All Forum Posts by: Alex Ficco

“PASS… IT'S A MANUFACTURED HOME”

One of my favorite responses from A LOT of Buyers whenever we have a manufactured home to assign.

There are many reasons to pass on a manufactured home deal, but 90% of the time, the reason is BECAUSE it's manufactured and the Buyers just don’t know about them or have never bought one before.

Here in Northern Nevada, we have a TON of manufactured homes in our more rural areas, so why not learn about them and open yourself up to more deals? Luckily, the guys I would sell deals to when I first started wholesaling weren't scared of them, so I got to learn a lot about them before we started flipping - but usually the hard way by realizing I didn’t have a deal because SOMETHING wasn’t right with it.

Yes, they are different than stick builds and they are nuanced, but once you know just a few things about them, they aren’t as scary as you might think.

For the purpose of this post and not getting too far in the weeds, I’ll be using ‘MOBILE home’ in reference to a home that’s in a trailer park (you don't own the land), and ‘MANUFACTURED home’ in reference to a home that comes WITH the land.

MOBILE homes are a whole different deal. They are personal property and have no real estate involved in the transaction. Can you still wholesale, flip, and rent them? YES. But usually, you’re dealing with different licensing for the work, park approvals (for the Buyer / Renters / Age restrictions / Rent eligibility, etc) and they are harder to comp as there is no “Sold Data” database to dig through that’s public - at least in our area.

MANUFACTURED homes are more of what I’m talking about here and some of the key nuances. Most of these details have to do with the lendability of the home, which affects the after repair value. If the home doesn’t check all of these boxes, it doesn’t mean it's not a deal or a 100% pass, it just means the value isn’t going to be as high as one that does.

Ideally, we want the home to be FHA financeable for the highest value and biggest pool of buyers on resale. On average, a lot of the demographic that's buying manufactureds are using FHA loans for a low down payment. There ARE other types of lending for homes that don't meet this criteria, but the terms are worse and usually require a higher down payment. I know plenty of guys that still take the non-financeable ones, but they know the ARV will be less, the hold time will be longer because of the smaller buyer pool, and some of them even offer seller financing to the buyer to get them sold.

The 5 main points I will cover at a super high level are: year built, if it's been moved, converted to real property, double wide vs single wide, and additions.

First, year built matters! If the home was built after June 15, 1976, this is a good thing. If it was built before then, the home doesn't meet HUD building standards and wont go FHA. In Nevada, Manufactured Housing Division's database can be searched online to find this information.

Second, while doing the title search on MHD, you can search the title history. This will show WHERE the home was in what year. Again, if the home was placed at its original location and then moved again, it won’t go FHA.

If we are dealing with a 1980 home and we can see on the title history the first record of the home is in 1980 at the same location, its safe to say it hasn’t been moved.

If we don’t have record of the home at all until 1995, and from 1995 till now its been at the current location, we will need to do further due diligence to figure out where it was between 1980 and 1995. Obviously, if the home shows a different location at any time, it's been moved.

Third, converted to real property. This is when the home has been permanently secured to the real estate and now transfers as such. Remember, these things are personal property until this is done. If it's not done, the land and home transfer separately.

The requirements for this change by the county, but in a nutshell, it needs to be placed on whatever the county deems is a permanent foundation, and then the proper paperwork is filled, making it lendable. Oftentimes, the homes we deal with are on a lendable foundation, but the home is still personal property - usually because the property taxes are much cheaper for just the dirt. If this is the case, just the paperwork is needed and it can be converted in escrow.

Fourth, double wides and single wides! I've heard recently that FHA started lending on single wides, but don't quote me on that because I'm too lazy to look it up. If that is still NOT the case… Double wide good. Single wide bad. At least speaking in terms of your end buyer's lending. And triple wide… that's a big *****.

Last, additions! For whatever reason, people that own manufactured homes in rural Nevada LOVE to add onto them. Because of the materials used in original construction, manufactureds have strict standards on attaching things to them - they need to be self supported. This goes for covered patios too. Again, doesn't mean it's not a deal, just something to be aware of. Either the addition was done right, it needs to be corrected, or it needs to be demo’d just to avoid any potential hang ups on the resale.

Obviously, there’s a ton more on each of these points, but there’s an overview of some things to look out for. I’ve wholesaled and flipped a bunch of these things that check all 5 of those boxes, wholesaled a bunch of them that don't, and wholesaled 3 or 4 of the mobile homes in parks… the Buyer’s list just gets smaller the more boxes you uncheck.

