Bought a Mobile Home for $3,500, Sold It for $19,500

Well gang, I am ashamed to say that I have been in the mobile home industry for over nine years either as a salesperson or a manager for large retailers. I went into the used mobile home industry three years ago and have had my own dealers license for the past two years. I have focused primarily on selling pre-owned homes in parks and getting them finance through lending groups (with the occasional land pack thrown in for good measure).

However, as the banks grew tighter and tighter we have been forced to look for alternate methods. I found “The Book,” Deals on Wheels, understood it pretty much right away, and could not believe that I have never thought about or heard about doing business this way.

Immediately started to recall all the deals I have passed up over the years and felt my stomach start to hurt. I put in a couple of calls to Earnest Tew and requested some of his material also. Excellent stuff, I especially like the amortization chart for Excel.

I put in an offer on a double-wide that has been vacant forever with a lot of repair needed. Called a lady who needed something just like that and was willing to do repairs but, previously, I could not find a home for and showed the home to her and her sister. They liked it and I set up appointment for park application.

Five days later, we had approval. I had my customer come in for contracting and title application. (I have a full set of docs. set up on Word that works really well; makes it more official) Had her sign everything and give me $1,000 dollars down. Sent the payoff to the lender and requested title sent to me ASAP. Called to have the power switched into her name and also made sure that I had a copy of proof of insurance with my company as the loss payee.

I have an appointment to meet with a contract services agency here in my area that charges a $60 set up fee and $6 dollars a month per deal to receive payments from my customer and send out any late payments notices, overdue notices, intent to foreclose, etc.They track everything for me. Money well spent I think.

Here are the details:

28×66 1979 3 bed 2 bath, paid $3,500
Sold to customer $19,500
Down payment received – $1,000
___________
Amount financed $18,500

Term of note 156 payments of $250 each
Total payout of $39,000

All my thanks to the great post on the Forum. I have learned a ton and am off in a great new direction. Special thanks to Earnest Tew who was patient and helpful over the phone with me and to David Butler. Great job guys!

We now have four more homes tied up and advertising started for all four. Looks exciting! My goal is to do 16 homes within a 3 month period of time to gain me $4,000 per month cash flow.(16 x $250 = $4,000) I will keep you all up to date!

By CREOnline Contributor

A content contributor to the original CREOnline.com.