1st possible deal?!

I found a free mobile home on craigslist earlier in the week. The posting was a day old, so I figured it was gone, but I called anyway. It turned out it was still available! So, after figuring out what to do, I rushed down to meet him and check out the mobile. It needs A LOT of work (new roof, sagging ceilings, totally new carpet, previous owner smoked inside, 1 bathroom needs a complete remodel, etc.). It was my first time looking at a mobile home (or any home for that matter), so I was a bit overwhelmed with what to look for to make estimates on repair costs. I dropped the ball in many areas as I forgot to get square footage, get the owner's info to check for back taxes, etc. But, I took about 20 photos.

The home is actually in a nice park, and it almost didn't feel like a mobile home park. After deciding that I wouldn't be able to fix and flip the place myself, I called the 2 investors I had already qualified on my buyer's list. Neither were interested (and I didn't tell them where it was either), but one of them solely invests in mobiles, so he was excited for me and gave me a lot of information and tips. One of those tips was not to jump into this deal for my first one, as it looked like a lot of work. Of course I still considered it, but at the end of the day, decided to try to get the place on contract, and try to assign it someone else.

So that's where I'm at right now. I am supposed to go meet him again this afternoon, and my plan is to get it on contract and look for someone else to pass it on to. Of course I'm going to include some "escape" clauses, just in case nobody wants anything to do with this place. But at the very least, I'll get some practice with putting a property on contract and then utilizing the escape clause!

This whole process up to this point has been SO EXCITING! I'm going to have to learn to calm down in the future, as I was so excited with this deal that I forgot to eat all day long. I guess that will come with experience, but I totally see why some people refer to real estate investing as a "game", and I am hooked. I'll update this story in the next day or two.