Hopefully that helps for anyone that has these in their area and now you’re able to grab another deal or two that you may have passed on.

Great work! You killed it. Things going to rip!

I’m in a couple of different mastermind groups, both of which I really enjoy for different reasons. Both have quarterly in-person events that we travel to.

One group is called ‘PowerRoom’, which is for entrepreneurs from any industry. There are some REALLY high level guys in there. The other is called ‘Wealthy Investor’ - formerly ‘Future Flipper’ - which is real estate education. This group is mixed from just starting out to people doing 300+ deals a year.

Unlike when I was brand new in my real estate journey, I now 100% see the value in paying for not just education, but proximity to other like-minded people or people doing more than you. People like this can be hard to find in your day-to-day life.

Whenever you’re entrepreneurial, or just competitive in general, it’s so easy to get caught in this trap of comparison. Social media has made this problem 10X worse. 95% of the time, you’re ONLY getting the highlight reel on socials. You’re rarely getting the struggles, things going wrong, negative aspects of their business, etc. You just don’t know all the details about what they're doing or what they may have gone through to get there.

Even in person at these events, especially when talking to people that are the same age or younger than you, it's very easy to get caught up second guessing yourself - “Am I in the wrong business? Maybe I should be doing THAT too? How did he figure this out? Why am I working so hard? Am I just stupid?”

Thankfully, I don't struggle with this all that often, but I know that TONS of people do, especially in Real Estate. Just like in last week’s post, there’s a ton of different ways to skin the cat, and they ALL work. Shiny object syndrome is a real thing, and it rears its head even after you’re up and going, doing deals, but you let comparison impact you negatively.

For the people that struggle with this, usually it's an issue with their ‘Blueprint’ - the way that they THINK their life is supposed to be right now VS how it actually is.

Do I wish I was where I’m at now 10 years ago? Sure. Do I always want things to move along faster than they do? Of course. But I also firmly believe that everything that’s happening right now is exactly what’s supposed to be happening. I needed to take my path to get to where I’m at right now.

But having these conversations is like walking a tightrope right? You HAVE to get around these guys to learn from them and APPLY what you learn to expedite things for yourself. That’s how to use comparison in a positive manner - Compare yourself / business to theirs, learn what they are doing, and apply the lessons in a way that makes sense for you. This is USEFUL!

But it's so easy to take the same conversation in a negative manner - Compare yourself / business to theirs, learn what they are doing, immediately want to jump ship completely to do the ‘next best thing’ or feel stupid because they make it seem so easy when you’ve been grinding your dick into the dirt to get to where you are. This is USELESS!

Maybe what they're doing IS better than what you’re doing… but again, we never know all the details after one conversation. We never know the person’s full background. We never know their prior business experience. We never know their competitive advantages or full skill sets.

So what’s the point? WHY put yourself through this cycle? Through this emotional rollercoaster based on a conversation that gave you 5% of the story or information? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter one bit where other people are. It doesn’t matter how easy they make it seem. It doesn’t matter that they were able to do whatever at whatever age. How does that affect you? … It doesn’t.

What DOES matter is what you can learn from them and the nuggets you can pull from the conversation. Hopefully you can give them some in return!

Maybe they're in the same business and they are having success with a marketing channel you haven't tried yet… Something to think about. Maybe they're in a totally different business and something that’s standard in their sales process is unheard of in your industry… Something to think about. Maybe they just said something in passing that sparked an idea to apply to what you’re doing… Something to think about.

What DOESN’T need to be thought about is how bad you are at business because they made more money than you at a younger age. Cool... Learn from it and move forward!

Hopefully that helps anyone that struggles playing the comparison game.

“IT DEPENDS”

The answer we don’t like to hear, but is the real answer in most cases.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used this answer when asked a question about real estate. We like things to be black and white, cut and dry, but usually they aren’t.

There are so many different ways to skin the cat in real estate. And the problem is they all work. But it seems like people are always searching for that magic bullet that just isn't there.

This is the reason that I really LIKE and DISLIKE the Bigger Pockets Podcast. It's super interesting to hear people’s stories in all different stages of their investment career executing all different strategies, but I think it does a disservice to some people.

You hear about a kid doing millions in assignment fees wholesaling. Cool, that sounds pretty good. Love wholesaling. Next week you hear about a syndicator buying with other people’s money. Cool, that sounds pretty good. I’m going to do syndication. Next week it's Seller Finance Guy. Cool, that sounds way better than going to the bank, that’s my thing.

Which one of these is the best strategy? ...IT DEPENDS. Is wholesaling the best strategy? It was for me when I got started, because it was the only one I could figure out with my current available time, money, and risk tolerance.

