Welcome back,
In today’s Mobile Home Investing Podcast episode #24, I’m proud to welcome active mobile home investor Frank to the co-hosting microphone. Frank is a young investor with a bright future in real estate. Frank has been investing in mobiles for only a few months and already secured his first few investments mobile homes. He is focusing on creating cash-flow with his mobile homes rather than selling for all-cash at a discount.
In Frank’s local area he went from virtually being an unknown investor to now helping a small handful of community managers. Without Frank’s daily effort and action to push outside of his comfort-zone in order to help others and grow his local portfolio of properties he would still be virtually unknown when it comes to his local mobile home market. For this reason, the credit for Frank’s success goes to Frank, and to every other investor that makes a success for themselves. Keep up the daily effort.
In the 41-minute podcast and separate 15-minute video below we discuss some of the attractive points and gross details of Frank’s 1st mobile home transaction inside a park. We also discuss a great hidden source of quality and trustworthy mobile home handy people.
Related article: 50 Tips While Working With Mobile Home Handymen And Contractors
In the audio mobile home investing podcast episode below (at the bottom) John and Frank cover:
✔ 1:51 What do you do outside of mobile home investing?
✔ 2:52 Why mobile homes?
✔ 5:30 Becoming a licensed Realtor and advice
✔ 7:48 $11,000 real estate training?
✔ 10:09 Can you discuss how you found your 1st deal inside a park?
✔ 11:38 What price did you pay for the home?
✔ 15:23 What repairs were made to this first mobile home?
✔ 18:23 Listening to advice from handyman/contractor without mobile home experience?
✔ 18:53 Did this first handyman turn out well?
✔ 19:13 What specific lessons did you learn with this handyman?
✔ 22:31 Repair costs? Over-repair costs?
✔ 25:28 Sold price/terms?
✔ 20:46 What happened soon after closing?
✔ 26:27 How did these first buyers react to this situation?
✔ 29:32 Selling to buyers #2
✔ 29:51 Adding value to people’s lives for a win-win business.
✔ 31:21 Leaky roof – who repaired this?
✔ 33:49 Speaking with your buyers/renters about extra work they could use if they are mobile home handy.
✔ 34:48 Tips while working with your buyers as handymen & handywomen.
✔ 36:24 Protecting yourself
✔ 37:38 What advice would you give your younger-self?
Video tour of Frank’s first mobile home and more.
A special thank you to Frank for opening up his business and being so candid to help teach other real estate investors he’ll likely never even meet.
Something that has always impressed me about Frank is that he rarely makes excuses. This is an amazing quality to have. It allows for almost immediate corrected action towards a future goal.
Mobile home investing is a crash-course in people skills. Be willing to change and grow.
In the video above Frank is awesome enough to allow us to point out a vulnerability many of us have as human beings and mobile home investors. As real estate investors most of us do not want to appear foolish to others more experienced than ourselves. As a newer real estate investor or mobile home investor you will naturally have an almost unending number of questions, clarifications, and concerns. This is a good thing and to be expected if taking daily action and looking at mobile homes/seller regularly.
- DO care about losing money and losing time.
- DO care about how you treat and follow-up with others.
- DO care about how much action you are taking every day.
- DO care about always having clarity.
- Do NOT care about asking too many questions.
- Do NOT care about looking silly for asking too many questions.
- Do NOT care about writing questions/confusions down now and asking what these questions/confusions mean later.
- Do NOT care about spending the time needed to gain clarity to your questions and any opportunities in front of you.
Related video: Getting Started Investing: Transitional Vulnerability
Paying your current buyers to repair/clean your future mobile homes.
Selling via structured payments or renting? If you choose to sell a mobile home via monthly payments, then you will be establishing a long-term relationship with buyers for many months or years to come. For this reason, it is critically important to thoroughly vet and screen any potential adult applicant wishing to move into one of your mobile home properties. This background check should ideally include information such as credit history, eviction background, criminal searches, job verification, landlord checks, proof of income, and much more. Also, a prudent mobile home investor will aim to understand if your payment-buyers or renters have any handy abilities when it comes to mobile homes.
- If so, what are they able to fix around a mobile home?
- Do these buyers/renters have experience? Plumbing? Electrical?
- Are these buyers or renters able to paint?
- Remove junk and clean?
- Are these buyers or renters looking to make extra money?
- Could this be a win-win relationship?
Pro Tip: Aim to keep separate money-trails between investor and handyman/payment-buyer. It can be very tempting to simply credit or discount future monthly home payments to your handyman/payment buyer(s) VS paying them directly for labor preformed. Example: Aim to pay your handyman/payment-buyer with one check for repairs. Then allow the same handyman/payment-buyer to use another check (perhaps at another time) to pay for his/her monthly home payment for the property. This tip may vary if the handyman/payment-buyer is currently behind on home payments or lot rent. Always aim to get repair agreements signed with all handymen and contractors before starting any repairs.
