Starting Out Investing In Mobile Homes. Good Or Bad Idea?

[Anthony Ferguson]

Hi Everyone

I'm 20 yrs old and just finished attending my first REI seminar today and plan to start investing ASAP. Because it was a cheap basics seminar, A LOT of info was thrown at me. Among all the info, the instructor mentioned that one of the best ways to start in the business when you don't have a lot of cash is to either A. Wholesale or B. Invest in mobile homes.

Wholesaling sounds like a great idea and I understand it is an easy and fast way to put a nice little paycheck in your pocket with almost no money put into it. So i can see that, and I have actually heard of the idea through BP before the seminar, therefore I have read a lot of posts about it. So that is definitely a tactic I will start out with.

But the thing that confused me about mobile homes is the way the instructor presented it to me. He said that the best way to start with mobile homes is to go to a lower grade mobile home park (parks without coaches) and find the owner. After you meet with the owner you are supposed to ask the owner if there are any vacant mobile homes that have been vacant for an extended period of time. If there are, then I should inform the owner that I am an investor and i can help him with this "eye sore" of a mobile home if he gives it to me for free, so i can fix it up and put a tenant into it and he would still have the advantage of collecting lot rent.

Now i understand the concept that the owner of the park would still get some cash flow through the lot rent of the property, but would he really give me the mobile home FOR FREE? Not only that but wouldn't the cost of repairs cost me quite a bit of money even though the instructor said I didn't need much money to make this deal work?

I'm just looking for a little bit of feedback on if the concept of the mobile home investing idea and if anyone out there who has had success with this type of investing could maybe give me a few pointers.

Thanks,

Anthony