A mobile home might have served as the coziest place to escape the summer heat and snow. Or, it could have been your permanent place of residence for the past couple of years. But once the owner decides to sell their mobile home or take it somewhere else, the mobile home park land goes empty, and the seller may have to find another buyer or a dealer to sell the vacant land.
Selling a mobile home park that accommodates different mobile homes on a single piece of land is a complex process. How do you find a buyer interested in buying your mobile home park? The most important decision is whether you should sell it privately, i.e., through a for-sale-by-owner transaction, or is it better to sell it to a dealer instead? Let’s find out.
How Should You Sell Mobile Home Park?
Working with a mobile home park brokerage can save you the time and cost of looking for a buyer. You can sell the property to the dealer or a real estate investor, who will then look for potential clients to rent this area for mobile homes or sell it to another interested property owner.
The potential buyer of a mobile home park is a real estate investor who knows the ins and outs of this industry and is ready to take over this business. With a large number of these pieces of land available on the market, finding a potential buyer who’s willing to pay your asking price is not easy. You can’t put your quote at the property’s gate and expect the buyers to show up with their offers.
A park sold privately or to a dealer is two different concepts and can make a big difference in the total income you generate from the sale. Let’s discuss each in brief.
Sell Mobile Home Park Privately
Selling a mobile home park is not as simple as selling a house to an aspiring homebuyer. You need to start with a list of homebuyers actively looking for a piece of land where they can move their mobile homes or for investment purposes.
Alternatively, the most popular method to sell a property is by listing it on MLS. That’s where a vast majority of properties are listed. You can also list your mobile home park on social media. Since you are selling the property privately, you will be solely responsible for listing, photography, staging, and all aspects of a sale.
Understanding The Mobile Home Park Market
The process usually starts with finding your target audience. You need to ask these questions to determine whether people showing interest in your offer are looking for a mobile home park.
- Is this person going to live in the area, or are they buying it strictly for their investment business?
- Do they have access to the required amount of funds to buy the property? Will they buy it on a mortgage, and do they have enough cash for the down payment?
- What about their investment profile? Are they reliable investors, and do they have knowledge of mobile home parks?
These areas are mostly bought by investment groups that buy different properties at once and either rent them immediately or hold them for a while before re-selling them.
Since you are not working with a broker, you have to do the research for the potential property buyers on your own. You may have to conduct an interview with each to ask the above questions and assess their ability to make a purchase.
In addition, buying this area requires you to pay legal fees before getting your park on the listing market. That alone can cost you thousands of dollars. Add to this the cost of inspection and the appraisal fee for finding out the total value of the property, and you will know why for-sale-by-owner is not a reliable and cost-effective option.
Selling Your Mobile Home Park To a Dealer
The life of a mobile home park owner is not easy. The maintenance requirements and the cost of hauling a single mobile home all the way to its new location are not only expensive but risky. What if any damage occurs to the house during transport? That’s why people decide to sell these parks.
Instead of selling them privately through FSBO deals, you can sell them directly to a dealer. There are many investors that can make quick cash offers and buy your mobile home park without all the above-listed requirements. There’s no realtor fee needed, nor do you have to conduct an appraisal. They will take a look at the property or conduct a virtual tour to determine the market value of the area and then propose a quick cash offer.
These dealers may or may not be open to negotiations. If the property owner and the dealer are happy with the offer, the deal can be closed immediately. Some dealers are willing to take care of the paperwork and attorney fees too. If the deal does not work for them, they will serve as the brokers and find you a reliable buyer for your property. Basically, it is a win-win for the seller. You can either close the deal right away or have these dealers find you a suitable buyer.
Bottom Line
There’s a noticeable difference between selling a property on your own or working with a realtor. Whether it is a residential place or a mobile home park, a realtor knows how to attract the right audience and convince them to buy the piece of land at your asking price.
They charge a small commission in return. But, it’s much better to pay this small fee than bear the legal and appraisal cost. Besides, it is convenient for the seller to show the property to interested candidates when they are working with a realtor. From staging and photography to listing the land on the property market, they will take care of everything.
