Iowa. I’m a week into my first MHP purchase. Excited and terrified! …and I’m not sure I know what I’m doing regarding selling homes.
Park came with two brand new homes, not yet titled. Original owner moves out at the end of next month, and I’ll be selling their house as well.
We have a new on-site manager who has spunk, but I’m not positive about sales skills.
I’ve applied to 21st, oxford bank, and PEP to get on their approved lists. Those applications are still being reviewed.
My only marketing so far is on Facebook marketplace as a “As low as $850 per month” home. Lots of inquiries, only a few showings. My plan is to put more marketing in place once I get approval for some of the lenders.
My process breaks down after showing the homes. They are interested, then I explain that its for sale, and they lose interest or feel like they can’t qualify for it.
Overall, I’m feeling unprepared to show the homes (or unprepared to have the on-site manager show them). After you show a home, what is the next step? Application with various banks? Don’t you have to provide them a list of options to avoid steering? I’m trying to flow chart this, and it is just a gray mass so far.
This is the hard part of the business in my opinion. Here’s my take but I’m also excited to see what owners share:
Sales process can be divided as this.
Marketing - You advertise the home for sale. This is Facebook, a yard sign, some banners at the entrance. Etc. make sure your post has clear pictures of the home that you took and not stock images. Mention the rent price to be the lot rent plus a calculation of mortgage payments and a little buffer. This will auto screen people who can’t afford it. Mention the home is for sale, and that there are flexible financing options for all situations and credit scores.
Screening - when somebody reaches out, have a Google forms or similar little pre-screening auto message you copy and paste that screens them. You will want to inquiry monthly amount they make, eviction record, credit score, any felonies or criminal history, any pets, and other things you want. Most people won’t even try to fill it out, the few that do, you move on with a showing.
Showing - you have them show up and meet with the manager. Have manager sell them on the community and home and encourage them to do the formal paid application (to verify for real and pull information) and apply for financing or pay all cash. Repeat up to this process and when somebody qualifies in the formal application take a cash payment and have manager process lease and keys right there or if financing, have a paper at the ready with their info and cards to lender options. Make the introduction yourself to the lender with the prospective so things go smoothly.
Financing - this part sucks. Constantly check in on the application and middle man so tenant does their part with documents and lender doesn’t drag their feet. People do fall in the process here. Careful of steering but do offer multiple lenders and tell them to apply to all. Once you get your money, do title transfer and keys and lease at the office or online and you are done.
This is what it looks like for me. The hardest parts are 1) manager sale in person. Manager can kill sales 2) financing. Terrible to be middleman and time consuming. This is why I like older homes and offer cash prices. I skip this step of the process every time if possible.
How rural an area is your new Park in? Demand will determine how long the sales will take. The above post is very informative and I would not panic as you’ll learn alot thru each sale you make. [FYI: Oxford Bank will require you to have a retailer license, be bonded, and you must be approved financially and credibly, and you will do 90% of their loan legwork.] Good Luck!
A very small town, but in a good sized metro (180k) .
I’ve heard that all of the “credit challenged” lenders are bugbears to work with… I just assume the extra legwork is the cost of broadening the applicant pool. I haven’t had a person apply yet who has credit above 600, so I’m doing what I can to get people the affordable housing they need. I can see what many owners switch to “RTO” models… but I’m trying really hard to pull some of the cash back out of the deal that I put into it.
@Gonzalo Thank you for the detailed response. I LOVE the pre-screen idea. I’ll look into that.