A land assignment closed at 9k shows how a hidden mobile home nearly killed the deal

Two things I'd have wanted before repapering at 26k. Who has been paying the taxes, and was the mobile home ever titled separately. In a lot of states a mobile home keeps its own title as personal property until someone files to convert it to real property, and if that title is floating out there the builder may not own the thing he's paying to demolish. That's a question for a closing attorney in the state, not for me. Did the title company say anything about it?

Six months of letters here and no deal, so the part I'm underlining is nine calls off 240. That's a better hit rate than anything I've gotten. Were you pulling the list off the county assessor site directly or buying it?

What did your letter actually say? Most drafts can't decide whether they're written to a person or written as an ad, and the response rate shows which one went out.

The reprice deserves a closer look, because that is where most people would freeze. You went back to a seller who had already agreed at 34k and asked for 8k off. Did she push back at all, or did the fact she had never seen the parcel make her easy about it? The question matters because that conversation would be expected to blow up half the time, and the actual failure mode is worth knowing before anyone walks into it.

Sorry, basic one. When you say you assigned the contract, the seller sells to the builder directly and you just get paid the 9k at closing? You never own the land at any point?

The mobile home is the memorable part of this story. The 30 day window is the risk worth studying. The surprise turned up inside inspection, which is the only reason there was a way out. If the buyer had gone cold on day 34, that is 500 gone plus a seller who will not reprice. A cheap lesson at that price.

The mobile home version of this has cousins. A filled in pond on a 12 acre tract, or a septic permit that lapsed years ago, does the same damage to a deal and hides the same way, which is to say off the aerial. Aerials lie constantly. The right practice is to pay for whatever the county's most recent flight is and still drive the parcel, because the flight is usually 18 months behind whatever the neighbor dumped there.

Starting from actual zero here and this is the first post I've read where the money made sense to me. Nine grand for 22 days of work reads great until I notice you spent a year reading first. How much of the year mattered?

Dumb question I'd never ask out loud. If the seller didn't know about the mobile home, how did she not know? Did nobody ever send her a photo, was there really no code letter in twenty years?

Your buyer priced demo at 11k and then paid 35k with demo on him, so he was at 46k on a parcel the assessor calls 61k. He's got room. My question is whether you tested a second builder at all, because I suspect 9k was low and you took the first yes. I do the same thing when I'm nervous.

On the rural side, the 400 feet to power is the line to chase hardest. A power extension quote can come back at four figures or five depending on whether the run crosses anyone else's property. Did the builder get a quote from the utility or eyeball it? That is the number that moves the price more than the trailer does.

11k for a half collapsed single wide and a dead truck is honest on the build side if there is no asbestos in the flooring or siding and the access is decent for a roll off. If there is, the number changes, and testing requirements vary by state. The move would have been to get that in writing before letting him hold the demo, because a buyer who discovers his own surprise mid escrow is a buyer who renegotiates.

This thread is a useful illustration of why land appeals to people who want to start without contractors or tenants. The question worth putting to the room is whether the tradeoff is simply that buyers take longer to find, or whether there is more on the exit side.

@gregpowell66 is right about the asbestos and I'll add the thing from my side. Scope creep on demo is real. Every teardown I've touched grew once someone lifted the floor and found a slab, a well casing, or buried tires. If your builder's 11k was a phone guess, his real number came in higher and he ate it. Fine for you this time.

The 9k is fine. What deserves writing down is the assumption the whole deal rested on, which is that a spec builder in that town can split 5.1 acres into sellable lots under current zoning and get approval. If the county has a minimum lot size or a road frontage requirement that allows two splits instead of four, the builder's math changes and the 9k does not exist. You got paid because he had already done that homework. Next time do it yourself before you set your price, because that is where the fee actually comes from. Minimum lot rules and split approval processes differ by county and state, so it is a call to the planning office rather than a rule you can carry across markets.