All Forum Posts by: Dawn Young

Did you haver your foundation put in?  what did it cost?  Was it blocks and tie downs, or what?

Lots people get really excited about any form of "making payments to owner".  I've not done an owner conrtract yet, but our lease option ads go crazy. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind you'd get the tippy top of retail price for it.   I don't like discounts to sell notes either.  I think maybe that's a good back up plan, though.  Its all about how the numbers work out for you and how long it would take to sell in various ways.   I'm sure you knew that already.

The thing I hate about construction (yes, even our "manufactured homes" have construction, when they are moved to a new, permanent lot), there all so many unknowns, and things that change on the spot, no matter how much research is done.  Seems like the people who really make money on those consistently are the ones who own the contracting companies, and of course the Realtor who sells it.  We did fine on ours, though, but there was a lot of headache.  Def there should be a good good profit margin, so there's room for error, and you get paid for the headache.  Just my perspective.

Disclaimer: I didn't read all the comments!  I think it depends on how much you love being a landlord!  You've got enough property for a property mngr, thats awesome.  Those rents sound awesome for the price! But the exit strategy would not be quick and easy--- you'd either have to pay money to sell, or get creative in your selling strategy (and it might not be possible).  I've never heard of an "area that doesn't appreciate" before, you might get lucky and be surprised, but I sure wouldn't bank on it.  I'd just make sure I knew the "worst that could happen", and that my spouse was OK with the deal!  Honestly, I don't know if we'd do it or not.  Landlording's hard. And I do love equity!!!  Hubs would be the decision  maker on this one.  If it was a little ways from where we live, and there was some anonimity, but not in a really bad neighborhood maybe.  I'd definitely try to get them down on the price to cover the expenses of repairs at least, or shop around for a similar type of place, with a better deal.   There are always more fish in the sea, this is not the last deal.  If it was, then that means the neighborhood IS appreciating. :-)

Those were all double wides, 1200-1750 sq ft

Depends on lenth of distance, whether the home is pit set (more) how hard it is to get out of its current setting, how everything goes.  We had two moved about 30 miles, and they both ran about $4000 ish, but this was a couple years ago, another we had move more like 400 miles, they had to float it down a hill, part of the roof blew off, I rented axels and wheel and had them delivered.  It cost almost 10,000, but I got a great deal on that house, so it kind of all balanced out in the end.  Plus, we knew from the beginning it was going to be a spendy one, so we had it in the budget.  

The whole issue is really confusing, and "permanent foundation" means different things to different banks/fha/conv, portfolio, etc.  If anyone has anything to add to this convo, I'd love to hear it.  

I love your post title!  Sometimes we get put down when we do things "different"!  Glad you can see the flip side.  We're small timers, working our way up, my husband is a blue collar worker, and never made a lot, I have a small home business, we have 5 kids and homeschool.   We grew up low class, but not poverty level. our investment deals are all about quality of life.  Our first goal, many years ago, was to be able to live without a mortgage (in a house big enough for us, and we, with Gods help, of course, accomplished that with a small land subdivision.  (in a 100 year flood zone)  This is "different" , lol. 2nd goal was to get my husband out of his dead end job at a grocery store, where he'd worked 17 years. so,  went on to move 3 mfh, used, but nice, onto our lots (another short plat) we live in one and rent 1 Still learning the ins and outs of landlording!  We're supposed to by signing soon on a lease with option contract for the remaining house. (we have discovered financing) The tenant buyers are pretty excited.  We'll see how it goes!  Husband was able to quit last year, and now works a variaty of jobs, and details cars on occasion.   We are very upfront with our buyers, and the market goes up.  we live in an area that is close to a fast growing community.  Next goal-make a little more money.  I would love to not have to work my business anymore.  Mothering and real estate is enough!  We have a plan, for our next project, but I'll share after we get it done.  

Our ultimate goal(many years from now) is to buy a mfh park, or storage facitility, but with our projections, hopefully we'll be able to do both.    I am absolutely confident we could do "john fedro" flips if we owned a mfh park, but its difficult to impossible without owning the park, or being a mfh mover, here in tri cities.  Too many laws, and the trailers hold their value better than other areas.  

sorry this is so long!  Thanks for listening!

Around here, we seem to get about the same as a stick built. (ours are modern mfhs) If its any less than stick built rentals its because usually a stick built house of the same era has a garage, which ours don't.  Any rentals that are less also have their reasons, such as, being old.  Renters like modern, comfortable homes.  heat pump, insulation, those are magical words.  We're still learning here, but that's just what we've observed so far. 

After moving a nice doublewide manufactured home (1999) from seattle (no hard water) to tri-cities desert (lotsa hard water) after one year of tenants that may not have cleaned the tub surround, the tub went from an almond color to a reddish color.  Scrubbing does nothing for it. It does not appear to be mildew, just hard water?  This is a plastic tub, the surround is much worse than the tub.  We need to find an affordable fix. re-surface kit from homedepot?  Slide in new tub over? Obviously, its not the hilton.  Nor is it a ancient single wide.  My tenants go for "clean" not "fancy"  The other bathtub in the house has only slight discoloration, and is a soaker (bigger) tub.  Please no discouraging comments on it being a mf home, or moving homes.  I know my niche(to an extent!), and am learning stuff all the time.  :-)  Thanks for your help!  It is a rental, but we may sell via payments, or bank loan, which it does qualify for.