$2.6M deal to settle FEMA mobile home claims

Companies that manufactured mobile homes for the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Hurricane Katrina have agreed to pay $2.6 million to resolve thousands of claims that the shelters exposed Gulf Coast storm victims to potentially dangerous fumes, according to a proposed class-action settlement filed Friday.

Attorneys for plaintiffs and roughly two dozen mobile home makers and their subsidiaries are asking a federal judge to approve the deal, which would be the second mass settlement of claims over formaldehyde exposure in the government-issued housing units FEMA ordered after the 2005 storms.

One of the plaintiffs' lead lawyers said the settlement came after a key ruling by the judge severely hurt his side's position.

The settlement could benefit several thousand families in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama who claim they were exposed to dangerous levels of formaldehyde while living in FEMA mobile homes. The chemical, commonly found in building materials, can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen.

The settlement doesn't involve claims for residents who lived in FEMA travel trailers, which housed the majority of storm victims. Travel trailers are smaller and less sturdy than mobile homes and are more prone to elevated levels of formaldehyde.

The mobile home companies involved in the proposed settlement include Cavalier Home Builders, Patriot Homes Inc., CMH Manufacturing and Champion Home Builders. A lawyer for the companies said he couldn't immediately comment on the deal.

In May 2009, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt dismissed some of the state law claims filed against mobile home makers, ruling they were barred under federal law. Engelhardt said Congress never intended to allow states to set higher safety standards for mobile homes than those imposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Gerald Meunier, a lead plaintiffs' lawyer, said Engelhardt's ruling dealt a serious blow to mobile home residents' claims against the companies.

"The only way you win is to show they broke HUD's rules," Meunier said. "If they complied with HUD's rules, you're out of luck."

The companies agreed to pay a total of $2,625,000 into the settlement fund, but they continue to deny any wrongdoing and believe the claims are without merit, the agreement says.

A court-appointed special master will present Engelhardt with a plan for distributing the money before a "fairness hearing" is held on the proposal. Attorneys' fees and other expenses will be deducted from the $2.6 million and are capped at 48 percent of the fund.

Meunier said he expects his clients to understand that they weren't in a position to reap a big windfall from the deal.

"I think they're going to be accepting of it once they understand the impact of (Engelhardt's) ruling," he said.

Meunier added that the judge's ruling didn't affect claims against travel trailer makers.

"Travel trailers are vehicles. They have VIN numbers. They're not HUD regulated," he said.

Becky Gillette, the Sierra Club's formaldehyde campaign director, said it appears the settlement will pay each family well under $1,000 apiece if several thousand qualify for awards.

"I don't see it benefits them that much," she said. "Now they might have enough money to go to McDonald's, but it wouldn't pay for even one child's visit to the emergency room because they're having difficulty breathing."

Three cases against companies that manufactured and installed FEMA travel trailers have been tried before Engelhardt, who is presiding over a batch of hundreds of consolidated lawsuits. The juries in all three trials sided with the companies and didn't award any damages.

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., which supplied FEMA with travel trailers before it filed for bankruptcy in 2009, agreed last year to a settlement resolving about 7,500 to 8,000 claims. Terms of that deal weren't disclosed.

FEMA downplayed residents' formaldehyde concerns before government tests on hundreds of trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi found formaldehyde levels that were, on average, about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.

Article By Mike, Mobile - 0) Comments

Common sence to sell your mobile home, manufactured home in a down economy

Selling your Mobile Home in a down economy.

Selling your Mobile Home in this economy can be a daunting task. Financing for used mobile homes has truly dried up and most buyers do not have $20,000 cash under their mattress to hand you. So that does not leave you with many options

So what do you do? The first thing I would recommend trying in to make an effort to contact a Mobile Home Investor in your state and see what they can do for you. They are buying mobile homes to keep in their rental portfolios. So they often have cash quickly available to buy your used mobile home. Please Remember, they are not interested in buying your mobile home at full retail value, they can buy homes all day at those prices with little to know effort. However if you are willing to be limber with your purchase price or work with some form of creative financing you should be able to get your mobile home sold.

