Hi,Long term reader and first time here on the boards. Great to see Frank, Jefferson and others always willing to help. Here is my situation. The seller of an MHP is saying that they don’t have the titles for the 5 or so mobile homes that come up with the MHP. Here are my questions:1. How important is it to get the titles of all the mobile homes? 2. What is the process of getting titles for the mobile homes?3. How long does it take to get the titles and the cost involved?The MHP is in Dallas Forth Worth (DFW) area.Thank you,DallasMHP
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Do you want the titles with the purchase? Yes. Are you going to be able to get them? No. Replacing and fixing titles is a time-consuming business that nobody enjoys, but if you require mom & pop to have every title to every home they own as a condition of buying their park, then you’ll never be able to buy one. We hate having to get titles on homes more than anything on earth, but the reality is that you are going to get them if you’re patient and follow the official methodology. But it can take months to years to get one fixed and in your possession. If you rent homes, as we do, you are not required to have a title to convey, so you can take the homes missing the titles (assuming that you really have title to the conveyed through the purchase contract) and rent them out day one. You cannot, however, rent out homes that the seller does not own, but are merely sitting abandoned in the park. These you have to take through abandoned property laws before you can rent them, as you technically don’t own the yet.The bottom line is that you can get a replacement title or fix a title for every home on earth, if you follow the official methodology. The bad news is that it takes a really, really long time,and your frustration level will pin the meter. To learn the process in Texas, contact the Texas MHA.
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If the home has been abandoned (not lived in) for 4 months and there is lot rent owed to the landowner, you can start the abandonment process. The first step is to get the HUD label # or serial # from a metal label attached to the home or on the hitch or in a closet. Google the TDHCA web site and pull up the information in the database using label # or serial #. That will tell you the owner of record and any lienholder. In the forms section, pull up a “Notice to apply for abandonment.” Send out the Notice in a registered letter to the last known address of the owner (usually the address of the home), to the lienholder (if any, often on an older home the lienholder has transferred the lien or is out of business but that does not matter), and to the taxing entities which will notify them that they have 45 days to remove the home after which time you can apply for a title which will wipe out all liens.As Frank says, there are hassles along the way, but in the end you will get the home. If there is only a small amount of taxes due (check with the taxing agencies), it may pay to clear them to avoid those hassles. If the amount is too large to pay economically, the tax agency has the right to pull the home within the 45 day window (plus the additional time to apply to the TDHCA) and auction it off. Depending on the jurisdiction, you may be able to negotiate with the tax agency (rare), or the agency’s attorney (more often).We have no experience with an abandoned home in Dallas, but have been successful in other areas of TX. Good luck.Howard
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RECOMMENDATION:Mobile Home Title Escrow Account: Have a Real Estate Attorney create a Mobile Home Title Escrow Account @ Closing & have the Seller’s place a portion of their money from Closing in this Account until they can produce Valid Mobile Home TitlesSix months ago my Husband and I purchased a Mobile Home Park from a Family Estate.The Sales Agreement Price included the price of the acreage along with 12 Park Owned Mobile Homes.Even though I asked repeatedly (during the Due Diligence Process…and it was agreed to in the Sales Agreement) for copies of the Mobile Home Titles (front and back) we never received them.The Sellers were finally able to secure 5 of the Mobile Home Titles.However, before Closing we were still missing 7.Finally, when we were set to close at the Attorney’s Office, I stated that we would not close until we received the remaining 7 Mobile Home Titles.What we ended up doing was putting $7,000 per Mobile Home (these were older homes) in an Escrow Account held by the Closing Attorney ($7,000 x 7 = $49,000). The Escrow Account gave the Sellers 45 Consecutive Days from Closing to secure and present to the Buyer the additional 7 Valid Mobile Home Titles. Whatever Valid Mobile Home Titles were NOT secured during those 45 Consecutive Days then the Buyer was able to keep $7,000 per Mobile Home.We wanted to be more than fair so we ended up giving the Sellers a total of 90 Consecutive Days to secure the additional 7 Valid Mobile Home Titles.In the end we received all but 1 Valid Mobile Home Title. Thus, we kept $7,000 for that one missing Mobile Home Title.Please remember that ‘Money’ is a key motivator.This particular Mobile Home Park was created and owned by a Mom & Pop. The Pop passed away first and then the Mom passed away. It had been in an Estate for approximately 5 years before we purchased it. Thus, the Estate had 5+ years to get Valid Mobile Home Titles. The Mobile Home Park had been on the market for sale for 3+ years. We then had the Mobile Home Park under contract for approximately 3 months. Any of these time frames should have caused someone in this process (Mom, 4 Personal Representatives, 3 Estate Attorneys, Seller’s Real Estate Agent #1, Seller’s Real Estate Agent #2) to force the obtaining of the Mobile Home Titles. It was not until Money (more specifically the ‘Loss’ of Money) came into play that the Valid Mobile Home Titles were suddenly produced.For your situation I would recommend having your Realtor /or/ Real Estate Attorney create an Addendum to your Real Estate Agreement which specifically spells out the Mobile Homes (with their Year, Make, Model, VIN, Owner) with Valid Mobile Home Titles which are included in the Sale AND have all parties sign and date (Sellers & Buyers & Witnesses). I would then have a Real Estate Attorney in the State that you are purchasing this MHP create a Mobile Home Title Escrow Account at the Closing for all the missing Mobile Home Titles and give the Sellers 45 Consecutive Days to produce the Valid Mobile Home Titles or you receive the money in the Escrow Account.We wish you the very best!
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I like Kristin’s solution as now it will take me lot more time and effort to get the titles of these homes. Unfortunately, I just saw this message and we closed on the park with the seller “promising” to help us get the titles of the mobile homes. The risk is that the seller would have backed out but I don’t think it would have happened in this case as they promised to get it. The money is always a great motivator. Thank you Frank, hsschwar and Kristin!
