Testing the waters - Posted by Mrs. White SanDiego

Posted by Steve W(WA) on April 10, 2002 at 14:13:04:

C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E

I’ll bet some of those homes are financed - present yourself as a business employee for a finance company - “just like Conseco” as some of us say.

OR:

only owner occupied? Then move a chair in! Heck, we have to pay lot rents anyway until it sells, so what’s the dif? And I’ll bet that the first one (or two) that you turn, the PM will see the light.

Check with other parks for space - they’ll love you for it, sometimes even financially.

Check with a mover for costs - a seller has no clue - only the guy doing it is clueful (my word).

REMEMBER!!! You are not looking for MHs - you are looking for motivated sellers. Cruise the parks, make friends with PMs, scout the Thrifty Ad paper every week, knock on doors.

I do not know the tape, but get the DOW book! the Lon-Master talks about scouting for FSBOs, or finding those that may not yet be for sale - your questions may be just what someone was waiting to hear!

Do not give up hope - the truth is out there.

s

Testing the waters - Posted by Mrs. White SanDiego

Posted by Mrs. White SanDiego on April 09, 2002 at 13:29:36:

After listening to the DOW tape, I decided to test the waters and go visit a MH park to talk to manager.

1st Experience: Visited my closest park.

Result: No Chance at that park. Rules are: No Rentals and Sellers can ONLY sell to Owner Occupants. No investor flipping alowed. Plus, according to the manager, even the 20-30 year old homes are selling for $20K+ and whenever a unit is up for sale the seller has to ‘rehab’ the unit according to park standards (so no as-is opportunities there.)

2nd Experience: Called an ad for a $2000 MH.

Result: Nice MH park owner and Dealer. Willing to sell for $2000k OBO and even has another one - he’ll GIVE AWAY - all I got to do is ‘haul it out of there lives.’ My question to him was - how much to move (he speculated under $500.) My gut says that’s a low figure. Ofcourse, unless I have a place to put it, doesn’t do me any good to get these MHs (I assume.)

Question to the board: In my market, where average lot rental is $400-500, and average price of a 'used MH sold via a dealer is $35K - is there a particular strategy I should pursue? I don’t personally have $35K to invest… at what point would I be able to profit by ‘flipping.’ Ultimately, I’m looking to get the ‘create a note’ cash flow (lonnie deal.)

Thanks,
Mrs Heidi White

Forget the water temperture. Jump right in. - Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA

Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA on April 10, 2002 at 23:31:42:

Heidi, the PMs figure of $500 to move a singlewide is accurate for your area. I hire a couple of $6/hr day workers to prep. mobiles for moving. This means removing poarches, awnings, skirting, obstructing bushes etc and disconnection of the water, sewer and gas lines and unplugging the electric plug. Cost about $120 for one day’s work with my tools and supervision. The mover charges about $200 or I trade him something for his services.

For the freebie you DON’T have to move it at all. Just put an ad in the local Spanish language weekly throwaway paper. Say 1964 10X50 mobile home only $995. Must be moved. You should get MANY local calls. It may go to a local farm, ranch or south accross “La Frontera” into Mexico. You get it free and sell it for $995 with no moving costs. You MUST act quickly and ask the PM not to charge you space rent for the 1-2 weeks you will own it. NEVER finance ANY part of these pull outs. In most cases you can even do this if there is NO title. Give the PM (privately and in cash)$200 AFTER you have resold it. Work on the other guy’s nickle. NO money needed to do this except $35 for your ad. This referal fee is why they REALLY don’t charge you any space rent if you get it out fast. The PMs will fend of the park owners for a couple of weeks (re: you not paying space rent)to enable you to earn money to pay them a referal fee. Guess whoes side they are on when you pay them a referal fee? I tell the buyers they must leave a $100 lot cleaning deposit with the PM to be returned afterwards IF the lot is real clean. I then take the buyer down to talk to the PM and repeat everything about the lot cleaning deposit so there will be no misunderstanding. The PMs often get stuck with the lot cleanup. They will love you and your idea about the cleanup deposit.

Tell PM you would you will take all the freebies you can get and ask PM if he or she knows any other park managers. If so ask for a phone referal to them and rush right over to talk to the new PM. I offer a onetime $200 cash bonus for such a referal but I only pay it AFTER the new PM has given me my first freebie and I have sold it and have the monye in my hot little hand. You will discover how friendly PMs can be. You will also be 1st in line when Lonnie deals become availble. Nuf said? I have several posts about doing this if you have the patience to wade through all of the extraneous stuff to find them.

Heidi, your strategy should be to follow Lonnies methods. They work fine in expensive areas like California. Don’t buy mobiles over $2k-4k at first. YES, Heide, I know you believe it can’t be done at that price. That is because you are looking at the prices for non motivated retail sellers. Noone ever told you to do it that way. You look for the mobiles that are just a cut above the freebies. The ones that the seller is desperate and ALMOST at the point of walking away and just giving it to the park free. Yes there ARE deals like this in YOUR backyard. Your high priced mobile home experienced is common to nearly ALL new LONNIE dealers. LONNIES system was no doubt perfected after years and years of experience. It WORKS. Fortunately you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If you don’t already have it, GET DOW NOW.

I know I have answered either e-mail or posts to you before but I can never remember what I tell anyone becasue I often get 40-50 e-mails per day inaddition to the posts I answer, so if I am just repeating myself please forgive me.

Regards, doc