Don't do what I did. Mobile Home Investing

This tenant cost me over $6,000, and it's all because I said no. Y'all, so let me tell you about this property. This was my very first mobile home. I got this mobile home in March 2020. I was only a month in of mobile home investing, and I was so excited because it was only $500. And I was so excited because I made someone's granddaddy a first-time homeowner. Oh my God, wow! But that property came with a lot of challenges, and I learned a lot of different things. Okay, so let's take a walk through and let me explain to you what happened. So as I previously stated, this was my very first mobile home, and although it cost me $500 to purchase the property, it wasn't a wise investment. Um, I started off with a $20,000 loan from, um, the bank, right? And with that $20,000 loan from the bank, my goal was to get 4 properties because in my brain I could get $5,000 a property. The lie detector test determined that was a lie. Amari said not so. Lie detector, it was a lie. Okay, that $20,000 got me 2 properties in that first mobile home for $500. I under-budgeted for my rehab. So I ended up spending all in $11,000 on that mobile home to get it rehabbed. Now, in hindsight, that was really good, but I was so upset because I was looking to spend $5,000. Well, after I got my rehab done, it took me over 2 and a half months. I was so excited and I'm ready to move forward. I market, and when I show the home, no one shows up the first open house. Now I'm frantic. So at the second open house, an older gentleman showed up, and guess what I did? Sold, it's yours. I didn't properly vet him, right? He prayed over the house, and he was like, I know that this is going to be my house, and I'm so excited about it. I broke so many rules with him. It was set up to be a rent-to-own property, and so rent-to-own means that I am the lender, not the landlord. I'm just collecting his payments, and any issues that happen, That's on him. Mm-mm, that was not true. What ended up happening was every time something happened, he called me. So, you know, he called me because the light went out on the stove. I had to replace the light bulb. Then it just so happened the light bulb went out in the refrigerator. I had to replace that. And I felt obligated because he was an older gentleman. And it was his first time owning a property, and he didn't truly understand of it's my house because he was used to being a renter his entire life. And he was like, well, you, you are still the landlord until I pay everything off and fix it. And I'm like, no sir, that's not how it works. How it works is this is your property. You are renting to own it, not renting it. So if anything happens, you have to fix it. Um, maybe about 2 months in, he complained that his heat didn't work. Um, and since his heat didn't work, you know, I went to go and get his heat fixed. Turns out the house needed a brand new furnace. Now, although he was responsible for it, yes, I did cover it. Then he called me because one of the coils in the stove went out, um, and I fixed it. Well, the very last time he called me, he said, Nichole, there is a leak under my kitchen cabinet. And I stood up and I said, I can't do it. I can't. You are stressing me the hell out. I can't do this no more. I'm done. I'm done. Mr. Lee, fix it yourself. I can't do it. That's the one time I wish I didn't tell that man no. That one mistake. Cost me so much money, and here's why. There truly was a leak under his sink, and it kept leaking. It got the under the sink wet, then that wetness then slowly transferred on to the floors. So here we are, I don't hear from him anymore. About, let's say, 4, 4 or 5 months later, his wife calls me. Now that was a strange relationship. It was his wife, but they lived in two separate houses. Well, she called me and she didn't have anything nice to say to me. And she just was like, you a slumlord, you this, you that, blah, blah, blah. These floors are like a waterbed. And I'm like, it's no way is that bad. I gave him a maintenance man to call, blah, blah, blah. She was like, these floors are terrible. He's elderly and you got him living in these conditions. So I said, okay, well let me go over here and check this house out. I went to the mobile home and opening the door, y'all, the floors were literally wavy like a roller coaster. And in some spots they were so soft, like you— I had to stand on the, the plank, you know, gentlemen in the comment, y'all know what I'm trying to say, right? I had to stand on the, the strong wood of the house, the frame. I had to stand on the frame parts of the house. The flooring was terrible. I was immensely sorry. I'm like, listen, I am so sorry. It still wasn't my fault, but you know, at the end of the day, I felt obligated. I felt bad. So I'm like, listen, I didn't know the floors are these terrible. I will get the floors fixed. And he's like, Nichole, at this point, I've been living like this for a while. I don't want this property anymore. Now, if you know the way rent-to-own works, or seller finance, that is a win for me. Because all of the money that he's paid, he's lost it, and he's giving me the property back. But again, I'm like, "Biggie, Biggie, give me one more chance. Let me fix these floors, right? You can go to a hotel for 3 days. I can get these floors fixed." And he's like, "No, I don't want to be here no more. Me and her getting back together." That's what it was. I'm getting moving back in with her. Okay, no problem. So he stated he didn't want the property, he just didn't want me to file, you know, an eviction on him. And I'm like, no, we will just call it a wash. When he moved out, we had to redo the floors in that mobile home. And not only redo the floors in that mobile home, also evict all of the roaches that was in that mobile home. So I had to pay pest control and I had to pay to get the floors fixed. Honestly, that was a lesson for me because it— in, in the lesson was I should have did a better job of vetting my tenants. One, his wife signed all of his paperwork because he was illiterate. Two, I could have done a better job in the beginning paying attention to the signs. Like I said, y'all, I broke all rules, so I didn't even tell you all when he was moving out of his apartment, he was like, I'm ready to move, but I don't have anybody to help me move. What? Dun, dun, dun, dun. I'm like, well, I'll help you move. So I got my handyman, hired him. We go to his house, he gets a truck, and he is loading all this stuff up. My— so I helped him move in. My handyman called me frustrated, was like, Nichole, this man got so many roaches on the back of my truck, blah, blah, blah. I'm just like, this is somebody's granddaddy. And I have to help him. Shouldn't have done that. I helped him move in, and just from the beginning, it was extremely chaotic. But since then, I have done a much better vetting process of the questions that I ask and making sure that everyone understands what they're doing. So I've been doing this now for 6 years, and I've only had 2 evictions under my belt. And I can say I'm very proud of that because I want to make sure that I am putting people in a situation where not only I can win, they can win. Um, and He did call me back a few months later because it was not working and he wanted his house back. And I'm like, Mr. Lee, that house is already rented. So the best advice that I can give to you all is not only making sure you're vetting people properly, which includes asking tough questions— why are you moving? Have you ever been evicted? Uh, can you keep up with your current rent? Why is this on your credit report? Ask those uncomfortable questions. But you also want to ask yourself, Am I prepared to run a business like a business and not with my heart? And I say that because I made him, for lack of a better word, privileged because of the things that I was doing for him. There's no landlord that's going to help somebody move out of their apartment into their house. If you're one, put it in the comments. I mean, you know, I just had to learn from that. Very first mobile home that I still have, that this is a business and it is not personal. Okay, so what I hope you all get from this video is do a good job at vetting, asking yourself hard questions and asking your potential renter the hard questions. So now I ask you, what would you have done in this situation? I'm curious to hear your thoughts, how you would have handled this, uh, renter. Drop it below. And listen, I hope to see you all September, September 26th, in-person Wealth Summit right here in North Carolina. The lineup is amazing. Not only myself teaching you mobile home strategies, but my sister Lynette is going to teach you how to operate group homes unlicensed in mobile homes and houses. Lady D is going to come on and teach you tax strategies of how to pull these mobile homes off a list with your county or your city for less than $500. And Andrell, she's going to teach you how to flip real estate, how to wholesale real estate, how to acquire these properties. Y'all, this is the Mobile Home Wealth Summit. Will you be there?