First assignment closed at 9k, nearly killed by a mobile home nobody mentioned

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? I'm on my third draft and I can't tell if I'm writing to a person or writing an ad.

I want to sit on the reprice for a second, because that's where I'd have frozen. You went back to a seller who'd already agreed at 34k and asked for 8k off. Did she push back at all, or did the fact she'd never seen the parcel make her easy about it? I ask because I'd expect that conversation to blow up half the time and I'd like to know what the actual failure mode looks like before I put myself in 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 interesting risk in your story isn't the mobile home, it's the 30 day window. You found the surprise inside inspection, which is the only reason you had a way out. If your buyer had gone cold on day 34 you're staring at 500 gone plus a seller who won't reprice. Cheap lesson at that price.

Had almost the same thing on a 12 acre tract last spring except mine was a filled-in pond and a septic permit that had lapsed. Aerials lie constantly. I now pay for whatever the county's most recent flight is and I still drive it, 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.

Rural side here and the 400 feet to power is the line I'd have chased hardest. Out where I look, 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's the number that moves the price more than the trailer.

11k for a half-collapsed single-wide and a dead truck is honest on the build side if there's 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. I'd have gotten that in writing before I let him hold the demo, because a buyer who discovers his own surprise mid-escrow is a buyer who renegotiates.

I've been bouncing between strategies for months and this thread is the first thing that made land sound like something I could actually start. No contractors, no tenants, no roof. Is the tradeoff just that buyers take longer to find?

@girder 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 I'd want you to write 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 only allows two splits instead of four, your builder's math changes and your 9k doesn't exist. You got paid because he'd already done that homework. Next time do it yourself before you set your price, because that's where the fee actually comes from. Minimum lot rules and split approval processes differ by county and state, so it's a call to the planning office, not a rule you can carry across markets.