A small property with a mobile home in good shape has come up for sale.

Literally within walking distance is Allegheny National Forest and 3 miles up the road is Game lands. Close to 80000 acres of public land to hunt.

5 miles away is a State part with a lake for fishing, kayaking, archery shoots and snowmobiling.

1 mile down the road is an ATV traill system on ANF.

4miles away is a nice restaurant/bar and not far from that is a river..

Another 7 miles up the road are some great hiking, cross country skiing trails.

By now you know we are thinking of buying this place and making it a rental. Seems like a no brainer investment to me. Airbnb or daily weekly to outdoor enthusiasts.

I have never done anything like this so what should I consider?

Strange question on the deer hunting page I know. Obviously my niche would be pointing hunters in the right direction for deer. No so much guided but as a little assistance if needed.

How far is it from home? Will you be able to use it a lot? Will you or your wife freak out if you show up and the place is a mess?

My wife and I had a rental property. Renters are sometimes not very respectful of your property. If you go on the honor system and let renters clean it themselves you may get complaints from the next renters. Or someone may break or steal something and you'll never know who did it. If you don't live close enough to keep an eye on things yourself you need someone else to do it for you. A cleaning person may do that for you. Also, if something breaks during a rental and you can't get there you'll need a trustworthy handyman that can take care of basic repairs for you.

Just a few things to consider...….. Good Luck with it!

Thanks Bill, I guess that is a piece of critical information I left out. This property and trailer literally touches my land. I can walk across the field to it in 2 minutes.

Then I'd buy it just to prevent the possibilities of...…...

What WTM45 said....no brainer

If you can afford to own it without rental income go for it. Any rental income would be a bonus

I would recommend the same, look into rents for similar properties in the area if possible. Mobile home tenants have not had the greatest track record for us even when we did significant background checks.

Check the other AirBnB rentals in the area to see how many and what they rent for. If there are none or few, I would say you are golden!

Taxes, property , and liability insurance for starters . What’s the current condition of the property? Will you manage the rental ? Figure at least 10% off the top if hiring a firm. How much money does it need to habitable ?

Anyone who would rent a trailer will more than likely tear it up, quit paying rent, Be hell to get out of the trailer and be a pain in the ass. If you rent it, you can’t use it.

This^

Really? I rent one for 10 days during WI gun season and never once thought of tearing it up.

After seeing the type of people that rented the various properties on my road, I'd be very hesitant. Yikes! The further out of town you are the worst it gets.

One place up the road from me:

1) A really nice quiet guy who just suddenly skipped.
2) A family with the husband recently out of prison. He got hooked on Oxy's and then went off on his wife one night-- beat her badly. When she tried to escape with the children, he shot the wheels of his own vehicle to keep her from leaving. He did an 8-stretch on that one. The teenage daughter later made national news running away with a middle-aged man she met on the internet.
3) A quiet couple whose marriage failed. I think there was DV action before it was over
4) Then the property sold to a family of miscreants-- a grandma/grandpa with 14 small children that they were watching while various sons and daughters were in prison. They were all on welfare. The kids broke into my place and other to steal canned goods, because they were hungry.
5) After grandpa and grandma died, the new owner had a renter in that killed all the local deer and sold the venison. He then proceeded to completely trash the place so that it took 2 years to clean it out and fix it up.

Your best bet is to buy the property, and sell the trailer. That's what another neighbor of mine did when the hell-hole up the road came up for sale.

Other rental properties in the neighborhood?

Lessee, I can remember a meth lab, a heroin addict, and a murder/suicide all in the past year or so. See what I mean?

Since you have power and septic,

Buy the land. Sell the house trailer and put in a couple RV slabs.

I wouldn't think Hunters/hikers etc.. would be any problem,
someone renting as a permanent residence is another story

buy it if you can afford it,just to keep some other undesirables out of your area.

Yeah guess that was my bad in the original post. Not as a permanent rental but a daily weekly type of thing for people visiting the area for outdoor recreation.

That might actually work.

IMO, that's the best low risk set up.

I like this idea.

That's not a bad idea actually.

I do the same in Indiana. Beings that you are that close it'd be a no brainer IMO if you are not dependent on rental income to make the note.

If you don't buy it, what you want to bet that down the road you will be wishing you did. Now, if you do buy it, what you want to bet that you can or can't turn a profit on it. Let that sink in before you make your decision.

My wife and I just bought the place next to us. It's nice to be in control of who lives there (going to be her mom when we finish renovations!). We suffered a string of horrid renters and owners for 15 years and when we got the chance to buy we jumped on it.
And what you're looking at sounds like a great place.
If you can afford to, just write the check - if not, loans are practically free these days. I'll add my voice to the "go for it" contingent.

Cheers,
Rex

Any rentals to outdoor types would be unlikely to tear things up, if they want to return. And this sounds like a place people would want to return to. If you go the AirBNB route, have some rules for the rental. Like, no wild parties, and limit the number of people that can stay there at any one time. I could imagine finding a small group of hunters without a lease, that would want to return every season. Maybe several groups in sequence. Ditto for cross country skiers/hikers. Best of luck with the property.

Does your state have renter rights laws that prevent you from kicking out a bad renter? Some states make it a nightmare for landlords.

How old is the home? Anything made before '78 will likely have aluminum wiring and formaldehyde insulation. Both are bad news, especially the wiring. Many states prohibit moving and setting up any home made before '78.

How much is the property? If it's $5,000 , no brainer, $ 50,000 , that would hurt my wallet.