Buying a property and immediately removing a mobile home

[David J Lepard]

Hi All,

I’d love your ideas on this: there’s a mobile home on the lot next to our short term rental (str) property that is long since abandoned. Its a bit of an eyesore (only when driving up the road—thankfully it can’t be seen once at the house). I’d like to buy the lot its on--which i think I can do as it's being foreclosed on for back taxes later this year, and I’m wondering what to do with the mobile home. The price i would offer for the lot would be dependent upon the costs of clearing the lot of the home. Renting it out as-is is not a desirable option (and it's unclear whether its even habitable at this point). The options I’ve identified are:

1) attempt to ‘sell’ the mobile home: I say ‘sell’ because I would sell for $0 if the purchaser would pay moving costs. I don’t expect to make any money off of this, although if I did, great. I considered calling local mobile home parks nearby as part of this plan.

2) Somehow donate it for the write off. I 'm guessing this is only an option if it's habitable. I assume I’d be paying removal costs.

3) have a hauling company take it away. I’ve seen estimates for $2-5k. ( Does that seem accurate?)

4) have the fire department perform a controlled burn for training purposes. I’ve heard of this working for others but I immediately dismissed this option as its a wooded area and I don't want burn scars on the land.

What else could I do? What should I consider regarding the above options? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[Account Closed]

I bought a property like this, foreclosed with an old mobile home. I am used to SFH renovations so I started to demo the interior of the mobile home thinking I could rehab it... But I didn't know those things are made out of toothpicks and 1/4" drywall! I was literally just kicking the whole thing apart with steel toe boots at the end. It was a lot less work than I thought, but I did fill up several dumpsters with particle board and soggy drywall. I opted against rehabbing.

Also, a neighbor came by offering to tear it all down and haul the rest away if he can keep the scrap metal.  It might take some asking around but you can definitely get rid of it, just don't bother putting any more money into it than you have to.  Banks hate them on your land anyway, and I was told if I am going to get a mortgage in the future, it needs to be gone.