Thinking of buying a double wide...

[pmajka]

Thinking of buying a double wide as an investment property.

the units are between 1 and 5 yrs old..

any gotchas??? Advice???

[Danny_Ocean]

Are you buying a single mobile home or the mobile home park? Are you buying the trailer and the land underneath? What are the monthly maintenance fees.

Unless these are the mobile homes on the beach in Malibu(?), forget about it.

[berettafan]

trailers are built to fall apart. every little detail is cheap, cheap, cheap. IOW the 'house' will be junk in 20yrs.

land in trailer parks is, IMO, a risky proposition. not sure if that's what you're dealing with or not. residential vs. vacation makes a difference as well.

If you're NOT talking about a trailer park (surely you're not thinking of a 'land rent' situation) then my opinion is buy the land but don't pay diddly for the trailer.

If you're looking at an honest to god gazing ball in the yard, wife beating, incest festival trailer park then my advice is to send the money to me and save your time.

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by berettafan

land in trailer parks is, IMO, a risky proposition.

I just passed on a trailer park. 25 occupied spaces with monthly income of $250/ea. Only expenses were insurance & taxes. Tenants paid everything else (elec, water, sewer, etc.). Most of the park was Section 8, so I would be getting checks directly from Uncle Sam. However, when I went to look at the park, I couldn't imagine being the sucker who had to collect rent or evict these people...saying it was "rough" is an understatement.

[p911dad]

Mobile homes, like cars, are "wasting assets". They gradually depreciate over time, and are generally poor investments. They have a relatively short useful and economic life, which is unlike a house, which can be maintained and increase in value, depending on many variables of course. The only investors who make out in the mobile home market are the companies selling them and the owners of the actual mobile home parks, who can do quite nicely. Once a mobile home is sited in a park on a lot it is very expensive to move, and thus the owner of the unit can become a hostage of the park owner. What often happens is the unit owner sells the unit to the park owner and it becomes a rental unit belonging to the park. The park owner then gets lot rent + the unit rent. Nice action. Around the northeast parks sell by the number of units times a multiplier, say $30,000. per lot X the number of lots in the park, thus 100 lot park = $3,000,000.

[Dottore]

A PM to Mule would get you the inside track.

[berettafan]

ENTIRE trailer park purchase has some potential. Depends on how much time you have to deal with people who have made a career out of bad decisions.

Client of ours bought a trailer park, condo'd it out (ie made each lot a separate deeded plot) and sold each lot to the resident (held paper of course as most had zero credit). One of our staff handles the mortgage payment receipts and other misc. bs. I don't think a day passes that she doesn't use the word 'foreclosure'.

I have a single family with a sect. 8 tenant. I prefer it. State pays me 80% of the rent EVERY month on the SAME DAY and the check NEVER bounces. Tenant is another story but i just need to get through 20yrs and it's paid for.

It all comes down to whether the rent covers the pchs price. Lot's of poorly built *****boxes makes for a LOT of maintenance.

[p911dad]

Oh, and I need to add that the multiplier varies greatly from area to area and is based on the income approach to value, as mobile home parks are true income properties. Poorly run parks often have big problems with their water and septic systems, along with outstanding code violations. They are also hard to get permits to build or expand because who wants a park in their town?

[kstar]

Not all trailer parks fit the stereo-type presented here, FWIW.

There actually are parks in Malibu and in Key West, among other places, which are quite nice.

Check out Outdoor Resorts of America for several "upscale" parks located all over the US:
http://www.outdoor-resorts.com/

FWIW.

[Rick Lee]

I have an aunt and uncle in a retirement mobile home park in Yuma, AZ. Their neighborhood is pretty nice and it's almost hard to tell the dwellings are trailers. The folks have them so clean and well decorated with fountains, awnings, rock gardens, etc. It's pretty nice.

[peppy]

Hey, some of these comments hurt. I live in a double wide, in a trailer park.

[Danny_Ocean]

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by peppy

Hey, some of these comments hurt. I live in a double wide, in a trailer park.

Yeah... welcome to the South.

"Since 1990, the number of mobile homes in South Carolina has increased by 50.7 percent. On the national level, mobile homes made up 7.6 percent of all housing units in 2000. In South Carolina, mobile homes made up 20.3 percent of all housing units, making it the only state where mobile homes made up over 20 percent of the total housing inventory."

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000

[creaturecat]

tornadoes love mobile homes

[kstar]

Originally Posted by creaturecat

tornadoes love mobile homes

Myth.

Kurt
Defender of Mobile Residences!

[allaircooled]

Was flipping through the channels today and saw on CMT (country music tv I think) a show called Mobile Home Disasters. For the second that I watched I got the impression it was like one of those TLC home fix up shows like Trading Spaces or whatever. Maybe you can watch and learn from there.

[DonDavis]

A family member once referred to them as "a matchbox that comes with all the matches".
Growing up in the south has exposed me to all aspects of "trailor livin". If well cared for, they will last a very long time. If abused, they'll crumble. Still have relatives living in them and my aunt/uncle ( now approaching retirement ) bought 20 acres for horses and a barn 18+ years ago. About 10 years ago, they put in a double wide and it still looks new. They are very particular about their stuff and I suspect it'll last them the rest of their lives. Another relative has one that is falling apart but they treat it like crap. YMMV

[Danny_Ocean]

Where was Jim Rockford's mobile home?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DA1239F930A25751C1A9669582 60

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by kstarnes

Myth.

According to NOAA/NWS, it is a myth that tornadoes strike more frequently at mobile home parks - but it is still a fact that fatalities are higher when tornadoes strike mobile home parks than when they strike site built homes.

In 1991, legislation was introduced in Kansas to mandate underground shelters in all mobile home parks due to the high fatality rate. (The legislation did not pass.)

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Dottore

A PM to Mule would get you the inside track.

Been in a few Katrina trailers, but that's about it. But I can understand that it was done in the spirit of helpfulness. For instance, if somebody wanted to joinn the communist part, I'd send 'em your way.