Well, things are

about the same here in sunny Florida…killer deals with no money to fund LOL. Found a nice 1/4 acre lot with a 1971 single,needs roof, flooring etc or a newer single to replace it for 3K cash!!! folks want out and they are giving it away. Well, septic, power pole worth 8K and new impact fees are 9,450. So I’m sure I can sell the package for 20K with 4K improvements or 30K at 15% interest payments under 500 per month!! There are a boatload of these deals right now!!

Are things looking up in your areas? About the same? worse?

Let’s hear from some of the lurkers out there and from some of the more seasoned posters.

Regards,

Greg

Things have remained strong here in Oklahoma … until last weekend that is, when we stopped receiving any phone calls at all to our ads. Weird. I’m not sure if this is just a seasonal July slow-down, or the beginning of something more ominous. I don’t recall the spigot just getting turned off this time last year.

Collections from existing tenants has remained unchanged (so far), I’m just worried about our ability to attract new tenants as fast as we’ve been able to in the past if no one is calling-in off our ads.

I’m in the Auburn/Opelika area of Alabama & wish I had your problem. I’ve got cash I’d like to put to work.

The local economy is still fairly strong, with a lot of “investors” willing to pay way more than I would for a deal. Killer deals are few & far between. We are starting to see a rise in foreclosures & properties that are offered as short sales but nothing worth jumping for joy about.

I am seeing what look like pretty good deals in other parts of the state & over in Georgia. I’m mostly looking for buy & hold and that brings long distance management into the picture. That’s not something I’ve had a lot of success with. I like properties to either be local or have someone on the ground in the area.

Tim

We are in Michigan, and finding some amazing deals, but also some challenges. We just bought 3 newer units in excellent shape (all around 5-7 years old), 2 doubles and a single for $27k total (cash only) from a credit union unloading some of their defaulted loans. One was in our park, and 2 weren’t. Even movers are giving us some great deals (moving and setup, 100 miles at $2,000 per section)

The problem here in Michigan is so many people in our park are unemployed. We’ve decided to rent most of the park-owned homes out at about $500-600/ month, and have huge demand, but also problems finding people who have steady jobs. The reason we rent is simple. In Michigan, every time a mobile home changes hands, a 6% sales tax is levied. If someone defaults, and we take it back, the next owner pays 6%, so it really adds up over several years.

Houston, TX. Things are doing well. I am finding deals and I am using private money to get them. And I am not paying 13% interest either.

Keep hunting guys.

I’m getting money at 10% for small amounts, and 11.5% from investors who promise at least $100K.

I’m not really looking for the kinds of deals that you are (babacar has that market tied up around here I think!) but I’m buying repo’d MHs to bring in to my park, and using the funds to buy more MH notes. I’ve done a few really nice deals lately in parks where my other homes are. My big issue is finding the buyers and tenants. The quality of buyers and tenants is going down fast, can’t tell you how many people with income of $600 want to move into homes where the rent is $495.

Also seeing an increase in minor theft, which is just something to expect in this economy I guess. But it’s disappointing.

Anne

In the Lonnie market I’m finding prices for used homes are up and they are getting much harder to find. Buyers have less cash and sellers are hanging on to what little they’ve got. I’ve got 2 LD repo’s on market now, ads came out Thursday and I’ve received 7 calls over the last 4 days… That would have been the calls from the first half hour of ads being out a year ago.

The rental market here is taking an interesting twist over the last couple weeks as rental rates are starting to head back up after taking a nosedive about a year ago. Vacancies are ok at the moment but have been building a bit for the last couple weeks and call volume is down for whatever reason.

The biggest thing I see here is a lack of decent homes for infill, which scares the heck outa me for some of my friends with bigger parks. I’ve noticed trends that MH’s run the repo markets in 7-8 year trends and 2009 marks the end of the financing bonanza for park homes which I believe also is the reason that I’m seeing reduced numbers of available homes here. If my theory is correct and you start having trouble buying repo’s for infill I’d start giving some flexibility to the purchase end for infill before the market completely diverts over to L/H’s like the financing did. Most of my leads now come from FSBO and I’m still seeing a few deals there, most deals I see these days are in the SFH foreclosure market which still scares the tar outa me.

On the private money side I’m finding that more people are looking to diversify money outa the stock market in to real estate holding for more predictable retirement income. I’ve pretty much committed to placing 3 of our parks on the market, which should allow us to pay off the others strengthening our businesses foundation to weather even the worst storm. This goes against everything I’ve ever read about selling property but I’m finding that the small parks are more desirable now than ever before IF they are near turnkey. We’ll see how it goes.

Hope everyone is fairing well!

Best wishes,

Ryan Needler

Ryan,

Mabye your call volume is down because your voice mailbox is full, nudge nudge wink wink :wink:

On another note I have not heard anything from John about the Fort Wayne MOM. Hopefully he is still planning on it.

