Titles to park owned homes missing

I am hoping to get several opinions here to help guide me.

I am looking to purchase a property where there are 21 park owned homes, some under contract and others need rehab. The owner only has titles to 6 of the homes and says rest will transfer with bill of sale.
I really want each title signed over at closing to avoid hassle after the fact.
I would like to know what others would do

@Brian_Z , as per your post:

  • “…21 park owned homes…The owner only has titles to 6 of the homes…”

Money is a powerful motivator.

Create a MH Escrow Account at the MHP Real Estate Closing.

Keep money in the MH Escrow Account for a specific time frame (for example…60 or 90 calendar days) until you get the MH Titles.

Or at the end of the specific time frame you get a check from the money in the MH Escrow Account for all the missing MH Titles.

Two years ago my Husband and I purchased a turn-around MHP.

The MHP was created and had been run for decades by a Mom and Pop, who had both passed away.

At the time of the sale the MHP was in an Estate with MH Titles in the names of the Mom, the Dad and the MHP.

We asked for copies of the MH Titles before closing and received some of the MH Titles.

We concluded that the other MH Titles were missing.

In South Carolina Real Estate Attorneys are used to Close on Properties.

Our Real Estate Attorney only wanted to deal with the real estate (dirt only…no MHs…in SC MHs are Titled like Automobile Vehicles).

However, we did convince the Real Estate Attorney to create an Escrow Account for the MHs with no Titles at Closing.

At Closing there were 7 missing MH Titles.

The 7 missing MH Titles were for older MHs, so we gave them each a value of $7,000 (7 MHs x $7,000 = $49,000 In MH Escrow).

Thus, $49,000 went into a MH Escrow Account.

The Seller (Estate) was given a certain time frame after Closing to obtain the MH Titles. We actually extended that time frame for the Seller. The Seller was able to obtain 6 of the 7 MH Titles during the extended time frame.

We received $7,000 from the MH Escrow Account for the missing MH Title.

In the end the MH with the missing title was being rented by the Estate. The Renter was paying the Rent (which included the Lot Rent portion…which satisfied the Lot Rent portion).

All was well until one of the daughters of the Estate decided to evict the Tenant. This stopped the Rent (which stopped the Lot Rent portion from being paid).

Thus, the Estate ended up racking up a Lot Rent Bill.

We then gave the Lot Rent Bill to the Attorneys for the Estate.

Since the Attorneys were trying to close out the Estate and the Attorneys did not want to deal with being the proud owners of a MH along with owing Lot Rent, the Estate ended up signing over the MH Title (they had found the title after the MH Escrow Account deadline) to us in lieu of the back Lot Rent and dealing with a MH.

Thus, I would suggest creating a MH Escrow Account at Closing and keeping money in the MH Escrow Account until you get MH Titles.

We wish you the very best!

I personally think some Sellers would balk at a 7K home offset for those without titles, so you need to consider how much work it will really be for you to go get those. Don’t let a provision like this make the deal fall apart…

To be fair 7K is definitely a good motivator though, so I can appreciate the logic. I have done 3-5K in my contracts per home and depending on the Seller’s situation and motivations.

You can also just ask for a lowering of the purchase price if the Seller has no intention of getting the titles. Let them know how much work and pain it will be for you.

I had a trailer park under contract with 10 homes last year, all Park Owned, and the Seller had no intention of getting the titles. The provision would have given me a 50K reduction (5K deduction per home @ 10 homes) on a 70K purchase price, and as a result I could have picked up the park for 20K. But the Seller had a 35K first lien that had to be settled. I wasn’t about to cut another 15K check to make that happen, and along with all the other problems and lies from the Seller it wasn’t worth the hassle. Needless to say I backed out.