Flipping a mobile home for rental property investment

[Tracy D]

My husband and I are 50, live in a beautiful mobile home park in palm beach gardens Florida. We bought it, fixed it up and though the lot rent is high, the new homes are selling for 79,000+ and older ones for $30-50,000. We are considering buying one, fixing it up and renting it to offset our expenses. It's our first time doing this but we are trying to come up with an additional revenue stream. We are hoping to get some feedback. We feel that at the very least we could sell it for what we put in or a little more for a profit.

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

Can you import a ready made mobile home? That'd be a lot cheaper and better return than fixing one up.

Logistics are harder though.

 

[Tracy D]

Can you import a ready made mobile home? That'd be a lot cheaper and better return than fixing one up.

Logistics are harder though.

Well, not really. These are manufactured homes more than mobile homes. Double and triple wide. It would be cost prohibitive to transport. We paid $20,000, put $20,000 into it and could sell it for close to $60,000.
I was hoping to get investment input if we have $20,000 cash to invest, is his a viable option or not. We have limited options at this point but the cash is available.
Thank you for the feedback.

 

[devine]

Interested in hearing what @biophase thinks.

Though, I suggest getting your husband to read the book this forum is based on, then spend some time on this forum to see what could be done in your situation. There are so many things that can drastically change the quality of your life for $20k.

 

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[KLaw]

So, would you be renting an additional lot while rehabbing the manufactured home?

 

[Tracy D]

So, would you be renting an additional lot while rehabbing the manufactured home?

Yes. We live in the park currently and would have to pay the lot rent until it was occupied.

 

[jon.a]

Does the park allow renters?

 

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[Runum]

Sounds like a good idea on the surface. You have some homework to do.

Some parks do not allow renters. Some parks do not allow landlords. Some parks are very restrictive on the building structures.

When you become a landlord in a mobile home park you place yourself and your renter into a 3 way business relationship, not 2 way.
You don't own the land and you don't make/enforce the park rules.

If the park gets unhappy with your renter or addresses your renter roughly you will hear about it. I had a great park manager for a while. She left and the new manager was pissing off my renters.

If your renter is screwing around with the rules of the park you will hear from the manager. You may hear that the manager is demanding immediate eviction and you have to enforce it or they will.

One purpose of being a landlord is supplemental income. Another purpose is control of investment and cashflow. When you are a landlord in a MH park you give up some control. He who owns the land makes the rules.

Stories:
1) One of my renters allowed a relative to visit that had a big dog. The dog was against park rules. My lease did not allow a dog to be permanent but could be a visitor. (It was the same lease I have for my other rentals)

The dog got out and bit a child. The police were called in by park manager. The tenant and relatives became combative with police. The manager became aggressive. The neighbors were all pissed. A riot almost broke out. I was at work and was getting crazy texts. By the time I got there the tenants were moved out and trashed the place. It all happened within hours. Totally crazy.

2) The park manager called me one day and stated that the park will be reporting one of my tenants for stealing water. The park had turned off and locked the water meter for non payment and the tenant had cut the lock and turned it back on.

I called the tenant and he sounded real puzzled but said he would turn the water off. My spidey sense was telling me something wasn't right.

I got repeated calls from the tenant and manager about this for several hours. Both were getting more upset.

It turned out the park manager or employee had locked the wrong meter. The manager was harassing an innocent tenant. Of course the good tenant moved as soon as lease expired.

I have more war stories but these were some examples of how things go wrong without your control and knowledge.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[devine]

Sounds like a good idea on the surface. You have some homework to do.

Some parks do not allow renters. Some parks do not allow landlords. Some parks are very restrictive on the building structures.

When you become a landlord in a mobile home park you place yourself and your renter into a 3 way business relationship, not 2 way.
You don't own the land and you don't make/enforce the park rules.

If the park gets unhappy with your renter or addresses your renter roughly you will hear about it. I had a great park manager for a while. She left and the new manager was pissing off my renters.

If your renter is screwing around with the rules of the park you will hear from the manager. You may hear that the manager is demanding immediate eviction and you have to enforce it or they will.

One purpose of being a landlord is supplemental income. Another purpose is control of investment and cashflow. When you are a landlord in a MH park you give up some control. He who owns the land makes the rules.

Stories:
1) One of my renters allowed a relative to visit that had a big dog. The dog was against park rules. My lease did not allow a dog to be permanent but could be a visitor. (It was the same lease I have for my other rentals)

The dog got out and bit a child. The police were called in by park manager. The tenant and relatives became combative with police. The manager became aggressive. The neighbors were all pissed. A riot almost broke out. I was at work and was getting crazy texts. By the time I got there the tenants were moved out and trashed the place. It all happened within hours. Totally crazy.

2) The park manager called me one day and stated that the park will be reporting one of my tenants for stealing water. The park had turned off and locked the water meter for non payment and the tenant had cut the lock and turned it back on.

I called the tenant and he sounded real puzzled but said he would turn the water off. My spidey sense was telling me something wasn't right.

I got repeated calls from the tenant and manager about this for several hours. Both were getting more upset.

It turned out the park manager or employee had locked the wrong meter. The manager was harassing an innocent tenant. Of course the good tenant moved as soon as lease expired.

I have more war stories but these were some examples of how things go wrong without your control and knowledge.

Good luck with your decision.

Sometimes I can't believe that this is what normal world is like.
God, people create so many problems for each other for no serious reason.

 

[Tracy D]

Interesting stories and they sound quite possible here. They allow renters but it's not their preference. The management staff are mostly concerned with selling new homes and filling every available space with a new home. They have driven many old homes out and have had over 90 evictions in the 2 years we've been here. It used to be 55+ until about 10 years ago. A new management company, Equity Lifestyle properties owns it and they are large and very corporate controlled. No homeowners association and the biggest issue is the rising lot rent. Most pay $800-990+ which includes everything but electric. There's nothing even close to that in the area. Most condos and apt rent start at $1200/month. Many have sold or are for sale due to that expense. We feel we can get $1500-1700/month to rent.
Thanks for everything. We made an offer on one, a 2002, he's asking $35000, we said $29000 all in. We will see.

 

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[Tracy D]

Interested in hearing what @biophase thinks.

Though, I suggest getting your husband to read the book this forum is based on, then spend some time on this forum to see what could be done in your situation. There are so many things that can drastically change the quality of your life for $20k.

 

[jon.a]

google Lonnie deals