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Money is an especially good motivator, that’s probably one of the reasons an owner would sell. I especially like the escrow acct way to handle lost titles. Thanks for the good ideas Frank and Kristin and Howard. It also seems that you should be able to rent abandoned MHs, thus gaining the lot rent, while putting the MH rent in an escrow account in case the owner were to claim his or her property before you were able to acquire title. Is there a hitch in this get-along? Or would this impact your claim for lot rent against the MH owner? In the case of an estate, as I recall, the assets are supposed to be managed for the benefit of the estate by the executor or administrator until the heirs take possession. Any wrong turns in this idea?
Jim Allen
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On the abandoned homes, until you take the through a legal abandonment proceeding, you can’t touch them. The penalty is not financial (in fact, there is case law on that, and the penalty was found to be the total amount of rent received, plus punitive damages), but the real penalty is that it’s a crime – you have effectively trespassed and stolen property (by renting that which you did not own). So just leave the abandons alone until you get title to them through abandoned property statutes. If the home is hurting the park aesthetically, I believe you can probably safely paint the exterior and/or fix the skirting if you take complete photos of the before and after, and give due notice to the last known address about your intentions. It would be hard to argue in court that you damaged someone by improving their trailer. Still, the courts are crazy, so it’s best to do nothing until the abandoned property action is finished.
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Thanks Frank. Sounds like the best thing to do is nothing, except maybe drain the water lines, clean out the fridge, and otherwise secure it. However, this makes me think that as a prospective buyer I would want to make every effort possible, and within reason, to secure titles at closing. Maybe I’m extrapolating too far, but it sounds like it would actually be possible to buy an MHP, find that one of the POHs for which you did not get title was actually abandoned and is now rented by the previous park owner to a tenant. So, Kristin above makes a good point it seems to me, that you want titles if at all possible and setting up escrows accts to incentivize the seller would be a good way to do that. If it can be done without breaking the deal, that is. Thanks again, Frank.
Jim Allen
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*** MORE INFO ***:In the ‘Agreed Upon & Signed’ Mobile Home Title Escrow the Buyer was able to receive & keep all Rent (Lot Rent & Mobile Home Portion Rent) during the Time Frame that the Sellers were securing the Valid Mobile Home Titles.Thus, we continued to rent out all the Park Owned Homes and keep all the Rent. However, we did pay to fix a lot of Mobile Home Issues that the Seller had chosen to ignore. Now there were some other Condemned/Abandoned Mobile Homes in which some were POHs and some were not. Since these Mobile Homes were Condemned through the City, we selected to get possession and remove them from the Mobile Home Park. They were Abandoned for so long that it was not worth the money needed to fix them up and go through the process of ‘Uncondemning’ them.*** ADDITIONAL INFO ***:The Seller of the Mobile Home Park was an Estate.The Mobile Home Park was created and run by a ‘Mom & Pop’.The Estate had Mobile Home Titles in the following names:- Pop: Mobile Home Titles in the name of the Father (who was deceased with 1 Personal Representative)- Mom: Mobile Home Titles in the name of the Mother (who was deceased with 3 Personal Representatives)- Mobile Home Park: Mobile Home Titles in the name of the Mobile Home Park (which was owned by the deceased Mom & Pop)For the Mobile Home Titles in the names of the deceased we had to produce ‘Official’ Personal Representative Forms from the Probate Court to give to the SC Department Of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in order to transfer the Mobile Home Titles. These Personal Representative Forms had to be requested through the Probate Attorneys for the Mom & Pop.The 1 Valid Mobile Home Title that was not produced was because one of the three Personal Representatives would not sign the Mobile Home Title. He would not sign, because the other two Personal Representatives decided to sue him for back rent for a Condemned/Abandoned Mobile Home he owned in the Mobile Home Park.When the Attorney (who was in charge of selling the Mobile Home Park) found out that the one Personal Representative would not sign the Mobile Home Title, the Attorney emailed me and asked me which of the following we wanted to do (my comments are in Parenthesis):1. Allow the Attorney to pursue the Petition to kick out the uncooperative Personal Representative in Probate Court (The Sellers were already given 90 Consecutive Days AFTER Closing to secure these Mobile Home Titles…Not to mention the previous 3 years that the Mobile Home Park was on the market For Sale.)2. Accept the Mobile Home Title ‘As Is’ (The whole purpose of the Mobile Home Title Escrow was to NOT accept the Mobile Home Titles ‘As Is’.)3. Provide 30 Day Notice to Tenant to vacate so the Mobile Home could be Demolished (This was for the Seller to make this decision. If they wanted to Demolish the Mobile Home, it was their decision and cost…not the Buyers. The Mobile Home was/is so old that it cannot be moved to another location. Thus, if it disappeared, it would not be a huge loss as it was visually not the most appealing Mobile Home.)Since NONE of those options was in the ‘Agreed Upon & Signed’ Mobile Home Title Escrow, I said:‘No Thank You.’ I said that they could either produce the Valid Mobile Home Title (signed by all Personal Representatives) or forfeit the $7,000 and keep the Mobile Home. If they kept the Mobile Home, the Mom’s Estate would be responsible for Lot Payment as long as the Mobile Home was in the Mobile Home Park.The Mom’s Estate Mobile Home had/has a responsible Tenant renting it. I sent her a letter that stated that we required the Lot Rent (or we would evict) and the remaining house portion needed to be sent to the Mom’s Estate’s Attorney.We have now received the Lot Rent from the Tenant with no issues and the Mobile Home still remains in the Park.We wish you the very best!Kristin
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This is GREAT advice I will practice in future purchases.