lot# 2. 

Now for my questions? 

Why don’t I call and ask you say, well it’s a small area (everyone knows everyone’s business) and I’m still in research mode. 
We have not made our minds up, plus we are one of the few lot owners grandfathered in to not having an HOA payment in the "subdivision" because the land was bought (owned by family for 50+ years) before it came into being and we never joined (grandparents fought this in court-won and I have the legal records)

What type of zoning needs to be in place to rent our lot to a mobile home owner? Is it different if we put a MH on it for personal use than if we rent the land to a MH owner?  I do understand that the lots have to permit MH in their zoning but not if there is a difference between our own personal use vs renting the land to someone else? 

When renting out a lot do I have to notify some city/county department?  I know there will need to be permits pulled for hooking up a new MH correct?  And of course for lot #2 if we put in power/water/septic 

Would it make a difference in any of this if we put a MH on the land ourselves and then seller financed just the MH to a buyer?  We do not want to sell the land. 

How do you market a mobile home lot?  I searched craigslist and see something similar for rent at $350 a month but only 2 in a large area.  The other closest MHP is about 40 minutes away with no amenities (Taos).  I think here is a need for more low cost housing for resort workers.  (Resorts runs both winter & summer) I’m thinking your own lot might be more appealing than a park?  But I don’t know having never lived in one.  

What else would you suggest I look into/read as I learn about this process? 

Thank you for your time! 

My husband and I became accidental landlords about 9 years ago and were basically hobbyists with a SFH that has an ADU that we ran haphazardly for a number of years. Two years ago we got serious and began treating it like a business. It's not making us a ton of money but we are profitable and for us this is ok as we are paying down the mortgages in an expeditious manner looking for income in early retirement in a few years.

Our advantages are any money we make right now is not needed as income.  We have day jobs.  I’m a people/project manger in my day job so I can handle the people and am used following laws, regulations ect,,.and my husband can basically fix or install anything so we handle most repairs and upgrades ourselves.  He gets paid by others to do similar projects so the work is professional quality.  We have a local handyman we have known for 20+ years who handles the random maintenance issue and do the rest ourselves 

Disadvantages: We live in California and all our property besides our current home (live in flip) is in New Mexico :/ 

Current Property:

Our Home-upper middle class, golf course community that needed some updating.  We bought a foreclosure and got a phenomenal deal. 5 beds, 3 full baths 3,000 square feet.  We want to stay here for 3 more years until our youngest graduates.  We have been working on it steadily.  Projects remaining: 1 bathroom, deck, downstairs flooring, flooring in pantry/utility room, replace part of the driveway that is cracked.  Then it’s turnkey and we should net around $400-$450k when we sell. If the market is down we will hold and live here until it rebounds. 

The original SFH and the ADU gross $17,400 with Net of $200 a month. Currently the ADU is under market rent and could easily net us an additional $200-$250 a month with some cosmetic updates which will be done when the lease comes up next. It's a long term tenant who we are ok if she decides to leave. She pays on time and is basically neat but a PITA. Not about repairs just an abrasive pushy personality.

1/2 ownership of the house next door to the property above.  We are currently buying half the property from a family member the other owner is a relative who will go under financially in a few years at most then we will buy her out too.  The home is 3,100 square feet custom home that is now a duplex.  We rent out the back 1/3 of the property and the other relative lives in the front part.  Expenses are split (taxes/ins).  Rent is not, we keep.  We are currently not taking any profit out of this property at all-on purpose.  We could have up to $375 a month but we just want to get it paid off as quickly as possible because we want to have the funds available when the other family member goes under financially so we can buy them out too.

2 lots in Northern New Mexico-1 is developed with water/electric/septic but has a tear down mobile home on it (next summers project) the other is undeveloped but electric/water is next door.  Super cheap costs-taxes are under $200 a year.  I’d like to either rent out the developed lot to the owner of a mobile home or put a small home on it-then develop the 2nd lot and do the same.  We inherited this property and it’s been in the family 50+ years nearby local ski resort (Angel Fire & Red River) 

Long Term Plan:

Sell current home, buy one free and clear that has property that we can expand on with ADU. Will eventually be rentals or sold to invest in another project.

As cash flow from these rentals or home improves over the next few years look for additional property-especially interested in mobile home parks or tri-plex+ size properties. not sure we want any of it to be in California even though we love living here now, we will eventually relocate.  

So that’s us, I’ve really enjoyed reading the forums so far.