As I mentioned in my last mobile home update, we have two remaining homes that have been sold but that we’re still financing (MH #2 and MH #5). The notes are scheduled to be paid off early next year, and the buyers have been making all their payments on-schedule. It’s actually a great situation.
But, since my partners and I have decided not to buy any additional homes, we’re in the process of shutting down the partnership and dissolving the LLC. That can’t be finished until the final two homes are paid-off, and if that doesn’t happen until next year, we’ll still be dealing with the company maintenance and taxes through 2012.
Instead, we’ve decided to sell the two mortgage notes we’re holding to another investor; this other investor will pay us a reduced price on the remaining value of the mortgage, and will take over “ownership” and oversight of the two homes, and will collect all future payments. The contracts between us and the investor have been signed, and we’re in the process of signing over the titles, getting the appropriate signatures from the buyers, etc. Because the investor lives out-of-town, we’re getting her pictures of the home and info about the park in case she ever has an issue with payments.
While buying and selling mobile homes was a relatively easy business model (especially since my partners did most of the legwork), dealing with mobile home buyers/sellers is not something we enjoyed. And rehabbing mobile homes wasn’t much fun either. So, while we may decide to get back into this business in the future, for the time being, we’re done with mobile home investing.
I’ll post a final analysis of all of our MH financials once this deal is done…
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Mobiles are one of the weirdest niches I’ve ever seen. I did a direct mail campaign in South Carolina so I had to evaluate 70 of them and decided they make zero sense lol.
I’m with Greg on this one, I don’t quite understand mobile homes either, but mobilehomegurl is doing well with it. I really like your blog. Lots of good info.
By the way, I learned of 99designs from reading your post about your logo and I’ll be using their service soon.
I think you are making a very wise decision. MH seem to be more of a distraction than benefit. Buying and selling MH parks might be a different story.
Jason
Are you buying any houses these days? I wanna hear the details. What’s going on in the ATL?
It’s good to hear your progress with the mobile homes, J. It’s understandable how you’ve decided to hold off on mobile home investing for now – it’s not for everyone. Going into it, I had experience in property management – it does require more of a management type mentality in order to weed out sellers/buyers especially if the relationship continues after closing (if a note is made). Since I’ve done it so much, it’s second nature to me. Though, it has taken a bit of trial and error to see what aspects I like/don’t like in the business. It’s good you’ve been able to sell the notes since you’ve decided to get out of it, looking forward to reading the final analysis!
p.s. Thanks for the mention, Esi!