Originally posted by @Skip Widman:
Hi Alejandro I'm a small investor including mobile homes about an hour north of you in Belleview FL. I have also moved a couple used mobile home to lots. I also own a mobile built in 1974 that is in pretty bad shape that I'm going to tear down and put a new one on. You should be able to find the age of the home on the county website.
In my opinion if you were to fix up the home you would still have other issues. Paper thin walls, single pane windows, which lead to hi electric bills especially in Florida, which tenants will complain about.
Also I have a full-time day job so less headaches is important to me.
David Greene's book on long-distance investing "headache factor" (pg. 163) put it home for me. It will become stressful, lose sleep, cost you time and resources etc. Time you could be putting in in other properties.
My suggestion if it's in bad enough shape tear it down and start over. If the home is in the 80's' or newer you might have a chance if you put a lot of money into it.
I like your idea and share the same goals of tearing down and buying new and renting to a nice family.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you Skip for your insight. We found out that the MH is from 71' so I figure its pre HUD and most likely bring other issues if we try to fix it up. The cost to bring it up to building code would be too much to be dealing with an old trailer.
Thank you for referring to David Greene book. I'll have to check it out to get some more insight of what it takes to invest at long distance.
Yesterday we were the discussing the possibility of demoing the unit and installing a new unit down. Which in reality is the best choice due to the conditions of the trailer. What we pondering on now is whether to buy a new trailer or an old trailer and have it delivered to site. We have experience doing demos but we don't have a process for the trailer placement. In your experience, do you always buy used trailers to place on your lots or have you dabble into buying new manufactured home?
