Mobile Home Considerations

[Sebastian Dombrowski]

I'm technically not buying a mobile home park but this is the closest forum I could find for my problem so excuse me if this is just the wrong place for my question or if it's not relevant to you.

That being said, I'm considering buying a property that has 2 mobile homes on it: A double-wide and a single-wide both from 1985. My plan is to buy and hold so I can  rent them out. The cash flow looks great but I'm a little concerned about my exit strategy. I have a few questions regarding that and was wondering if you could help me:

1. I've heard that mobile homes don't really gain in value. I can see that being the case for the mobile home itself but does that also apply to the package as a whole (land + mobile home(s))? I would imagine that if the area becomes more desirable or prices just rise in general, the value would rise as well.

2. I've read that the average lifespan of a mobile home is 35 to 50 years. The mobile homes are from 1985 so they're already 38 years old. Does that mean I'd most likely have to replace them in the next 10 years or so or can you just fix them "indefinitely" like a normal house?

3. The mobile homes are technically a little over the property boundaries (on city property) but they're grandfathered in like that. If I'd ever want to move them a few feed back, would that be pretty much just as expensive as moving them to the next town over or is that just a small cost?

4. If I wanted to sell one of the mobile homes and only keep one on the property to rent it out, would it be very difficult to find a buyer for such an old mobile home (also considering the cost of moving it) or is that not a big problem?

I know that's a lot of question but any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks you very much!