All Forum Posts by: Watson Smith

If you try and find one on the MLS you'll probably get into a bidding war and end up paying more than 30-40k right now. Look on CL or go to the court house auctions. Another option is hand out your card to the sheriffs department. There're the ones who do evictions and might run into a landlord who wants to dump a house that isn't worth his time anymore. You can still find them in that price range but its getting harder. They will require more than "minor" fix up. Might want to even wait till the 4th quarter or very beginning of the 1st quarter if your not finding anything right now that doesn't have multiple bids.

Any granite supplier should offer this.  I honestly don't know of one that doesn't.  In my part of town there wasn't a minimum qty you had to buy... 25-30sqft got the sink cut out and installed for free though.  $30-$35, a sqft gets you above average granite installed for free.  Just google for a local shop in your area and go look at the slabs they have to offer... I'd stay away from homedepot for this though.

I think all those labor prices are high... Even for LA.  I couldn't imagine paying that in Atlanta.   I mean $950 to tear out cabinets and haul away... It would take you 2 hours max to do that and then you could buy a bagster from home depot for like 60 bucks for the debris. 

Framing the header for $1200...? Moving a water line for $450..? I've had my plumber move tons of water lines for and hook up sinks... both would cost me together $175 max.  $1150 for installing granite?  Since you are supplying the granite you know they offer free installation and sink when you buy it.

If I were you I would hire each trade out separately.  This is a small job and you don't need a contractor.  Find a plumber for the water lines, find an electrician for the can lights, buy the granite from the store and they will install it, find a painter and floor guy.  Reasonable labor should be like 7.5k total if you are buying all the material.

Remember the contractor is just subbing all this work out to the lowest bidder anyways.

Best of luck.

I caught the mobile home bug while talking with a family friend who lives in a rural part of town and owns around 100 mobile homes and lots. I like the idea of all the rentals in one area for convince factor... Plus I live in Atlanta and this gives me an excuse to get out of the city. My question is why do people say mobile home parks are so "lucrative" or call them "gold minds"? I've run the number against my SFR's that I rent and it doesn't look that way to me. Am I missing something? I've listed an example below. My main concern is the ROI.

Mobile Home Park

-14 lots at 100% occupancy each rent for $225 separately metered. 

- $225 (rent) x 14 (lots) x .70 (exp) x 12 (months) / .10 (cap rate) = $264,600

Lets say you bought it for that price and put 30% down @ 5.5% 20 year fixed and the banked loaned the other 70%.  Your PMT is $1,274 (excel)

Net = $11,172 yearly or $11,172/$79,380 (.30 down payment) = 14.07% return on your cash

The more cash you spend the worse the return is.

2 SFR's

-Cost of house and complete rehab $90,000 (45k each) - No loan

-Both rent for $800 a month

- taxes, ins, exp total = $3,520 for both

- Net 15,680 yearly or 17.4% return on cash

The SFR will appreciate in value... I don't know how much a mobile home park will or won't.

I know the first thing someone will say is my expenses are to low for my SFR's. I've been fortunate and haven't seen anything more in the last 8 years with my properties so thats what I'm going with.

What am I missing? Even if I increased the expenses on the SFR's and decreased it on the MHP you'd still be at the same return.

Yes.  It's expensive to move a mobile home.  Depending on the shape of the home most parks will pay people to haul that junk away.  I know some people who take these abandon homes, fix them up and re-rent them as well. 

The problem with renting only the lot is that it's difficult to control the tenants.  If the park owned the homes then you control, at an expenses, the tenants and appearance of the property.

I have to agree with most people.  I was looking into buying 10 acres, re-zoning and starting from scratch.  Not going to do it.  Re-zoning is hard enough and just the expensive of moving a trailer on the land can get pricey.

Most parks in my area are on septic and I wouldn't use city water.  Drill your own wells and meter at each trailer... Now you get to collect a water bill.  I know several park owners that do this and do well.

From my research on this subject is to buy an existing park that has a high occupancy rate... Or buy a park that is zoned for more trailers than are on it and slowly add to it.

Congrats on graduation!... Now real life starts ;)

Like stated above find out a real rental rate for the house. Don't listen to the seller. If he said you could get 2k for rent.. why did he settle for 1k.

Find yourself a good broker. You don't need 20% down for an investment property. I've seen them at 5-10%. There are a lot of banks that deal with commercial loans that have programs set up for investment properties.

I like that you are looking at a property in a college town. They are normally stable growing areas. Only thing that concerns me is the 3/1. Can you see yourself living with two other girls while sharing one bathroom? If you guys planned on going out one night you'd have to start at noon to get everyone ready. Then again if there's not a lot of new construction and older homes are the norm then its fine.

Also, you state that the college R&B is expensive. Do they make freshmen stay on campus or do they allow them to live off?

Just remember how you were in college and how you treated stuff. Your going to have that taking place in your property. Have a nice slush fund ready to replace broken windows or nasty beer/puke stained carpet. Take a large deposit and keep an eye on the place. If you can make it through your first couple properties you'll be fine.

Most importantly find a strong rental rate, taxes and insurance on the place. Everything pretty much revolves around this and then you can go from there.

Good luck!

Cal C,

I meant in places like bathrooms, laundry rooms and even kitchens. If water gets under your sheet vinyl and rots your sub-flooring it becomes more of a mess. Tile will last you 10+ years easy. Vinyl might make it 3 before ripping it up and laying some new. All depends on your tenants. Mine are lower income and tend not to care as much so the more industrucatble the better.

Do it right the first time.

This comes from a rental outlook. When you purchase the house and are rehabbing it for rental fix it right. I don't care if it cost you more money now... You'll save in the long run. Use a good exterior paint so you aren't repainting every 3-4 years. Use tile in areas that have water. You can use cheap carpet but use a better pad. If the plumbing fixtures are old.. replace them now. If you are going to buy new appliances buy them in the scratch and dent section... If not you can find great deals on almost band new ones on CL. If the water heater is getting old.. .8 plus years... replace it. Home depot has them for $239. Much cheaper then having it go out and you have to rush a plumber over there. Learn to do small repairs yourself.

You want to prevent your houses from having problems. A lot of small problems add up very qyuickly.. not only in cost but in pissing off your tenant.

I remember reading on one app it stated "Intent to occupy the house as a primary residence"... I haven't seen that in a while though. Don't lie on it. Like said before just live in it for a while then rent it out.