Fantastic rep[ort!! We are finding it very difficult to find 2006-2015 model homes reasonable as per 10 years ago where foreclosed homes where sold at a below cost to lender. Having residents bring their homes in is the best way for park owner and we will give a bonus for new homes brought in.
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Thank you for sharing
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Don’t forget the cost of the hookups. Rehabbing is a big money saver … Until it isn’t.
What to do with old homes is really the name of the game… How do you not lose money? You have to make them (and keep them) habitable because you’re the insurer of last resort as deadbeats will skip town and leave you to clean up the mess.
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Reading your YES, Yes, Yes is encouraging. Thanks for sharing.
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We have a few abandoned homes that we don’t pay attention to, but now have an opportunity to have them hauled away. Can I do that? I have not contacted the owners or gone through any hoops. Someone is willing to move them NOW. Any advice?
Yes, Mitch that is what we do. We file lawsuit against the Lonnie dealer “and all others in possession.” That way all persons must leave regardless of the term of the lease. Thus, you can evict the tenant.
We primarily remove homes by tearing down onsite. If they are too decrepit to repair, then they are unsafe to drive down the road. At one of our parks we had a woman approach asking if she could have our abandon homes. In that case we paid a mover $500 to drive three homes and drop them off in her front yard. Not sure what she wants to do with them, but they are no longer our problem.
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So what you are telling me is that YOU WENT THROUGH A LEGAL PROCESS and then paid someone to move them off your property.
I don’t want to hassle with the legal process. I just want to move them off. But if I allow this while NOT DOING ANYTHING through the legal process, and it will come back to haunt me, then I won’t do it.
Burkeburnette, you have to make your own decision. However, if you are not the legal owner of a home and you enter it, destroy it, give it away, or sell it, you have broken the law. It may be unlikely that an owner of a dilapidated home who skips town on you will ever know or care, but potentially he will. Do people tear homes down that they don’t own - yes, sometimes homes have “disappeared,” but that does not mean their reappearance at the landfill is in compliance with the law.
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Thank you. What a world we live in!
Be careful moving/ removing other’s manufactured homes If you don’t have a court order to do so. What you see as a dilapidated home filled with molded junk, the owner will claim is a valued residence loaded with Picassos. If you choose to be bold, take a video of the home and its contents first - a detailed video.
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I am faced with this problem, my association director says he has personally dealt with situations in which the owner sues and asks "what did you do with my mother’s diamond engagement ring I had hidden in a drawer?. New York State, perhaps the 2nd worse state to own a trailer park, has an abandoned property procedure, you start an action in court and serve the owner, the judge decides if its abandoned, the sheriff auctions it, and you can buy it to tear it down. If only I could get a lawyer to return my call as none around here are willing to do this type of work.
This is a little tangential but I don’t know where else to ask about it.
at an auction on a whim I purchased a 1985 72 x 14 mobile home for $1250 that needs some work. Floor needs some underlayment, cabinets need some work, but are really cool…w/ curved counters. 2 br/2 ba. Furnace and hw are good.
My contractor has a sub who does a lot of work for him and would like to purchase. I would rather invest in a park than a home, so I would like to sell it. He is capable of doing all the work, so it would really then be off my plate. I don’t have any idea as to the ARV, but the park it is in was recently purchased by a company that owns 5 parks. They want to spruce up the park and roads (currently the roads are terrible).
- I don’t have a lot of time or money so I want a quick solution. My original thought was to rehab, then do a rent to own. But is the time and effort worth what I would gain either financially or as a lesson/connection to my next step: owning a MHP? I currently have 11 doors in multifamily properties, not counting this MH.
Thank you-
If you want to sell the home … does the ARV actually matter? Make a small profit for owning it for a few days and move on. Doing that on a consistent basis… adds up.
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After Repair Value (ARV) is what you can sell it for. If you don’t know that you can’t safely know how much to put in it and make a profit.
I would sell it as it sits to the contractor for a profit before rehabbing it since your goals seem to be towards parks.
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You could buy the tax certificate at the County Treasurer’s office as abandoned homes almost always have back taxes owing, and just foreclose on the home as that way you own it eventually and can do whatever you want with the abandoned home. To foreclose, the paperwork isn’t all that complicated. Check out the laws of your State, or ask the County Treasurer what is required to foreclose as a tax lien has priority over all other liens/claims. You give notice to the owner by certified mail of the owners right to redeem the property due to back taxes owing and give notice to any other interested parties too, like a lien holder, renter, etc. Then file proof of paperwork at the County Treasurer’s office. In Iowa, after 2 years & 9 months of unpaid taxes, you only have to give the owner a 90 day notice to redeem. After so much time, if the taxes aren’t redeemed you can go to the County Treasurer’s Office and pick up a new title to the mobile home. Then once you own the mobile home, you aren’t breaking any laws if you want to sell it, rent it, or tear it down, or use it as storage. There is no need to hire a lawyer here or spend a great deal of money to achieve your goals.
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I’ll admit I just skimmed through these replies, but does your local government require a clean air report before demolition? The two states I operate in do and that means asbestos tests. Once it is present clean up ranges from $1,000 to 5,000 per home before you can touch it. And you don’t want to mess with not getting the testing done if you are supposed to. Check this out before you sign anything and assume any home older than 1978 has it.
Todd
I was about to send this to my better half because I like it and then I saw who posted it! Nice! 
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hahaha! Yessir - I am the King of not spending $2k to 86 a house, if I don’t have to. 
We just did 8 or 10 lately. 2 were ‘unmoveable’ — but I had those bad boys sold for cash. $200 and $300. Toter comes out, takes all the skirting off, ‘nope, can’t move these’. I cheerfully refund the money to the folks, but dang, I try. 
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as the park owner I pay the taxes. Plus the concept of the mhp business is land lease with their trailer on your land. So foreclosure isn’t even close and even if it were, I buy foreclosed property but if it has a mobile home or a car on it, neither of those becomes your property unless you go though some legal processes.