Posted by Dawoud on April 20, 1999 at 16:38:51:
Dirk, I really appreciate your post. To all new Lonnie students. I would pay close attention to what Dirk talks about. I am new myself, however, when I needed advise and help on a potential deal, he gave me some advise, and even went above and beyond to help me. Dirk even called someone to give them a heads up about my situation. To that I really Thank him. If you are a new mobile home investor, I would sure place Dirk on my to know list.
Atten: Mobile Home Newbies…Subject “MH Dealers” - Posted by Dirk Roach
Posted by Dirk Roach on April 20, 1999 at 14:45:54:
Hello Everyone,
Taking my lunch break here, and had to peek into the newsgroup. 
Recently I have received a few emails from various folks looking to get into MH’s aka “Lonnie Deals”
First let me say buy, READ, and understand Lonnie’s Book’s before you buy any mobile homes. This will save you a lot of grief. Trust me.
Okay there seems to be some confusion about the local Mobile home Dealer’s and Lonnie people.
In my experience, you find your local mobile home dealers are more akin to a real estate agent (in conventional homes). They typically sign someone up who is trying to sell their mobile home. They then advertise and show the home, and take a piece of the pie for their trouble.
Now in a Lonnie Deal, you (and/or your partner/investor) are the principal. You buy the home from the people selling it and then You advertise it, show it and sell it, and keep the profits.
In a typical Lonnie Deal you are not going out and finding a traditional institution to finance your buyers. You are financing them.
The benefits of this are pretty plain to see. You have access to a much larger target market of buyers. Because really your looking for two aspects in a buyer (which you plan to finance yourself): Ability (can they make the payments?) and Intent (do they have a good track record of coming up with X amount of dollars consistently?)
Now a traditional lending institution is going to look at a NADA book to ascertain the homes Value. This means little, as it’s the homes location (and to a much lesser extent it’s condition) which will be the major factor in determing the Value of a Used Mobile home.
Also they will be looking much, much more closely at you buyers credit.
When dealing with a traditional, lending institution in regards to used mobile homes you are in for headaches and besides only a score will even consider financing them anyhow.
Thus Lonnie’s method of OWNER FINANCING. It’s a niche market with really wild yields (returns on your investments.)
Hope this helps,
Well back to it,
Dirk
Re: Atten: Mobile Home Newbies…Subject “MH Dealers” - Posted by Tim_AZ
Posted by Tim_AZ on April 21, 1999 at 24:06:36:
Thanks for the post Dirk. I just got Lonnies first book in the mail Saturday, and I’m halfway through it. I’m excited right now, and looking forward to my first deal (hopefully soon!). I may be picking your brain in the next few weeks or months. Thanks again.
Coming from experience working at a MH Dealership… - Posted by Brandi_TX
Posted by Brandi_TX on April 20, 1999 at 19:10:17:
I guess you could consider a MH Dealer the cross between a Realtor and a used car salesman. I say this from experience being a MH salesperson.
When someone had a used home they wanted help selling, the signed an agreement, and just as Dirk said, the got a piece of the action. The only problem was that there was no action. The dealership didn’t mind advertising the home. It gave them a REAL story to tell. (Instead of the standard - “Getting Divorced - MUST SELL NOW” ad.) BUT when people came in from the ad, they were just qualified and switched to a new home. This dealership in particular made ALOT of money taking the buyers that called for the used homes.
ON TOP OF ALL THIS, I recommend not buying used homes (repos)from the dealership UNLESS you know that you are getting a good deal. Once again, at our dealership in particular, we were REQUIRED by the company to have a certain % mark up on these houses. (For example, we had a 1969 12 X 26 come in looking horrible. They sealed the roof, stuck some pretty (pretty ugly?) wallboard over the existing paneling, stuck a bag of popourri in every room and tried to sell it for $8500. I know they ended up taking less, but not by much, and it sat there for A LONG TIME.)
I just realized I am rambling, so I will end this by saying BE CAREFUL when dealing with MH dealerships. I no longer work there because, in a round about way I was told that I was “too honest” for that kinda work. That’s gotta say something about the way things are.
Brandi_TX