How do you find an investor? 1.) Well if you live in Texas you can contact www.MysticRealtyTx.com they are always willing to make you an offer on your home in very short period of time. 2.) You should also take advantage any free advertising you may find. www.MobileHomeMagic.com is a free Nationwide Classified Directory of Mobile Homes and Mobile Home Parks for sale. 1000's of people view that site monthly that are looking to buy used mobile homes and mobile home parks just like yours. Place you home or park for sale on this site. You will not be sorry. Instructions on how to place your free add can be found on the main page

BRUTAL TRUTH. If you must sell your home for full retail value, then listen up. You need to do some cosmetic repairs to make your little jewel sparkle.Let's start with the basics here. I know that no one reading this has this problem but maybe you have some friends that do. Clean the home and keep it clean. No one is ever going to buy the sorry excuse when they walk through the doors of "Excuse the mess, we are packing." It takes more than a few days for a mobile home to have a 3 inch layer of dust on everything and roaches running around. If you can not clean you need to call an investor as no one else will touch this home. 2.) Tell your friends to clean their yard. Not only does a nasty yard effect the value of your friends Manufactured Home but it affects the value of all the homes that can seen around you.Removing the trash is the simplest way to add a wow factor to your home. Once your friends home is cleaned and the curbside appeal of your nice yard is up to par take some new pictures for them and post them to www.MobileHomeMagic.com. That simple task will make your friends phone ring ten times the normal amount, and their home will sell much faster.More common sence tips next news letter.

Article By Mike, Mobile - 0) Comments

Marketing On Craigs List and Hiding Your IP address

If we have anything in common you know and use the power of Craig's List to help you sell your mobile homes. I spend around $ $300.00 a month on marketing in news papers. I also advertise the sale of my  mobile homes on Craig's List and the other Free online classified sites. Funny thing is, Free adds gets me 10 times more phone calls. I do not abuse their system at craig's list but I often have 5-10 Mobile homes for sale at any one time. Due to this fact, I post my ads and delete and repost every 3 days as Craig's List allows. Well it is a stupid machine, and it thinks I am a Spam bot just throwing up ads. Well I have learned that Craig’s list now has my IP address blacklisted and every time I create a new phone verified account it is blocked in a few days.

Not any more!! I have the best tool I have ever bought it. It is called HIDEIPEASY Now when I create an account, Craig’s List does not automatically think, There is Mobile Mike, Lets Kill Him. And belive me that is what they can do to your business Kill it. I am now posting my ads daily and getting phone calls again.

HIDEIPEASY is also something you should employ every day on the internet to protect your identity from all of these mad computer genius thief’s out there content on stealing your identity. I have never been a victim of identity theft as of the moment but I take precautions. If you are serious about keeping your Identity only Your Identity, this is a tool you can not live without. I wish I would have learned about this baby years ago.

You can buy Hide IP Easy @ www.easy-hideip.com Don't wait untill it is to late. Unless you have more money than brains and if that is the case I have a prime island for sale in the Louisiana Swamps for sale.

PS be sure to check out the Mobile Homes I have for Sale at my sister site. www.mysticrealtytx.com

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Crazy Tenants

The last few months, I have been placing great effort into attracting a Spanish audience for my mobile homes for sale. I mean lets face it, In Texas the only real population growth that can be counted is from our neighbors south of the border. Legal and illegal. One great advantage I see is,many of them see a mobile home as a palace and I never see Senior Lupe out on the side of the road begging for money. Sure many of the men work construction so they may have a more difficult time paying rent in your local rainy season, but that is ok.

Many of them are cash buyers and I always like that. No check to bounce!!!

I have learned a few things though. When you Rent to own a mobile home to your Spanish speaking buyer, be sure you go over everything that is to be expected. My last occupant of my Single Wide mobile home has taken it upon herself to paint the outside of the mobile home Yellow. That’s right yellow.  That is not acceptable. I hope I never get that home back, If I do her security deposit will never be back in her hands that is for sure.So lessons learned, Make sure your translator tells them everything on your contract, Do not pencil whip through the rental agreement and take the extra time to make sure they understand. 30 extra minutes of your time, could save you $1,000’s of dollars in future Headaches.

Mobile Mike,;

Article By Mike, Mobile - 0) Comments

Mobile Home Park Managers, Your Fastest Path to Success.

There are several reasons why I believe that park managers are the fastest road to success with finding good deals on mobile homes. Every mobile home that I have purchased was from a referral from a park manger and they were great prices. I have spent many thousands of dollars trying to find mobile homes in other ways and all I did was lose dollars pursing over priced deals.

 

   Many individuals are just to lazy to do the footwork required to find a good deal on a mobile home. Or to timid to go though the mobile home parks and speak to the people that live their, due to stereotype which are all to often true.

 

You have no choice but speak with the park manager, so you should do it first off this is a good approach for the timid. If you spend some time with a park manager they will very often bring the deals to you.

 

The best method is to approach the park manager as an investor.When I go to the park office and ask for a few minutes of their time. I will simply sit down and tell them I am an investor looking to acquire and possible move a few mobile homes into their park.   Generally they will not question you. I then ask them a few questions about the park.

