My park has street frontage to a fairly busy street, and the two houses in front are very visible from the road. Currently there is a vinyl sided, peaked roof house in front, and a tiny 1960s, 12x40 1 bedroom metal on metal house in front. Picture from google streetview (the park is slightly less ugly now, but only slightly):
The tenant in the 1 bedroom house hasn’t paid her rent this month, and sounds fairly doomed. Normally I would make a cash for keys offer in this situation to try and minimize damage to the house, and to avoid the lengthy process of filing for abandoned title. In this case though, I’m not sure if I even want the house, and if it might be a wise investment to spend the ~$30,000 tearing it down, prepping the lot, and putting a new 14x56 two bedroom in its place.
I know this is a fairly fuzzy predicament with no right or wrong answer, but I wanted to see if anyone here could give me some insight or guidance. What would you do if this was your park? Give the resident cash for keys and rehab the house, or just let them fall then tear it down and put a new one in there?
Based on the apparent age of the remainder of the homes in the park I would get ownership of the home, add a peaked roof, vinyl siding and some modern windows. Basicly make it look similar to the other street front home from the outside and sell to cover my costs.
I’d scrape it and bring in a better home to that lot. 1BRs are notoriously difficult to rent/RTO. That said, if your market is strong and you think you can get $5k - $10k for that home in a RTO and attract a quality resident, then I’d go in that direction. (But a home like that would never ever work in our market in Oklahoma). Vinyl-side that home if you keep it, and throw on some shutters.
Let us know what you decide and how it all works out,
I would simply take control of the house, re-paint it that attractive green color that manufacturers are using today, put new shutters on every window, plant a hedge of 6’ tall native shrubs down the entire length, a couple rose bushes in the yard, and call it a day. You already have one new home at the entrance, and you don’t need to overdo it. Obviously, a $30,000 new home would look better, but nobody is going to take points off on this home if it was re-decorated nicely, and you can probably use that $30,000 to fill a lot or two (or three using Legacy’s home program) and that will make the park worth a whole lot more than swapping a new house for that old one. Adding a $1,000 carport to it would also be a nice touch and block visibility of the home.
Jefferson is correct, 1-bedrooms are hard to unload. That said, you’ll have to use your gut feel based on the quantity of sales calls you get. Painting the home and adding shutters is around $500. You can spend another $500 on the hedge, to block most of the view. If it doesn’t sell, you’re only out $500 (the hedge can stay). But if you luck out, you saved $29,000 in all likelihood. Worth the gamble.