Filling a vacant park

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1

Hello,

I recently purchased a 100 site park with only 15 homes in the park. We are trying to strategize the best ways to fill the vacant lots. Our priority is to fill the park as quick as possible so we are considering trying to work out some sort of deal with one of the new mobile home dealers in the area to either sell new homes on site, or for them to refer buyers to our park. The park is located in a busy suburban area on a main highway and there are actually 6 mobile home manufacturer dealer stores within a 2 mile radius. (Clayton, Luv, etc.)

My question is two-fold:

  1. What do deals with dealers like this usually look like? Are the dealers usually paid some sort of incentive for placing homes in the park? Or are they giving the park some sort of kickback? Bascially… what kind of leverage do I have here? It seems it would be beneficial for both parties, but I am not sure what kind of deal I should be looking for.

  2. Is this even the best idea to fill a park? There are probably more profitable ways to fill the park without the dealer… but as I said before time is a factor… I need to fill quite a few spots within a 1.5 year timeframe.

Any replies or advice is much appreciated!

Post Edited (08-14-06 08:24)

2

anyone ?

Any thoughts on filling vacant parks would be appreciated… related to working with dealers or not.

Thanks for your time!

3

Where is the park? What do 8 yr old repoes sell for in your Area?

How fast could they be sold ,for 18 % ROI ? If the numbers look right

you might entice an investor to fund the homes.

Bill

4

Thanks for your thoughts Bill… much appreciated!

The park is near Louisville, KY. I am looking into repo’s now. What is the best way to get the listings available from Vanderbilt, Greentree, etc.? Are they on their www sites? Or do I need to call their offices directly?

Anyone have any firsthand experience with the repo market in this general area near Louisville?

5

Phatty,

I know the park you are speaking of and know what you are going through. Here is my list of finance companies that you can contact about repos. If you can make a trip to the Paducah area, there are also several located at Princeton exit 13? on the WK Parkway I know that you could find several there for sale just by driving through the communities. Anyways here is a list of FCs and check out www.MHBay.com there are a few homes close enough to you.

Vanderbilt 865-380-3523 www.vmfrepos.com

Greentree 800-643-0202 www.gtservicing.com

Origen Financial 800-492-1874 www.ofllc.com

21st Mortgage 800-955-0021 www.21stMortgage.com

Triad Financial 904-223-1111 www.triadfs.com

US Bank 858-720-7116

Popular Housing Services 724-873-3543

www.tammac.com High Priced

www.origenhomes.com

GREENTREE REPOS

Greentree 800-643-0202 www.gtservicing.com

ALABAMA 800-940-3581

ARIZONA 800-328-8214

ARKANSAS 800-576-1021

CALIFORNIA 800-365-0089

COLORADO 800-525-8799

FLORIDA 800-874-1159

GEORGIA 800-874-1159

IDAHO 800-392-4276

INDIANA 800-532-7768

MICHIGAN 800-444-1968

MINNESOTA 877-245-6267

MISSISSIPPI 800-874-0793

MISSOURI 800-392-4276

MONTANA 800-548-2632

NEVADA 800-365-0089

NEW HAMPSHIRE 800-992-1018

OHIO 800-686-6600

OKLAHOMA 800-333-4482

OREGON 800-562-2510

SOUTH CAROLINA 800-922-0010

TENNESSEE 800-234-7101

TEXAS 800-772-5361

TEXAS 800-292-7413

VIRGINIA 800-669-2178

VIRGINIA 800-234-7101

WASHINGTON 800-562-2510

WISCONSIN 877-245-6267

CHASE BANK REPOS

WESTERN U. S. 888-667-9133

EASTERN U. S. 800-225-6761

6

Hey Phatty,

Look on this forum at repo dealers post on 7-11, this may help you out.

Bruce J.

7

Phatty,

Here are some thought on your questions and parks:

“What do deals with dealers like this usually look like? Are the dealers usually paid some sort of incentive for placing homes in the park? Or are they giving the park some sort of kickback? Bascially… what kind of leverage do I have here? It seems it would be beneficial for both parties, but I am not sure what kind of deal I should be looking for.”

It is extremely difficult for MH dealers to secure financing on homes being placed in parks (chattel loans).

“Is this even the best idea to fill a park? There are probably more profitable ways to fill the park without the dealer… but as I said before time is a factor… I need to fill quite a few spots within a 1.5 year timeframe.”

The single best strategy (in some cases, the only one available) is to buy used or new homes, place them in your park and sell with owner financing. This is just about the only way to fill a park in today’s market.

Another option is to let local “Lonnie dealers” place homes in your park to fill the lots.

