Welcome back,
In today’s 60-minute Mobile Home Investing Podcast episode #37 I’m honored and so proud to introduce you to active Mobile Home Formula investor, Matt to the co-hosting microphone. In a short period of time Matt has already been able to added 20+ cash-flowing mobile homes to his long-term portfolio.
Matt has been busting his butt, but also working smarter too. In today’s hour-long podcast we talk about what is working for Matt to scale his mobile home investing business so fast.
Learn from Matt’s mistakes and successes on today’s video podcast below.
Special Thanks to Matt for giving value to other mobile home investors he’ll likely never meet.
Over Improving based on exit-strategy
Like most times in life, it is good to have a plan A and Plan B. This is why we plan our “exit strategies” before we ever make any of our purchase offers to sellers. Your desired exit strategy will (or should) determine the repairs you make to your mobile home investment.
✔ Over improving the property? In these situations, the buyer is happy. This will likely take you longer to repair. You will need to make all this invested money back before you start seeing any profit. It is easy to over improve as your end-buyers may not care about the specific repairs/improvements you make. This over-improving is a direct hit to your profit margin.
✔ Under improving the property? Buyers negotiate you down on price due to repairs needed. Potential buyers turn away or may not even want to walk inside of the home. Fewer buyers will show up to view the property. Positive: You will be able to gain valuable feedback of what repairs people would like to see.
✔ Improving the property adequately for the target sales price, neighborhood & condition of home: In these situations, the buyer is happy. This strategy comes with experience and knowing what most end-buyers are looking for when purchasing a used mobile home for sale either cash or payments.
Pro Tip: When reselling an investment mobile home, always disclose any repairs and issues needed on the very first advertisements when you are selling a mobile home. You do not need to waste anyone’s time, including your own, by making the home sound prettier than it really is on the online advertisement.
Moral of the story: If you are selling for top dollar then there should be comparable sales to support your resale price estimation. When selling for top dollar cash then certainly do fix up the home accordingly to neighborhood standards. If reselling in an average neighborhood for cash or for rent-to-own only fix what is broken; aim not upgrade unless it is needed. Pass this savings on to your rent-to-own buyer with a lower Move-In fee required for the right buyer. While wholesaling no repairs are typically made.
In the podcast episode below, John and Matt cover:
✔ 0:00 Intro
✔ 3:00 Sales to Bootcamp at 31.
✔ 4:00 Real estate experience
✔ 5:30 Who is mobile home investing for?
✔ 6:10 Working for yourself.
✔ 8:00 Networking with investor-friends
✔ 12:20 Investing full-time now.
✔ 14:00 Selling multiple deals at once
✔ 16:30 Partnering with park owners
✔ 18:40 Partnering with your brother
✔ 20:00 Why join the military at 31?
✔ 22:30 Giving back
✔ 25:40 Talk about your deals
✔ 26:30 Juggling 25+ mobile home deals
✔ 31:00 Do this in other states?
✔ 35:30 Handyman mistakes & lessons
✔ 43:00 Wholesaling for cash in 5 days.
✔ 54:00 Staying positive to keep grinding
✔ 55:00 Wrapping it up
Wholesaling, Retailing, & Cash-flow
Quick reminder of wholesaling, retailing, and cash-flowing.
✔ Wholesaling: This method of investing in mobile homes allows you to secure a mobile home under contract. This gives you time to find a cash buyer for the mobile home. The investor typically makes money without investing any capital.
✔ Retailing: Selling mobile homes retail is exactly what it sounds like, selling for top dollar to a retail buyer that will likely be living in the home. Ideally these buyers pay cash, however sometimes bank loans may happen.
✔ Cash-flow: Any mobile home that is sold for monthly payments is typically worth much more than its “all-cash” value. Simply put, the value is higher since the seller will take payments. Selling via monthly payments allows you to collect an upfront Move-In fee from a tenant-buyer and monthly payments for 5+ years.
Related video: Jack cash-flowing his 22nd mobile home formula deal
Effort is required. Some education is very helpful. Also, knowledge about the local markets is needed to make any of these selling strategies successful.
Partnering with parks to scale quickly
While helping mobile home investors around the country grow their business, we’ve seen mobile home investors partner with parks in major ways and minor ways. All of the ways listed below are still very impressive and allow you to scale faster than working on your own.
✔ Partnering with a park and splitting equity in the community: This is major! This is less common. This is what Matt is doing in today’s podcast. Matt found this park owner and they both realized they could help one another out. Matt and his brother’s role are to fix up the existing mobile homes, bring in used mobile homes, and sell everything on payments for a fair and reasonable price. They will all be partnering together on future parks too.
