I walked into the mobile home park manager’s office, introduced myself, and spoke like I knew what I was talking about. She gave me a list of homes that were going to be tax auctioned, she gave me a list of repos, she gave me the confirmation that she would basically approve a tenant if I would approve them for a loan.
As we shot the breeze for awhile, her husband came in and she introduced me to him and we got along great. A little while into the conversation she said, “Ya know, Sue really needs to sell her home doesn’t she? He confirmed and told me her story. At the end of our meeting, I dropped in on Sue, who lived a couple doors down from the home she was selling, and we went to the home to check it out.
It was a 1982 24 x 52 mobile home 3/2 and it needed about $1,200 in fix-up work. I asked her what she needed to get out of the home. She said she had it for sale in April for $12,000. She also commented, “I need to get rid of it. There are too many memories here.” She went on to tell me that her husband passed away in February in the home.
As I walked around the home looking, she told me that she dropped the price last month to $10,000, and she needed $8,000 for the home. I told Sue, “Okay, I will think about it and bring my wife, Mary, to check it out.
Her next comment was, “A guy came by today and offered me $6,500 cash and said he will be back tonight.” I told her, “Great!” and set a time for Mary to look at the home.
Mary did the “squirrel dog” thing. As we stood by the car, I asked Sue, “What is the best you can do?” She now dropped to $4,200 cash. I told her we will consider it and get back to her in a couple days.
She called me the next morning and asked if we had made a decision yet. I told Sue we hadn’t and I would call her tomorrow one way or the other. I called Sue and told her I had two offers for her and I set a time to present them to her.
One was $4,200 with them doing about $800 of work, and the other was for $3,700 with them doing minimal repairs. She chose the $3,700 but knocked off $100 because she didn’t want to fix a shower valve that cost $5.78 at home depot.
FIRST DEAL PURCHASED! Thanks Lonnie and everyone on the mobile home forum!
I bought the home at 5:30 this past Monday. I went to the park manager’s office to say thank you. In the park office, the park manager said, “Tim this is Becky. She lives on the other side of the park and has for 7 years. She is looking for another place because of a separation.”
I showed Becky the home at 7:00 and gave her a ballpark payment, down payment etc., and she said that it sounded great and gave me $20 to hold it. She came back tonight to give me another $500 deposit. I told her I need $1,000, so I structure her loan to skip the first monthly payment so I can collect $500 on October 1st.
FIRST DEAL SOLD. Thanks Lonnie and everyone on the mobile home forum!
The home was sold for $9,283.00 @ 10.5% for 48 months $212.07/month. Total of payments $10,179.49.
When I get done this weekend, I will have invested about $4,400.00. That isn’t a bad ROI. That’s not all either…While I was at the home today, two other couples that I had scheduled to come by said were very interested in buying too. So, I guess I can do this!