I inherited a vintage MHP that needs a bit of work. The mobile homes on this property are 40 to 50 years of age and are not in any shape mobile anymore. I was thinking of selling each one for a dollar (complete with a bill of sale) and put an ad in Craig’s list for anyone wanting free scrap, to come and demolish on site. Is this a good idea? I know I have to get a permit to demolish each trailer but whoever I get to demolish these trailers, do they have to be bonded? Insured? Or both?
What will likely happen is you’ll have people come strip the homes of anything valuable (copper, mostly) and leave the homes even more damaged than they are now. You’ll probably need to actually pay a real demolition company to come properly and completely remove the homes and leave the lots clean.Good luck,-jl-
Thanks for the insight
They were the first I talked to but at $3.90 per square foot is a little steep for a trailer park.
Jazdalex, first of all ‘Congratulations’ on your vintage Mobile Home Park.My Husband and I purchased a ‘Turn Around’ Mobile Home Park earlier this year. With the purchase we inherited 11 Condemned / Abandoned Mobile Homes. The Mobile Home Park is located in South Carolina. The City in which it is located required that we (as the Mobile Home Owners) hire Licensed Contractors to demo/scrap the Mobile Homes in order to get the Approved City Permits.The previous Owners had ‘given’ other Condemned / Abandoned Mobile Homes to Scrappers (they just ignored the whole Approved City Permit thing). The Scrappers actually demolished the Mobile Homes and placed the debris on the road for the city to pickup (which they did with no problems). The Scrappers then would scrap whatever was left. The Scrappers did a decent job of removing the Mobile Homes and cleaning the lots. They used several different Scrappers. Some of them did better jobs than the others.Because we selected to go the ‘Legal’ Route, we had to hire a Licensed Contractor. However, we ‘thought’ that the city would remove our debris with no issues also (like the previous owners).Unfortunately, that was not the case. The city would not remove our debris (because we had hired a ‘Licensed Contractor’…which the city had required). Thus, we ended up paying for Roll Off Dumpsters to be placed by the debris and the debris being handled twice (not a good thing and would not recommend).We had 3 Mobile Homes demolished on-site.These Mobile Homes ended up costing around $1,500 per Mobile Home to demolish and remove the debris.After removing the 3 Mobile Homes we re-evaluated our situation. We then located an individual who would use the Mobile Homes as the ‘Roll Off Dumpster’ and move the Mobile Homes (and all the stuff in the Mobile Homes…steps, porches, appliances) to the Landfill. This was a much better system (except for the one Mobile Home that broke in two during the move).This method cost around $1,000 per Mobile Home to remove.Finally, we had a Resident who owned their own Mobile Home which ended up being ‘Condemned’ by the City. The Resident had invited the City Inspector into their Mobile Home (would not recommend). The Resident was able to Scrap their own Mobile Home, but was required to get a Roll Off Dumpster to put on-site for the debris.Needless to say, this Resident did exactly what Jefferson wrote (stripped the home of anything valuable and left the rest) and did not pay for the Roll Off Dumpster.We ended up paying for the Roll Off Dumpster. The Resident did put ‘some’ debris in the Dumpster and we paid to have the remainder of the debris placed in the Dumpster.This method was less expensive than the first two methods because we did get ‘a little’ help from the Tenant and this Mobile Home was super short (10’ x 50’).In addition to the Mobile Homes we also had a Mobile Home Frame that we needed removed from our property. I ended up placing an ad on ‘Craigslist’ for the Mobile Home Frame (which was free and had to removed in one day). We literally had 20 people contact me in a span of 12 hours who wanted to scrap the Metal Frame.If you can legally have a Scrapper remove your Mobile Homes and you can find ‘good ones’, I would encourage you to go this route.Craigslist is a great way to get your message out to potential Scrappers (and it is free).We wish you the very best!
Thank you Kristin. Your wisdom really put things in perspective for me. Between the mistakes and your success, I’ve formulated my own plan for success. Again, thank you.
Jazdalex, you are very welcome!We hope that your cost to remove your vintage mobile homes is very, very low or better yet…free :-).We wish you the very best!