I’m Steven Jack Butala.

I’m Jill DeWit, and this is The Land Academy Show.

Adding Mobile Homes To A Land Strategy

This is episode number 2,114. Jill and I are talking about why mobile homes are a smart addition to your land strategy. All week, this week, all five episodes, we’re going to talk about adding mobile homes to your land flipping operation and the pros and the cons and the trials and tribulations. When Jill cries, I cry.

I was just going to say the laughing, the crying, all the things that go on in normal life.

I thought this was about flipping land.

I was going to say something. I usually don’t make New Year’s resolutions. You know that about me. You probably know that about me. I don’t profess anything because I’m always trying to do things better, improve, and stick to things. Anyway, I don’t think New Year’s should have anything to do with it. I was thinking 2025. I was going to try something. You tell me if you think it’s going to be noticeable or not. I’m going to try to be even more honest about how much work, what really goes on.

Trying to do things better, improving, and sticking to them is more effective than simply professing. Share on X

Thank you. We had a meeting with the staff. It was real high level within our office. We talked about like, sometimes we run around making this sound a little too easy. There’s a lot of moving parts. I want to be honest and tell people there’s flipping land. Is it the easiest product type? Yeah, probably, because you’ve done them all, from nursing homes to this. What could be worse than that? The only thing maybe is a gas station, maybe a gas station owned by a nursing home. It’s probably the only thing that could be worse.

Owned by Saudi Arabia.

That’s it. With a chic-owned gas station with a nursing home attached. That’s probably the only property type that could be worse.

Heavy industrial mining operation in the back.

In the back. That’s right.

With two oil wells.

Steps And Realities Of Flipping Land

With a staff of nurses. I’m like, we talk about, this is the easiest thing. It’s great, but then people get into Land Academy. They’re like, whoa. I didn’t think there’s going to be 82 steps. There kind of are. That’s my thing going forward. I want to make sure that for me personally, I stop people dead in their tracks. I’ve always tried to say this may not be a good fit for you. I’m going to really hit it home a little more like. Maybe you shouldn’t. Instead of lightly saying you should be answering your phones, I will say your business will fail if you answer your own phones. It is because I know, we’ve done this song.

That’s the most disappointing New Year’s resolution for you that I would ever come up with.

My other New Year’s resolution.

I thought it’s going to be like something like, This year, I’m going to wear less clothing.

That’s hilarious. I’m going to wear more clothing because here’s why, on my feet just popped up like snowmobile gear.

You’re going to feed on snowmobile gear?

It just popped into my search automatically in Google. I’m like, you might need to see the latest and greatest female snowmobile gear. I’m like, I do need to know that. My other resolution is get more adventure machine type adventure hours in this year.

Here’s the episodes this week. Why mobile homes are a smart addition to your land strategy on Monday. Tuesday, we’re going to talk about how to find mobile home lots with high profit potential. One of my personal favorites, because it bleeds right into what we do for a regular living, which is buy and sell land. Wednesday, pricing mobile home lots for maximum returns. This is a huge topic. This is highly requested. It’s a high-volume question that we got. Thursday, what to avoid when adding mobile homes to your portfolio? Friday, why mobile homes are a smart addition to your entire land strategy? That’s the same as Monday, isn’t it?

That’s OK. We’ll get it. What is Friday for real while we’re trying to figure this out? Tips for marketing and selling mobile homes.

Excellent.

Now we got it. No problem.

We have a new script manager.

What’s his name?

His name is Jack. He’s prone to make mistakes like this. Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum, and we take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request.

Legal Challenges In Property Closures

Ivan and Randy wrote, “I have a question about a property I’m closing on in North Carolina. The seller has an estranged spouse who she hasn’t seen for over ten years. The seller has owned the property before she was married. Seller is the only one named on the title. This estranged spouse is not on the title. My closing attorney says we cannot close on the property until the estranged spouse signs off. Anyone have any insight on how to close without estranged spouse approval?” If this is even necessary, I would like to add, what caused the estranged spouse to stay?

My question is the same. Who’s at fault here? Did the estranged spouse get run out of the house, or did they pack a bag and leave on their own?

I’m curious. How often does this happen?

It’s happening somewhere.

Is this common in that state? I don’t know.

Strange spouses happen. That’s a bumper sticker.

Life happens.

Strange spouses happen.

I guess so.

Sometimes title companies will blow this stuff off completely. John Smith’s on the title.

He’s not on the title.

Sally Smith is on the title.

I see what you’re saying.

Sally Smith now wishes to sell the property, and it’s all legit, but for whatever reason, this lawyer dug around, did a title search, probably out of bounds within the regular title search scenario, and found out that this person was married for a while. What’s the moral of the story here, Jill?

I go to an escrow company and not mention anything about the dumb spouse.

How about don’t get married?

That or don’t get estranged or get divorced.

If you’re going to get unmarried, which happens, just file the correct paperwork on all your assets. This is your New Year’s resolution. We’re not going to get higher ratings for talking about this stuff, but this is the truth. There’s so much paperwork associated with succeeding in life.

There is so much paperwork associated with succeeding in life. Share on X

This stuff happens. If you don’t have the stomach for it, this might not be for you.

Jill. I love this new resolution.

Thank you. If you do have this, this is what keeps people out of this business. They can’t get past this stuff. We can, and the nice thing is this person. I’m sure there’s multiple answers and ideas floating in our Discord forum, helping them. We will personally help them on our Thursday member call if they need a little more guidance.

