Need some creative ideas on an upside down dw - Posted by Dan (MD)

Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA NV on August 26, 2003 at 15:27:30:

You would we WELL advised to negotiate with the park manager FIRST. I know that the PM can’t give you a difinitive yes or no on your downstream buyer because he needs to check their credit and references first BUT you can try to draw a bead on his real intentions. If there is ANY hint that this PM might not be easy to work with, then the VALUE of the mobile home drops 80%-90% IMMEDIATELY. You don’t want to have to put out a bunch of cash to buy it then put out even more to move it. If the mobile home can’t stay in the park it probably isn’t worth more than $3-4k. You need to determine this before you negotiate with the seller, because it affects the sales price of the mobile more than any other factor. Tell the seller that you are looking at 3-4 other mobiles to and will have to choose the best deal. Check to see if there is any back space rent due (wich will basically be a lien against your mobile home). Try to arrange your purchase date just a few days AFTER she has paid the month’s rent not before. Ask manager when the late charge takes affect and it will probably be paid by that date. Check to see of any taxes are due on the mobile and check the paper work to be sure the mobile home really is free and clear. Check her title paper work EARLY too because if something is out of order (that you can cure) you will have an additional bargaining point. Make her prove it is free and clear of loans and liens like for back income taxes etc. Don’t worry, she does not have ANY acceptable cash offers yet (or she would have already sold it) and she will get more and more desperate as time goes on. It a case of reverse sticker shock. She will be really shocked to find out how little she will really get for it and that there are no other cash buyers beasting a path to her door. She likely will have to accept what ever you offer her. You set the price.not her. She can only say yes or no. If you don’t rush this deal you should get your price. It may take a year for her to realize the reality of her situation. She has to sell. You don’t have to buy. If you ever have to sweeten you offers only do it with future payments because you won’t be paying them out of your pocket. I’m real good at making payments out of others peoples pockets. Folks just have a natural reflex to feel their back pockets when I am nearby.

For the best tips on tax sale lots for trading purposes please refer to the archives. There is a whole art and science to the way I do it and you will find it all there waiting for you in the archives.

I can be reached at P.O. Box 12, Cabazon, CA 92230.

Regards, doc

Need some creative ideas on an upside down dw - Posted by Dan (MD)

Posted by Dan (MD) on August 21, 2003 at 10:50:26:

My mover referred a lady to me this week who has a 98 fleetwood double wide an hour and a half from where I live. After talking to her I don’t know if I can help but I’d thought that I’d try to get some creative ideas from the board here.

The mobile home was for her son who has been evicted and she is being told the home has to be moved (I haven’t talked to the park manager about this yet). She says the home is in great shape, but she just can’t get it sold (imagine that) well usually I’d tell her that I can’t help out, but they financed the mobile for their son using a second mortgage on their house…ie they have a free and clear title…hmm possibilities there. I was very blunt with her about what I do and that I can’t give here a lot of cash for the home, but she keeps insisting that I “need” to buy it.

What she wants me to do is to arrange for it to be moved to my area and then sell it, she’ll pay for the move then after I sell it I take a commission and give her the rest of the cash, I told her several times that when I sell I only get about $2,000 down and then take monthly payments. This still hasn’t discouraged her.

So I’m off to see the home tomorrow, it’s a long drive so I’m unsure if I want to do this without a good gameplan in mind.

Here’s my idea’s so far

  1. Offer straight cash of $5000.00 for the place and I take care of everything…best solution but I don’t see this happening
  2. Depending on the reaction to the straight cash deal, offer $4000 (or so) down with $200-$300/month for 2 years.
  3. Let her pay for the move, no money out of my pocket then split the down and monthly payment 50-50…that would net me $500-1000 down and probably $300/month for five years.

Anyone else have any good ideas? number 3 sounds good since it would be nothing out of my pocket just a matter of my time but I’m not very interested in having to pay her every month. I like to get the seller out of the way.

Thanks

Dan

btw, I still can’t believe how good of a business this is…things couldn’t be going better here in Maryland :slight_smile:

Ever consider suicide? - Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA NV

Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA NV on August 21, 2003 at 13:32:35:

Hi Dan. You didn’t state her purchase price or her asking price. Why and how soon does she think it needs to be moved? Need answers to these questions first. Then we can better consider your better options.

Regards, doc

some numbers - Posted by Dan (MD)

Posted by Dan (MD) on August 21, 2003 at 20:40:53:

Okay Doc, I called her back just now and got a price out of here, she’s looking for 12 grand total…but with flexible terms, she said she would be willing to take 6k in a few weeks and the other 6k in two years. I floated 5-7 to her and she wasn’t to happy about that but she didn’t hang up either.

As far as getting the place sold down where I live, I will be able to sell it easily within 30 days for $2000 down and $600-$700/month for 6 yeas total of $37,000 or so. I wish I had a few of your tax sales land but I haven’t cracked that code yet for the move (btw this would be my forth move so I know what to expect for that…it’ll cost me $2750 for a double wide)

She is motivated, has a clear title and a nice home, I’d do it in a minute for less than $10,000 but I’m not too excited about having to pay her an additional $6000 in two years.

