From the eye's of the rehabber ....

I have expressed to you through the blog many of my experiences related to rehabbing both good and bad, in talking to my rehab man we thought you would like to hear how he feels about the rehab experience, so this blog is from the rehabbers experience, take it away Rick ….




For me rehabbing is one of the most exciting parts of doing a turn around park. Think about it, it’s one of the few times you get to spend someone else’s money to do something you enjoy, ha ha Fred now you know why I’m smiling most of the day. When I walk into a used mobile home, in reality the most important thing I do is the same thing that Steve, Corey and many others say is the number one most important thing you must do, the due diligence, checking the infrastructure. At my level of responsibility to the project it is critical to make sure the basic infrastructure of the individual home is sound to begin with, the less we have to rehab the quicker and more cost efficiency we have in turning the home around and getting it sold, sound floors, good wiring, plumbing, walls lacking holes, sound kitchen cabinets, all these things and more, save us time, labor and expense for materials if they are basically sound. Looking at all these things allows us to determine an approximate cost of materials and labor which in turn helps us to determine a total cost and an approximate selling price and with those numbers in hand we can determine whether we should even do the project.

One thing that has greatly helped me in my line of work is a good imagination or some would call it the ability to see beyond the muk and dirt or the ability to see the finished project. I am constantly looking for ways to cut expenses and at the same time improving the appearance of the home. Using your imagination you can find many ways to save money and use creativity to solve some of your rehab issues, for example a small hole in the wall near the sink and one above the toilet could be patched and painted for $15 in patch material, $20 in paint and 3 hours in labor or I have taken a $5 towel bar and a blank recepticle cover and 15 minutes in labor to fix the job.
We had a large wall in the kitchen of a double wide where the wall board was bowed when put back together, it needed to be cut out and a piece patched back in approximately 4 X 3. Instead I used a sheet of paneling as the back ground after cutting my design in the wall and some 1X6 boards for shelves that I stained to match the paneling, now I have an accent wall in the kitchen.
We took a bad counter top with a good base, framed the top with cement board and lay some 78 cent ceramic tile to make a beautiful countertop.

I always try to look beyond what it is now, and look forward to what it will be, the finished product. The challenges excite me, when rehabbing there are no two homes alike, there is always something new and interesting about each home I do. I totally understand why Greg say’s I luvvve that home !
To me it’s all about turning a home into a nice place to live, one that’s affordable, one that someone will call home.

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