Hope all is well with you Ryan.

Briton (IN)

Up here on the North coast, things have been getting a little weird in the realm of Lonnie deals. I agree with Ryan that folks who are selling are sticking it out a little longer and holding tighter to their asking price.

On the flipside, those people already in homes of ours are abandoning their homes at the first sign of trouble. I actually had someone last month, put 1,000.00 down to move into a home, and as soon as the first rolled around and they were scheduled to move in, they called and changed their mind. Apparently the guy heard rumors of layoffs, and did not want to get into something he might regret. Told me to keep the grand and just walked away. Didn’t even fight, just ran.

With the investors, I have deals earning them 15-18% sitiing on the table and a lot of them are holding off, waiting for the next one. I have not seen the private money shift much from the stock market over to the mobile homes. A little, but not as much as I had anticipated. Not complaining, but it’s turning me into a better salesman I guess.

I’m also getting a ton of buyer leads, as Anne mentioned, where people are making 600-800/month, and want to move in paying 400-500. My lead gen numbers are up, but they are skewed because of the lack of income or employment within the household.

Beck

In Burlington we are moving them in and moving them out. We did go from 9 vacant to 4. On Ryans post I dont even want to mess with repos anymore unless they are in perfect condition. We are switching to the new home business model, which I have wanted to do all year. The economy and the dealers license issue has held us up a little with the purchase of new homes.

Quick update: things in Oklahoma continue to be strong. Our call volume has remained down by half, but we’ve had no difficulty filling homes. Looks like the ‘bad’ economy has eliminated the lookey-loos, but the real renters and rent-to-owners are still out there.

Anne,

I am curious how you are working with your private lenders. I have dealt with private money in the past and paid a bit more for it. No complaints because all worked out in the end. I am finding now with ridiculous equity standpoint in stick builts (that is where I started) money has tightened up. If you don’t mind I would like to speak with you a bit further about how you are structuring that is making the investors adequately compensated. Don’t get me wrong…I believe in 1st mtg only with 65% ltv on rehabbed homes. It is primary to ensure investor is more than adequately collateralized.

Christine

Here in Chatham county georgia things on the rental side are terrible as I have had less cash flow in july and august than ever and way more evicks. On the buying side, I just picked up a 99 DW on an 1/2 acre lot for $35,000. That is land and all. That around here is dirt cheap. I would like to buy more as this was done with bank money at 7% fixed and no down pay. But unless jobs pick up there will be no tenant money to flow. I have a deal with another bank to refi my park at 1.5 mil with a 7% fixed but has not gone thur yet. If it does that will solve my cash flow prob. for awhile as I will save $2,000 a month on the park morgtage. I do crims and credits on all tenants so I have a crime free but poor park.

Rick

Rick,

I have based my tenant based largely on social programs such as Social Security, Disability and Section 8.

Marketing your rentals to these groups, especially those on social security may help provide you with non-criminal tenants that have no need to actively earn their income in this down market.

I do find that deposits are hard for these folks to come by sometimes so we try and work with charities and other such organizations to fund the deposit but if this fails we will take a good tenant without the deposit.

The reality of life for the landlord is that if we wait an additional month we will have lost that amount (the deposit) in opportunity cost and lost what might be a great tenant.

Food for thought.

Tony Colella

Thankyou Tony I do use some sec 8’s but have had bad results. I am still open to them but there are mental health issue that come with them.

Rick

Tony,

Have you actually tried reaching out to the charities first, or have you just gotten tenants using PRCs and community action type help.

We have a program here with the County Job and Family services, where they give those with very low income rental help, or help with security deposit. Same with sec 8, but the minute I mention that I am not a landlord, and it is not a sec. deposit but a down payment, they deny the tenant.

I think you do mostly rentals, if I’ve read your posts correctly, but just wondered if I should try approaching one of these organizations and offering available homes for purchase for anyone they are willing to help who are down on their luck, but meet all other requirements? (No felonies, no evictions, decent income, etc.)

Beck,

I have only done this with rentals as you supposed. I have worked proactively with the charities and they call me from time to time with potential tenants but I am sorry to say this so far has not worked out very well but I do not blame the charities but the individuals themselves.

There are programs associated with section 8 for tenants who qualify and make the effort, take classes etc. to purchase homes using programs that will assist them. I have not sold any this way yet but I do have one tenant who is currently in the process. I don’t know how it will all work out but it should prove interesting. This one is a land/home package that I would sell if she can pull it off. I do not know if a Lonnie deal would qualify or not.

I have also worked with other programs and listed with socialserve.com which many of them are supposed to use to find homes for their clients. This program is not used in all states but is used in quite a few. To be honest I do not get much traffic from those listing as they locals here tend to prefer to find their homes listed in the cheap, local advertising paper (kind of like the “Thrifty Nickle”).

Tony