Knowing what I know now, could I go buy an off-market multifamily building using none of my own money (like I wanted to do before I got started)? Yep… but there’s absolutely 0 chance in hell I could’ve done that as my first deal without starting in wholesaling (learning how to market to find off-market deals, talk to sellers, etc), getting into flipping (learning how to raise private capital, learning about rehab, operating deals, etc.) and holding some rentals along the way.

You can always change the strategy later as you get better, but I see it so often at the local meetup I run in Reno NV… people don’t give themselves enough time to do a SINGLE strategy before switching up and going after something else… ultimately resulting in 0 deals done across ANY strategy.

You can see the same phenomenon when talking to people about deals even in the same strategy. People are always asking “is this a good deal?” … IT DEPENDS.

I know a ton of flippers that buy a few $0 cashflow West Coast SFR's per year. Are they idiots? To the guy that only buys South East SFR's mainly for cashflow, yeah probably. But they do it for the accelerated depreciation to eliminate their tax bill from the flipping company. Different strategy within the same strategy. Are they good deals? … IT DEPENDS.

I saw this just YESTERDAY on a wholesale deal I posted for $340k. An OG buyer offered $285k. Another buyer laughed at me when he asked about rehab and I told him if we were going to take it down, we’d spend about $20k (meaning he thinks it would be much more), and I had another buyer use the “Win It Now” feature on investor lift and take it for $350k without even walking it.

Is it a good deal at $350k? … IT DEPENDS.

If you’re stuck getting going or scratching your head as you’re seeing deal after deal sell for way more than you think it's worth, hopefully that helps.

Light cosmetic Fixer. Good opportunity for a fix and flip or buy and hold. This is an assignment of contract. Cash or Hard Money only. Message me for financing options.

ARV: $435k

Price: $340k + closing costs (Win it Now $350k)

Message me for more info and full home inspection.

Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Gardnerville, Minden, Tahoe, Fernley, Fallon, Dayton, Silver Springs, Mound House

 It probably helps to not be a Ficco at all 😂

I've been running a local meetup for Real Estate Investors here in Reno, NV for about 4 years now, mostly focused on flipping, wholesaling, finding off-market deals, talking to sellers, etc. (I can only teach on the things we do every day.) Every month, we start the meetup with a quick intro for all the attendees - Who you are, what you do, what you need, etc.

The networking at the meetup is some of the most valuable opportunities I can provide. I try to remember to tell the attendees beforehand "This is your chance to speak up and tell everyone what you're looking for so when we open it up for networking, the right people can approach you and help out." Anything I can teach is already out there. You can learn it online. The local CONNECTIONS are where the real value comes from.

At the meetup this Wednesday, it seemed like over HALF of the attendees mentioned that they are looking for a good deal to buy. Makes sense... its an investor's meetup... but I've never heard that many people actively wanting to buy something right now. A lot of people are always stuck in the learning stage, and that's what they say when their time comes to speak.

An obvious take away from this is that the Buyers are back. Our market got hit pretty hard last June - December. We basically lost 10% overnight in some areas in June (trust me, losing 10% hurts when you're buying flips on 8% margins 😭 😭 😭).

I couldn't GIVE a wholesale deal away in Q4 2022. I couldn't blame the Buyers, we weren't buying either, but these were fat deals with conservative ARV's and realistic rehab numbers we would have all been foaming at the mouth for just 6 months prior. That changed mid Q1 2023.

Does the local market have room to keep going down? **** if I know, but it seems that the majority of flip Buyers are more confident in the interest rate environment and price stability than they were a few months ago.

With so many people hungry to buy ath the meetup, my first reaction is... WTF is everyone waiting for? Well... they're waiting for a good deal, right? Yes... But I hate to break it to you guys. You're probably going to have to increase your 'deal-finding effort' tenfold to get one... at least in our local market.

As always, a million caveats to this - what's your strategy, which price point are you target, areas, rehab cost, financing, etc - but again, speaking from the perspective of sourcing off-market SFR/Condo/Townhouse/Manufactureds mostly for flips... this **** is competitive. It always has been since I started in 2017, and it's probably not going to get any easier.

Being in the dispo seat at the company, I talk to Buyers all day long... seasoned, brand new, flippers, rental guys, true cash, private money, mom-and-pop, several hundred per year... everything you can think of.

Especially from the younger/newer investors, I get the feeling pretty often that they think they are going to just wait and a 'good deal' is going to fall into their lap. Or now that they are on our Buyers List, they've got a smoker coming their way later this week. Some of the old guys actually CAN pull this off and I envy them for it... but that's what they deserve for being in the game for the last 40 years.

