Done Deal: 3/2 Singlewide Mobile Home In a Park

(Note: Since I’ve received a lot of requests for more case studies, I thought I’d make a post on another one. Enjoy!)

This deal came at a total surprise for me. Honestly, I didn’t think it would work out. But, it did. Let me explain why.

Before meeting with me, the sellers had actually been working with another investor. They had already come to an agreement with the investor to buy the home as long as it fit on his land (as he was planning to move the home).

According to the sellers, the investor had brought his mover numerous times over the last few weeks to assess the size of the home to see if it could be transported and installed on his land. Though, the investor had not come to a decision and the sellers got the feeling the investor was stalling for time.

In any case, the sellers called me (via word of mouth). So, I decided to go out and check the home.

Going in, I already knew my exit strategy (should the home fit my criteria) – I would move the home to one of my favorite parks.

(Note: Regarding moving homes, I have a deal now with my favorite parks where they pay for my moving costs if I fill a lot. At this point in my career, I receive free lot rent as well. However, it has not always been like this. In the beginning, what’s going to matter is building relationships which do take time).

Now, this particular home was already in a park. In fact, this exact park was one of the parks I had visited while learning my market – they were very open to working with me.

As far as the park is concerned, there’s nothing wrong with it from an aesthetic standpoint – it’s a very nice park. Though, what I didn’t like was that the park has a lot of inventory for their own homes which can be a conflict of interest when marketing for buyers. And, this particular park just so happened to be in the same network of parks a fellow investor worked with who had a problem with the park taking buyers away to fill their own inventory. (Yes, it does happen). In the end, it cost this fellow investor a lot of time and a lot of money. So, for me – I really didn’t want to deal with this obstacle and would rather move it to a park where I have a better working relationship. And, that’s exactly what I planned to do.

In any case, once I viewed the home – I told the sellers it was definitely a home that fit my criteria. I told them I was interested in the home and of my intention to move the home to one of my favorite parks. I went on to say that if they really wanted to sell now, we could move forward with the sale as I already had a mover lined up and knew the home would be a good fit for the new location.

(Note: Before even meeting with the sellers, I already had the park and the lot where I would move the home picked out. Over the phone, I asked the sellers the year, size and amperage of the home to make sure the lot I had in mind would be able to power the home. This is the importance of being prepared and knowing your market).

Though, the sellers told me they had been working with the other investor for weeks and had struck a deal with him first. Disappointed, I started to leave and walk away towards the front door. However, the sellers told me not to leave right now – they would call the other investor and let them know I was there with them interested in buying the home as well. And, so they did.

However, they received voicemail and left a message giving the other investor 24 hours to call back. The sellers told me if they did not hear back from the other investor by the next day or if a decision was not made yet by this investor, they would give me a call and we would have a deal.

So the next day came, and guess what? To my surprise, I received a phone call from the sellers. They told me the other investor had called them back that morning to ask for more time to assess the home and its size for the new location. However, the sellers told this investor they just didn’t want to wait anymore and would rather work with me since a decision had not been made yet. And, so – I got the deal!

Honestly, this deal happened really fast. And, I just didn’t have high hopes for it. Though I guess, there’s always surprises that come up in this business – never a dull moment, that’s for sure!

To make a long story short, we settled and closed on the home that week – it was a very smooth transaction. Now, the hard part was getting the home moved out!

Before closing on the deal, we went in to talk to the park manager to make sure the lot rent was paid up and to inform them the home was going to be taken out of the park. To my surprise, they told me that’s fine but they would need a deposit for the lot from someone (either me, the sellers or my mover) before we could move the home out of the park. And, that deposit had to be a cashier’s check or money order.

Now, this really took me by surprise. I asked the park manager why they would need another deposit as the sellers had a deposit on the lot already when they first moved in. The park manager told me that was separate and this deposit (which equals one month’s lot rent) covers the lot to make sure it is cleared of all trash and debris.

(Note: I was completely baffled with this policy as I had never heard of it before. Being in this business, I thought the initial deposit was supposed to cover situations as these. I even went so far as to ask other park managers in the area – they too had never heard of such a policy).

Now, here’s where having your team comes into play. The good thing was that my mover had worked in this park before moving homes in and out – he put up the money for the deposit so we wouldn’t have to. Great, problem solved!

So, we moved forward with the move. Here are some pics:

Home leaving the park

Porches loaded and ready for transport

Storage shed prepped and ready to be loaded

Home arrived and blocked at new location

Finished pic of home (after fix-up)

(Note: Though I won’t go into the details of the inside of the home as you can check out prior case studies, I may put another walk-thru video together down the road).

All in all, I spent 12k on the home including the porch and the storage shed. In no time, I found a nice family for it – I received $1500 down and it cash flows in the $500/month range for 10 years. It made for another nice and relaxing cash flow payday for many years to come.

Happy investing!

(Note: The countdown for the release of my upcoming book has begun. Be sure to stay connected (via twitter, facebook, youtube) for the latest updates. Stay tuned!)

p.s. Feel free to leave comments on any post either here and/or my Facebook Page. Comments are always welcome, thanks for reading!