Mobile Homes in the Tampa Bay region

[Jesse Gaytan]

My wife and I are interested in investing in mobile homes in the Tampa Bay region, unfortunately for us we’ve run into a bunch of homes for sale in 55+ communities. This is unfortunate because we are both in our 30’s and none of the communities will allow anyone under the age of 40 to apply for the community. We’ve missed on great opportunities because of this. Can anyone provide advise on how to get around this roadblock, if possible?

[Michael Haynes]

Hello Jesse Gaytan, My friend started out 30 years ago as Rental Manager for a businessman who owned 500 rental properties in Tampa. He learned the business and started buying single and double wides and manufactured homes on single lots with their own wells and septic. Richard would look for cheap, single lots, mostly in Lutz and move on a doublewide trailer that he could buy for cheap...like $3000 and dig a well to put in septic and set up another rental. You could find some homes that were going for $3000 and put $3000 in them, trim the trees, build a front porch, new insides throughout and rent for $1000 a month. He found a couple of cheap trailer parks in New Tampa and Holiday to buy. My handyman did a lot of the work and one trailer even had an oak tree growing up through the livingroom. Richard would prop up the box and strip out all the wallboard, flooring and install PVC water pipes, new wire and everything just like a renovated house. New septic field if needed and pump for the well or drill a new well to get them going. Richard ended up with 90 separate trailer lots around Hillsborough County. He manages everything on his own, driving around 24 hours a day collecting the rents etc. You start out with your own Cash and get one lot going. When that is producing Free Cash Flow, it helps to Finance the next one. As things got going Richard would Bundle single mortgages into Jumbo loans at better rates for more Cash back and buy more lots. Richard is the only Investor I know who survived the 2008 Economic Collapse without losing any properties. His business is a huge Cash Cow. The problem at the moment is finding single lots with manufactured homes For Sale. My roofer is wanting to move from Thonotosassa near to Brandon and I did a Search last week for him for single lots with manufactured homes and there are none. I did find a good one in a small Community where you own the lot and it has a really nice manufactured home, ready to go. There is an HOA fee as there are facilities in the Community with pool and they can Finance the property if you need. To start out, this one is really close to a Turn Key that would work for a rental that I have found. I have a booklet from an old timer from the Investors Club in Clearwater that shows you "How to make a Million with Trailer Rentals." Do your Search online for youtube videos to show you the way. The problem with the Parks and Land Lease without owning the Lot is that it is the Land that Appreciates over time and not the home. The other problem is your clientele...