Tax Season

Tax season is obviously upon us. Our phone is constantly ringing. Of course, the phone ringing does not mean the people always show up to see what we have!

We sold someone else's house a few days ago. This home has been in the park for a long time, and we had paying tenants in it for quite awhile. Unfortunately, the man who owned this home had the tenants making his payments directly to the bank. The payments were always late, and until we took over the whole issue, no principal had been paid on the home since 2004; there was over $1,000 in late fee arrears.

This home has been empty for about three months, and we fronted our own money to do some fix up and cleaning. The owner has no desire to have anything to do with this home. (The statement is now mailed to us each month.) We have now been paid back for our fronted money with the option deposit on the home. We had to do this in order to feel comfortable selling this house - especially for the amount that is owed on it!

We are doing this to prevent this home from leaving our park. The owner contemplated doing this OR just letting it get repossessed. We could have bought it for a LOT less money than he owes on it, but keeping it here is huge for us. We DID make him pay all the arrears on it to the bank, however, so the balance on the account is the true balance owed. Now we have lot rent coming in on that lot again.

The tenants will pay our company directly for their rent payment, since we did this deal as a lease and option. We, in turn, will make the monthly payment to the bank. The owner will have his credit looking better (and has had it looking better for about 6 months now) because we are making timely payments on his loan. This is a WIN-WIN-WIN situation.

You probably think the owner of this home is someone who previously lived in this community. He did not. He bought this mobile home new strictly as an investment. How he ever thought he could do this without ever putting money in his investment is beyond us! We understand he owns other rentals in the area, but those are not ones we would ever want to be involved in. (Low-class housing at its finest.)

We have also sold two other homes since tax season began, and had two current tenants move from singlewides to double-wides. (Of course there was more option money involved in the move as well as increased home payments.) We bid on three more homes yesterday, one double, one vinyl/shingle single (very unusual to find on our bidsheets) and one 16 x 70 for a shorter lot.

We now have the two singlewides to sell from our previous tenants moving, which we anticipate selling in the next month, and hopefully will win the bids on all the homes we are bidding on as well. That will set us up nicely for the "second" tax season of the year - when people start receiving those tax rebate checks!

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