REHABBING PRE-OWNED MOBILE HOMES
by Corey Donaldson
When I started purchasing repossessed mobile homes, I thought I was going to save money by buying homes that were in bad shape and rehabbing. What I realized very quickly was that rehabbing homes can get very expensive, not only with labor but also for materials. I was spending more money on rehabbing a home in bad shape than buying a repossessed home is good shape.
If you are rehabbing homes (whether extensive rehabs or minor repairs) I would be very diligent when buying supplies. If you purchase your supplies at a local hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe's you have to be careful about buying supplies that you will then need to customize for your mobile home, i.e. shower surrounds, exterior/interior doors, sinks, etc. For normal supplies if you are buying in quantity I would ask for a 10% discount. In Texas, we receive free delivery, 2 hour will call, and 10% discount on all purchases from Home Depot and Lowe's.
There are many companies that supply the mobile home industry with rehab items that are specially made for mobile homes. I would price shop as I have found some of the supply companies can be more competitive on certain items. You can find these companies by doing a google search on the internet or going to www.mobilehomeparkstore.com.
By far, the best way to purchase mobile home supplies is through salvage yards or wholesale companies that specialize in mobile home park supplies. When a mobile home plant closes down, the salvage yards go in and buy everything that they can including doors, trim, sinks, and showers for about 5 or 10 cents on a dollar and then they resell these supplies for about 25 to 30 cents on a dollar. We have rented a large 25' foot Uhaul truck more than a few times buying about $15,000 worth of supplies (retail) for about $3,000 - $5,000.
When rehabbing homes there are some items that I have found to be very expensive to repair/replace:
One important aspect is to make sure the cabinets are in good shape. A lot of times cabinet doors are missing and you will then have to hire a cabinet maker to fix or replace the doors/cabinets which can be quite costly.
I find for a 16' x 80' home it will cost about $1,200 - $1500 for carpet and vinyl. Sometimes you can save the vinyl, and I would advise trying to do so if at all possible. Vinyl should always be tacked down - never glue it down because the floor shifts so we have found that tacking it down works best. If you're able to reuse the carpet and just clean it, this is preferable to having it replaced.
AC/Heating unit: When buying repos, you will find often find that when the home has been vacant for a while, the first thing stolen is the AC/Heating unit - sometimes even the electrical panel as well. It costs between $600 to $1,000 to buy a new AC/heating unit, so you definitely want to make sure that the unit is in the home before you consider buying (or if missing, factor this into the price you pay for the home!)
For interior walls, we have found that if there is significant damage/holes to the walls or if the home needs to be painted, we usually go ahead and texture the walls. Texturing works better in terms of selling the home and it will hide any imperfections in the walls.
If the trim is in bad shape, we have found that a lot of times you do not necessarily need to use the trim that was originally in the mobile home. You can use some less expensive trim that you can easily find at any hardware store. For doublewides, when "marrying" the two pieces of the homes we use ½" x 4" trim instead of buying expensive trim kits.
If you choose to rehab a mobile home use the rule that "less is better". Preferably when purchasing repossessed homes you will want to find homes that really require minimal rehab, this will save you in terms of costs - labor, supplies, and also time to prepare the home for sale. Your goal is to get these homes ready for sale as quickly as possible at the most cost-effective price so that you can go ahead and start collecting the mortgage payment as well as the lot rent.