So should I run away? or try to get her down further?

Thanks

Dan

Run Dan Run? — NOT - Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA NV

Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA NV on August 22, 2003 at 15:38:01:

Run? Not on your life. You’ve got a live one on the line. Play her for a while. Your numbers are GREAT. You’ve got a tremendous deal going here. Just continue to work it.

First thing I ever learned about negotiation is that whenever you ask a seller what his lowest price is, he nearly ALWAYS will accept offer of 10%-15% LESS, especially if you are waving cash.

I nearly always remove the money from my wallet and hold it in front of the seller or if we are in his living room talking I just spread it out fan style, row after row, on his coffee table in small bills ($20). Ever try to spread 10 Gs in twentys on a small coffee table? Can’t hardly be done. Looks like MILLIONS. When you spread out the money their spouse and children appear ‘magically’ to stare at it, as they happily dream about how they are going to spend ‘their share’. They often practically force their parent or spouse to accept it so they can run off to the mall immediately to ‘invest’ their share of your money, before it even cools down from being in your hot little hands. Didn’t someone say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well don’t just tell them about your money give them a real live picture. Its so much harder to say no when you are actually staring at all of that cash. It just isn’t the same as having it in your wallet or checkbook and talking about it. The sight of piles of cash just does something to stir man’s soul. Use cash effectively when you negotiate. If you are talking cash, SHOW IT. This lets the seller know you aren’t someone with just $200 (who already spent it on a Carlton Sheets course).

I can’t guarantee that they will always accept your cash offer but I can guarantee that they will NEVER lose your phone number.

If she is into flexible terms why not try $2,000 down and $400 per month until paid. If you are real quick this means you get it absolutely free. You use $2k from your buyer to give to the seller and you let your buyer make all of the payments and you skim a couple of bill off the top to buy me more Big Macs each month. Nothing down to you and no payments that you have to make and your buyer pays you a couple hundred extra every month just to be neighborly? Sounds free to me. This offer also implies zero interest to you even though you will collect interest on the downhill side. Didn’t she say she was flexible on the terms? Zero interest is a flexible term isn’t it?

I often make 3 offers at a time (all good for me) to give the sellers more choices. The above might be one of them. I might offer her full price or better yet a little over full price, with 1k down and level payments of $350 mo. til paid. I might also offer her $5k-$6k all cash, full price.

I don’t like to make my offers in writing because they often end up being shown to my comtepition with the question: Can you beat this? Then your competitor gets to buy YOUR DEAL for $100 more than you offered. I do that stuff all the time. I just ask the sller “if I beat that offer will we have an immediate deal”? If they say yes, I just offer $100 more than the other guy and don’t give the seller time to shop MY offer back to the first guy. If they don’t agree to an immediate deal I just tell them to come back when they grow up (I mean with their absolute best offer) and I’ll try to beat it when they are finally ready to make a deal. Then I make my + $100 offer and sign the contract.

$2,750 to move a double wide. You’re right: too bad you haven’t cracked the tax-sale lot trading code. I trade $300 taxsale lots on a regular basis for moving and setting a double. Course if you really prefer to pay $2,750 instead of $300 I won’t gripe: isn’t my ox being gored.

One final thought: It isn’t YOU who will be paying the final $6k in two years. It is your buyer who will pay it so what’s the difference?

If you lack cash to do this deal find a local partner with a $6k left on his credit card and offer him about a 4%-5% interest spread for the use of his money. Who cares about the spread? It won’t be coming out of our pocket anyway. Your buyer will be a nice guy and pay it for you.

Regards, doc

Re: Run Dan Run? — NOT - Posted by Dan (MD)

Posted by Dan (MD) on August 22, 2003 at 19:16:02:

Hey Doc,

Thanks again for the help, I find it very interesting how this board works with the different experience levels…I’m actually helping two others work on Lonnies and a third put a post up asking specifically for my help :slight_smile: how cool is that…anyway here’s where I stand right now

She called today and she’s having second thoughts about the 6k now and 6k in two years, she said she wanted the 12k up front…I just can’t make that number work right now…it’ll take too long to get my money out of the deal and I was actually about ready to call it quits…then I read your post and I’m back in the deal…

So I’m going to go look at the place tomorrow, I know that she is motivated, she’s losing sleep, she calls me everyday and she really wants out…

I’m going to float this one to her tomorrow

I’m going to tell her that I can’t give her 12k cash today (which I really can’t afford to do nor do I want to) and that I can help her out if she keeps her terms flexible…I’m going to offer her $1000 down and $350/month for 3 years…that’s $13,600 and basically it’ll be half of my down and half of my monthly when I sell it. I’ll try to keep it in the current park to avoid having to pay the 3 grand to move it but if I have to I’ll be out of the deal in 10 months or so and I’ll make a good paycheck on the back side of the note…just got to convince her to take monthlies instead of cash up front and I think she’ll go for it.

As far as the tax sales, any advice on what counties out in the east that would be good to get lots for a couple of hundred bucks? I’ve been looking in Penn, virginia and W virginia (but not that hard to tell you the truth).

Again thanks for the help

Dan

btw what’s your address I want to send you a bottle of wine for the help :slight_smile: