All Forum Posts by: John Arendsen

WOW! 95k for a garage apartment? We're looking at 250-300k in SoCal. But then everything is expensive down here if you can even find a contractor to do it and I are one. I'm keeping my ear to the wall on this platform.

Interesting dialogue here. In Cali. you can only have one ADU per lot/parcel over and above the primary resident. I'd love to see that change but we're having some real challenges getting local jurisdictions to buy into only one ADU even with the new State Senate Bill 1069 and Assembly bills 2299 & 2406 laws that went into effect on Jan 1, 2017.

Is it a resident owned lot with MH? Or in a rent/lease park community? If it's resident owned and there are not many other MH's around it it will be very difficult to find suitable comps. If it's in a predominantly MH resident owned community then it shouldn't be too difficult. 

On the question of what other questions to ask. I'd reserve any questions until after you've had a home inspection from an experienced MH inspector not just any home inspector as they don't always understand all the nuances of MH's. Good luck.

No worries. Happens to me all the time.

And..............Your point is?

That's a pretty open ended question. What year is the home? Also what do you mean when you say "so a way to make the deal work with a typical house would be a sub to deal"?

I think @Aaron R. addressed this quite accurately.

It depends on how the MHC owner sets it up. But usually when the MHC has individual pedestals the utility bills go directly to the resident/owners.

A lot depends on the year the MH was manufactured. If it's a pre HUD (built before June 15, 1976) up to 1979 there's a big difference in the way they were manufactured and the types of materials used. Most pre HUD homes-circa '79 were 2x3 exterior walls and 2x2 interior walls.

They were aluminum sided and used 3/16" photo finished veneer siding on the inside. Doors and windows were smaller and many used aluminum extruded frames which are no longer made and the ceilings were sprayed with popcorn. 

Here's a '78 one we're trying to remodel right now:

The roofs were a rolled metal material laid over a very lightweight and flimsy 1x2 and 2x2 truss system that was extremely fragile and vulnerable to damage from falling tree branches, hail, and if a repair man didn't know how to walk on them the trusses were easily broken. The average floor (section) weighted around 10,000lbs or less and the list goes on

But whence getting into it here's what we finally had to do:

That's not to mention the caustic and carcinogenic materials and chemicals i.e. formaldehyde and asbestos used in the particle board sub flooring, countertops, insulation and ceiling materials, etc. In many cases the best place for a PRE HUD-Circa '79 is the nearest boneyard.

Finally after removing the siding and discovering that the rim joists were all rotted out this is what we have now:

Why not just remove and replace with new you ask? Because of the existing setbacks. Presently this home is legal non conforming (grandfathered). However, once the entire structure is removed then it can only be replaced with a much smaller park model which would drastically reduce the SF. 

Now you're probably wondering why we took this project on at all right? Quite simply, because it's only 300 feet from the oceanfront and less than a 3 minute walk from one of San Diego's best surf breaks. When finished this can be resold for about $250k or rented for about $2500/mth. 

Good luck!