The stars might align and something does fall into your lap with no effort, but if you truly want to buy something and buy it soon, you need to start taking more action and be READY to pull the trigger when the time comes. Get aggressive and get your contractor, partners, underwriting, and financing in order. More often than not, even our off-market wholesale deals have several Buyers that are interested in them at our asking price.

Our local market is NOT a heavy wholesale market. Our market is saturated with real Buyers that have to source their own deals through marketing. We have competition on just about every deal we put in contract, but often it's not with a new wholesaler that doesn't know what their doing... it's with other Buyers.

Again, be prepared. Go in with the mindset of "I'm going to have to talk to a **** LOAD of people to get a deal." Have your purcahse agreement ready. You go on appointments to CLOSE, not to take photos. Be ready to FOLLOW UP with the Sellers and get some deals coming in later.

Are there deals on the MLS? 100% yes, but again... effort and volume. The deals are 'free' (no marketing spend) but they are likely going to be the most competitive, so be prepared to make a LOT of offers to get one.

It always comes back to volume guys. This isn't rocket science. There's nothing we are doing that is a secret or even 'the best', we are always improving and changing things as we go. It's just hard work... but WTF are you waiting for? You NEED to take enough action to take down that first deal. It's everything. So just remember when the phone looks heavy... pick it up any way. The next call might be a $20k wholesale, or a $40k flip... then it's 🚀

Quick reminder for our monthly Reno Real Estate Investors Meetup this Wednesday from 6-8pm. It's at the Ant Space in Sparks, 1925 E Prater. Find it on meetup . com for more info! 

Topic: PARTNERSHIPS

We get a lot of questions relating to partnering - either finding a partner or how to partner with us. We will go over important things to look for in partnerships, pros and cons, forming a partnership, and also how to partner on specific deals.

6:00pm - Attendee Introductions

6:20pm - Topic Discussion

6:50pm - Q and A / Open Discussion

7:30pm - Networking

8:00pm - Finish

Reno, sparks, carson city, minden, gardnerville, dayton, silver springs, fallon, fernley

"This is a PROBLEM!"

Which part? 😂 Real Estate is all about problems.

As always, speaking from my experience in the direct-to-seller flipping and wholesaling model here in Northern Nevada (Reno), all we do is solve problems.

Every single Seller that would benefit from selling to an investor has a problem (or 10). This is what we DO! We buy PROBLEM properties. We get people out of PROBLEM situations via selling the house. And we don't have a PROBLEM going above and beyond and finding creative solutions to get it done.

Keep that in mind when you're making offers. Many times it's not all about the NUMBER on the offer, it's about how many PROBLEMS you can solve within the offer.

More than that, I just wanted to hop on here explain the OTHER types of problems that we deal with. Problems on the back end.

Very few deals are "easy deals" that go off without a hitch: The Seller calls, it's a qualified HOT lead, we take the appointment, get a contract, everything is fine in inspections, the deal closes in a couple weeks.

95% of the time, we are constantly problem solving throughout escrow. Just THIS WEEK we've had:

A deal with a VERY hard to reach Seller not bringing his ID to sign the final closing docs.

A deal with the occupants needing to be out in 2 weeks, and they say the Seller never told them until now, not 3 weeks ago when we signed, causing US to scramble and provide them with 5 or 6 rental options, offering to release funds early to get them into a place, calling the property managers for them, etc.

A deal with unexpected title issues on a manufactured home, and both Sellers swearing the other has the title.

And some tweakers breaking into our new AirBnB that's about to go live, stealing a bunch of the brand new furnishings inside, and literally leaving a bag of meth behind with a receipt from the 7/11 up the street with their name and EBT card number on it 😂

Moral of the story is... this **** isn't easy. Expect issues and don't freak out WHEN they come up. Pivot and solve. After 120 deals, I still learn on every single one and come across new problems often.

Hope that helps.

Love that. 100% true. If you run a direct to seller model for any amount of time, you think you've heard it all... until tomorrow. Always something to problem solve or get creative with. The 'easy button' is a massive benefit for the right seller and it actually feels really good when you're able to help out a seller like that in a way where no other option would have got the job done. People forget that 9/10 seller's main goal in the sale is highest net proceeds. Those are listings. We are able to transact with the 1/10 where highest net proceeds may be towards the bottom of their list of goals. I've seen people come and go with less-than-great ethics, but it's a very important component to do deals in the long term.