All Forum Posts by: Eric S.

Anybody have any experience with foreclosure auctions at the various court houses?  I've been flipping in KC a long time but never made the jump to one of these and always wondered if I was missing out.  Would be interested to hear about experiences in Johnson, Jackson or Wyandotte counties.

I didn't want to call them out directly, but yeah, that's who I've been using.  They started out great, but after a while the people I worked with all moved on, the new people didn't seem to care how much business we brought in, and they've really dropped the ball on a few deals.  I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it's hard when there are so many other options.

I've been using the same title company for my real estate deals since 2003, but have recently been having some bad experiences with them.  Does anybody have a recommendation for a good title company in the KC area?  I mainly do residential flips. 

The great thing about a mobile as opposed to a stick built, is that if the home has settled or is no longer level, get under there and shim it up. A little adjustment will make a big difference when it comes to doors. You may need to hire a professional for this, but it isn't a terribly expensive fix.

But yeah, like Matt said, make sure it isn't screwed shut. A lot of people do that to secure the homes.

Yeah, you guys are kinda just confirming what I'd pretty much decided. I really hate to tear out a working system, but it isn't worth the hassles at closing that could crop up as a result.

I just bought a small flip house with the gray polybutylene plumbing. I am trying to decide if it is worth the cost to replace, or if it is better to leave it be. It has the copper fittings and crimp rings (as opposed to plastic and aluminium) and looks like an excellent installation, however I am worried about a buyers home inspection calling it out. The bright side is that it is a single story with an unfinished basement, so 90% of the plumbing is easily accessible. Does anybody have experience selling homes with poly plumbing?

My feedback would be that it sounds like a jerk-move, but if that is how your hypothetical buyer is comfortable doing business than more power to him. Personally, I would not feel comfortable ruining someone because they don't fully comply with a law that I'm not a fan of to begin with.

I believe Kansas has a limit of 6, but the rules are very sketchy and nobody in the government seems to know exactly what they are. My company was told by a dealer licensing inspector that more than 6 homes required a dealers license, regardless of whether the homes were on a lot or in a park, and that having this license would make the exempt from personal property taxes. Once we attained the license and received a bill for personal property tax we were told that homes are only exempt if they were stored on a dealers lot. Does that mean that homes sold in parks are also exempt from the 6 home limit? I can't seem to talk to anyone at the State who knows. Many of them can't even figure out the difference between a mobile home and an RV. One thing is clear: The state of Kansas HATES mobile homes, and anyone associated with them.

Thanks for the quick answers! I've looked at the Park Sidekick program and it seemed the best suited to what I wanted. We only have about 10 units at the moment with room to expand up to 20 or so.

My company owns a couple very small parks that we manage ourselves. In the past we've included water bills in our lot rent, as we don't have many tenants and it's just easier, but recently the small towns we are in have raised their water and sewer rates so high that it's eating us alive and we are looking into sub metering. I'm not worried about finding the meters themselves, I'm more worried about getting the right software to track water usage and make invoices for the tenants so that I can waste as little time as possible on the bookkeeping. Anyone have experience with this type of thing and can maybe recommend the best software for tracking and creating invoices?