All Forum Posts by: Jay Gray

@Raymond B. Thanks. I'm not sure what happened up there, I'm fairly web savvy.

 How does that work out for you in practice? Do you wind up with a lot of surprise move outs? A lot of turnover throughout the year? What type of notice do you give/require - 30 days?

This is where I was ready to not renew the lease...  "The last time this happened they threatened to call a lawyer because it was dangerous for their baby daughter."

If lease is up and you're in the clear, I'd thank them for their mostly-on-time payment history, offer a good rental reference, and show them the boot. 

Unless there's major unforgivable damage I'd probably give them their full deposit just to be done with it without additional threats of legal nonsense as well.  

The thing about being a PITA tenant is you're going to run the risk of getting notice to vacate when your lease is up. Reminds me of that saying "...catch more flies with honey".   

And here's some photos to go with the story... 

It's funny I was thinking the same until I saw a mobile/manufactured home installed in the front yard of a planned residential neighborhood in the bay area of Northern California. We're talking about a newer 2000-ish tract home neighborhood. The lot was about 1/3 of an acre in a cul-de-sac though.  

I went down and looked at all the permits and fees paid -- it was basically about $15k total fees and I think it was treated as a 2nd unit on the lot. It must have fit within all the setbacks so no issue.  The people lost the main house through foreclosure and unbelievably picked up this mobile home and had it installed in a MHP in the area. . 

I was thinking about this the other day

there are tons of very cheap (sometimes even "free") mobile homes available from families inheriting them who basically just want to get rid of the monthly park fee (rent) ASAP. 

When you're talking about "double wide" or "triple wide" units, some of these things are huge and relatively nice inside and out. 

I've talked to people who specialize in moving these things and typically you can get the job done and the unit completely moved and re-installed for under $5000. 

Let's say you found a fanastic deal on an ~1500sf unit from the 1980's and it cost you maybe $5000-$10000. 

So in theory, so far you could have a 1500sf "home" moved from one location and installed for $10,000-$15,000. 

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For example, I would want to do this in an area where standard construction wood-frame tract house was previously scraped and now only an empty lot in the residential area remains. 

Of course another huge chunk here would probably be the fees that the county would charge to do such a thing (police, fire, school, water, sewer, etc. "impact" fees - as well as the basic building/zoning/planning fees).  I would estimate another $15,000-$20,000 for all these fees. 

Add another $5000 for concrete (if required) and basic landscaping and you have a 1500sf "house" installed for $30,000-$40,000 + the cost of the land.   

If you were to do new construction, you still would have the same process and fees with the county/city, but there's no way you could construct the house itself for $10k-$15k (maybe a kitchen). 

My question is... has anyone here actually done or tried to do something something like this?  

I think there are also some special (more relaxed) rules for "construction" or "installation" and even taxation (property tax) when dealing with "mobile" homes. This is why you can look under most/all mobile homes and you'll see the axles with the wheels removed. Something to with them still remaining "mobile". 

Anyway just some ideas I'm bouncing around here. 

Another semi-related story to consider. I think at some point mold remediation needs to be formalized and then disclosed to any future buyers/tenants for a number of years?  This reminds me of a beautiful two story house that was rehabbed down the street from me. At one point they had an asbestos remediation team out there for about 3 weeks (so said the van) with big vent hoses running in and out of the house.  After this work was done, they did the total cosmetic fix up inside and out. It was on the market for a reasonable price and didn't sell. It was then rented to one couple with a baby, and the people moved out just about as fast as they moved in.  Then the same thing happened 2 more times (renters move out within 1-3 months of moving in).  The current residents have lived there for about 6 months now.  I'd bet dollars to doughnuts the people breaking their leases aren't paying a dime in penalty or loss of security deposit. 

For a minute there it almost made me wonder if scraping the (approx $250k) house to get rid of asbestos disclosures would be a smarter financial decision :)

I can share that long looong ago I was a young renter in a home that had a mold issue isolated to one of the bathrooms. The home was managed professionally by a pretty big property management place serving the region. I took photos and sent them to the company, and they sent out an undocumented worker to to come "repair" the issue. He did not speak english, so he couldn't answer my basic question if he or his company was insured, or if he was operating in my home under the insurance of the property management company. I like to know that people performing work in my home are insured before they start accidentally breaking my stuff.  It was annoying to the property management company that I had the balls to ask if their worker was insured & they were very VERY reluctant to state that they would be liable for any damage he caused. 

So his repairs consisted of tearing out a nice granite topped double vanity and replacing it with about the cheapest smallest piece of particle board + formica topped used POS they could find.

Note that we had JUST taken possession of the property and moved in, and the beautiful guest bathroom was one of the selling points.  

When the guy replaced the vanity with the "new" one that was 1/3 the original size, he didn't bother to paint the back wall which clearly showed a larger vanity used to be there. 

He wiped down the back wall where the mold had sunk in (to what extent I'll never know) with chlorine bleach and called it a day. 

We asked the property management place to come inspect the work done by the fool, and they did. They clearly didn't like it the results of their "worker", but pretended like everything was A-OK and that I should be happy that the mold problem was "gone".  

So I asked them to get a mold test since I didn't feel like the guy was A) qualified to perform mold remediation and B) didn't do anything to inspect or remediate the in-wall mold issue. 

At this point they made the same revelation that I had -- neither of us is going to be happy -- asked me if I would like to move without penalty. I probably could have went after them for relocation expenses or something, but I just wanted to get away from such a scummy management company ASAP. 

This short story is just saying to illustrate that it can be in ones best interest if you have someone complaining about mold to offer them an out if it seems like they're at all interested in that and would be satisfied with that result. 

Of course by all appropriate means inspect, assess and remediate any mold issues ASAP. But the last thing you want is for a tenant to start contacting you about real or imagined ailments related to mold exposure.  

The problem is sometimes you both will have very different opinions of what "fixing the issue" is -- especially since the tenant lives there, and you live somewhere else. In my case, the property management company wanted to be cheap POS's and so they lost a tenant as a result.  But it was definitely the smart thing for them to do, since we were getting nowhere fast in terms of correcting the issue.

As you explore this more, you might contact the county where you think will be stored in the slip and ask for estimate of annual taxes for the boat itself, plus anything else for your plan to turn it into a vacation rental.  

Every time I purchase what I consider a pleasure boat, the city/county has their hand out and apparently this is an annual thing. This is in addition to registration, tax/title/transfer at the DMV/MVD. 

What I was told by the clerk when asking why they care about my boat(s) is that these taxes are aimed primarily towards houseboats, yachts, and larger luxury boats that might aslo be dwelling units.  

Just another expense to consider as you estimate your costs for such a venture.

That's an interesting one! But of course the devil is in the details -- it would be interesting to know what the investor paid and what they city paid out via eminent domain.  Maybe I'll go try to dig it up and get those numbers.