If you decide to start placing homes in your park for sale, then go back to the MH dealers and offer a “referral fee” for any customer they send your way. They deal with people every day who have money for a down payment but can’t get traditional financing because of marginal credit or a weak job history.

Steve

8

First of all, there are a few things to consider, example; in Southern California I worked as a manager to a dealership, there were no park spaces available and land was so high $$$ that no one could afford to do land packages. We had to purchase an old home to be moved out just to get the space or park rent until we filled the vacant space. In Washington state the park owners gives “Spiffs” anywhere from $500 to $1000 for each space filled. The spiffs were directed to the salespeople at the dealership. If there’s a hungry salesman you will get lots of activity from him/her. You can also buy homes direct from some of the manufacturers’ and have your home placed and ready to move in. This is a quick sale. In some cases the factory may place a home on site as a “consignment”.

Hope that helps.

Mimi

9

We own several communities in the mid-west and I recently was shown a beautiful park that was vacant and completely filled within 18 months. When I read your post I thought of this park.

I was told that the owner of the park when to all the dealers throughout his local area and created dealer competition.

That is he had 10 dealers bring 10 homes into the community. Automatically he then had 100 homes in a 175+ site park. The homes were all double wides and parallel to the street. Very nice layout. In short what then happened is the perception was this was a hot park because potential tennants/owners wanted to be in this up and coming community.

When you said that you had 6 dealers in the area this might make sense. I realize the specs on your community might not be similar to this one. However you might find this way a good way to get homes in the park.

I also know in some cases dealers will pay lot rent if they believe their homes will sell. Again it depends on the park.

Hope this insight helps.

Respectfully,

Ralph

10

this is a post I copied maybe it’ll help

Well this was strange…long

Author: Greg Meade (—.dhcp.embarqhsd.net)

Date: 09-23-06 12:35

A local MHP in Belleview, FL, The Briarpatch, gave notice to all tenants last summer that the Park was sold and tenants had 1 year to vamoose. We moved several and got phat checks from the State for doing this.

Well, I bought a 94 General 28 X 76 4/2 out of there last week from a local lender and when the crew went to remove the repo, there was a chain across the main drive. Went to owner, Gail, and she tells me the Park has been closed since July1. THERE ARE OVER 40 HOMES STILL THERE!! It was eerie driving thru there. A/c’s are there, all apps in all homes we entered. CARS STILL PARKED IN THE CARPORT!!!

About one third turned over titles prioer to splitting, the rest just walked away. Gail told me to remove home and police the area when done and we can HAVE any homes we want with the caveat we clean the site to the dirt(pull all anchors, pipes etc.) The 10 or so with titles we will take to resell, but the others we were gonna pass on…

Until I got an idea…so I called Marion County Building Department and asked " Do i need title to the home to place on land and develop to CO (Certificate of Occupancy). NO, i just need HUD plates or Data Plate for Wind Zone, so i called my insurance agent and asked if i can insure the home…yes if I have notarized Bill of Sale.

We will place these homes on small, dirt road lots and sell with RP stickers (Real Property) As is/where is. A sample of the homes? 91 Redman 4/2 28 X 68, 89 Guerdon 28 X 56 3/2, 1995 fleetwood 14 X 70 2/2.

These are nice homes…is this typical of closings??? I love it!!!

Any ideas on where to get a list of MHP closings in FL? What do you think, is this weird? Or an opportunity? Does it seem ghoulish (hey it’s close to Halloween) to benefit from other’s misery? Seems like good business to me. As a licensed Dealer we may NOT sell any home (even on land) without “clear title”. But as individauls we can buy land and homes and sell with or w/o title with full disclosure. Give me your gut on this please.

Regards,

Greg Meade

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phatty wrote:

Hello,

I recently purchased a 100 site park with only 15 homes in the

park. We are trying to strategize the best ways to fill the

vacant lots. Our priority is to fill the park as quick as

possible so we are considering trying to work out some sort of

deal with one of the new mobile home dealers in the area to

either sell new homes on site, or for them to refer buyers to

our park. The park is located in a busy suburban area on a

main highway and there are actually 6 mobile home manufacturer

dealer stores within a 2 mile radius. (Clayton, Luv, etc.)

My question is two-fold:

  1. What do deals with dealers like this usually look like? Are

the dealers usually paid some sort of incentive for placing

homes in the park? Or are they giving the park some sort of

kickback? Bascially… what kind of leverage do I have here?

It seems it would be beneficial for both parties, but I am not

sure what kind of deal I should be looking for.

  1. Is this even the best idea to fill a park? There are

probably more profitable ways to fill the park without the

dealer… but as I said before time is a factor… I need to

fill quite a few spots within a 1.5 year timeframe.

Any replies or advice is much appreciated!

Post Edited (08-14-06 08:24)

11

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