Posted by Brad Crouch on April 10, 1999 at 13:16:05:
Frank,
Yes, the mobile home is a depreciating “animal”. But I guess the trick is in deciding whether or not you can “stand” the depreciation. Or if it is worth it for the worry free living environment.
Since you’re looking for “tennant buyers”, I guess they’re about a dime a dozen. All you have to do is run an ad with a bold headline that says, “RENT TO OWN”, and you’ll have more calls that you can process.
The hardest part of lease optioning is finding the sellers who will “master lease” rather than just selling their property, outright. Especially in the sellers’ market that many cities are currently experiencing now.
If you want to find the sellers who will do this, I would recommend purchasing Joe Kaisers’ course, “The Ultimate Lease Option Strategy”. Here you will learn how to put these deals together by targeting the “tired landlord”. I think it is better to find the properties first, and then find the tennant buyers. You’re kind of getting close to the line (licensing for finding property for a third party) when you find the buyers first. And like I said, they’re a dime a dozen.
I think it would be safe to say that almost 100% of MH owners and prospective buyers would rather be in a house but for whatever reason are forced into M/H’s.With that in mind has anyone developed any successful strategies to identify and move the MH buyer into the area of L/O as a way to move into a house.I would think that many MH buyers are credit worthy but cash poor and that the initial lower cost of MH’s is what attracts so many buyers.The option consideration being considerably less than normal down payment should really appeal to these buyers.Then give these folks 24-36 months in which to really latch on to the idea of ownership (a powerful motivation dont yall agree?)and you end up with people who will crawl through broken glass to keep that house.Any thoughts on this?Frank B.
Posted by John Katitus on April 12, 1999 at 24:28:24:
I had a nice home for L/O. Took a family’s 3BR mobile home for the 5K option deposit. Subsequently sold the mobile home for 14,900 - with financing.
I think the logical next step for a young family in a mobile home is to buy a house. I’m not sure how you would market this toward mobile home occupants, as many parks don’t want signs and advertising around the park. One park I work in, however, has a monthly newsletter.
The critical point, I think, would be your dealing in both L/O houses and mobile homes.
Re: Successful L/O Prospecting - Posted by leslie dear
Posted by leslie dear on April 11, 1999 at 04:58:28:
I agree with the other comments. I use “rent to own” ads and get calls on top of calls. (call waiting is frustrating at times). many of them are too low-income so a monthly price in the ad helps slow down the calls to a managable number . i find if you stock up on potential buyers they evaporate while you take weeks or months to find “their dream house”. the other route works better. get a master lease and then advertise like crazy. if you want to get fancy, take your newly aquired house on “winding way” and send mailers to all the renters in that subdivision, or school district. ( why stop at renters, home owners have family who want to live near them and are saving up to buy there, so mail them all). your local title company will help you get mailing labels free. to find renters they search for a site address with an absentee owner, and print sticky labels and also save it to a disk for me for future use. in my master lease i ask for permission to place a sign in the front yard, advertise in media, even list with agents, and test market for 60 days to find an approved tenant. if it’s a fsbo waiting to move they think the free marketing is for them and love it. if its a vacant rental, or the fsbo just bought another house its tough to get 60 days. if they bought the other house 8 months ago and had no usable offers on the old house they are glad to see you, and what’s another sixty days at this point. yes, and by the way, they say, here are the phone numbers of some people who wanted our house but couldn’t figure out how to make it work. case in point. a lady called me just yesterday, her neighbor found she is selling and asked if $4k dn and take over her payments would be ok. no way she said, i’m not giving up title to my house. she called me for help. i offer to get the lease option into place (with sublease or assignment) and split the $4 with her, she likes the idea a lot. they know the house, like the neighborhood, they live across the street with their parents. shouldn’t take me 2 hours to write it up and get signatures. it will work for you when you get busy at it. the more you do the more you find and the easier they say yes. they sense you know what you are doing, and you aren’t stressed over one deal. you show that you can decline if dosen’t seem right, or it will take too much, be it your money, or your time. call fsbos, call rental ads, and place ads “i buy houses” in fsbo section and “long term lease wanted” in rental section. good luck and just have fun practicing.
sorry i’m to tired to capitalize, i should be writing that offer instead of playing around here, but this site is great.
Re: Successful L/O Prospecting - Posted by Brad Crouch
Posted by Brad Crouch on April 09, 1999 at 21:49:25:
Frank,
Spoken like a man who has never lived in a mobile home.
I have lived in a double wide coach since November of 1995 and have been pretty happy here. No, it’s not the money . . . I pay about the same amount as when I lived in a 5 level townhouse (thank God I didn’t own it).
My wife and I live in a suburb North of Los Angeles, and it is very quiet here in the park. I know most everybody here and they all know me. That’s nice!
I leave my car unlocked many times at night, without worry. The residential sections a few blocks away cannot say that. There is a swimming pool available that requires no work or worry from me. Straight pool is a game I enjoy, and there are frequent tournaments and every day at 4p.m. there is a couple of games going on.
I pay an annual fee every year for my license sticker . . . about $65 per year. Much better than lining the pockets of the City for property tax.
This place is like living in a different world . . . a better one. I lived in a house for 23 years and there was ALWAYS some maintenance that had to be done. I spent more time than I liked doing these things.
John,Bravo!Sounds like a good deal to me.I might be stating the obvious,but not everyone reads the newspaper but everyone has to eat,and every grocery store and Walmart,Kmart,etc.has a bulletin board at the entrances that you can post notices for free.Eventually every person in your market area walks by.Post an eye catching flyer and see what happens…Frank B.
Re: Successful L/O Prospecting - Posted by Lonnie Turner
Posted by Lonnie Turner on April 09, 1999 at 22:52:35:
How about targeting people who live in apartments are people who are living in rental houses? Anyone here ever had any success marketing to these people?
Brad…WRONG!I have lived in a MH,16by80,garden tub,all the bells and whistles,safe,quiet park,and all that.Enjoyed my stay there,but in the end there was no escaping the fact that I was in a depreciating asset(that sounds like an oxymoron to me).I didnt intend the original post to come across as derogatory at all,but to point out a market that may not have been explored to it’s potential.Frank B.