I’ve got one street in my park that seems to have mostly older, run-down homes. The other streets have generally newer, nicer homes. I’m now purchasing a few mobile homes. One is mid-90’s metal/metal - and a bit grungy. The other will be a brand-new home.
Should I place the new home with the other nicer homes, or drop it in the middle of the bad street to make it a little nicer and place the grungy homes in with the other nicer homes?
-jl-
I would treat the two streets as separate entities and not mix the homes.
I would however concentrate on upgrading the homes in the older area by pressuring the owners or purchasing cheap when possible and doing exterior upgrades to make them appear newer.
from experience I agree with Greg. until the older homes get fixed up, you will have a very hard time selling the new home. You may find that you have to discount it steeply. That combined with the holding costs and lost rent while waiting for a buyer really cuts into the money that hits your pocket. To get the most out of it, put the new home among the best homes.
You would be surprised tho, what a huge difference can be made on the street with those older homes with a fresh coat of paint, new stain on the decks etc. and just a good general clean up and reseeding of the lawns and general upkeep. it’s your obligation to get the tenants to do this. If you put the mid 90’s one in there, don’t go over board spending money on the outside just make it really really clean and it can still be an example to the neighbors. Just expect that the buyer you are going to get for that home, is going to look at the neighbors in making their decision to buy
I usually tell those neighbors the truth “Hey, I’m trying to get a home sold here, and I need the neighborhood to look good. If I can’t get all my lots filled, those loses have to be made up somewhere, and the only way I can make it up is thru a big rent increases. You can help yourself out by helping me get these lots filled and help me minimize rent increases by being a good neighbor. So here is what I need you to do” but then if they don’t respond to that , you have to make them clean up.
We also found that painting the homes makes a world of difference. Since its next to impossible to get the resident to do it and if they did do it, the results would be horrible, we found a painter who charged a flat rate to paint any single wide. We then went to the tenants and told them we will paint the home and they will only be charged an extra $50 a month for 8 months. The residents jumped all over it and this covered our expense for painting. We painted 8 homes in the park through this method and it made a huge difference.