Generating leads is the most important aspect in any real estate business, especially the mobile home industry. It doesn’t matter if you have the skillset to sell water to a whale, without any leads, you’re either going to dry up or drown. Speaking of leads, NEVER BIRD DOG (locating and identifying potential sellers, and selling that information to another individual.) If someone is paying you $500-$1000 for a bird dog fee, then they’re probably making $5,000-$10,000 off the deal. It may seem like easy money, but you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. If you’re not yet comfortable closing deals, partner with someone who is, until you get comfortable. It will save you a lot of sleepless nights worrying about paying rent and the light bill.
Before I tell you where to find mobile home leads, let me tell you where not to find leads: The Internet. And this is why. If you see a used mobile home listed on the internet, they’re are already too many cooks in the kitchen, and your margins are going to be very little, if any. You’re not going to make much on a mobile home that’s already been made public. And that’s if the person listing it agrees to let you sell it for them. Chances are the person that is listing the mobile home doesn’t even own it, and doesn’t even want to cut you in on the profit, even if you can sell it faster. STAY AWAY FROM MOBILE HOMES THAT ARE ALREADY LISTED. The key is to focus on mobile homes that are off-market.
The three places that you can find mobile home leads are:
● Mobile Home Parks
● Mobile Home Repair Shops
● Small Town Local Newspapers
These are the places where you will find the undiscovered gems, with the potential to earn the highest margins.
**MOBILE HOME PARKS**
Mobile home park owners evict their tenants for all sorts of reasons. And when they do, try not to be there. Knives get pulled out, the police get called, and arrests are made. Unlike a tenant getting evicted from a traditional home, in which they can just remove themselves from the property. A mobile home tenant, since they usually own the mobile home, have to remove themselves and the home. And if a tenant can’t afford $250 a month for lot rent, they are not going to be able to pay the $6,000 it cost to get it moved.
So the tenant just leaves the mobile home. Giving possession to the mobile park owner.
The park owner hates this for two reasons: First, chances are the home is not in great shape, so now the park owner has this damaged home sitting on his property. Second, as long as that damaged mobile home sits there, he can’t collect lot fees on that spot. They don’t want to pay thousands of dollars to move or demolish it. Or you might have an investor who just purchased the park, and wants all the older model homes gone. They’re in the same predicament. They’re already wealthy and are not looking to make a killing on the home, in fact they are basically looking for anyone to come take these homes away. They stand to accumulate far more wealth from the lot space than the mobile home. You would be saving them from having to pay someone to move or demolish it. And if one thing wealthy people love more than making money, it’s saving money.
Reach out to mobile home parks in your area, and see which homes they want to get off their property. Chances are you’ll get an off-market mobile home that you’re able to earn very high margins on.
**MOBILE HOME REPAIR SHOPS**
The one person who knows how frustrated a mobile home owner is with their mobile home is probably the person that’s selling them parts to repair it. The mobile home repair shops are usually the first ones to know who wants to sell their mobile home. The place is a prime location for leads. The whole establishment is dedicated to mobile homes. If a person comes in there, most likely they have a mobile home they’re looking to repair. And if a person comes in there enough, they might decide that it’s better to sell the home then keep on paying to get it repaired. In fact, in a lot of these repair shops there’s a community board with the phone numbers of the customers who are selling their mobile home.
And no one knows about it. You are not going to find these homes on the internet, because the owners don’t want everybody knowing their business.
Always keep mobile home repair shops in your network. And always pay them for their information. It may not seem like much, but a person making $7 - $10 an hour, will give you all the leads you want if they’re making $500 a pop for every deal that you close.
**SMALL TOWN NEWSPAPERS **
Rural America has its own ecosystem. Its own way of operating. In these areas, people trust their giving their information over to their local newspaper editor more than giving it to Mark Zuckerburg. That’s just the reality of the situation. But since mobile homes are located in rural areas, this presents an advantage.
You can pick up one of these local papers, go to the classified section, and find an off-market mobile home. The mobile homes that you find in these publications are going to be in better condition than the homes you’ll get from mobile home parks or mobile home repair shops. They are either going to be priced extremely low or extremely high. The good thing is that these sellers are flexible on the price, because they don’t want to keep paying the money to run ads every week.
I know you’re asking, how can I get my hands on a small-town newspaper? Here’s the website that has every small-town newspaper in America.www.w3newspapers.com (I know I said don’t go to the internet for listings, but sometimes you can’t escape it.) Go to the website, find your state, and locate the mobile homes that the market doesn’t even know exists.