Marketing to potential residents

I recently purchased a turn around MHP. it has 65 spaces 25 of which are filled, 22 have vacant homes that came with the park, 7 of which are currently renatable, and 18 are empty lots. This park is located in a small town in Indiana about 2500 people. there is a Super Wal Mart about 10 min. away and a town of about 50,000 30 min. away.

the question is does anyone have a good system of marketing the vacant homes? we do plan on selling these homes on contract but how do we interest potential buyers?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Brian

Brian,

Classifieds in the local daily paper always worked best for me when I was in the rural midwest. Never had much luck finding buyers from the local pennysaver, but that may differ for you.

I’d say the most powerful connection you have is with the people who currently live there. Make them aware that you are looking for new tenants with flyers, speaking to them personally and reminding them whenever you talk. And don’t forget to mention the referral fee. I’d offer $100, but that may be high for your area.

good luck,

Anne

Expanding on Anne’s idea, I would offer whatever a month’s lot rent amounts to for a referral fee. I offer 250.00 for a referral fee, because that is the average lot rent in my area. I always want someone to refer a buyer to me, but if I make it worthwhile, they might actually try hard to get me someone. They might make the extra effort, if it’s worth it…

Also, I don’t know how good you are at marketing but try different ideas, I personally wrote an 8 page report full of pictures and reasons why buying a mobile home through me made a hell of a lot more sense than renting. I ran an ad in a local free magazine geared toward a younger crowd stating “Before you rent or buy a home, call for this FREE report.” I was trying to hit younger people, because of all my tenants, the younger ones seem to take more pride in their home. They are excited and want to paint, and landscape and beautify their homes, whereas the middle aged people seem to have given up on life. This is certainly not always true, but a good majority of the time it is.

Post Edited (07-17-07 15:49)

Brian,

Don’t overlook the obvious. Put a sign out in front of your park advertising your park and the homes available to catch the drive by traffic.

A year ago I bought a 4’X8’ light-up lettering sign with a big arrow on top (you’ve seen them, they’re everywhere) from Sams for about $300, and put it out in front of the biggest park where I sell homes. On one side I say something like “Affordable remodeled homes, will finance, move in specials!”, on the other side “3 bed 2 bath 16X80’s starting at $16,900, bad credit okay!”. Its not terribly attractive, but it gets the message out there to anyone driving under 60mph. I’ve gotten far more calls from that sign than anything else I’ve ever done.

Karl

We found a direct correlation between the quality of our homes and the quality of resident we were able to attract. We had a bunch of junk homes that we were willing to sell cheaply, and received lots of inquires- from the same caliber of people we had just spent a lot of effort evicting. We tore down the junkers, brought in nice homes, and continue to receive lots of inquires- some don’t meet our standard, but many do.

I know some LDers have had success buying fixer homes and selling them as is. Perhaps that will work in nice, stable parks (i.e. the proverbial worse home on the block) but I think that approach is less effective in turnaround parks.

Daphne