Anyone tried fixing and flipping mobile homes?

[Adrian Chu]

Anyone tried fixing and flipping mobile homes?  Feel free to share your story!

[Amy Prosser]

My story: husband and I started flipping and selling manufactured homes in 2013, out of necessity.  He was laid off from his job as a home theater installer, on unemployment, and could not get rehired (he was 56).  Tons of phone interviews that were very promising, till he showed up in person.  Luckily he is a retired Navy vet, so we have that steady income.

We have learned a great deal, mostly about what not to do.  We are buying homes on land in NC, just north of Charlotte. Mobile homes are as thick as ticks on a hound here, and REOs range from $10k to about $60k.  We don't buy ones that have had the electric pulled out, a shared well or driveway.  And from experience, now no longer consider the property if it is: on a corner lot, on a flag lot, adjacent to a run down singlewide, has little back yard, power lines in the back yard, too far from town.

We have been living in each flip as we remodel.  We go to a corporate suite hotel in between flips, as it is rare to get a buyer to allow us to remain 30 days.  Our best flip sold in one week, and we made about $25k, our worst took 7 months and we made $8k (after falling out of contract 3 times!).  Our goal for each home is sell it fast!  We will hopefully this year buy one we can stay in, as this moving every few months is hard on these old bones.  

The reason we decided to flip mobile homes instead of houses is economics.  Around here anything under about $80k is a small, 60s type brick ranch or much older large two story, and mostly not in the safest areas.  We don't have to worry about asbestos, lead paint, foundation problems, etc.  So I would rather buy a manufactured home where you can pretty much see all the problems, for around $30k, then sell for about $70k, Usually it's on an acre of land, avg sf 1600, with a permanent foundation.

Financing for our buyers is a bit tricky. The banks around here will finance on a MH if it is no older than 15 years. However there are a few credit unions that will finance as far back as a 1976. If the buyer is going FHA, and now most of the conventional loans too are requiring special FHA tie downs, that costs about $2k. Credit unions are not requiring that, yet. Buyers always want 3% closing costs, a price reduction, and use their inspection report as a punch list, like they were buying a new house.

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