Hi all,
I am interested in making an offer on a mobile home park out of state. I am debating between trying to find a Purchase and Sale agreement specific to that state, complete it and have a real estate attorney review it OR just asking a commercial realtor to help with the transaction. I will be paying the realtor fee for realtor representation but they may be able to help with negotiations etc as well. Any guidance would be much appreciated! Best, Dave
Dave, have you taken the Mobile Home Park Bootcamp? If so, you have access to a pretty good Purchase Agreement. You should have one if you are buying a park. A real estate attorney will likely have one
Hi, thank you for the response. I have taken the bootcamp and have also used the available PS agreement. I got a bit hung up with the content and was curious about other experiences out there. Thanks again. Dave
If you have Frank & Dave’s agreement, you can edit it out yourself (with the appropriate names, terms of the deal, dates, etc) then verify with a state attorney if the contract checks out. Don’t have an attorney, who’s not into MHP’s, draft a brand new one from scratch. It’ll cost you an arm and a leg, and then some more.
As a warning, though - Frank & Dave’s contract, while great, is also very long. I’ve had Mom & Pop sellers get scared when they see the long contract and often refuse to sign or get overwhelmed. I’ve had better success drafting the contract to be roughly the same in safety provisions and contingencies, basically using Frank & Dave’s as guidance to what is the good stuff to add, but just considerably shorter. It makes them feel more comfortable and less intimidated and negotiations go smoother.
Thanks! I actually had that very same experience. The owner responded to me with a list of questions i.e. overwhelmed. In the end that particular park wasn’t a good fit for me anyway. I was also curious of how experiences went when using a realtor - good, bad or indifferent.
I greatly advise against using a realtor or agent as a buyer. All the brokers who sell parks do not want to share their commission with your agent. Just having one will put you at a tremendous disadvantage to get your offer accepted. Furthermore they’ll have no incentive to give you their off market listings.
You’ll be far more successful going directly yourself and establishing a relationship with brokers directly.
Ahh, that makes sense, thank you for the insight on that. In this particular case the agent stated that if someone were to use an agent to represent them I would have to pay any fees/ commissions associated with that. Not sure if that changes things or not. My main concern is that everything gets written properly and there is a smooth transfer of ownership of the park and all elements attached to it. Thanks again.
Use a lawyer for that, typically agents don’t actually know how to write good buyer contracts.
If you are inexperienced buying, you could get another park operator that you know to help out or somebody from this forum. I’d be willing to help if needed with some pointers but there are far more experienced operators than myself in this forum as well.
You could potentially build a relationship where you are paying your agent their fees, but that’ll cost you a lot of money per transaction (Could be tens of thousands!). Money better spent in due diligence such as surveys and environmental tests, a good attorney and a trip to visit the property.
Another good option as far as sorting out a contract is to contact Ferd Niemann @TheMHPLawyer . He is a mobile home attorney who also owns MHP’s himself. I’ve known him for the past year and now Frank is using him exclusively. He has a new podcast called the MHP Lawyer and website www.themobilehomelawyer.com