Related article: Calling Past Landlords To Verify Rental History + Recorded Calls
Selling Cash? If you choose to sell a mobile home for cash or bank financing, then you typically may not know much about your buyer(s). You do not need to perform a background check as this buyer is paying you in cash and therefore you will not typically have any relationship together moving forward.
Pro Tip: When selling to an all-cash or bank financed buyer let these buyers know that you may be happy to repurchase back the property if they ever need to resell in the future. Let your cash buyers know to please pass along your phone information to any mobile homeowners that may want to sell down the road.
Bonus: Frank’s advice for newer mobile home investors.
Frank says...
"I'm grateful to see my mistakes and growth."
- Find a good teacher.
- Pay close attention to details.
- Be patient when finding deals. Try not to make hasty decisions.
- Your success will never outgrow your confidence and development.
- Hang around successful investors and ask as many questions as you can.
- Learning “people” is just as (if not more) important as learning “the market”.
Listen to John and Frank’s podcast here…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
17 Comments
Wren Lightfoot
February 17, 2018Another excellent podcast! Congratulations guys!! You’re very right about getting started earlier in life. I feel the same way and wish I started years ago. But both of you look like you’re still in your 20s. lol God bless you both for getting started so young. I do have a question about using my renter or buyer for repairs. Do you ever run into problems if you and your renters start to have a falling out or you have to evict them? I could see maybe running into this problem. Thank you for all the help always in please keep these coming.
Sincerely,
Wren Lightfoot
John Fedro
February 18, 2018Hi Wren,
Good to hear from you. Thanks for reaching out and connecting. Thank you for the kudos. Super proud of everything Frank has already accomplished. You certainly ask a good question with regards to using any existing renters or payment type buyers as active handymen and women for new mobile home properties you acquire. As the investor you always want to aim to stay in control if possible with clarity and contracts. Additionally, you almost always want to be chatting with other park managers, investors, and new payment buyers you acquire if they are handy and looking for extra work, always be looking for new mh experienced handymen. The reason I mention this is because handymen and women that do not live up to their hype or expectations are not uncommon. Some handy people incorrectly believe they can do more than they can in a given period of time. So if the handyman starts to fall short of expectation and by all means use their services less but keep them as a good payment buyer.
On the other hand if the renter or payment buyer begins to ignore your calls or default on the home payments that is a completely different story. Remember that first and foremost these people are your buyers or renters, and secondarily they are your handy people. With that said it is vitally important have contracts between your payment-buyers and also between you are handy people, even though sometimes these will be the same people. The reason I mention this is because if you’re buyer defaults on payments than they will be in breach of the contract to purchase the property. These buyers may likely try to work with you for a repayment plan or to perform repairs in lieu of monthly payments. If you need to work then potentially use them however because of the breach of contract it may be a slippery slope if they can get caught back up. Here is a different lesson/video that may be helpful with regards to working with defaulted renters or payment buyers. https://www.mobilehomeinvesting.net/my-mobile-home-tenant-stopped-paying-me-now-what/
With that said if the renter or payment buyer wants the home and wants to work with you then this may be possible depending on their current income and how quickly they can pay you monies moving forward. However if the renter or payment buyer is ignoring your phone calls that is a completely different story. This renter or payment buyer that is also your handyman will likely not be repairing your properties and ignoring your phone calls there to. They will be in breach of the contract they signed with you for the repairs as well. From this point it will be important to get them out of the property as quickly as possible hopefully in a win-win manner. Sometimes buyers do default and it is important to work with buyers that are qualified and have the ability to repay that are humble and grateful the for the opportunity you are presenting them. This certainly was a lengthy reply however I do hope it helps and make sense moving forward. As always, if you ever have any follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to reach out any time. Additionally, if I do not fully answer the question let me know and try to rephrase the question I’ll be happy to help if possible. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Ana
February 18, 2018Hello,
This article is super helpful, thank you so much.
I am currently trying to sell my mobile home. I would like to know what I am supposed to do regarding taxes.
I understand that I must go to a notary to transfer title over to buyer. However, how are taxes taken care of? I am thinking as the seller, I pay the taxes up to closing with buyer, and the buyer pays the difference of what is left of the year. Please correct me if I am wrong. Is there paper work for this or do I go to tax offices? I hope my questions are clear. Many thanks for your time!
John Fedro
February 21, 2018Hi Ana,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Additionally, thank you for your detailed comment as this certainly does help me point you in the right direction moving forward. You are writing from the state of Pennsylvania. If this is the case then you will typically close at a local notary’s office that is familiar with mobile home titles. With regards to the county taxes these absolutely must be paid prior to closing and you should receive a county tax certification to show the taxes are current. You will then also need to contact your local school district to pay taxes for the school tax. Let me know if you have any specific questions with any of this. Besides the tax clearance certificate but you will receive from the county, you should have a bill of sale and title at closing and the notary will have the state paperwork needed to help facilitate closing. I hope this all helps and make sense. If you have any follow-up questions or concerns please never hesitate to reach out any time. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Jim
February 20, 2018So much fun doing the walkthrough 🙂 Very familiar look of a newly acquired mobile home ready for some work.
Not sure I agree with how this handyman sealed the windows, and didn’t see any J Channel for the siding around them.
Interested in the numbers if we could see them
THis underbelly (vapor barrier) looked great. What do you do when they are really torn up or missing?
thanks for sharing this!
Jim
John Fedro
February 21, 2018Hi Jim,
Thanks for reaching out and connecting. Please see my thoughts below in bold.
Not sure I agree with how this handyman sealed the windows, and didn’t see any J Channel for the siding around them. Understood and very much agreed. We talk much more about this handyman, this mobile home, and about this deal in the associated podcast above. In short we will not be using this handyman again.
Interested in the numbers if we could see them. Yes, we talk about the numbers and repairs in detail in a bit more in the podcast above. It’s podcast #24 if you’re looking for on iTunes.
THis underbelly (vapor barrier) looked great. What do you do when they are really torn up or missing? We typically remove and replace what is needed. With that said depending on the state it is a bit more of a priority in some areas than others. In some areas of extreme cold were placing plywood sheets over the vapor barriers for added insulation. I hope this all helps and make sense. As always, if you ever have any follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to reach out any time.
Talk soon,
John
Jim
February 20, 2018Oh – and this unit has a good-looking heat/AC unit
What is your recommendation if this has to be replaced?
In Virginia, we just put in a heater that can be converted to central heating and air and let the buyers choose that option if they want to pay for it.
In the summertime we offer a few window AC units with the sale.
We find central units prohibitively expensive to replace.
Any suggestions?
jim
John Fedro
February 21, 2018Hi Jim,
Good questions. The answer is definitely, “it depends”. Depends on a number of factors such as our exit strategy, repair costs, park policies, time of the year, buying demand, and more. It sounds like you definitely have experience so I will definitely speak candidly. It is my intention to have a working heat source and AC source in the mobile homes I rent and resell. With that said I do want to keep costs low so I can pass that along to my future tenant-buyer. However I do want things working and safe. I’m certainly not opposed to window units if the park is accepting of them as well. Lastly, I have found good used and new central AC systems and furnaces through the local classifieds and Craigslist. I hope this all helps and make sense. As always, if you ever have any follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to reach out any time. Thanks for commenting. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
Mary
February 22, 2018Goo Gone has proven to be excellent in removing any kind of stickiness, such as stickers on glass, wood, and other materials.
Thank you. John, you are a real wealth of knowledge.
John Fedro
February 23, 2018Hi Mary,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Great tip and suggestion with regards to the goo gone product. This absolutely does work. WD-40 works surprisingly well to. As always, if you have any follow-up questions or concerns never hesitate to reach out any time.
Talk soon,
John
Aaron Chachamovits
March 13, 2018Great article and podcast. Although I am not a MH Investor or owner, I think one day I might just have to get into it! Thank you for providing valuable content John!
John Fedro
March 14, 2018Hi Aaron,
Thank you for reaching out and commenting here. Additionally, thank you for your kind words. I do hope this article has been somewhat helpful to thus far. As always, if you have any follow-up questions or concerns or future podcasts ideas never hesitate to reach back out any time. Keep in touch.
Talk soon,
John
Paul Trussel
January 7, 2021Hi John. Good article! Asking questions are in fact nice thing if you are not understanding something totally, however
this piece of writing provides nice understanding even.
John Fedro
January 13, 2021Hi Paul,
Thank you for reaching out and connecting. Thanks for the kind words as well. Any future mobile home related questions never hesitate to reach out any time.
Talk soon,
John
Lucie
February 22, 2023A great advice on how to succeed with mobile home investing. Frank’s advice is spot on and very helpful. Thanks for providing this valuable resource.
John Fedro
March 2, 2023Hi Lucie,
Thank you for reaching out and commenting. Glad you found value in this article and video. Moving forward any follow-up questions never hesitate to reach out anytime. Happy to help when possible. All the best.
Talk soon,
John
[…] focusing on creating cash-flow with his mobile homes rather than selling for all-cash at a discount.MHI Lesson 24: Unexpected source for trusted mobile home handymen & mobile home handywomen published first on […]
Leave A Response