We have a lot of spaces to fill in our park and have been buying and rehabbing homes, then owner finance selling them. All homes are very clean and well appointed. I wanted to get a perspective on how well we are doing on the sales end. We generate a call a day from prospects.
Do any owners out there have any idea what their sales conversion ratio is? With 30 calls/month, what is a reasonable number of sales to expect?
My first question would be how you are advertising the homes. We get about 4 to 5 times that every day. All we do is place a simple classified ad in the largest metropolitan paper that says “2 and 3 bedroom mobile homes for sale or rent – from $495 per month – includes lot rent” and a phone number. Don’t use just the local paper, as most people consult the largest paper in the market when looking for housing. Don’t rely on Greensheet or Penny Saver – they have very low call rates.
You need to so a exit survey on the paper who do not buy, and find out way. Is it the product? Is it too much per month? Is the deposit too high? Then re-adjust accordingly.
If you have road frontage, a banner would be a great idea. So would offering a referral program.
Make sure you are in compliance with the SAFE Act to the best of your ability. Unless you are SAFE compliant, you shouldn’t be selling homes and carrying paper any more. Also make sure you have the appropriate dealer’s license.
More important than the conversion of calls to sales would be showings to sales. You need to get the customer on the phone to get into the park to walk the home. There is no stats on showings to closings, because the demand level – and product level – is different in every park. But if you are showing a home several times a week, you should be selling it that same week.
Results will of course vary depending on the market size. Our town has 118,000 with the metro area at about triple that. Houston is the next largest town, but it’s over an hour and a half away. We’ve got the largest paper in our town covered as well as craigslist.
We are in full compliance with all rules an regs.
We are ramping up the signage and referral program.
What I’m really trying gauge is how well the staff is handling the calls – are they order takers or sales people? How many homes per month should we be selling based on a consistent call per day 7 days a week?
Our experience is:
Advertise on CraigsList - generate 5 calls/day (free)
Advertise in largest local newspaper - generate 2 calls/day ($98/month)
That’s 50/calls/week
We estimate 10 of those people actually come on-site every week
Home will RTO or regular-rent within a month ($100/month premium to regular-rent)
Our record is getting 5 homes occupied in 4 weeks (May or June)
Only once have we ever been able to fill a home during the month of December
Mobile homes tend to sell them selves in our community. No ‘sales people’ are involved. Our manger is clean/nice/competent. Our park is clean and well-located. Prospective residents either seem to want the house or not, regardless of how we try to sell them. So we don’t. The homes are open 5 days/week for viewing from 7 a.m. - 6 p.m., and people can grab an application off the kitchen counter and apply if they want. Our manager is a ‘paperwork processor,’ not a ‘sales person.’ We range between 95% and 100% occupancy every month.
Your mileage may vary,
-jl-