Texas MH deal hurdles

[Greg B.]

OK guys here's the story.

I go to the Texas MH dealers class about 2 weeks ago to learn the sate law on buying and selling MH's. Took the class, passed the test, decided not to license because I do mostly rentals anyway.

So i buy a nice 3/2 MH in my area for $6000. It needs about $1000 in repairs and it will net me $300-$400 a month. I have been doing rentals for a few years, no biggie to me. Before I buy it I do a tax search and found nothing owed on it. The MHP said it was clean. The title(SOL in Texas) was in her name and clean. Cool, money exchanged hands and she signed everything over. I took possession and began the cleanup yesterday.

Before the state will change the SOL to me they need a statement that there are no property taxes owed on it. Cool, no problem. I go to the county tax assessor today, with my printed instructions from the state, and the clerk looks at me like I'm stupid. She finally tells me that there is a lot more to it than that and every county does things differently. She doesn't care what the state says. Breathe, OK, thanks.

So she proceeds to look for the MH on the county records and can't find it. Her coworker suggests that she calls the central appraisal district. My clerk begins to go on a tirade about how incompetent the CAD is and it would be a waste of her time.

She finally figures out that the previous owner has registered the MH in the wrong county. She goes and talks to the county assessor and they determine that they want me to go to the other county's incompetent CAD and have them change the location of the MH to their county and send the past tax money to them. They also want me to go to my incompetent county's CAD and register the MH there. Then I can come back to my clerk with a smile on my face and get the document I need.

I told her that was a lot of work for maybe $100 in back taxes and I would be happy to pay them and get this resolved. Nope, no way. "I can't help you. You should have gone through a title company."

So I turn and leave with the impression that one incompetent layer of my government is calling another layer incompetent. But hey, her paycheck will clear, right.

The moral of the story is, in Texas, make sure the MH in question is registered in the correct county AND there are no back taxes on it.

Now I get to go look stupid in front of more government pencil pushers. Good luck out there.