*Just Sold* Siler City Mobile Home

When we purchased the mobile home in Siler City, there was a pile of trash out front as tall as the home, itself. Believe me when I tell you, it was really something. The pile was so massive, when we had our septic inspection, the inspector included it as a reference point on his map. This may be our trashiest property to date!

The backstory: short version.

The seller inherited the property from his father (who we found out later passed away inside the home 😵‍💫) and lived there with his girlfriend. The father was a bit of a “collector” and also sort of a “handyman”. Needless to say, they inherited a house chock-full of stuff, that also hadn’t been maintained over the years. Mr. Seller and his girlfriend started cleaning out the home by chucking all the junk off the front porch – hence the start of the trash pile. The pile grew and grew until it seemed like maybe they were throwing ALL their trash onto the pile. I’m talking take-out boxes, broken furniture, old car batteries, dead Christmas trees, underwear, CDs, random silverware, and even food waste that was all piled up in front of the house. Needless to say, it grew to be quite the burden on the new owners. They contacted us and we were able to give them an all-cash offer for the property. The sellers accepted our offer and were able to walk away from the burden the home had become, along with the giant pile of trash out front. I often imagine what that must feel like – starting fresh and leaving all that stress and heartache behind you. Anyway, they walked away happy and we had a new project to get started on.

The Rehab.

Our first order of business was to get a septic inspection to ensure there were no issues there. Luckily, we didn’t have any septic issues. Next, we contracted a junk removal company to clean out the property and tackle the giant pile of trash out front. The company was only able to remove one dumpster full of junk before the owner called and said this job was just too big and too nasty for them to handle. Fortunately, they referred me to another company who was willing to clean out the inside of the property; however, they also did not want to touch the massive trash pile. Feeling hopeless, we started reaching out to anyone and everyone for suggestions. It was actually Mr. Seller who came through and provided a referral for “a guy with a claw truck”. Not real sure what to expect, I contacted the “guy” and he quoted me $600 for removing the trash pile. It almost seemed to good to be true, until I got the photo [below] that evening. He removed the ENTIRE pile of crap the SAME DAY. I couldn’t believe it! We’re finally over our first hurdle… the trash, along with the smells that came from it, were gone!

Now that everything was cleaned out, we were able to assess what repairs were needed. First up was addressing the plumbing leaks in both bathrooms. I called a handful of local plumbers, only one of which answered the phone and scheduled an appointment to come out to the property. I was pleasantly surprised to meet the owner of this plumbing company. He completed the assessment and said he’d send over a quote within a day or two. A week goes by and I hadn’t received a quote, so I reached out the office. I finally received the following response: “After further consideration we do not feel comfortable working on the plumbing upfit. Sorry and thanks for understanding.” I did understand but unfortunately, I was starting to feel like I was at the bottom of the trash pile once again with no idea what to do or who to ask for help.

In the meantime, we decided it would be best to handle some of the “nasty work” ourselves before inviting any more subs out to the property. Craig demoed the carpets and I worked outside cleaning up the little pieces of trash and leftover junk scattered about the property. If you know me, you know I don’t do smells. This is why I opted to stay outside because the inside of the property smelled absolutely terrible. Once Craig removed the stinky carpets, the house was bearable and we were ready to revisit our search for a plumbing contractor.

We found ourselves stuck again, losing time, paying interest, and unable to find anyone to help us with the rehab. We reached out to a contractor we’ve used in Fayetteville to see if he’d be interested in helping us, even though the property was outside of his work area. Luckily for us, he agreed to take on the project even with the extra travel. Julian and his crew got right to work on the plumbing issues. We found a mobile home supplier close by and purchased all the materials. We also went ahead and got the roof replaced and a new HVAC system installed.

A few weeks into the remodel, we realized that we didn’t have an oven in the kitchen (a small oversight… lol). I ordered a wall oven online and Craig built a little shelf in the island for it to sit on. Unfortunately, when the oven arrived at Home Depot, it was completely shattered. They reordered it and the second time it arrived, it was also broken. I cancelled the order and sourced another wall oven from Wayfair. I had low expectations since it was shipping all the way across the country; however, when UPS dropped it off at my house, I was happy to find the glass door still intact. Third time’s a charm! Now I just needed to find an electrician to add an outlet in the island cabinet to accommodate the new oven. I got a referral for an electrician from another real estate investor in the area. He met me on site to look at the scope of work, but I didn’t hear from him after that. I assumed he ghosted me like the other subs who’d come out to the jobsite 👻 I kept texting him every few days until my persistence finally paid off. He was able to add the outlet, install the oven, and address the remainder of the electrical work needed.

It really takes a village! Thanks to Julian, the electrician, and the other subs, we were really rolling on the project now! It didn’t take long to get the painting finished and the new flooring installed. We added a large deck out back, pressure washed the exterior, tidied up the yard and had the inside of the house professionally cleaned. We were ready to list the house for sale! Our amazing realtor, Joe, listed the property on a Friday and we accepted an offer the first weekend.

FHA Loans: A learning experience.

The offer we accepted from the prospective buyers was pre-approved for an FHA loan. A Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan is a home mortgage that is insured by the government and issued by a bank or other lender that is approved by the agency. FHA loans typically require a lower minimum down payment and lower credit score than most conventional loans. For many first-time homebuyers, an FHA loan is the most affordable mortgage option. We’d heard that FHA loans have stricter approval and appraisal requirements for us (the sellers), but we weren’t too worried about it since we felt we’d repaired/replaced the big ticket items – roof, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, etc. We signed the paperwork and we were set to close on October 31st.

A few days before our scheduled closing date, we received a letter from an engineering firm stating the results from the structural examination. As you can probably guess, we did NOT meet the requirements in order to pass the FHA standards and guidelines. The report stated that we needed to install 20 additional piers underneath the mobile home. What does this even mean?! We spoke with contractors, with realtors, with other real estate investors, we even reached out to the engineer who sent the report. He basically said that these modifications were only necessary because they were required by the FHA guidelines in order to approve the loan. We reached out to a concrete mason although we were fearing the worst on how much it would cost. We didn’t hear back for over a week. We even considered relisting the property (with conventional loans or cash offers only) even though we’d already lost a month off the market. We finally heard back from the mason. The quote was high but still less than we thought it would cost, so we agreed to do the work and continue on with the FHA loan. Closing was pushed out three weeks which gave us time to get the piers installed and the house reinspected. We were down to the wire, but we got it all finished and passed the reinspection!

In retrospect, we probably wouldn’t have accepted an FHA loan which would have saved us some money and whole lot of heartache! However, I like to think the property is now being lived in and loved by a first-time homebuyer who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to purchase the home, otherwise.

All in all, this wasn’t an exceptionally profitable fix & flip – but we gained some knowledge through new experiences and learned some valuable lessons to take with us on our next projects. Craig and I are forever grateful for all the help and advice we received along this journey. We couldn’t have done it without the amazing people we have on our team! I have to give a special shoutout to Sheila at Chatham Portables who let us return the porta-potty even though it was shot up and covered in bullet holes (this is a story for another post 😉). I hope you enjoyed reading about our experience!