This doesn’t happen that often, but it happens probably once a year at least, maybe once or twice a year to us. You have a couple of choices. I love Jill’s resolution. You can cry in your soup over this, or you can say, we’re never going to find the spouse. If we were buying the Chrysler building, we’re going to find the spouse, and we’re going to dot our I’s here and cross the twos, but that’s not going to happen. There has to be some other option for this seller because you’re buying this property from the seller. They’re going to have this problem with every single person down the line.

When you think about this, I’m not happy with this attorney.

I agree.

It is because they’re treating this as if the estranged spouse is on the title.

I agree.

It is because there’s a procedure for that. There are procedures with a straight shot where you have to put in the newspaper, you have to try to reach them certain ways, and then you prove that you did these three or whatever steps it is. You can do a quick claim or something else. Nowadays, there are some certain situations you could do that, so the person can sell the property because they are long gone. They might have passed on. Who knows where they are. Maybe they’re living in another country. You did all this stuff. I’m not really liking this attorney.

This attorney is killing your deal.

It is. Trying to save you from yourself.

The person you hired, you have to dance around that. Here’s what I learned. Tell people what you want and tell them to do it. Sometimes not nicely. That’s great, Attorney Jack, close the freaking deal.

Do what you have to do. Get it done.

Whatever addendums you want to put for the seller, do it. Take responsibility. I don’t care, I’m buying this property. That’s what people understand. Don’t be my attorney. I’m not paying you to kill my deal. I’m paying you to identify scenarios and not say sentences like we can’t close. He or she should be saying sentences like this, I need to make you aware of the situation. There’s a certain amount of risk involved when you buy this. The chain of title might be broken when you go to sell it.

There could be a scenario where there’s a lot of sign-offs and things like that. The number, this is your resolution. The number of inquiries that Jill and I get, we’ve done 16,000 deals. We probably get five inquiries a month from deals that we’ve done years and years, sometimes decades ago, that say, can you just sign off on this, that this company is yours, and this company was yours, and all of that? It’s a real simple affidavit so we don’t get a break in the title. Sure. Every single time. We did one this morning.

I know you did.

There are ways to do this, but we live in an alarmist time where the sky is constantly falling. I’m not going to go into that because it’ll take too long about why, but you get a lawyer who’s on your side and who’s taking direction from you. Just because they pass the bar does not mean that they’re smarter than you. Trust me, you are smarter because you’re buying and selling land.

Thank you.

My New Year’s resolution is to not be as angry.

How’s that going?

I don’t know. You tell me.

My New Year’s resolution is to not be as angry.

The Hidden Value Of Mobile Homes In Your Land Strategy

Our topic, why mobile homes are a smart addition to your land strategy. Here’s the deal. This, like many things in our entrepreneurial lifetime, came up on accident. You send out a bunch of mail. This has happened to you. Send a bunch of mail out. A lot of properties came back with mobile homes on them. What the heck? My first reaction is, I screwed this mailer up, but then I start looking at it, signed offers with mobile homes on them in any condition, and looking at what they trade for, what they sell for in that area, like kind comps and stuff.

I start to jump up and down in my office saying, we’re going to buy this thing. I’m not even sure the seller knows it’s there because it really improves the value of this deal. A few of those and making a bunch of money on them, it just becomes, we intentionally do mobile home mailers. This happened a lot of years ago. This is what we do. It’s a smart addition to your land strategy because the learning curve for you to buy a mobile home, even after you’ve been buying and selling land, is very small. It’s the same type of transaction with a few simple little changes.

Mobile homes are a smart addition to your land strategy because the learning curve for purchasing a mobile home, even after you've been buying and selling land, is minimal. Share on X

The Difference Between Mobile Home Parks And Individual Mobile Homes On Land

By the way, we never buy mobile homes in a park. I think it makes sense to describe the difference. A mobile home park, let’s say it’s 40 acres with tons of mobile homes on it. We’ve all driven through those and visited your grandparents. You either drive through one of those parks and you say, this disgusts me, or if you’re me, you drive through it and say, this is the most worry-free, carefree, amazing, simple existence I’ve ever seen. Sign me up.

The difference between those two scenarios in a mobile home park is it’s one APN. Let’s say it’s 40 acres. You would never send mail there. We’re not mobile home park buyers and sellers. What we want is a piece of property. Let’s say it’s an acre somewhere, we buy all the time in Land Academy, with a mobile home on it that’s somehow got utilities associated with the deal. You got an old mobile home that’s fallen down maybe. It’s got septic and well, they may or may not work. Electric has been brought to it. That’s a diamond in the rough that makes me wring my hands with happiness when those come back. Usually, the seller sees very little value in it. They see a pile of junk on a property that’s way out of town.

Sometimes they come to me when I get the call. They’re embarrassed if they know it’s there. They’re like, I’m sorry. My dad used to live there. I haven’t even seen it in ten years. I can’t afford to move it. I’m like, good, because I don’t want you to, kind of thing. Often, they see it as a negative to the land. That’s why they’re often eager to sign these.

All week we’re talking about this. Our topic is, and we’ll wrap it up here, it’s an incredibly smart addition. In fact, I think if you have any success with buying and selling land already, it’s almost mandatory because it’s such a simple little jump from buying land. Wherever the red, green, yellow test has passed, where you’re sending mail, there’s a good chance that mobile homes will pass too. You just add a couple of thousand units to every mailer you’re doing. Start buying and selling mobile homes. Join us again where we discuss how to find mobile home lots with high profit potential. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We are Jack and Jill. Information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.