Your CORE Advisor Blog

How do you Sell a Manufactured Home in a Park?

Selling a manufactured home in A Mobile Home Park where you rent the spaces offers many unique challenges compared to selling a stick built home.  Financing, Target Market and Park Rules can hamper a sellers efforts to sell their home.

What are the specific Challenges to selling a manufactured home in a park? 

1. These homes are very difficult to finance especially right now. 
2. Most people shopping in this segment of the market aren’t flush with cash.
3. Buyers only get a partial benefit of home ownership.
4. You often cannot target investors as many parks don’t allow rentals.

Well to sell a Manufactured Home in a Mobile Home Park I believe you must do the following:

• Price the home to sell.  See what the recent (6 months) solds are and decide how yours compares.
• As a seller you need to Finance the home for the buyer. 
  • If you owe a bank on the manufactured home you are trying to sell, you may need their permission or a lawyer to draft a contract that wraps the note.
  • If you own it outright, then it is easy to finance for the buyer, just decide what you need down and how long you can stretch the payments out for.   I often recommend someone finance a manufactured home for 5-10 years at 10% interest with 10% down payment.    Seems reasonable to me at this time (10/29/09).
  • If you really need the cash, drop your price more, or offer down payment assistance to the buyer and find a lender somewhere that will finance the home for at least some buyer.  Often Credit Unions will do it and treat it as a vehicle loan.  Many commercial sources have dried up…  There is also the option of private lending, a relative, etc. that has the cash that can be the bank.
• Advertise and market to potential renters because this should be a comparably affordable option for them and at the end of 5-10 years their rent gets cut in half once their home is paid off.  They do accumulate some amount of equity as well (If they take care of their home).
• Point out all the freedoms and benefits of home ownership to buyers:  Remodeling, no shared walls with neighbors, equity accumulates monthly as you make the payments…

So Really Its not “That Hard” to sell a Manufactured Home!

You just need to get creative and address the buyer’s key needs:  Price and Terms. 

Good Luck!

Thanks for Reading!  Contact Chris Ormsbee or Diane Haynes with the Montrose Gold Team at Century 21 Action Realty in Montrose Colorado.  Call us at (970) 249-7777 and be sure and say you saw the blog!