Preparing and selling a mobile home like one the I own has proven to be a daunting task. Getting my subcontractor in to fix the holes that the tenant’s dogs put in the walls of the trailer did open the door of opportunity for me to fix some of previous holes in the walls when I first purchased the property. The problem is, with high building materials costs and labor these days, it is a expensive investment. Further, with the house market the way it is today, we may not be able to find a buyer for the property. This may force me to rent the place back out again, but if I am going to rent it again, I am going to be well compensated for it. I think I will ask for $700 a month to rent it out again.

Anyways, I wanted to give you the details on all the items that we are fixing or have already fixed in the home:

  • Hole in living room wall - this hole was so big there was no chance for patching it, I had to replace the entire sheet of drywall. Fortunately, in trailers, there really isn’t any taping an floating, as the manufacturers just put trim pieces between each of the sheets of drywall.
  • Hole in adjacent living room wall - this was a small hole, and my subcontractor came up with the idea to install a chair rail around the living room walls, thus covering the hole. The hole is high, about 6 inches higher than a normal chair rail, but I don’t think anyone will notice.
  • Hole in bathroom wall - this we are going to be fixing through a simple patch and painting the bathroom. It is a very small bathroom, so the expense will not be great to go ahead and paint the entire room.
  • Holes in bathroom door - nothing much we could do here. We thought about applying a return air vent to the bottom of the door to cover the hole, but it is such a large hole and the price to replace the door was only about $5-10 more expensive, so I opted to replace the entire door.
  • Hole in master bedroom - I am not sure what my subcontractor wants to do here. I’ll to talk to him and see.
  • Missing / cut / torn out trim around doors - this trim was fairly easily replaceable, and all that we are doing here is pre-painting and putting it up around the doors.
  • Bugs in range oven, dishwasher and other areas throughout the house - this was particularly nasty, and I think the best solution is going to be a bug bomb. Go to your local Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot or other general / home improvement type store and should be able to get bug bombs.
  • Urine and feces in the carpet - thanks to an illegal dog, the carpet has undergone severe mistreatment. There were even a couple of places where the tenants did not even bother to pick up the feces. So I had to deal with caked on dog poop in the master bedroom. I believe the dog was responsible for at least 90% of the damage the tenants caused me.
  • Garbage, clothes, other household items - there was all kinds of trash and other household items in the mobile home, shed and yard. So now I have to get a truck / trailer and try to get all these items out of there.

All totaled, the cost of repair is probably going to end up being around $600. Granted, part of the issues I am fixing are not the tenant’s fault, but you can still say that I was mistreated when it comes to this property, and selling the mobile home is probably my best bet. The distance is too great (given the insane price of gasoline) and with the lull in our online activity, we need the cash now for living expenses.

I have listed the property for sale today, with a price of $55,450. Hopefully it will sell, and sell soon…


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