Made a Tax Deed Mistake

[Pete K.]

Quick Background: I started investing and learning about real estate two years ago. Since then I bought a 3/2 that is cash flowing nicely and purchased my own home with three roommates covering the mortgage for me. After researching all different methods of acquiring real estate I decided to look in to tax deeds.

The problem: So I recently took a class on investing in tax deeds and liens and at the end of the class decided to bid on property in Florida. I did some basic analysis from the class, did not do a drive by because I live in Georgia (can you see where the first mistake is?), and submitted some remote bids. I ended up winning a bid on a property for $16,500 that my market research confirmed was worth about $80K at FMV, so I purchased it at about 20% of FMV thinking I had plenty of wiggle room. It turns out the 2/2, 1000 sq/ft single family home that I thought I had purchased was actually a mobile home. I had read a few books on mobile homes but had no practical experience so I figured I could try to get out of this deal quickly by selling it extremely low. Upon entry to the property it turn out a group of squatters had been living in the home according to the neighbors and had flooded the place with two feet of water. The result is a completely destroyed mobile home that was built in 1986. So what do I do now?

Possible Courses of Action:

1. Have the home demolished and leave the slab, electrical, water in place (Cost:$3K). Rent the lot. My question here for the experienced members is how easy is it to find a person willing to emplace their own mobile home? Thinking Florida in particular. I don't know how to research this or where to look for the answer. I assume I could market the lot through Craigslist or a realtor.

2. Have the home demolished and replaced with a new home. I am calling builders now to get a quote but I feel like this may not be profitable.

3. Have the home demolished and have a used home from somewhere else to replace it. My issue with this is I do not know where to start finding a used mobile home. When I use google or craigslist, everything is already in place on a lot. Who should I be contacting and how should I go about finding a decent used mobile home to put on the lot?

4. Any recommendations on another course of action?

Thanks for all of your help with solving my very unintelligent mistake!