All Forum Posts by: Harold Anderson

@Bill Gulley 

I forgot to reply to your comments about MHs being like a car.  

I doubt that anyone investing in MHs considers them like a car.  We look at them as housing.  That's what they are.  People live in them.  They eat in them.  They have parties in them.  They may lose their value in money but not in purpose.  Cars run down and eventually can no longer be repaired.  MHs can always be renovated.  I've renovated 2 early '70s MHs that have "lost their value".  To me and my tenants, they have not lost their value.  They are nicer than many almost new MHs and much nicer than lots of stick builts I've seen.  They're giving me monthly cash flow and I don't feel like I'm preying on anyone because I overcharge or they've lost their value.

Thanks you all for this great discussion about Lonnie Scruggs.

@Bill G. 

I don't care for them[Mobile Homes] as an investment mainly due to financing restrictions and that they depreciate like a car, they are not RE, they are personal property, unless attached to land by acceptable methods and taxed as RE.

@Richard C. 

Disagree all you want. The man got, well, not rich, but lets say comfortable, by teaching people how to prey on their neighbors.

In my previous line of work (Health Care, which everyone knows is incredibly predatory;-), almost every time I heard someone make comments about the predatory practices of someone else, I eventually discovered the commentor was doing something that others considered predatory.  

Is making $22k on an $8k investment really predatory?  Even if all parties are very happy with the outcome?  

I'm working on a MH now that I paid $1K for.  Is it predatory for me to sell it for $19k?  

What if I offered to sell it in a way in which someone could afford a lovely home that would otherwise be completely unaffordable?  Does it matter if I make $15k on it?  How about if I make $5k and it took me 2 months to complete?  Does it matter if I offer rent to own which costs the buyer less per month or if I demand the $15k in cash?

I'm always suspicious of people who accuse others of doing the wrong thing.

For a buy and hold, it sounds great as long as you can rent it.  For a flip, how would you do it?  Offering seller financing could do well for you.  To sell w/o financing, I'd need to know much more.  

For the purchase, ask the seller to finance it.  

What about location?  Is it near a town or city?  Are they SW and what SF?  Can the rents be increased?  You say they're in great condition.  Can they be improved to increase revenue?  Can the land be used for other income generation?  

I'm making pretty good return on my mobile home by renting it out.  There's value there in different ways than stick built.

@Natalie Kolodij 

I've remodelled lots of SFRs and am in the process of doing my second MH. The remodel process is no different than SFR other than it's smaller, more cheaply made, and you've got to keep to the budget. My first is a rental and I treated that very different than this one which is a flip. As others have said, make sure that you check the flooring. That junky particleboard will tell you where you've got water problems. Stopping water from getting in is my biggest challenge as my tendency is to go all out to solve the problem but, if I put new siding on this, I'll be paying my buyer to take it off my hands:-).

One trick I've been using to keep costs down is to buy gently used.  I'm pulling an almost new full set of kitchen cabinets out of an apartment complex for $350.

@Rachel H. 

 I wondered the same thing.  Hope you're right.

On the same note, does anyone know if a park can refuse to rent a lot to an investor because they don't want the competition?

@Natalie Kolodij 

I've started doing the same and ran into the same problem here in Oregon. In my first deal, I sort of got around it by agreeing with the park not to rent but to rehab and sell.  I plan to sell with owner financing.  Similar to renting but there's an end date on it:-).

Now I'm getting owners who simply don't want investors  in the parks.  I've had 2 deals ready to go with the park managers but the owners put the kabosh on it.  My first current deal is a single wide for $1k in one park and the owners gave their approval but said "this one only.  Don't think you can do this again."  They want to buy the homes and flip them themselves.  And they're afraid I'll renovate and remove the home.

Finding very motivated MH sellers is fairly easy.  I'm working on establishing good relationships with managers.  

It's ironic that owners will prevent us from renting the lot for fear of us renovating and moving a home.  I might just start buying the home and moving it to another park or private  lot.  

@Robyn Coady  It looks like you are getting a good start with a mentor and a job that gives you exposure to RE.  

I'm still a newbie to the kind of RE investing most investors here do but have made a lot on RE, in the stock market, and buying/starting businesses.   So far, you've been getting good advice here.

As someone who has lost $1M, I can tell you from personal experience how quickly it can disappear.  In my opinion, how you use your access to $1M depends entirely on how thick a hide you have.  Can you lose $100K and it doesn't bother you because you can see the end result?  Or would that loss kill your enthusiasm for investing?

Sometimes the loss will be an education, sometimes it will be the means to an end.  But I'd be surprised if there are any successful investors who haven't lost a considerable amount of money.  

Personally, if I suddenly had access to $1M in cash, I'd invest very conservatively to get my feet wet and learn what I was doing.  At the same time, I'd read everything I could to see what niche feels good for me.

I have spent a year looking for how I want to get into RE more than what I've done in the past.  I've settled on mobile homes (for now) and am surprised how quickly I've found a couple of deals.  I don't think I will but, if I lose money on these, I'm not too concerned because I will learn from them.

How about these for tiny houses.  We considered buying I believe it was this one in the early '90s.  Very unique.  There are many other unusual tiny houses in the states.  One community is in southern NM.  

The issue as many have mentioned is whether you can get the municipality to let you do it.  

I love the idea of having a small community of off the grid tiny houses for specific groups of people.  A fishing group.  Students.  Perhaps a complex that can be rented to organizations for a weekend or week.

Harold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oSZ6DpsECc