✔ The park is allowing you to be the community’s go-to mobile home investor, mobile home buyer, or mobile home broker inside of the community. Any mobile homes available or sellers that arise are sent directly to you for help. This is minor, but still great. This is more common. While this is very nice and helpful, you do not get any equity of the mobile home community. You will get all of the profit from investing, wholesaling, or brokering any mobile homes the park connects you with.
In conclusion you will never learn everything you need to know about real estate investing from reading books or watching videos. While there are many ways to make money in real estate, there are countless ways to lose profits as well. Have fun and take daily action to reach your financial goals. If you have questions, ask them. There are plenty of active investors around to give you help and guidance if you simply ask for it.
Bonus mobile home investor video w/ Matt:
Have comments or questions? I’d love to hear them below.
Thanks for following along. Check out the podcast episode below. We hope it helps you and your mobile home investing business.
Love what you do daily,
John Fedro
support@mobilehomeinvesting.net
Listen here to John and Matt’s Podcast Here…
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12 Comments
JOE THE HANDY MAN
July 15, 2022Hi john, good pieces of writing and very helpful article! I am truly enjoying these and learning much. I know about repairs not investing. Thanks again
John Fedro
July 19, 2022Hi Joe!
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. I have no doubt that being a handyman does not come without a great deal of hard work and daily effort on your part. Keep up the great work moving forward. If you know about rehabbing mobile homes then you already know more than the average to be mobile home investor. Any mobile home investing related questions moving forward never hesitate to reach out any time. Happy to help if possible.
Talk soon,
John
Denise Panzich
July 19, 2022My mom purchased a mobile home seven years ago in California. She has a trust and was told to put it in the trust. However, she has miss placed the pink slip. She has a accountant that has gone to the DMV and they told her they don’t do that for a mobile home. Can you tell where in California we should go? I did read your article and you mentioned that California and Texas have very few offices that do that. I’m scared to mail in original paperwork to get a replacement.
John Fedro
July 19, 2022Hi Denise,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Thank you for the detailed comment has the certainly does help me understand your situation a bit better. I regret to hear that your mother has lost the pink slip to her mobile home, however this definitely happens from time to time. Usually the folks down at the HCD are very helpful at explaining things and helping you get through these types of situations. You may visit their offices at the locations and phone numbers below. I hope that this helps and point you in the right direction.
City of El Cajon
1530 Hilton Head Road, Suite 107
El Cajon, CA 92019 (619) 441-2326
City of Riverside
3737 Main Street, Suite 400
Riverside, CA 92501 (951) 782-4431
City of San Luis Obispo
3220 South Higuera Street, Suite 103B
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 (805) 549-3373
All the best. Talk soon,
John
Nefertiti
July 19, 2022You are so knowledgeable–I don’t know where to start!!! I had Hope of upgrading into a new manufactured home but circumstances have changed. Now I am hoping I can remodel my 2000 Horton double wide into a dreamy home. Question–do you have any referrals of companies that work on mobile homes?
John Fedro
July 19, 2022Hi Nefertiti,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Great name by the way. Understood about you originally wishing to upgrade to a newer manufactured home. However one that is 20 years old is not that old at all. I’ve certainly seen homes from the 70s that are in better condition than ones from the teens. It depends on how people take care of them and how well the homes have been protected against water damage. Water coming in from the outside and water coming in from pipes as well. Water is the enemy of these mobile homes. I’m not sure exactly where you are located however I would encourage you to reach out to every local mobile home supply store you can find within a 90 minute radius, as well as every mobile home dealership to call them up and ask for referrals for handymen. May also want to talk to any of your local neighbors or local mobile home parks to see if they have any referrals. Referrals will be the best way to go versus placing an ad out for randomly looking for mobile home handymen online or in the paper. I hope this helps and starts to point you in the right direction. I have no doubt that you will turn your existing home into the dreamy makeover property you have in mind. However definitely talk to a lot of handy folks before committing to the right person that fits your budget, they have experience, are trustworthy, and have signed a scope of work and agreement where they understand exactly the work to be done, the cost, and what their timeframe will be. Hope this helps him. Moving forward if you have any follow-up questions please never hesitate to reach out anytime. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Sherry
July 26, 2022Hello John, I have a rather unique situation. My elderly Mother bought a double wide with land several years ago. She recently attempted to sell the mobile home and land to a flipper. The buyer/flipper’s lawyer did a title search and found that the mobile home has another person’s name as title holder. This person owned the home originally and is 3 owner’s back. The original owner/title holder is now deceased. To make matters worse, there is a lien on the mobile home by a company that no longer exists, Greentree Financial. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We are all in limbo at this time. Thank you, Sherry
