n April of 2005, my Mom had been getting. The last mobile
(who, like me, is also a home was in good enough condition
real estate agent) was to consider. We called the owner
looking through our local and asked him to meet us, so we
“Thrifty Nickel” weekly could get in to look at it.
classified ads newspaper. She saw
a very interesting ad and brought Our initial inspection revealed
it to my attention. The seller outdated appliances (think yellow
who placed the ad offered to sell and avocado colors). There was
six mobile homes, all on their rotting under the kitchen sink,
own lots. The mobile homes were and an ugly master bath shower
real property, not mobile homes that had been painted in order to
located on rented lots. They were make it “look better”. There were
all being offered with seller different types of carpeting in
financing. each of the rooms, and there were
water leaks in the roof in
The seller lived out of town and various places.
when we called him, he told us
the mobile homes had been empty Of course if you have ever worked
for a couple of years. He said to on a fixer-upper you know that
drive by them and then call him what you see on the surface is
back if we were still interested. not the only work that needs to
be done and we took that into
Of course we, (my Mom, Dad and account.
I), went to look at them
immediately. One was occupied by We went ahead and bought the
a transient squatter, so we mobile from the owner for his
couldn’t get in to that one. Four asking price of $65,000 by
were literally falling apart from putting $5,000 down and creating
rotten roofs and all the rain we seller financing for the balance
at 8% interest for 30 years with •In the kitchen: replacing the
no balloon payments. I think our kitchen sink, repairing the
payment was about $500/month. rotten floor, painting the walls
and cabinets, adding a
We put about $10,000 and a ton of dishwasher, a disposal, and then
sweat equity into the property replacing the stove and the
over the next 90 days. refrigerator.
As we were working on the mobile •Repairing the roof and then
home, we found lots of extra painting the ceiling where the
things that needed to be fixed. water staining had occurred.
For example, we took out the old
shower stall in the master bath •In the master bathroom we
so that we could put tile in. replaced the vanity, the mirror,
After it was out, we found that and the lights. We also tiled the
the flooring under the shower and shower and tiled the floor. This
under the hot water heater, work is what really sold the
located directly behind the home…it looked awesome!
shower, were rotted through. The
rotten flooring had to be •Outside we cleaned up the knee
replaced, and then the hot water high weeds, removed dead bushes
heater had to be replaced. Those and trees, trimmed the over-grown
were just one of several shrubs and then planted lots of
unanticipated costs and repairs. flowers.
Other items of repair or •The home also included a sunroom
upgrading included: which had rotten walls, and
ceiling from the leaking roof.
•Replacing all of the carpeting. The sunroom was also heavily
infested with termites. This room
had to be almost totally rebuilt. using it as a rental. It would
Termite eradication was $500. have rented for about $800/month
giving us about $300/month
•We also hauled away seven large positive cash flow, before
trailer loads of trash and expenses.
remodeling debris.
The day after we took the home
•Nearly all of repair and off the market, we received an
remodeling work was done by my offer from a buyer for $120,000,
dad. (Way to go dad!) cash, which we accepted.
When finished, we ended up After the remodeling dust had
putting the mobile home up for settled, we made $45,000. This
sale at $130,000. This was three was a tidy profit for 90 days of
months after we bought it. fix up work. We haven’t been able
to find anything like this deal
We had it for sale for about since then, but we keep looking!
three weeks and then withdrew it
because we started thinking about
About the Author:
This content is provided by http://DonGlasgow.net and may be used or republished only in its entirety with all links included. More investing articles: http://www.stgeorgerealestate.info/RealEstateInvestingInformation. & http://www.stgeorge-mls.com
Read more articles by:
Don Glasgow
Article Source: www.iSnare.com 
