Mobile home value - Posted by Garey

Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA on December 31, 2001 at 11:27:12:

Pam, what did they say when you asked what the $2,500 was for? Such a proceedure does not sound legal, unless it was part of their original cost for back rent and sale costs etc. What state was the sale in? Regards, doc.

Mobile home value - Posted by Garey

Posted by Garey on November 20, 2001 at 07:18:25:

How does one go about finding the true value of a mobile home.
I thought I once heard that there is a book similar to the Kelly Blue Book used for this purpose.
What do any of you use? Is there a book or a web site that offeres this type of help?
Or is it just personal knowledge that you have acquired?

Garey

Re: Mobile home value - Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA

Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA on November 21, 2001 at 21:49:03:

The blue book you refer to is pretty useless in my opinion for the average Lonnie type deal. You learn value by looking, not at what mobiles are for sale for but, what they have sold for. Ask around among park managers and other mobile investors. Look at for sale ads too, but most are priced so high they will NEVER sell at the asking prices. Everything is negotiable. Its the same as with single family houses. Highly motivated sellers can be negotiated with much more successfully than people who would just like to sell at the maximum price or so-called market value. If you get more than one in 10-20 of your offers accepted, you may be offering too much. You could ask park managers in your area what some of the lowest prices some of the mobiles have sold for in their parks lately. Some of the world’s most knowledgeable people on cheap used mobile homes are the mobile home MOVERS. Some may even sell to you some mobiles wholesale. For a referal fee (this is best) they may give you some leads about where cheap mobiles are available. They get offered cheap deals ALL THE TIME. Some of these deals may be for pull-outs but I guarantee you that some will be able to remain in parks. This technique works especially well with non-owner drivers of mobile home moving companies. Don’t hesitate to offer $200+ finder’s fee for good deals. I would ask them which parks have the best deals and which parks are losing a lot of mobile homes to pull-outs. Ask them if they know Why some of these parks have better deals than others. Ask EVERY mobile home trucker you ever see. Go through the yellow pages and personally VISIT EVERY mover listed. You may find some parks in some areas that are distressed. Go look and try to find out what the problems are and look for opportunities there. Wherever there are problems there are opportunities. As far as pull-outs go, the mopvers will know which parks are closing dowm for conversion to other uses of the land. This is quite common in areas like Los Angeles. Determine if there are private lots available and learn which parks have spaces available. If there are a number of empty spaces you can ofter negotiate with the park manager for 2-3 months free rent if you place one of your mobiles in their park. This is common in my area. This way you have no rent for awhile while you are trying to resell your mobile. If it sells quickly, NEVER give away the free rent. COLLECT IT. Its almost always better to leave a mobile in the park where you are buying it, if you are trying to do Lonnie type deals. Some times you can buy a pull in one park and sell it in a week or so (before pulling it out) and get your resale buyer to pay the moving expensives. When you buy a pull-out ask the manager how long you have before it has to be out. Sometimes you can get as much as a month or more if you are willing to pay the space rent. I’d rather pay a month’s space rent than to pay the moving and setup costs in another park. Look for opportunities to try this and soner or later you are likely to find some. I wouldn’t hesitate to offer park managers a finder’s fee either. Many park managers are not the owners. They work for fairly modest salaries in many cases. A couple hundred bucks extra now and then is a lot to them. Also ask park WORKERS about deals and offer them a referal fee too. Leave your business card with everyone and NEVER miss an opportunity to put up a little 3x5 card/come/sign that says “I buy mobile homes” Do you know where the best place to put such a sign is? On the bullitin boards in park laundry rooms, and in park recreation rooms around the pool. You will soon find out that you will be competing with some entrepreneurial park managers. That can’t be helped. They often buy and sell on the side too, just like you are trying to do. I never seem to ever hear any mention of this in books or on this site but I run accross it all the time. WATCH THE MOBILE HOME LEIN SALES. They will likely be advertized in the smallprint legal ads. When I do this, looking for pull-outs I cover about a 50 mile radius of my home. Probably only one out of every 10 newspapers will have many mobile home lein sale ads. The only tip I can give you here is to maybe try a newspaper clipping service. Hire them (for about 1 month), to clip all legal ads for mobile home lein sales. After a month you will know which papers will be most fruitful. Then cancel the clipping service and subscribe to those papers that have been proven useful. That is what I did. Doing these things will teach you mobile values VERY quickly. You will start off by just asking a lot of questions about prices of mobiles for sale, then SUDDENLY at about the 20th deal you ask about you will be offered a mobile at a price DRAMATICALLY lower that anything you have encountered to date. You won’t have to ask anyone. You will just KNOW its a great deal That is the one you buy. Although strict Lonnie deals are where you buy for all cash and sell on a note, I ALWAYS try to get at least some seller financing, at low or NO interest with no due on sale clause so you can resell it later at a higher price AND at a higher interests rate. You get to also keep the spread on interest rates. This enhances your profits. See some of my other postings about how to negotiate zero interest rate seller financing on mobiles. Be prepared that EVERY mobile seller will at first ask for all cash. They think that is the only way to sell a mobile. You need to educate them about financing. Always leave your card even when they say no. Its surprising how many sellers will call you back 3-4 months later a say" how does that financing work? If you start going to lein sale auctions why not post a question asking about the best techniques for buying at such auctions. I have a lot of experience with This type of sale if anyonw would be interested in it. Maybe I could give you a couple of pointers. So far I haven’t seen any one asking about this so I haven’t said anything. Regards, doc craigwhisler@webuniverse.net

Re: Mobile home value - Lien Auctions?? - Posted by HouseGoddess

Posted by HouseGoddess on November 25, 2001 at 13:04:24:

Dear Craig,

Tell us more about Lien Auction sales?

Regards,
HouseGoddess

Re: Mobile home value - Lien Auctions?? - Posted by Phillip smiley

Posted by Phillip smiley on December 05, 2001 at 08:52:17:

Ibye aiot of repos and need to know how much to resale for

Re: Mobile home value - Lien Auctions?? - Posted by Craig Whisler CA

Posted by Craig Whisler CA on November 25, 2001 at 18:13:39:

I am writing a book about doing mobile mobile home deals on private land, and lein sales is to be one of my chapters. Noone else has ever written about this to my knowledge. Anyone can look up the mobile home lein laws in the civil code, but I only know of one other person who can match my knowledge of this type of lein sale and he isn’t talking (he is buying). The proceedures and how to find the really great deals are a matter of personal experience. I’ve changed my mind and decided to reserve this information for those who order the book, sorry. Regards, doc. craigwhisler@webuniverse.net

Re: Mobile home value - Lien Auctions?? - Posted by pam

Posted by pam on January 09, 2002 at 02:11:46:

Thought I would add a follow up on the lien sale world.
how can you figure the value of a mobile home. What style and age should you look for. What do you do if the park does not honor the sale and won’t accept your money. How can you pick a good mover at a fair price?
Especially if you only have three days to move.

lien sale bid ripoff - Posted by pam

Posted by pam on December 30, 2001 at 18:09:39:

at a lien sale is the price you bid the price you pay I recently bid at a sale but when I went to pay the park added 2500 onto the final agreed bid price is that legal…?