auction9 MH's Marta Texas

gsaauctions.gov has 9 late 80’s fleetwood 12x60 3+1 up for auction

Anyone know of any movers than can move these 1000 miles to MS zip 38666, I need 10 homes to fill my park and have been unsuccessful finding a mover that is licensed in TX, AR, & MS.

The first concern for me would be the cost of moving 10 mobile homes over 1,000 miles each.

My next concern would be verifying that these homes are properly rated for the windzone in the area they are being moved to.

I would have to believe that it would be easier to find and move local mobile homes. Checking the cheap/throw away papers for homes that must be moved, contacting local dealers, working with lonnie dealers in your area, craig’s list (I have not tried this yet but others have) etc.

The local homes would solve your mover problem and I would believe lessen risk.

Tony

Tony,

Thanks for your reply. Wind zone isn’t a problem for me as I am in N. MS and over 400 miles from the coast. It certainly would be easier to find homes in my area, but that has been a problem as supply has been limited and/or overpriced. Most of them are DW and the supply is much, much smaller that it used to be…the park I own is all SW. I recently bought 5 repo’s from Greentree & Vanderbilt in the area and am in the process of fixing them. I would prefer to go this route but so far have had trouble finding what I need for my park.

I agree that the cost may be high, but I am hopeful I can get it discounted because of the volume. It would appear I can get these GSA auctioned homes for <$1000 each, at least that is the only way I would take them. I am trying to find out the cost before I bid, so I will know what I have in them. If I can get them onsite for less than 5k each, including purchase price, I will come out ahead. I have tons of potential renters but I am out of supply.

I check all the local, throw away papers, craigslist, & dealers weekly…supply is the problem.

In my small parks I often try and upgrade a small or short lot from an old singlewide into a short doublewide.

This has several benefits to park owners.

Let’s use some figures from my area.

Let’s say my older singlewide (I had some dating back to the 1960’s) is a $400 at best mobile home with high turnover and damage. Even if I made a doll house out of it I might get $475 but then the turnover is still high.

I can bring in a used mobile home from late 80’s or 1990’s and uprgade the home with a modern floor plan, install laminate flooring and ceramic tile, paint etc. and have a doll house that will rent to better tenants for $500 to $550.

This will run me about $10k with demo of old home, move, setup, rehab, inspections etc. with me doing the work.

What I find is that the smaller doublewides (24 x 40 or 28 x 40 or sometimes a few feet longer) make great substitutes for odd sized or shorter lots. I can take my worst lot and make it my best rental in the park by bringing in a doublewide instead of the singlewide. The more modern singlewides simply won’t fit in a couple of my lots but the doublewide has done great!

It runs me about $20k to $23k to demo old home, buy, move, setup, upgrade, inspect etc. but I get $750 per month in rent.

This net rental income figure is a great boost to the value of the park when appraised by the banks (remember, banks and appraisers use all income regardless if from rental mobile home or just the lot but that is another discussion).

Bear in mind I use this strategy in my small, 11 unit type parks.

Yes, you do pay about twice as much but only get 1.5 times the rent so for park owners of larger parks with many vacancies they would need to look at filling 2 empty lots with singlewides.

But for that odd sized lot or maybe a high profile lot, having a doublewide in essence turns that odd lot into a lot and a half. If you did 3 of these deals in a park you would in essence be adding a 3rd lot and unit to your park without adding an actual spot. That means no grading, no utilities, no more land to buy etc.

Its like expanding your park without expanding your park!

The doublewides tend to rent longer I find and are always in the higher demand in my area it seems.

Again, this strategy has its place in small parks and on odd sized lots or perhaps that high profile spot you want to advertise. It may or may not be what works for you if you have a larger park with many vacancies.

But if you are running into a surplus of doublewides as you say then maybe you can negotiate a better price and consider using this strategy to make the numbers work.

Just an idea to consider.

Tony