Getting Into Park Brokerage

mobile home university
1

Any tips on which direction to go here assuming I already have a RE license? I don’t have any direct park brokerage experience but was looking to augment my rental and submetering income and help me save on some costs down the road when I get into bigger parks. Just want to get an idea on what companies are out there, I realize being new to that part of the business I would probably have to work under a brokerage firm of some sort and I realize the output in calls/emails but just curious if there’s any firms out there that you folks would recommend. Thanks!

  • based in Phoenix FYI.
2

John -

Marcus & Millichap, Sperry van Ness, CBRE, and Sunstone seem to be the ‘big four.’ You’ll find plenty more names from the MobileHomeParkStore.com and LoopNet.com websites.

Whatever firm you join, please be an honest broker!

Don’t:

  1. Divide the asking price of the MHP by all the lots to come up with a deceptively low price/space (divide only by occupied and paying lots). Double-especially don’t divide by all the lots when the park is only 30% occupied

  2. Come up with your own ‘pretend’ financials (e.g. add-in a non-existent $50/month rent increase that the new owner ‘could’ put through, and then remove entirely the Lawnmowing, Management, and Maintenance costs ‘because most owners do this themselves and the cost is really $0’)

  3. ‘Forget’ to mention known environmental hazards

  4. Include rosy pro-formas that assume the Property Taxes magically stay the same, even though the proposed acquisition price is 6x the assessed value that the current owner’s father paid when he purchased the property in 1974

If you do all this, you will be the only honest broker in the land, and I will be your most loyal customer, and purchase every mobile home park you have for sale at full asking price. (:P)

Good luck with that,

-jl-

3

Thanks Jefferson, appreciate it. I want to get away from the submetering thing and brokerage seems like a good fit. Didn’t know the brokers had that track record, for me as a salesperson I’d rather be up front and honest to secure a lifetime of recurring business than sell out for one commission check. I’ve heard of SVN, CBRE, and M&M but not Sunstone.

And now that I have that in writing about that lifetime of business, you know I’ll be calling you once I get going. :slight_smile: