Re: Another place to find mobile homes… - Posted by Bob, PA
Posted by Bob, PA on November 05, 2000 at 07:49:12:
The County Treasurer’s Office can be a gold mine.
I bought three MH’s from them. Two for $50 each and one for $100. Here’s how.
I had bought an eyesore in a local park, fixed it up real pretty and sold it. Then I moved a nice home into one of the park’s empty lots. The owner had started to like me. He said he had two abandoned homes that I could have (both, not one or the other), waiving all back lot rent, if I’d settle the back taxes with the County Treasurer, who had already agreed to sign them off for $50 each! He didn’t care what I did with them, he just wanted to start collecting rent on those two lots. One home was junk but the other, a 12 x 60, had possibilities.
Fools rush in, and so did I. Paid off the Treasurer ($100 total), had the junker hauled away and ??? for $250.(“I know nothing, but I did see smoke coming from that direction”) Spent a month of spare time and about $1000 on the 12x60 and sold it for $6500, $1000 down, $200/mo.
While at the Treasurer’s office, he said “If you’re interested in mobile homes you ought to look at this list. I’ll sign off anything on this list for $100.” It was a list of County Owned Property. Everything on the list has been through a tax sale and has not sold, for one reason or another (FLAG!!!), and the County now owns it. Land, houses, mobile homes - you name it. It was full of mobile homes. Apparently it’s pretty easy for an increasing tax bill to pass up the depreciating value of a mobile home. But there were a few “nuggets” there too. He showed me how to decipher the list and I found one with an appraised value of $11,000! Went and looked at it immediately and ended up buying it for $100. (It might have been worth $3000). 14 x 65 Liberty 2/1. Had it moved to the lot where the junker had been, fixed it up (I ended up with about $3000 in it, counting the move) and sold it for $9000, $2000 down, $200/mo.
A few words of caution. Tax sales don’t wipe out liens in PA - Sheriff’s Sales do - but tax sales don’t. Before you invest a lot of time or money in anything from a tax sale, find out who has the title and what it will cost you to get it. I almost got burned (oops, that’s not a good word, maybe “stung”) Yeah, I almost got stung on the 12 x 60 because a Savings and Loan had a Lien against it and they had the title. Luckily, they knew the poor condition of the home, and also knew they’d have to pay off the back taxes and the back lot rent before they got anything and they agreed to sign it over to me, no charge. Bless their souls.
On the 14 x 65, there was no title - it had been “purged” from the state’s system. But I was able to get it reinstated by dealing with a notary who got online with the state and got me all the details of the old, “purged” title (which I guess wasn’t completely purged).
I’m glad I didn’t know then what I know now because I probably wouldn’t have done either of these deals and would have lost out on several thousand dollars.
Be careful but keep on pluggin’.