Posted by Sherri on February 14, 2003 at 20:45:50:
(nt)
Mobile Homes or Not! - Posted by rebecca
Posted by rebecca on February 13, 2003 at 13:02:22:
I am a Cartlon Sheets graduate; the only real estate I’ve ever purchased is the home I am living in.
I have gone back and forth as to whether to concentrate my investing efforts in real estate or mobile homes. I live in Pinellas Cny Florida where building permit for residential homes are very hard to come by because of overbuilding. This means opportunity for appreciation if purchasing real estate. There are also tons of mobile home parks here too (not just 55+). I am looking for a long term strategy rather than a “flipping” strategy as I have a good day time job.
Several posts mention that with rentals you really have to do your homework regarding expenses as you can run into serious cash flow problems if you’ve calculated something wrong or your contingency plan is too conservative. This utterly scares me to death. I am a single mom who pays a mortgage and supports a child.
Mobile homes seem to have less variables if you are buying low and selling as a bank. I think I could swing the $5k a couple times a year to buy out right, but I am sacrificing the valuable appreication of purchasing real estate if I go this route. I guess it all boils down to the old “risk/return” ratio.
Does anyone have any general comments regarding this dilemna? Are their any general rules of thumb you can share regarding which strategy would be better?
I sincerely appreciate your time.
Don’t pass up this chance to make huge yields! - Posted by Anne_ND
Posted by Anne_ND on March 08, 2003 at 18:19:11:
Rebecca,
The yields in MHs and MH notes are great. Buy Lonnie’s books (a mere $30 apiece- what a steal) and spend time at the mobile home newsgroup here and you will see what can happen. We are getting out of buy-and-hold property management and into mobile homes as quickly as we can.
Good luck,
Anne
I invest in pasco and pinellas - Posted by Dan-fl
Posted by Dan-fl on February 28, 2003 at 07:47:16:
I started investing 5 years ago here with lonnie deals.It can be done here.I have been a fulltime investor for the last four years.I now invest in SFH and still pick up mhs with land a few times a year.I just bought one for $200 including the land.It needs about $3000 in repairs and is worth about $20,000 if I sell for cash and much more if I carry paper.
Re: Mobile Homes or Not! - Posted by Shawn J. Dostie
Posted by Shawn J. Dostie on February 14, 2003 at 15:32:15:
Before you make up your mind, take a stroll over to the MH section of this website. There is a flat fortune to be made in mobile homes. Traditional buy and hold investing means you try to create a positive cashflow with any property you buy. It works and it is the majority of my personal investing. With this type of investing you get a positive cashflow (most months), appreciation over time (dependent on market), and the tenants pay for your property.
With MH’s the general consensus is that they depreciate like rocks. While this is true, it creates an opportunity if you are not too dense to see it. The fact is, that it can be extremely difficult to sell, and almost impossible to get financed for a MH. Well, if I’ve been tryin for months to sell a MH and the lot rent is eatin me alive, then when little miss Mary Cashdollar walks in and offers me a ridiculously low amount of those cash dollars, especially with next months lot rent looming, I might just take it. Now Little miss Mary Cashdollar now owns a little MH that she maybe paid $1500.00 for and places a lil ol Don Lapre tiny classified ad that goes like this here. “Owner will finance- No Banks” 14x70 3 br 1 ba MH 7995.00" Do you think the phone will ring? In Florida? All those low rate orchard workers gotta live somewhere… All those old folk wantin to retire to God’s waiting room that didn’t plan and are living on “Social Security” (what an oxymoron) would love to buy one of these places. Get a little $$$ down and finance em’… no landlording. When they don’t pay duplicate it. These things cost a lot less than a Duplex or triplex.
Both work, you just need to make the choice. By the way, there are pitfalls to any type of investment, that is why the return is higher than a CD, but it’s there if you have the gumption to make it work.
Good Luck,
Shawn(OH)
By the way, if you decide on MH investing you MUST buy Lonnie’s Deals on Wheels.
Re: Mobile Homes or Not! - Posted by Rich V (FL)
Posted by Rich V (FL) on February 13, 2003 at 19:51:37:
Rebecca,
Dont get into mobiles, maybe for a quick turn around but NEVER long term.
Stick with stuff that really goes up in value. I like condos and single families. They go very well here in FL. (btw I own property in Pinellas, Sarasota and Charlotte counties).
There is nothing wrong with doing your homework on rentals. In Pinellas it is only a matter of time before the county is built out. Then values will shoot up.
Before you jump into anything do some research on rentals and look up our landlord/tenant act. Books on property managment can be a great help to you also.
Drop me an email anytime if you have any questions. I’m not a know it all but since we are both from the west coast of FL I can share my real estate mistakes and success stories with you.
Good luck
Rich
Re: Mobile Homes or Not! - Posted by Shawn J. Dostie
Posted by Shawn J. Dostie on February 14, 2003 at 15:41:58:
Before you discount long term investing in MH’s as being a bad way to go, I invite you to the MH area of this website. I’m not trying to pick a fight or tell you you are wrong. What I am suggesting is that if you think outside the box, there is a viable and very profitable niche in wobbly boxes.
Good Luck,
Shawn(OH)
Re: Mobile Homes or Not! - Posted by Rich V (FL)
Posted by Rich V (FL) on February 16, 2003 at 05:22:55:
Shawn,
I can see profit being made from selling and taking back paper. I would just I hope people do thier homework before jumping into something based on price.
I have known investors that have had rough time with certian MH parks. Mostly the parks that are not “land owned”.
Also most of the grove workers are now living inland more, where most of the groves are. And the old folks are in the 55+ parks.
So she may have a limited market place. Maybe a good move for her would to invest inland a bit?
Keep in mind Shawn that I am basing this information on what other investors here have told me. It could be alot of “yip yap”. I do not have any personal experience with long term MH investing.
But I am now curious to take a look to see what other folks are saying in the MH area of this site.
Thank you for your reply.
Good luck
RichV(FL)