There are few things you must know from the manager.

1)Do they allow Investors in their park?

 

This simply lets you know if rental homes are allowed. If they do not, find out if they are interested in buying some of your mobile homes in the future as they most likely own a large percentage of the homes in the park and owner finance or rent to own these homes themselves.

2) What are the current lot rents?

When you find out the lot rents, make sure the manager knows that you will be paying the lot rents directly to her and not your tenants making the payments.  This lets her know there is less headaches for her and the payments will always be on time. You are renting the lot space. The tenant buyers are renting the mobile home from you.

3)When is payment due?

 

This is obvious; also find out what day payment is late? This should never be a problem as you are paying the lot rents yourself, not the tenant.

 

4) Find out if your tenants can drop off their rent checks at the onsite office if they have one and you can pick them up there when you bring your monthly lot rents?

I prefer this method as it allows me the opportunity to speak with the manager face to face for 15 minutes or so every month while I write her the check for all the lot rents and pick up my money orders. Many things can change in one months time. Ask the manager if anything new has happened. Also remind her to contact you about other owners of mobile homes  whom rent the  other park lots and are currently late or have new citations against them in the park. This can be an early warning sign about the mobile home owners current life situations. Perhaps they lost a job and they are becoming more and more motivated every day to sell that home before they are evicted from the park. You may be their only hope. Remember they have to catch up on lot rent and late fees etc and pay $3,000.00 plus in moving fees before they can move that home out of the park.

5) What is the maximum age of a home allowed in the park?

   This is very important as it will give you a good idea of the quality and value of the park. I also believe it is much easier to sell in a nicer park. From personal pains I have learned that a park that allows homes over 20 years of age to be moved into it, is going to be a headache when it come time to sell. Many of these parks are truly trailer parks and they have the reputations that we have all come to fear. High drug, gang and prostitution problems often accompany these parks. Well at least in the Houston TX area. Things could be very different where you reside.

I have learned that older homes often have too many repairs for their worth and it is difficult to get a tenant buyer in them. By older I mean over 20 years of age. I won't make many repairs on them anymore. There are more than a few people that make money from the older homes though. I just chose not to pursuer them anymore. If you find a home that is just to sweet of a deal to pass up and you buy it for VERY cheap, you can try and market it as a handy man special and still sell for 2 times what you purchased it for with great financing rates. Please check state laws for how they define habitable before you sell.If you do buy an older home, do not move the home if you can avoid it. It may fall apart while it is being moved.

 

6) Does the homes require skirting? And does the tongue have to be removed?

 

You need to know these things, as tongue removal and skirting are extra money you must add to your moving and installation fees. I prefer homes in nicer parks that require such skirting. Homes with no skirting are often used as storage areas for the MH owners junk. This drops the appearance of the whole park. Thus resulting in it becoming more difficult for you to locate your tenant/buyer. We have also seen cats and other animals tear into the ac duct work and make a nice air conditioned house for themselves and their litter.  You don't want to see the electricity bill when this happen to you. Put on the skirting.

 

7) What services does the park offer? Such as Lawn Maintenance, Trash Dumpster, Water, Laundry Swimming pool, recreation area?

What is paid for by the park and what is paid for by the tenants?  Water and sewage, are two of the greatest monthly expenses that a park owner must pay. In return they can make quite a difference in the monthly lot rent if they are paid by the park. If tenants must pay their water bills, broken water pipes, faucets etc, have a strange way of getting fixed when they would remain neglected before.. If the park owner pays the water bill, you will find that leak in or under your mobile home and now you have to pay for even more repairs.

8) Do the park have a maintenance man that will set up the electricity, AC, water etc after the home is moved into the park, and does he work on the side and does he have the current license?

I try to keep all of my money spent in the same park where my homes are located as it builds a loyalty base. Also you are seen as a friend and not just an investor. A friend is a great thing to be with the park employees.. Do not be a friend with your tenants unless you like losing money and experiencing a ton of drama every month.

9) Find out what they offer you to motivate you to move your homes into their park.

My favorite park allows us to move our homes into them and they do not charge us lot rent until we have a tenant/buyer in the home. This saves use several hundreds of dollars each month. This process also amazes me. How many homes can you place in one park? This is truly a wonderful thing for an MH investor. Let’s suppose over a few years you move 15 - 20 homes into a 60 unit park. How much control do you now have over that park? 33% I am sure you are an asset to the park owners or a fright.. Now you and your actions and the actions of your tenants can make quite a difference in the value of their park. You could make it or break it.

 

Article By Mike, Mobile - 0) Comments