John Fedro
August 4, 2022Hi Sherry,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Thank you for your detailed question as this certainly does help me understand your situation a bit better. It looks like you may be commenting from the state of North Carolina. Every state has a bit of a different process for this situation. Some states have no process at all really. Besides going to court and having a judge order the state to print a new title, if even possible. However as the landowner you should be able to file for an abandoned title as well. You’ll want to contact the Department of Motor Vehicles in your county and aim to speak with someone that has been there for a a while. A letter can typically be sent certified to the address of Greentree and it will be returned as proof that the company is out of business. Please double check what I am saying and make sure to explain the complete situation to the clerk at the DMV’s office. The situation has definitely happened before and it will continue to happen moving forward unfortunately. With that said you are the landholder and do hold many of the cards as the property is on your land. I hope this helps and point you in the right direction. Moving forward if you have any follow-up questions or comments please never hesitate to reach out any time. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Brooke
August 23, 2022Hello, I’m sure this is not the dedicated space to be asking these questions, do you have a forum for discussion and questions regarding deals? I only see a facebook page referenced but I don’t use facebook. Any feedback is much appreciated! I’m looking at two trailers, both of which will need to be relocated to land which I will be buying separately. My first question is about zoning, the land is zoned for permanently affixed, I will just have to have the city sign off after it is relocated and placed on the permanent slab and they will issue the required paperwork for occupancy, and change it to real property instead of personal property. I have all my ducks in a row for that part, but the trailer is currently used as office space/ commercial. It can easily be converted to residence, but I’m not sure how this effects title/ current registration. Will this complicate things and does anyone have any experience with this? Secondly, I have a seller wanting to transfer title outside of escrow, (it is personal property) and for cash cash, i.e. no check. I’m not sure about this, Is this normal? Do you buy this way? I guess it is no different than buying real property from an auction, outside of escrow, but I am very comfortable researching title to real property, and knowing what I am buying. With MH I dont know how /where to begin. Ive purchased vehicles for cash, and just looked at the chain of ownership on pink, and checked with DMV verify no liens and outstanding registration amount, is buying MH registered this way really just as simple? Again if you have a forum for this please let me know I will move this to the appropriate section. Thank you for reading!
John Fedro
August 24, 2022Hi Brooke,
Thanks for reaching out and connecting. Additionally, thank you for your detailed questions as the certainly does help me understand your situation a bit better. However one thing I am unsure of is the state that the mobile homes are located in and if this is the same state where they will be moved to your land? However I will make some assumptions as it seems as if you bring titles to the DMV with regards to mobile homes and that certainly narrows things down.
With regards to your first question it may or may not be as easy to change a home from office space use to residential use. Sometimes engineering reports, architects, and plans have to be drawn up by professionals. However in some cases the “office” basically looks the same as a normal manufactured mobile home, so very little work as needed. With regards to the title and registrations and taxes, there will typically be a title however it may say non-habitable or commercial use on the title somewhere. There may not be any record of this home paying any taxes though. You have to make sure that you know the process of putting the home back on the tax role as this is now for residential use and will pay normal registration fees and/or property taxes. I hope this helps and answers this part of the question.
With regards to your second question, yes selling outside of escrow or a title company or closing attorney is very common in most states around the country. If you physically have the most recent title in your name is on it, and there are no active liens, then it is that simple to transfer to the next buyer/owner. Great job contacting the DMV and aiming to track down anything owed on the home and the process to close. I hope my answers help some point you in the right direction moving forward. If you have any follow-up questions or comments never hesitate to reach back out anytime. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Matt Tillman
March 16, 2023Cool guest John. Trying to work on exit strategies myself so these tips are helpful. Thanks for all your content man.
-Matt
John Fedro
March 21, 2023Morning Matt,
Thanks for reaching out and connecting. I do hope that these videos and content have been somewhat helpful to you already. Matt has overcome a bunch of struggles to get to the point he is at now. In fact, almost every mobile home investor and real estate investor that is successful has gone through many many struggles and persisted through them. Keep up the great work and dedication yourself. Any specific mobile home questions or exit strategy questions or brainstorming never hesitate to reach out anytime. Always happy to help if possible.
Talk soon,
John
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