All Forum Posts by: Greg Powers

Hi Cody:

I guess the first question is, do you have a place to move this to?  If so, have you found a company to actually move it and have you gotten a quote for that?  You might be surprised at how much that will cost.

If you want to move it into a park, you should contact the park manager and see if they have any restrictions on the age of homes you can move in.  If they don't, they'll probably still want to see photos of the place before approving it.  They will also have to approve you.  Most parks in NH don't allow rentals, so you'd have to move it in and then sell it, so you'll have to make sure you stay on good terms with the park managers/owner so they don't throw up any roadblocks to that process.

If you have some land you're going to move it onto, check with the town to see what the zoning is, age restrictions, etc.  And of course you''ll either have to inspect any existing well and septic, or install them (big bucks).'

And for that particular mobile home, you'll have to factor in the cost for appliances and cabinets.  You can check with one of the Habitat for Humanity warehouses for inexpensive cabinets and maybe appliances.  I know they have locations in Manchester and Nashua, and might have others in Concord or near the seacoast.

What you sell it for will depend on where you move it to some degree.

All of this, of course, will take time, so if you get it under contract and make the sale contingent upon getting all this squared away, make sure it's clear in your contract who is paying the current park fee while you're doing it.

I hope that helps!

$300/month for a condo fee is pretty typical in New Hampshire.  And we HAVE seen a lot of appreciation—but prices plummeted in 2008, so things have been appreciating from the bottom of a deep well, and some condo complexes still haven’t climbed back to pre-2008 levels.

Some ski mountains open up to mountain bikers in the warmer months, and some lakes host ice-fishing derbies or are near snowmobile trails. So if you can pick a location that hosts such year-round activities, I think you’d have a better chance of maximizing the short-term rental possibilities.

I live in southern NH, too far from the lakes and mountains to have any expertise.

The simple answer is to get a copy of the Park rules from the manager and read them carefully.  A lot of the parks in NH--whether 55+ or not--do not allow rentals, and the prohibition against them can be phrased different ways in their respective rules.  For example, here are excerpts from rules in 3 different parks:

- All housing units are to be owner occupied.  No rentals or sub-leases are allowed, except as specified in the Cooperative's Bylaws.

- The leased lot is to be used for private residential purposes of single-family homeowner occupied homes.

- The owner of the mobile home must be an occupant of the mobile home.

In your case, whether someone not 55+ can own a home in the park should be spelled out in the rules.  If it's not, ask the manager.

Taylor Parton above is right that most 55+ communities will allow under-55 people to occupy a home, but at least one occupant has to be 55+, and usually they have to be family members.  There can be exceptions--as in the case of a live-in caretaker who is not 55+.  But again, that would all be spelled out in the rules and bylaws of the community. 

@Nikki Cuozzo

A buyer is not likely to take on that responsibility. But it would be worth having your seller contact your state environmental division about it. I listed a residential property In New Hampshire that had an underground tank that was suspected of leaking. One expert (whose name I can provide to anyone interested) recommended that the tank be removed before trying to test the soil for leakage. Because it was a residential tank, it was of a size considered "non-regulated" so a contractor was able to remove and dispose of it.

In our case, there was no leakage so my client only paid the cost of the removal, which I believe came to a few thousand dollars.

If there HAD been a release of oil, then the NH Department of Environmental Services would have gotten involved. But the DES has a reimbursement fund that my client could have tapped into. Whenever we buy a tank of gas for our car in NH, a portion of the taxes paid goes into a general fund devoted to cleaning up hazardous waste spills in the state.

The process for accessing that fund would have been to first file a claim with the homeowner's insurance carrier and see if they would cover it. If not, the homeowner would simply need written confirmation that the insurance company was denying the claim, and then he could use funds from that DES pool, with a $100 deductible.

So if your state has a similar program, even if there is a leak it might not cost a lot of money, although it will probably cost a lot of time.

If you're talking about a Hardship Withdrawal from your 401k, those can only be used for a primary residence if I remember correctly.  Daniel Hughes mentioned that the IRS just changed the rules relating to hardship withdrawals, so you should call whichever company handles your retirement plan (Fidelity, etc.) and ask them what the options are.  The IRS sets the overall rules, but each employer can be more restrictive and have their own specific rules and processes for loans and withdrawals.

I used to work for Fidelity Investments and processed these kinds of transactions (Hardship Withdrawals, Loans) on a daily basis.  It sounds like you're aware that a withdrawal could potentially bump you into another tax bracket, but if you are currently qualifying for anything based on income--financial aid for your kids' school, Marketplace healthcare subsidies--you might screw yourself right out of it with a big withdrawal.

I'm not a lawyer, just a Realtor, but in NH I believe the law states that if a buyer asks about murder, suicide, or cult activity occurring on a property, and the seller is aware of it, the seller must disclose it.  Generally speaking in NH the same laws appply to lessee/lessor relationships that apply to buyer/seller relationships, so it's a safe bet that if a tenant asks about such events or activities, a landlord must disclose them.  If a buyer (and possibly a tenant) does NOT ask, the seller (and maybe landlord) has no duty to disclose.

However, let's say you don't disclose it to a potential tenant because they don't ask, you lease the apartment to them, and then one day when they're taking out the trash the neighbor asks if they knew about the suicide?  If it freaks them out, then you have a problem, even if no laws were broken.

I've been in rooms full of people who were asked, "Would it bother you to buy a house where there was a murder or suicide?" and the split is about half and half. 

The New Hampshire Association of REALTORS® has a legal hotline you can run it by; just go to the web site and look for "Legal Hotline."

Hi Johnathan!  I might be able to help.  Where in NH are you?  There are a number of brokerages in southern NH that deal with investment properties rather than mainstream residential properties, and some do both.  PM me and maybe I can point you in a few good directions.

Just sent you a message...

Hi Axel!  I'm emailing you directly with a recommendation.